I have more mini-reviews for you today! Two misses and a hit this time around. Check them out and talk to me about them if you’ve read them!

Vicious – V.E. Schwab

I listened to this on audio and Vicious is a really slow starter for me because of the dual timeline. It took me probably a third of the book to really feel like the timeline changes made sense for the story, and for me to get my bearings with the characters. I just didn’t love this story, which was very X-Men Origins. The only two characters that I didn’t think were selfish assholes were Mitch, the Large Hacker, and Sydney, the literal 13-year-old. And of course Dol, the dog. He’s a good dog. Overall, this story felt really anti-climactic. It became more about killing the important evil female character than about getting revenge on someone who was going around murdering everyone. I don’t see myself picking up the sequel.

The Lady Rogue – Jenn Bennett

I received an eARC of the Lady Rogue from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The main character of this book reminded me a lot of Felicity from A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. The Lady Rogue was fine? I didn’t fall in love with it, but it was good. It was written well and the fantasy part was well done. My only real issue is that there was no real resolution to the main personal conflict in this story. Theo’s dad never apologizes for anything that happened and they don’t have a real plan to fix any of the problems going forward. Honestly, the thing that stood out to me the most in this story was the cover. I love Billelis‘s work always.

Jade War – Fonda Lee

Y’all might remember that I absolutely loved Jade City, the first book in this series. Well, Fonda Lee pulled all of the threads in an already complex, beautiful story into an even more stunning second novel. This book broke my heart and sewed it back together in new ways that I absolutely loved. I listened on audio and it was just perfect. I can’t tell you a lot about what happens because it’s the second book in a trilogy and it would spoil everything. That said, if you loved Jade City, you need to keep reading the trilogy.

What have you been reading? Have you read these? I’d love to talk about it with you!