It’s been a while… and that’s because I’ve been in a book slump. Reading has been on the back burner, difficult to have time and space for, and overall just not much had been appealing to me. Having said that, I did get through some books in recent times, despite the slump, so here they are.

Two Can Play That Game (Leanne Yong)

3.5 stars
Cute, fun, nerdy, everything you wanted. There was minimal romance, and most of it was about the games. If you love games, you’ll love this. I had a lot of fun seeing the Australian Malaysian world, and the character development was good too. I felt it was very slow paced, which made it a bit difficult for me to get through, but having said that, I also really enjoyed it. I found myself laughing out loud a lot, and I really liked Most of the book.

Unblemished (Sara Ella)

3 Stars

On one hand, I thought this book was quite interesting. The world had a lot to offer, the magic system quite fascinating, and I could see what the author was doing with plot and themes. However, there were so many points that made me frustrated or halted along the way. I will say one thing, this actually felt like a YA book – it was written for that audience – and I applaud that!
Unfortunately, there were a few things for me that didn’t make sense or just felt like they didn’t fit. Firstly, there is a steep learning curve (in my opinion) for the world and magic system. Especially for a YA story. You discover everything along with the main character El, but things are so complex (almost unnecessarily so) that it is a challenge to keep everything straight – including the people. That’s the next issue, so. Many. People. I had to try and keep track of a lot, who apparently are all their own islands and have depth. Normally this would be a good thing, but for a book so short and with so many other things to try and work through, it was too much. That leads me into another issue, so much of the book was eaten up at the start with the grief and real world stuff. I just wanted the story to start already; it felt a little too drawn out for me. Another thing that kept interrupting the flow of the story was all the flashbacks! They were so unnecessary. That page space could have been filled with more time to flesh out the world explaining; instead we got so many flashbacks that didn’t really serve a proper purpose.
Another thing is the very strange sibling dynamics in this book. Dude. Can we not?
I also don’t like love triangles so that was frustrating on a personal level. Joshua was so hot and cold and all over the place, it was hard to see what the heck the draw was. We didn’t see much of any of the reason we should root for him – a lot of that was just implied or seen quickly in a section of a flashback. We really needed more for him to see why El ignores all the bad treatment now for us to buy into it. Even if she won’t choose him at the end of the series (not sure yet how that’s going to work out), give us a reason not to hate him please.
I don’t see myself continuing but I don’t think it’s the target audience that is the reason.

Royal Heirs Academy (Lindsey Duga)

3.5 stars
While I enjoyed this book, I did think maybe it was doing too many things in one book. There were four main characters we were following, or with their own back stories and their own current plot lines. There was The who’s gonna be the new air to the throne thread, there was also The how they’re going to get used to this exclusive and somewhat secretive unless you know the right people school, and make it work. There was a lot happening. Having said that, I still really enjoyed this book. I think a few less characters would’ve made it easier to follow, but I did like all the characters. I think the way the story progressed was good, but the ending felt a little bit out of character. I understand what they were doing, but I am a little split on how it went down.I thought it was very well written, and the characters were very interesting and easy to understand. I would read the next book, and I did quite enjoy it.

The Last Legacy (Adrienne Young)

2 Stars

It’s been a while since I read the first two as I knew this was a bit more separate from those and in doing so, I kind of shot myself in the foot.
Technically part of the series, but I don’t remember what the link even is. These people are very separate with only a minor link to the rest and without establishing with anyone in the main character list from book 1 and 2, it was just very separate.
I didn’t get the high seas pirate ship adventure like the first two books which was why I was interested in the first place. This felt boring, which for a family of criminals wasn’t expected. The last third was the most interesting but it honestly took me so long to get there that I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted this book to be over, which was different to my experience of the first two.
Didn’t really care about the characters or what was going on, but it was written well. If you’re interested in a book with this time period you may enjoy. Not for me.

Out of Tune (Beth Reekles)

3 Stars

Pretty cute, pretty fun but also pretty standard. Not much that was particularly stand out. Nice writing, easy story, pretty good.

I hope that the books I’m reading right now will help keep out out of a slump, but what are some tips that you know to get you out of the reading slump zone? I’d love some help!

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace