I wanted to love this, I really did. I think what's happened is it's suffered very badly in comparison to a brilliant series in the Sci-Fi genre, the Firebird Chronicles by T A White, that I started reading last month. In fact, I probably picked this up because it sounded similar and I was jonesing for more. But it just didn't quiiiiite match up to that one for me.

The story follows human earthling Rose as she escapes from the nasty aliens who abducted her and seeks refuge with some nicer aliens. She has a sidekick in the form of an artificial intelligence "thinking engine", Sazo, that she talks to via an earpiece. Sazo helped her escape the bad aliens so she feels grateful and loyal to him/it, but she's also a bit scared of his ability to kill without a qualm. There's also the small problem of thinking engines being outlawed 200 years ago.

This setup and worldbuilding I did like. Though I found Sazo quite creepy. He wasn't the type of sidekick that steals the show with how cute and lovable he is. He was more like the sinister voice in Rose's ear that keeps threatening to kill people. That did improve over the course of the book but it never got to the point where I didn't think everyone would be safer if someone just... accidentally switched him off. And I don't think I was supposed to think that.

I should say, I did listen to this on audiobook so it could be the narrator's voice for Sazo that added to the creepy. The narrator was brilliant, but she definitely affected a strange and unsettling voice for Sazo to convey his inhumanness.

What let this book down massively for me was the romance. It just didn't connect to my heartbox, ya know? And this book is actually, unbeknownst to me either before or during reading, a Sci-Fi romance... As in, a love story that's all wrapped up with a HEA and the next book in the series is about a different couple... Honestly, you could NOT tell this book was supposed to be a romance! I just assumed it was going to be a Sci-Fi adventure space opera series with a focus on the action and the war between alien races, with a romance subplot that was perhaps going to grow and get more convincing over time. But at the end of the book, they started romantic speeching at each other, you know how they do when they're wrapping things up, and I was like...what is happening? I headed over to GoodReads and sure enough, the next book is not about Rose and Dav. 

I'm not 100% sure if I'll continue with this series. The books are included for "free" on the audible plus catalogue and the narrator was good, and I guess there's always a chance I'll connect more with the next pairing so I'm not ruling it out entirely. We'll see. Until then... Onto my next read!

3.5 Stars ★★★1/2

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I absolutely loved this book!

It's so good to find a new series to get excited about. I'm already planning to recommend it everyone I know. I can't believe I've had this little gem of a book on my shelf since last year, not knowing what a great story it held within. I think I might possibly have been put off by the cover art (don't really like it I'm afraid) but I'm so glad I finally got around to it.

It is an Urban Fantasy, so for anyone who needs a romance storyline all wrapped up neatly within the first book, you might not enjoy it for that reason alone. But I, for one, am quite happy to have a slow burning love story cast over several books. It's all in the anticipation, people! And there is clearly a potential love interest here. Just as soon as they both get over themselves and stop annoying the crap out of each other. I think it's great when they start off hating each other, actually. It just makes it all the sweeter when they finally admit defeat. In this case, I'm not sure who will break first. They both seem equally stubborn to me...

There are oodles of weird creatures in the series. It makes a refreshing change to have some new ideas in this area. There were Shapechangers, Necromancers and various other magic users. There were hints left here and there that Kate herself might have some big secret concerning her own genealogy, too. Although we know she has magic right from the offset, she, for some reason has to be really careful about her blood. Always making sure that if she bleeds anywhere, she cleans it up or burns it. Like as if someone were to smell or sample her blood, they would find out what bloodline she came from or something, and I'm guessing this would be bad... As I said, there were only clues so far, no actual answers, so I have no idea what the big deal is, but I am very intrigued at this point!

Another interesting twist was that, although this series features vampires, they are not the sexy, sparkly, gorgeous-looking beings that many authors portray these days. But rather disturbing, insect-like creatures that scuttle about on the ceiling. They're also mindless, and have to be controlled, or "navigated" by a necromancer or necro-navigator. They were completely gross.

I like the whole idea of the world being post-magical apocalypse, with crumbling buildings and other leftovers from the tech age, before magic took over. It was also something new that I haven't read before. And for me to find something new with the amount of books in this genre that I read, is always a bonus.

I really liked Kate. It's great to find a female protagonist you just love instantly. That's not to say she's not flawed, though. Her smart-ass retorts are hilarious, but she doesn't quite know when to switch it off, which is so going to get her in trouble one of these days, I'm sure.

I cannot wait for the next one but at the same time, I almost want to put off reading them because I don't want to run out!

4 Stars ★★★★

This book sounded right up my street from the description. I also thought the title was killer. Unfortunately, it was incredibly boring and I really struggled to finish it.

The setting was interesting, I guess; Irish language summer school. But the plot was nothing more than characters pottering about having mindless conversations while you were waiting for one of them to hurry up and die already - which didn't actually happen for the longest time!

And speaking of the characters, they were little more than vague outlines; each one's voice sounding exactly like any of the others. Since we didn't have a main character to bond with it was vital we had a diverse bunch of interesting characters in the ensemble, but this couldn't have been further from the truth.

There was a vague attempt at foreshadowing but it was so brief and so subtle you'd blink and miss it. It was not nearly enough - where were our breadcrumbs to follow?

I don't want to keep harping on but, basically, this book needs major work. I can see it's already garnered a very low average score on Goodreads and I can see why. It's simply not ready for public consumption yet. It has zero suspense, zero thrills, 2D characters and hardly any plot. It reads like a bad first draft.

1 star ★
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
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This was such a rollercoaster of a read. I was getting so worried at the beginning--I actually wasn't vibing with the book or Bryce very much at all in Part 1. Then by the end, I was like oh, okay, this is the best book ever and SJM reigns supreme once again.

House of Earth and Blood, book one in Sarah J. Maas' newest Fantasy series, Crescent City, is a whopping 800 pages (or 27 hours if you're an audiobook listener) of romantasy goodness. Yes, it's a long read and yes it starts a little slow and hits you with a lot of information, place names and hierarchies to memorise all at once. But, if you're anything like me, you'll go from bemoaning the pace and the unnecessary and indulgent page count, to fervently wishing it would never ever end.

Out of all of Maas' series so far, this one definitely had more of an Urban Fantasy flavour. There was a city backdrop, there was modern technology, vehicles and weaponry. And Bryce herself was a club-going party girl, at least at the start. Very different from the more historical fantasy vibes of her other two series.

Bryce, our main character, had a pretty epic transformation over the course of the book. I now think my lack of vibes at the beginning was intentional. My initial opinion of her matched Hunt's (main dude) opinion of her. Then she showed us who she really was and oh boy!

For the romance quarter, I'm not here for spoilers but can we just say slow burn deliciousness is my fave and I'm very happy.

I ended up really loving the worldbuilding once I got my head around it and got used to the change up from Maas' usual style. I will DEFINITELY be reading the next book as soon as I get my grubby little mitts on it.

I've got nothing else. It was amazing. That is all.

5 fricken stars

★★★★★