Category: books

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Empire of the Vampire Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

Oh my gosh, I loved this book! I will admit that at first, I was worried that it was going to be just humans vs. vampires(with vamps being the bad guys of course)but man was I glad I was wrong. You can’t imagine how excited I was when the book revealed that Gabriel was half-vampire(I wouldn’t call that a spoiler since it was revealed at the beginning)! I don’t know why but I absolutely can’t get enough of the book trope of a half or even full monster(who is often filled with self-hate) fighting its own kind who are definitely the bad guys. And I hit the jackpot with this book!

I loved everything about this book. Everything from the illustrations(oh my god those were awesome) to the world-building but most of all I loved the vampire lore. It just felt like truly classic vampires and I loved that. It’s nice to have new takes on myths but sometimes it’s just nice to go back to the classics. I also can’t get enough of Gabriel being the shining example of the asshole mc whose heart of gold is buried beneath a bunch of emotional and physical trauma. And as anyone who reads fantasy knows that mc type makes the best protagonists

One thing that I was surprised I liked was the non-linear storytelling. Having the story told that way had me constantly worrying about what was going to happen in the past even though I basically knew the outcome. And weirdly enough telling the story in the format of the mc sharing his life story makes me even more intrigued about the rest of the series. Like is the rest of the trilogy going to be the same format or is everything going to eventually catch up with the present? So, in case you couldn’t guess I’m giving this book a 10 out of 10 and waiting till Fall 2024 for the next book will be torturous!

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The Dark Wizard: Adventures of Sebastian Morrow Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

Have you ever had one of those times where you try to predict where the plot is going but the actual plot is nothing like how you wanted it to go? Well reading this book was one of those times for me. I wanted this book to be a complex story with a morally grey/anti-hero/good bad guy type main character who realizes everything’s not black and white and that “dark” magic in itself isn’t evil. I wanted an intense emotional struggle ending in the realization of “fuck society I do what I want”. But instead, I got a boy worried about being rude/sarcastic to the man who essentially enslaved him.

Besides the fact that the book was nothing like how I thought it would be, it was also boring, unfortunately. The fight scenes were insanely quick and severely lacking in description. We barely saw Sebastian learn any magic even though multiple people said he was super powerful. Most of the magic we did see was just telekinesis. Literally, the most interesting parts of this book were the violence committed by the main villain and the possible dilemma of either choosing to die or sacrificing people to live that Sebastian would have faced when The Dark Wizard died. But that last one was a lie anyway so that was bullshit. I was just really disappointed with this book so I have to give it a 5 out of 10.

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Harry Potter & Twilight Series: Thoughts

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

With the announcement of remake series of 2 of my pillar fandoms, I thought I should share some of my thoughts.

Harry Potter

I’m not super excited for this show but I’m also not upset about it. While I think the movies were perfect and it’s way tooooooooooo soon for a remake I am very interested(and a bit excited) to see the scenes they had to change/cut out. But even though I don’t think it’ll be a bad show I would have much preferred if they did a spin-off or prequel to add to the Wizarding World. Specifically, if they did a prequel about the Marauders or a spin-off about Ilvermorny. If they did that instead I would be extremely excited instead of the semi-interested I am. But ultimately I probably will watch the show and maybe even enjoy it.

Twilight

Unlike the Harry Potter series which I can completely understand how doing a series is worth it, doing a Twilight series is stupid. I know it’s been a while since I’ve watched the movies and even longer since I’ve read the books but there is almost nothing I can remember that was in the books but not the movies. So, it just seems plain useless to make a show, like what else can they add to the story to make it more than 2 hours. The only way I can see them make a show “worth it” is by turning it into some high school drama show. But also again I will still probably watch it because I’ve been dying for a good vampire show right now.

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Starship’s Mage (Starship’s Mage Book 1) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

Magic and space travel make for a great combination and this book was that perfect combination of sci-fi and fantasy! When I first read the description of the book I was afraid that the magic was going to be more along the lines of superpower magic, so I was pleasantly surprised that it was runic magic. That choice to use runic magic combined with tech pushed the book from being a book I was amused by to a book that I found really entertaining. I also loved how Damien was both humble and sarcastic at times, it made for a very likable main character.

This might be random, but as someone who’s liked the premise of the show The Expanse enough to slowly watch it all but not like it enough to binge it all, I have to say that if Starship’s Mage was made into a show, I would binge it all as quick as I could. The magic in this book adds that extra oomph to make this book much more enjoyable for a hardcore fantasy fan.

As much as I got really into this book there was one issue I had. While reading the book I was kind of getting annoyed about the fact that info was repeated a lot, I was constantly saying to myself “Yes we already know this”. After enough times of that, I started to suspect that this book was most likely multiple novellas in one. It was only after I finished did I learn my suspicions were correct. Now, after learning that I’m much more understanding but ideally, I would have liked some editing so that it wasn’t as repetitive. Or at least a little blurb in the description of the book(preferably for the Kindle attention where I read it) so that I would be forewarned. But even with this issue, I would still give this book an 8 out of 10.

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Gnome Sweet Gnome(a Pixie and Brutus comic) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

I am so glad I got this! I missed the original Kickstarter campaign so I was ecstatic when I learned that there was another way to get it. And man am I extremely happy that I did, it is totally worth buying just to have a physical Pixie and Brutus story.

Now, this is going to be a short post because everyone needs to get a copy and I don’t want to spoil anything. But this is classic Pixie and Brutus, a lighthearted fun adventure with the occasional touch of seriousness. Not only was the story adorable but the art was top-notch(which isn’t a surprise since anyone with half a brain knows Ben’s art is amazing). More than that I loved how you can tell how much effort went into every little detail. I’ve already wanted them so much, but somehow this book makes me want to see the other full-length stories Ben has been talking about even more now than I did before. So, as you might have guessed I 100% give this comic a 10 out of 10.

The one minor spoiler I will say was WHO THE FUCK WAS WRINKLES TALKING TO?

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Dragon Thief (The Skystone Chronicles Book 1) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

Are you looking for a book with dragons, magic, and a flirty main character who constantly does stupid risky things? Then Dragon Thief is for you! I loved everything thing about this book but there are a few things specifically that I want to talk about. First off are the maps and guides!!!! Any book that includes a map immediately becomes ten times better but Dragon Thief also includes guides about the magic and other creatures which is AMAZING. It’s a perfect and unique way to teach the readers about important details in the book without actually talking about them in the book.

The second thing that I really enjoyed was the actual writing of the book. Normally I only really pay attention to the plot and characters but the writing really stuck out to me in this book. Three things stuck out to me in this book the setup of chapters vs. visions vs. fragments, the switching from different characters’ POV, and how Asher’s POV was unique to everyone else’s. I thought the distinction between chapters/visions/fragments was a nice way to make things very clear and precise. Now I recently read a different book that really annoyed me with how they balanced the POV switches so I was extremely happy with this book. Dragon Thief not only had the primary POV be Asher’s(the clear main character) it also made his POV even more distinct by having it be the only one that used “I”. As much as I love getting different point of views from different characters I love it even more when there is a very obvious main character.

Now, I love everything about this book but I do have one complaint… I wanted Asher to be even more special!!! From the beginning, I was predicting and hoping he would bond with the true dragon, so I was pretty disappointed when it wasn’t him. I was a little sad because by the end of the book, he’s not the only Astromancer and he’s not the only one with a dragon bond. The only thing that makes him stand out at that point is that he’s a half-blood which is not enough for me! I want my mc to be the bestest most specialist awesomest character ever! So I hope by the end he becomes even more awesome than he already is.

Oh, I almost forgot, but I of course give this book a 9 out of 10.

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Wolf Hunt (Risen and Hunted Book 2) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

This book goes into the I’m conflicted pile. As a whole, I’m pretty okay with the story especially how the werewolves and witches are done. But there were just too many things that I had a problem with for me to love this book. The most minor problem, which I didn’t mention in the review for the first book, was that there are way too many exclamation marks. I like to think that I’m like the average person and when I see an exclamation mark in a book I assume the speaker is yelling or is extremely excited. So, it messed with me a lot in this series when there were moments where there were exclamation marks but it made no sense why they’d be yelling or it was a pretty normal conversation. Now, this was an extremely minor issue compared to the problems I have with the balance of the POVs. Call me stickler but when I read a book that has switches between multiple POVs including a POV of the antagonist I prefer if the amount of switches leans heavily towards the main character/s. I especially don’t want what feels like 80% of the book to be solely from the bad guys’ point of view. I also don’t appreciate it we barely get any point of view from the person whose supposed to be 1/2 of the main focus of that book. Seriously, Alan’s struggle and the bad guys trying to find Alan was the whole point of this book but I felt like Alan barely got any “screen time” if you know what I mean.

The POV issue was my biggest issue but there was also another problem I had… the ending. If it wasn’t for the last page I would have been seriously pissed with the ending. I hate it when the main character loses what makes them special/different at the end, so this book was just able to avoid that. But on that same note, I can’t help thinking “Why bother curing Alan just to have him become a werewolf again when you could have just made the cure only half work?”. Basically, a bunch of stuff pissed me off in this book but it was semi-redeemed by my like of the premise of the book and the fact that Alan kinda still ends the book as a werewolf. All together I would give this book a 6 out of 10 not horrible but I’m definitely not going to reread it.

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Moonrise (Risen and Hunted Book 1) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

I read a lot of werewolf books but recently I’ve been craving a specific type of werewolf book. Most of the books I’ve come across recently have had a werewolf protagonist who has come to terms with being a werewolf and is living a pretty okay life. So, I’ve been wanting a book where the main character has to deal with all the trials and tribulations that come with being turned into a werewolf. And as you might have guessed I found exactly what I was looking for in Moonrise. This is one of the happiest moments for a reader when they find a book that has exactly what they are looking for. Now about the book specifically there was so much I loved about it with only a few things I wasn’t as into.

First, I was happily shocked by how mature the book was, for some reason I thought it was going to be way more YA than it was. So, not only was I surprised when things got pretty dark and gory I was also unable to predict how the story was going to end since I misjudged it. Which of course made the book that much better. The second notable thing I loved in this book was of course the magic. I’ve said this for other books too but I love every new addition of a new magic world setup. Every new addition just allows for even more to spawn from its setup which is just fantastic for the fantasy genre.

Now, sadly I do have to mention the 2 minor problems I had. First is an extremely minor problem but I can’t deny what I prefer and that is the fact that the werewolves only change on the full moon. I know it’s stupid but I like when they can also change not on the full moon. But at the same time, I completely understand making that choice for this story because it fits very well. The other problem is also minor because I could say it’s both good and bad. Basically, some parts/explanations seemed a little long-winded. I both enjoyed the excessive details and was a tad annoyed at moments just hoping it would get back to action. But even then I would still give this book a 7.5 out of 10.

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Caleb: Atonement (Caleb Lambert Thriller book 2) Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

I enjoyed the first book immensely, and this one was no different! I saw a review describing Caleb as a combination of Dexter and John Wick and I can’t agree more. They are all great characters with severe trauma and as many readers agree trauma adds some great spice to an MC. I love everything from Caleb’s jokes to the bestest boy Roscoe, but what I really want to talk about is how Jeff Menapace wrote Caleb perfectly.

I feel like when someone makes a story like this, with a main character that by all intents and purposes should be considered a monster, you risk making the reader feel conflicted/guilty for rooting for them. And I don’t know if it’s just me but I prefer a book that doesn’t make me feel bad for liking the protagonist. Which is how I know Jeff Menapace succeeded in creating Caleb because not once did I feel bad for loving Caleb. I think the key details Jeff added that made Caleb a good bad guy and not a bad bad guy were 1)his empathy, 2)his self-awareness/guilt, and 3)his friends and family. All of these combined made it obvious that Caleb is not a true monster which in turn made him lovable to me. Once again I loved this book and give it a 9 out of 10 and can’t wait till the next one.

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Night Guild 1 Review

Posted on by kimberlyheskett

This is exactly what I was looking for in a fantasy book! Shadow magic is my all-time favorite. Whenever a story separates magic by elements, I always hope the protagonist will have shadow magic. Now, there is an abundance of urban fantasies that give the protags shadow magic but there are way fewer in non-urban fantasies. And usually, if the main character in a fantasy book has shadow magic, they are ostracized and treated like a villain. So, I’m always trying to find books where shadow magic is just another average type of magic and not the sign of the devil, and Night Guild is exactly that. Besides the magic, I’m also really into how important guilds are in the world of the book. I’m used to guilds being a minor detail in books so it’s really interesting to have them be the actual government.

While I loved this book the one thing I was annoyed with was that sometimes Ronan was unnecessarily repetitive. There were a couple of times where he basically repeated what someone else said almost word for word instead of just saying something like “I agree” or “Same” which would have felt a little bit more realistic/normal. But besides that one detail, I loved this book and give it a solid 8 out of 10.