book.dreamblog’s Book Reviews!

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie: Book Review  *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mentions drug usage and addiction*  Introduction  Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six will either gladly eat this novel alive out of how similar it is to the former, or they will decry it as a rip-off. While the two are very similar in plots and themes, they’re written in drastically different styles. As far as their similarities, there’s only so much difference that can be made between two novels that are both loosely based on 70s musicians, with Daisy Jones and the Six being inspired by Fleetwood Max and Songs in Ursa Major being loosely based on Joni Mitchell’s career. It’s sex, drugs, & rock ‘n’ roll both ways, so obviously similarities are to be expected. So I don’t hold the similarities against Ursa Major too much, even if I personally preferred Daisy Jones.  Summary & Review  Songs in Ursa Major gets a lot right...

The Girls in the Stilt House  *Warning: This review contains spoilers*  Introduction  This is a solid historical fiction novel and a decent modern take on southern gothic. If you like historical fiction and a more literary style of writing, you’ll probably really enjoy this. If this isn’t your genre though, I don’t think the book really transcends any hard genre lines to compel you.  Review  Set in the 1920s in Mississippi, the novel focuses on two young women, Ada and Matilda. Ada is a white woman and Matilda is a Black woman, and being that the novel is set where and when it is set, obviously racism and the legacy of slavery and segregation plays a large thematic role in the story. The focus of The Girls in the Stilt House is largely the friendship and bond that forms between Ada and Matilda. However, one of the things that I really appreciated that Mustian did with this story is not ignoring the realities of the story’s setting, or pretending like Ada was som...

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn Book Review *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mentions war violence, sexual assault, and the death of a child.*  Introduction  It’s fairly rare when I find a new favorite book on audiobook. It’s no shade to audiobooks at all. Just generally I like to own physical copies of the books I’m most excited about, and I save digital titles (audio and ebooks) for titles I’m mildly intrigued by and not 100% sure I’ll love, which is why I don’t buy them. The Rose Code has definitely becomes an exception, as I really loved it.  Loosely inspired by true events and historical figures, though with some liberties on Kate Quinn’s parts to literature-ize the story, and set during WWII, focusing on female historical heroines, The Rose Code is in a similar vein to The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Actually, I dare say that I think this book might be better. Primarily because this book didn’t feature a cringy love story with a ...

  These Violent Delights (Duology) by Chloe Gong *Warning: This review contains spoilers* *Content Warning: This review mention suicide* Book 1: These Violent Delights   There is certainly a lot to enjoy about this wildly popular book duology. It has a great premise, an interesting mix of characters, a very unique setting, and it’s based on one of the most well-known Shakespearean plays ever written, Romeo and Juliet .  I should specify that I say “based on” pretty loosely because the actual direct references to Romeo and Juliet are pretty few and far between here. After all, this book is a dark fantasy romance set in 1920/ Shanghai, not a historical piece about English teenagers like the original play. We have the infamous balcony scene played on, the main characters’ names (Roma and Juliette) are pulled straight from the source material, and it’s fairly easy to figure which characters represent whom from the original play (Lourens in Friar Lawrence, Tyler is Tybalt, M...

  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid *This review contains spoilers*  *Content Warning* This review mentions suicide and terminal illness. Introduction  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is often regarded as one of bookstagram’s darlings. It’s received an outpouring of 5 star reviews from across the book-loving community. And there truly is a lot to like about it, from its old Hollywood aesthetic to its unapologetic cast of LGBT characters, and its complex morally gray protagonist.  But does it live up to the hype? The answer for me is yes and no.  Summary and Review Like I said, there is a lot to love in this book. It has LGBT characters in all the leading roles (featuring a gay man, a lesbian woman, and a bisexual WOC), with a W/W main couple—which is something I love. Most mainstream and popular novels always center around straight characters and couples, and if they feature queer characters, they’re usually just relegated to the backg...

  King of Scars ( Full Duology) by Leigh Bardugo *This review contains spoilers*  Book One: King of Scars  The final installment in Leigh Bardugo’s grishaverse, the King of Scars duology, comes across to me as the quintessential “love it or hate it” edition to her universe. Die hard fans if the Grishaverse are going to love it. More casual fans might feel more like I did jumping into this duology, which is that it’s pretty much a mixed bag of things I really liked and things I really, really did not like.  Starting with things I liked:  The actual mechanics of the writing. Bardugo’s skills in writing prose have improved exponentially since the original Shadow and Bone trilogy. The actual writing of King of Scars is just much more practiced and mature. It’s less bumpy, more likely to appeal to an older demographic than the Shadow and Bone trilogy.  I also really enjoy that this duology takes both existing pieces of the established Grishaverse, Shadow and Bo...