Pities by Marc Ruvolo - Review

 

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Language: English

Genre: Horror, LGBT, novellas

TW: Violence, death, profanity, abuse, drugs

Pages length: 89

Got the pleasure to have this book for free via BookSirens and it didn't disappointed!

I must say that I don't like when religion is written and be so.... expressive BUT it didn't matter in this book as it was indeed importante for the MC

To know that this story is set up in 1981 and the MC is gay in a uber-religious suburban enclave you can imagine my mind getting.... upset with how some characters was acting. 

Andrew is sick with the then named GRID and everyone in town act like its a rebellion against God and that he will be treated if have faith again. Imagine me reading that nonsense and boiling... Yup you got it... 

I found myself wondering what secrets that garden was keeping and wanted to know more from the moment that we can see Andrew's dad constantly there and that actually something was off. 

This book was well written and switching the scenario in the correct moment living me several times "mad" for not knowing more! 

For horror therms it was a slow burn one. Only in the last 20% of the book is where it came and it gripped me even if not as more as expected.  Sadly this is not the heavy horror I was expecting.

I fell the author could have explore more the horror during the full book. The end sounded forced. It is good as open for a possible new book but so sudden. 

Exactly when the horror was there! 

On balance this was good and easy to read and a good way to make me get out of my "sabbatical" year where I took no books to read.

I'm back and thank you!

 

First at all I want to let you all know that i missed you all

Second.... I'm very sorry to not have posted since ages! 

The main reason for that is that I wanted to make so much stuff at the same time and wanted to get the level of other readers that I overwhelmed myself. Auto-Sabotage

Then life took care of making sure I will have no time to read or post or take care of my dear blog

So now I decided to come back and go at my rhythm and without any competition with people that don't even think of this

I will be posting more everywhere actually but also not only reviews or more personal ones. 

TBRs will happen and everytime a new book is added to my shelf I will keep you updated. 

I can't guarantee to post 3 times per week but I will try my best 

I wanted to thank you all for keeping checking my blog and hope my content will be better and you enjoy it. 

Don't be shy and let me know what you think should be nice to add here 

Don't be shy and give me books recs also!!! (even if I have 600+ books in waiting of reading)

Review - Making the Play (Bennu Firebirds Book1) by Cait Marie

 

5 in 5 star rating

I follow this author in Tiktok and decided to have this series after a promo video of her books. 

I'm not a big fan of romances but I need to give a try as I can miss a very good story. 

This ended up being my first book written by her and it was more than a happy choice to make!

This is a vert sweet contemporary romance where not everything seems so wonderful as you can expect! 

We get this story from 2 POV's: Jax and Keyley (the MCs) and it's very good and easy to follow this kind of writing if well done (like here) 

I loved the fact that you have serious topics that are talked about and not only mentioned without having more information: we have topics as: death of parents, siblings "fights", homosexuality,.... As I was reading I noticed that some parts was so sad that I was sad too and I was really hoping for a happy ending as they everyone in this book deserved! 

Jax is a baseball player with a very complicated home situation but he like to be free and have a female company only for 1 night... until he met Kayley. Kayley that look like the kind of girl that is to keep and be for a long time relationship AKA the opposite of Jax wants

Kayley is not only Kade little sister (another baseball player) but also the daughter of the Coach! 

As you can read, this love is not meant to be but we can't choose this kind if stuff correct?

How this romance start? Well destiny make sure that they see each other again and they start as Jax helping Kayley in Statistic classes as she can fail the exames. Attraction make the work and when you realize they are a secret couple. 

But family situations, friendships and a cyclone of emotions make this complicated to Jax. 

Do his reputation will make lost the girl he love? Well I'm not going to give you a spoiler for sure! 

My biggest question in the middle of all the family drama was why Kade was not talking to his sister all along and I was trying to figured out until something make a click in my head: was because of his sexual orientation that he was not talking to her anymore or was the shame to be associate with her? (not that was easy to make a secret because of their father) 

Jax is the perfect book boyfriend that deserve all the hype for trying and not resisting to his feelings while fixing all mistakes an Kayley? well Kayley really deserve an happy moment in her life that can last a very long time! 

Resuming: all characters in this book are easy to fall in love with and deserve it for sure!

Review - The Beating of His Wings (The Left Hand of God Book 3) by Paul Hoffman

 

4 in 5 stars rating

Last book of the Trilogy of The Left Hand of God this books take action after Redeemer Bosco become Pope and Redeemer Gil order 2 persons to kill Cale for good. At the same time Cale is trying to find a way to be free in the Spanish Leeds where is late lover (now married and pregnant) with the rest of the Materazzi are also in that lands and where everyone made clear they don't like him at all. To add to this Kleist is in his way to the same lands and it feels that it will not end very good to have everyone in the same place again. 

I reach that part of the trilogy where I expect already a lot of information regarding any kind of battles and also I'm used of Hoffman writing style. 

The book all itself is about Cale make an army and attack the Redeemers but we have more space regarding Kleist and Henri Vague.

To my surprise we have a lot of dialogue in this volume and it was more easy to follow each POV when it change. We clearly can see that Cale, Kleist and Henri are still kids and even with a dark humor, they make jokes and try to find an happy ending. 

The fact everything turn around Cale being successful is more at the same but now the side changed and it's the Redeemers that need to survive to each attack of Cale. The way they all see him only as a weapon is clear that he will not have an happy ending at all but at least in this volume we have the opportunity to have more side characters emerging and having parte of the action. 

The frustration about this book is about the fact that Kleist and his wife are in the same lands and only at the very end of the book they found each other. It was very annoying to see that they was literally 2 steps from each other and didn't notice the other at all...

Nothing new about the hate state Arbell and Cale are but I was thinking about more action between them or at least a decent end... it was very but very vague how they settle their differences. 

The Sanctuary battle scene was more than expected and I was very curious about it. Not only to see what the Redeemers and Bosco will do but also about how the 3 friends will deal to be back there where everything is linked to bad memories and pain. 

I was not excepting at all the resolution they found to deal with Cale. It was a real scene that a cult ask for you: massive suicide

It was only at that moment that I understood the extend of the craziness of Bosco but in another hand I can't say it came from nowhere and wasn't expecting it. It was more than obvious that Bosco was not full mind regarding Cale and to interpret the messages of his God.

The ending? It was too short and was not as complete as expected: 1 paragraph about Cale, 1 line about Arbell and nothing more about the rest of the world.... sad ending actually

Review - Big hole by Puleng Modupe

 

3 in 5 Star Rating 

I got contacted by the Tweeter program Booktasters to read and review this book. 

The author was very sweet in sending me a free copy for that! 

This book is very small: 87 pages only and it took me a while to put it in the correct category but finally Fiction is the best to leave as fantasy sound not correct neither dystopia. 

The locals of this book are real so if you need to be familiar with the map just google the name of the village or city and it will show you what you need to have in mind. 

This story is based in South Africa where Shaina discover that she have a big mission: Save the world from a massive destruction caused by the Big Hole in Kimberley.

The mission is quite simple: find the stolen stone and put it back where she belong. 

The problem? Time is running out and fast and no records are founded regarding that stone, what it look like or who was the original person that found it. 

Shaina is really lovely and easy to like: she is a young adult with a dream job, she have determination and an open mind and she is stubborn and that make her a very good hero in this story. 

Her determination and courage keep her moving and trying to reach her goal: not only to save the planet but also to let people know about what is happening. 

Sadly people try to ignore the warning as always and she need to ask almost as a lunatic but she never lost her cool. 

During this 87 pages you can see she try hard and that she find always a way to reach the person she need: the radio, the Premier, CEO of the Mines Company,.... I mean how remember the address of the CEO and go there directly and by herself to explain once more the importance of that stone when visibly no one is paying attention?

Luckily we have side characters that make the link with the MC and the plot can advance without major turn around time! 

It was also interesting to see that many side characters have tangled pasts but it was disappointing to not no more about them to better understand how they ended up all in the same circle. 

Not to mention that we have a TW very dark even if only mentioned and not described. Glade I don't get made with the lake of information about TW but it's a must that authors need to include. 

 

Sadly I really hated the epilogue and didn't made sense for me bringing a love interest story. I didn't saw why it was there.... Happy ending? I mean after all Shaina endured I was hoping a epilogue after 4 years where she is graduated, at home or on the way and then MAYBE bring her love life to show that it was all coming natural. 

The Jones/Shaina love made me think that he don't love at all... he just need someone next to him with something new for his life as he want to repeat what he did with is current wife. 

If we stop in the last chapter and don't read the epilogue it will come to the 3.5 / 4 Stars review but epilogues are important if they are there and this one was not as expected.

Review - The Last Four Things (The Left Hand of God book 2) by Paul Hoffman

 

3 in 5 stars Rating 

This is the sequel of The Left Hand of Good and if you remembered my review I was not impressed at all by that book and ended up with more questions and a confused face each time the POV changed. 

Well this book was better in a way but worst in another. 

This book start right after Redeemer Bosco take back Cale to the Sanctuary to follow his plan. The plan itself is to become the Pope and start to "clean" the Earth from humanity so God can start again.

Cale is now under the Redeemer control and need to prove to everyone in Chartres that he is the Wrath of God and came to help the Redeemers against the Antagonists and everyone that don't follow the same faith

I still feel that we have so much ground for Cale to explore that it hurt that he is still making the same again and again: he make fights, don't make friends and seems to want to destroy everyone and everything. 

His actions are all mixed like a fight is inside him for Good and Bad: he can kill and be the most cold person in the world and 2 seconds after he is the most devote friend ever wanting to save as much as possible. Well... he is a teenager with the burden of being a Death Angel so it is only normal this fight but sometimes it feels like he is not even opening with himself. 

While the first book was a complete mess to follow who's POV is in this one it's much better! We can understand more easily with who we are checking the events. However.... we have pages and pages of war description and without dialogue and for me it was the worst ever as personally I like description but not for 5 or 6 pages in a row! 

We have also a lot of new characters here that became important and it was more easy to follow them and there actions than in book one. Every character have something that will link to Cale: Redeemer Gil, The Materazzi, Kleist and the Clepto Clan,.... you may think at the beginning why it is important to follow Kleist POV until you understand where they are going and the same apply to the Redeemers. We have old characters coming back to the plot with a little bit of information of what happened to them but even that was not very well explored for me: The Materazzi situation was vague and letting go some suspense but not explaining a lot for example . In another hand we have a complete focus in Kleist situation after leaving Henri Vague alone with IdrisPukke and that part seems to be very important as I feel they will all see each others and that can make a big difference in the storyline of book 3.

We have more twists and turns that make it more easy and passionate to read but we need to take special attention all the time to better understand why that event was happening. 

The Redeemers part of the story was very good and made my day while I was reading the scheme of Bosco: it was intriguing, fast action with the good amount of description and suspense. 

In general this book was better in therms of action and plot and action but the massive description took away stars for my rating. I don't mind the author describing stuff to make it clear and easy to the reader imagine the surrounding but when is too much it feels like we are reading a war book for History Classes. 

Again not very impressed in overhaul by this volume but hope the last book if this trilogy will save the storyline and explore finally all the potential of Cale 

Monthly Summary #1 of 2023

 

January already ended and it was so fast! 

Hello readers! 

How was your month? Mine was busy with a lot of work, readings, watching series and making diamond painting. 

Oh... sound like I have no social life or spend time with family but I have (family at least). 

I noticed that you only know a little about me and it's really a little (sorry about that!) so before coming with blog updates let me make write a little bit more: 

My name is Mary (full name Maryline) 

I'm 31 and live in Portugal even if was born in Switzerland

I'm brunette and should use glasses all the time but since I can still see what I'm doing I forgot a lot to use them 

I work from 8am to 5pm in a job that a really like: Team support for an online customer service. And I'm in this area since I'm 20 yo (not same client but same procedures and assistance) 

For the private parte what can I tell you? I love reading (obvious), spend my time between books and watching series and last year I reconnected with the diamond painting craft hobby making my last year a really bad one for reaching my goal of read books but in my defense I was also very tired from work and didn't want to read anymore for hours. 

I'm also a book collector as I own more books than I can read and the same apply to the diamond canvas: I own enough of them to be making them until 2025 without adding more in the basket. 

I'm not social at all... All my friends know that I can be silent for months without being mad or anything but that a reach out everything they need

To make friends it's actually very gradual and the same apply to love.... I don't open my heart and always have shield to be protected in case they ghost me. Glade to know that my few friends are aware of that and they don't mind at all

I have several planners to make sure everything is there and to take track of days and all f them are diferente: 

• Planner for work: where I put what a need to do and when as well as deadlines 
• Weekly planner with color set for the different activities to that week
• Yellow for reading
• Blue for work meetings
• Purple for diamond paintings
• Orange for Tiktok posts 
• Pink for Blog posts/checks
• Planner of reading where I plan in advance all the books I will read during the year as well as per month and also with a schedule 

Look like cray stuff but the true is that if I don't settle stuff I will pass them easily and after is a mess. (it happens already but without massive impact)

I really like to work with everything planner to make sure that I have time for all my hobbies in equal but let's continue to share personal stuff... 

And I think it's ok for now about me and we can move for the next topics: 

January wrap up

February expected posts 

So January was very busy for me and it wasn't reflected here properly as I was very lazy in posting the reviews in time.

• I read a total of 10 books this month with a total of 3000 pages
• 4 of them was written in Portuguese and 6 in English
• 5 was in Kindle and 5 was physicals 
• I reached 10% of my goal
• I've written the review of all of them but only publish 4 (sorry about that)

This is what I've read this month

For February you can expect a post of the Fairyloot January boxes (still waiting for 1), pictures of diamond painting already done as well as a Saint Valentine post and of course the reviews of this books from last month for sure: 

For February I will read the following books and hope to publish the reviews this month as well:

1. A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair (kindle)
2. A Touch of Ruin by Scarlett St. Clair (kindle)
3. A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair (kindle)
4. Big Hole by Puleng Modupe (still waiting from the author to receive the book)
5. I am watching you by Teresa Driscoll (kindle)
6. Touch the Dark by Karen Chance (Cassandra Palmer Series book 1)
7. Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance (Cassandra Palmer Series book 2)
8. Embrace The Night by Karen Chance (Cassandra Palmer Series book 3)
9. Everything Led me to You by Sara Kate (kindle)

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