whoever decided on the red sprayed edges for assistant to the villain graduated from the canva school of graphic design because that colour combination is ATROCIOUS
Worst book i read this year was The Thursday Murder Club, one of the most boring things i have ever read. I DNF'd it at 110 pages and basically nothing had happened, really don't get the hype. Great video, would love to see a best books video too :)
Worst book I"ve read so far this year was The Other Black Girl. I was sooo disappointed. I just try to look for interesting books, especially if there is a show attached. I forced myself to finish the book and I could not make it past the first episode of the show.
I'd love to see a best books 😊 The worst book I've read this year is The City of Brass - a hot mess of a book! Honourary mentions to Now She is Witch and Powerless too 😂
I'm in a slump so I don't really have the worst or the best book yet. Night Watching sounds very interesting, I've added it to my TBR, hopefully I get to it) Also, this format is very interesting and it'd be real cool to see a video like this about best books as well.
My worst read of the year so far is The List by Yomi Adegoke. 😬 It dragged on and on and on. Halfway through I was ready for it to be over. The ending was like anchovy icing on a cherry pie.
I dnf like crazy so the worst book I finished was The Housemaid’s Secret. I wanted to dnf it several times, but kept reading since it won GR’s best mystery. It made me not want to read any more of Freida’s books. As for Nightwatching, I dnf’d it because there were too many self recriminations and flashbacks.
Chlorine I think I need to circle back, I tried to read it earlier in the year, I was really really into the story and even the discomfort- but I couldn’t tell if I was uncomfortable or bored … and maybe that’s not good?
Faebound was on my list, I bought it on pub day, hardcover and only made it to 50 pages. It felt boring and the POV was not dynamic enough to keep me engaged.
I can't really think of any books that was the worst for me. Maybe the biggest let down for me was Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Light Novel. Otherwise, everything I completed was a good 3.5-5 stars for me.
I just finished my worst book of 2024 yesterday. I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi P. This was my 3rd book by her and my 3 strike rule has made it so I will not read her books at all now. It was so awful and the twist I figured out at the very beginning of the book.
Worst book I've read was Iron Flame. I was slightly fond of Fourth Wing because it felt like i was reading the Pern series again, just without the DV. Iron Flame, though, is about as far as I'm going. I usually just dnf books i hate.
I have actually been struggling to read this year. I think I have only gotten in 35 books so far, I way behind. So there isn't really a worst book of the year yet, it had to be really good to keep my attention.
Worst book for me this year was The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. I was excited to check it out because it was murder mystery plus the Great British Bake Off which sounded fun. I was not a fan. The mystery was not it, I don't think it was done well at all. And the pacing didn't work either. So much time was spent with the baking competition and that was so over described and the last little chunk felt so rushed. I also absolutely hated the ending lol There was a moment in the epilogue that took me from feeling just general this wasn't that great of a book but whatever to oh I hate this. I didn't care about any of the characters and it was frustrating being in some of their points of view. The audiobook was pretty good, the cast did a good job, helped me get through it (and it wasn't that long)😅 Things also felt so convoluted and/or unnecessary. It was unfortunately a major let down.
Controversial opinion I guess: I gave Faebound and Assistant to the Villain five stars. They worked for me and I'm glad other people viewed it differently because it helps me understand my own ratings better. 😁Other five stars: Get a Life, Chloe Brown (Talia Hibbert), Daughter of the Pirate King series (Tricia Levenseller), In the Lives of Puppets (TJ Klune), Ex Hex (Erin Sterling), and Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna). Worst books: Fairest (Marissa Meyers, Lunar Chronicles 3.5): The main character is deranged and I didn't think we would spend as much time in her head as we did because the other books were from multiple points of view. Bound by Knighthood (Nicki Chapelway, Starry Kingdoms of the Fae series): We go through most of the book and everything is fine. Then in the last 10% we're going to force an unnecessary romance. The "enemies" (because they weren't) could have grown to friendship and it would have been fine, but "throw away my dreams because I love you and that's why I've been mean to you our whole lives" love? No, thank you.
I had two duds this month- Community Board (cant remember authors name). Read it for a book club and 100/250 pages was the main character sitting on her couch wallowing in depression. To be fair, her life corcumstances weren't good, but the cover has super cozy vives. And i DNF'd House in the Cerulean Sea at 265ish.
I think my issue with Faebound and hurricane wars is the stories sounded so good but it didn’t really get interesting until you had read a large portion but not good enough to justify the beginning
I also DNF'ed The Hurricane Wars around the 2 hour mark. For me, the big takeaway was that Reylo dynamics are extremely not my thing. Hadn't expected them to be, but good to get confirmation, I guess.
The worst book of the year for me was The Master by Kresley Cole. The first 70 pages were quite literally perfect, everything I'd been looking for in a romance novel. The rest of the book was, I suspect, written by a particularly unskilled hamster. I'm still so, so very confused about it. I don't think I've commented on one of your videos before, but I really enjoy the specific way you discuss books, I find it to be really refreshing
I liked Faebound, but it was my first book from the author and the first book in a trilogy. So maybe I just had lower expectations. It’s definitely not my favorite or anything but you could do a lot worse.
Oooh I have Chlorine on my tbr! My two worst are "The Scourge between the Stars" by Ness Brown (extra disappointing because she's a real life astrophysicist) and "Girls Against God" by Jenny Hval (I'd call it whining and daydreaming the book)
Faebound was so disappointing which sucks because It was one of the 2024 book I had been looking forward to reading the most. Thinking about it makes me upset.
What’s especially disappointing about Faebound is that her other series is *fantastic*. I was so excited for something new from her and it was such a letdown!
Faebound was not a good book. I was so sad.... I'm hoping the second book is better, but I'm worried. Hurricane Wars was redundant. I liked the politics side but the romance part sucked
Yes Romantasy is a stupid term for something that has existed forever.... I really prefer the rofan term from manga/manwha. For Rofan I would recommend Sharon Shin Shape Changer's Wife and Summer's at Castle Auburn. Older - Robin McKinley the Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. I did DNF three books in May I wouldn't call them bad books or worst, one bored me, one I just did not like the writing or characters and one just gave me meh feelings :) It has been a while since I started something that made me really aggravated me. I did finish season 1 of what started out as an interesting manwha and well.... I was hate reading it by the season close. I hated the art on the FL and the interesting plot premise devolved to the generic FL has a terrible family and a spoiled sister who wants her fiance and did not redeem itself (or really have any plot movement).
Worst books I've read so far this year: Wolfblade by Jennifer Fallon: all of the characters are terrible and not even in a fun way. The main characters' goal is to keep a s*xual predator on the throne because...reasons? He's of the orignal royal bloodline and that's the most important thing I guess? Also slavery is a major part of the setting and nobody is remotely bothered by this or questions the practice Voyage of the Damned by Frances White: Marked as Adult Fantasy but felt like very juvenile YA in both the character actions and the humor. Also the world building didn't make sense. Fantasy!Russia and Fantasy Texas share a border with no explanation for how it goes from frozen tundra to hot arid desert The Moon Always Rising, by Alice C. Early: Main character falls in love with the ghost of a s*xual predator, knowing full well what he did Dreamwalker, by J. A. Culican: Pretty sure this is self-pub and it shows in the lack of editing. Sanctuary of the Shadow, by Aurora Ascher: the Born Sexy Yesterday trope doesn't get less gross when you apply it to a male character
I really did not like Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. I hated the choices she made in the book, I hated that it was about Ted Bundy, I hated pretty much everything about the book. I only read it because it was a book club book...and then she came to the book club (it's a zoom book club through a larger content creator conglomerate) and now I don't like the author anymore either. I don't think it was the author's fault, I think it was poorly moderated (the usual moderator wasn't there) and they allowed 1-2 people to dominate the entire bookclub, both the pre-author arrival discussion and post arrival discussion.
worst book I've read so far this year definitely goes to ripe by sarah rose etter. what does hearing a white woman be sad about her life for seven hours but do nothing to change it do for me. like main girl was truly just WALLOWING in it, marinating in that sadness. and maybe it's because I've been going to therapy and have been medicated for years but by the time I finished the book I was so irritated that finishing the audiobook was a relief, ugh.
Remarkably Bright Creatures was a DNF for me. It was so boring. So, so, so boring. I picked it up because I find Octopuses fascinating, but instead I ended up stuck with boring white people I didn't care about.
Worst book I read in 2024: I DNF’d “Spy Kids volume 3”. I liked the first two volumes, but they didn’t blow me away. Then I just lost interest/didn’t care about any character in volume 3. I know it’s a beloved Manga, but it’s just not for me
My worst book of the year: The Kingdom of Sweets. It's as if you are stuck in a room filled with decaying sweets that were Cheap imitations of your favorites anyways, that the confectionist were trying to replicate them out of pure spite and little research of the actual product to make the ideas more unique. I've already ranted about it in a previous comment so I'll leave it there. I would argue though Kingdom of Sweets is on the same level of problematic as Twilight. Only with slightly better first person where it was tolertable to read through.... to a point. So you would probably not enjoy it either because I'm sure you'll catch on the VERY problematic storytelling it uses by the voice of the Protag. I know it's not exactly "Romantasy" persay..... As it's more seen as a Monster Romance, but..... You may actually enjoy a Soul to Keep because it takes it's time with the romance. it is Spicy, but it doesn't go straight into the sex right away as it has a more realistic building of trust within the setting it's in. I'm doing a Buddy read of it right now with my friends and I'm absolutely enjoying it. You can get it in Physical, ebook, and audiobook so you have your choices and won't be stuck with just audiobook, though the Audiobook is actually really well done as well so there is that. A *Fantasy* you may really enjoy is Bringer of the Scourge. I'm finally almost done with it (due to the fact that I was reading Paranesi and Bringer of the Scourge around the same time when the buddy read starting for A Soul to Keep), and it's really good world building for only being 255 pages and the second book is coming out real soon if you end up enjoying the first book. It's more Sword and Sorcery, so it's a little different from Epic Fantasy in a way as the charaters have more personal stakes that aren't *about* saving the world. It flips the whole "Princess in the Tower" trope on it's head at the beginning where while she got help, she mostly already trying to gain her own angentcy through out the book over just the whole marriage thing.
@@BookishRealm If you do end up reading Kingdom of Sweets, I will still watch the review. This is also the one Retelling that was was thinking off during my pet peeve comment that was very little to no research to the *actual* story that the ballet is based on. It's only using the ballet as it's base, just to give you fair warning. It may be a 3 star or at least a 2.5 star for you because my friend that I was buddy reading it with (Different from my buddy read with A Soul to Keep) gave it a 3 stars because she actually liked the direction of the second half of the book but still felt like it was poor retelling to the Nutcracker and should have been more Swan Lake. Though she thought it was a dark fantasy and not a Horror with a flavor of fantasy. For me though it was a 2 star. it was going to be a 2.5 due to one scene that actually gave me slight chills but lost it about half way through the book for reasons I won't spoil. As someone who was expecting and new it was horror and reconized a lot of the tropes used from 80s Horror (both book and movies).... I wasn't impressed personally.
Worst book I read in 2024: I DNF’d “Spy Kids volume 3”. I liked the first two volumes, but they didn’t blow me away. Then I just lost interest/didn’t care about any character in volume 3. I know it’s a beloved Manga, but it’s just not for me
I find Saara El-Arifi frustrating because she comes up with great ideas, but when it comes to the story, it feels like she doesn't put in much effort. It ends up feeling generic and lacking depth. For example, in Faebound, the idea of African fae could have been fascinating, but no folklore or history was incorporated, just generic fantasy terminology. It was disappointing.
My biggest disappointment this year was 'Til Death do us Bard' by Rose Black. Its not really talked about at all here or on Booktok but wow, does it have a fabulous cover! Don't be fooled though, i found it so boring, characters so one note and lots of gross non consentual lusting and "humour" in it that got so old so quickly and i really wanted to love this one as a cosy fantasy that was a little underground for me
I haven't been active on Instagram for a variety of personal reasons, though I'm hoping to get back to it in the future. But oh man, seeing one of my favorite books of the last year or so on the thumbnail gave me a shock! I really loved Assistant to the Villain! It was a random airport book catch for me, having no ties to tiktok, so I didn't know it stemmed from there till like halfway through the book. But yeah, the cover and the book description, is what grabbed me. I recc'd it to my monster lover book club friends as a palette cleanser from some bad books, and some loved it, and one of them just thought it was a bit too slow and needed more romance/smut haha (doesn't have smut). But we all are eagerly waiting for the next book. I didn't think the writing was that terrible? I thought it was fresh and different from old fantasy books and yeah. The dialogue and thoughts between the main characters actually reminded me a lot of my TTRPG character interactions I have with my partner. It's not 100% perfect and it did end kinda abruptly, when it wasn't marketed as a duology or whatever, but yeah, definitely not the worst I've read this year or ever. While I've seen the first movie, I never was interested in the Twilight series. I did follow that one tumblr account that analyzed all the books and basically was almost a Mystery Science Theater 3000 experience, so I do know a lot of it haha. So terrible. But. The fandom is one of the nicest fandoms I've ever encountered both online and IRL at conventions, especially when interacting with non Twilight-fans. Worst book I've read this year, is two terrible smut novellas that I think were only published through Kindle Unlimited. One seemed like it was trying to troll romance readers and hurt my brain at only like 60 pages long. And the other...Getting Freaky with Frankenstein... THAT was poorly written and I don't think edited. Just bad dialogue, not sounding like it was set in the 1950s (when it was supposed to), dropped plot elements, no chemistry, and then everything being suddenly tied up in a neat little bow just because, in 100 pages... It was rough, haha.
I'm convinced Red Tower is just three kids in a trench coat at this point.
whoever decided on the red sprayed edges for assistant to the villain graduated from the canva school of graphic design because that colour combination is ATROCIOUS
IT. IS. HORRIBLE!
Worst book i read this year was The Thursday Murder Club, one of the most boring things i have ever read. I DNF'd it at 110 pages and basically nothing had happened, really don't get the hype. Great video, would love to see a best books video too :)
Whatttttt?!? That was on my TBR.
That's so sad 😢 I loved that book! We can't all like everything 🙂
Audio is the way to go for sure.
@BookishRealm I loved it, but I do recommend the audio- I think it's on Spotify Premium
I dnfed as well so boring !
Worst book I"ve read so far this year was The Other Black Girl. I was sooo disappointed. I just try to look for interesting books, especially if there is a show attached. I forced myself to finish the book and I could not make it past the first episode of the show.
I'd love to see a best books 😊
The worst book I've read this year is The City of Brass - a hot mess of a book! Honourary mentions to Now She is Witch and Powerless too 😂
I'm in a slump so I don't really have the worst or the best book yet. Night Watching sounds very interesting, I've added it to my TBR, hopefully I get to it)
Also, this format is very interesting and it'd be real cool to see a video like this about best books as well.
My worst read of the year so far is The List by Yomi Adegoke. 😬 It dragged on and on and on. Halfway through I was ready for it to be over. The ending was like anchovy icing on a cherry pie.
I would love to hear what you think of Nicola Yoon’s new book. I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews on Goodreads.
I have it on hold. We’ll see how it goes lol!
I'll submit "The Witch's Heart" by Genevieve Gornichec for best of the year!
I dnf like crazy so the worst book I finished was The Housemaid’s Secret. I wanted to dnf it several times, but kept reading since it won GR’s best mystery. It made me not want to read any more of Freida’s books.
As for Nightwatching, I dnf’d it because there were too many self recriminations and flashbacks.
Chlorine I think I need to circle back, I tried to read it earlier in the year, I was really really into the story and even the discomfort- but I couldn’t tell if I was uncomfortable or bored … and maybe that’s not good?
Faebound was on my list, I bought it on pub day, hardcover and only made it to 50 pages. It felt boring and the POV was not dynamic enough to keep me engaged.
I can't really think of any books that was the worst for me. Maybe the biggest let down for me was Sugar Apple Fairy Tale Light Novel. Otherwise, everything I completed was a good 3.5-5 stars for me.
Faebound was a 5 star read for me!
I just finished my worst book of 2024 yesterday. I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi P. This was my 3rd book by her and my 3 strike rule has made it so I will not read her books at all now. It was so awful and the twist I figured out at the very beginning of the book.
Worst book I've read was Iron Flame. I was slightly fond of Fourth Wing because it felt like i was reading the Pern series again, just without the DV. Iron Flame, though, is about as far as I'm going.
I usually just dnf books i hate.
I have actually been struggling to read this year. I think I have only gotten in 35 books so far, I way behind. So there isn't really a worst book of the year yet, it had to be really good to keep my attention.
14:56 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
My worst read so far is The Sympathiser. My expections were high but I had to dnf.
Worst book for me this year was The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. I was excited to check it out because it was murder mystery plus the Great British Bake Off which sounded fun. I was not a fan. The mystery was not it, I don't think it was done well at all. And the pacing didn't work either. So much time was spent with the baking competition and that was so over described and the last little chunk felt so rushed. I also absolutely hated the ending lol There was a moment in the epilogue that took me from feeling just general this wasn't that great of a book but whatever to oh I hate this. I didn't care about any of the characters and it was frustrating being in some of their points of view. The audiobook was pretty good, the cast did a good job, helped me get through it (and it wasn't that long)😅 Things also felt so convoluted and/or unnecessary. It was unfortunately a major let down.
Controversial opinion I guess: I gave Faebound and Assistant to the Villain five stars. They worked for me and I'm glad other people viewed it differently because it helps me understand my own ratings better. 😁Other five stars: Get a Life, Chloe Brown (Talia Hibbert), Daughter of the Pirate King series (Tricia Levenseller), In the Lives of Puppets (TJ Klune), Ex Hex (Erin Sterling), and Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches (Sangu Mandanna).
Worst books:
Fairest (Marissa Meyers, Lunar Chronicles 3.5): The main character is deranged and I didn't think we would spend as much time in her head as we did because the other books were from multiple points of view.
Bound by Knighthood (Nicki Chapelway, Starry Kingdoms of the Fae series): We go through most of the book and everything is fine. Then in the last 10% we're going to force an unnecessary romance. The "enemies" (because they weren't) could have grown to friendship and it would have been fine, but "throw away my dreams because I love you and that's why I've been mean to you our whole lives" love? No, thank you.
I gave Faebound 5 stars also. I haven’t read any books with elves and only one other book with fae. So I didn’t go in with any expectations.
I had two duds this month- Community Board (cant remember authors name). Read it for a book club and 100/250 pages was the main character sitting on her couch wallowing in depression. To be fair, her life corcumstances weren't good, but the cover has super cozy vives. And i DNF'd House in the Cerulean Sea at 265ish.
I think my issue with Faebound and hurricane wars is the stories sounded so good but it didn’t really get interesting until you had read a large portion but not good enough to justify the beginning
I also DNF'ed The Hurricane Wars around the 2 hour mark. For me, the big takeaway was that Reylo dynamics are extremely not my thing. Hadn't expected them to be, but good to get confirmation, I guess.
The worst book of the year for me was The Master by Kresley Cole. The first 70 pages were quite literally perfect, everything I'd been looking for in a romance novel. The rest of the book was, I suspect, written by a particularly unskilled hamster. I'm still so, so very confused about it.
I don't think I've commented on one of your videos before, but I really enjoy the specific way you discuss books, I find it to be really refreshing
"Particularly unskilled hamster" 😂
The worst book I read this year was Grieving Gold by Daniel McDaniel, it had no plot. At least not one that was engaging.
I liked Faebound, but it was my first book from the author and the first book in a trilogy. So maybe I just had lower expectations. It’s definitely not my favorite or anything but you could do a lot worse.
I DNF’ed both The Hurricane Wars and Faebound 😅
The only one I’ve read was Faebound and I literally could not finish it. Not my usual dnf stuff. Like I was still bored to tears 60%.
Oooh I have Chlorine on my tbr!
My two worst are
"The Scourge between the Stars" by Ness Brown (extra disappointing because she's a real life astrophysicist)
and "Girls Against God" by Jenny Hval (I'd call it whining and daydreaming the book)
Faebound was so disappointing which sucks because It was one of the 2024 book I had been looking forward to reading the most. Thinking about it makes me upset.
What’s especially disappointing about Faebound is that her other series is *fantastic*. I was so excited for something new from her and it was such a letdown!
I was burned by Red Tower twice! Never again. hahahah
Now i want to read Midnight Sun just for the nightmare it's going to be.lol
Faebound was not a good book. I was so sad.... I'm hoping the second book is better, but I'm worried. Hurricane Wars was redundant. I liked the politics side but the romance part sucked
the worst book I read this year so far is The Pureblood Daughter. I only finished it because it was an ARC I received in exchange for a review.
Yes Romantasy is a stupid term for something that has existed forever.... I really prefer the rofan term from manga/manwha. For Rofan I would recommend Sharon Shin Shape Changer's Wife and Summer's at Castle Auburn. Older - Robin McKinley the Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. I did DNF three books in May I wouldn't call them bad books or worst, one bored me, one I just did not like the writing or characters and one just gave me meh feelings :) It has been a while since I started something that made me really aggravated me. I did finish season 1 of what started out as an interesting manwha and well.... I was hate reading it by the season close. I hated the art on the FL and the interesting plot premise devolved to the generic FL has a terrible family and a spoiled sister who wants her fiance and did not redeem itself (or really have any plot movement).
Worst books I've read so far this year:
Wolfblade by Jennifer Fallon: all of the characters are terrible and not even in a fun way. The main characters' goal is to keep a s*xual predator on the throne because...reasons? He's of the orignal royal bloodline and that's the most important thing I guess? Also slavery is a major part of the setting and nobody is remotely bothered by this or questions the practice
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White: Marked as Adult Fantasy but felt like very juvenile YA in both the character actions and the humor. Also the world building didn't make sense. Fantasy!Russia and Fantasy Texas share a border with no explanation for how it goes from frozen tundra to hot arid desert
The Moon Always Rising, by Alice C. Early: Main character falls in love with the ghost of a s*xual predator, knowing full well what he did
Dreamwalker, by J. A. Culican: Pretty sure this is self-pub and it shows in the lack of editing.
Sanctuary of the Shadow, by Aurora Ascher: the Born Sexy Yesterday trope doesn't get less gross when you apply it to a male character
I really did not like Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. I hated the choices she made in the book, I hated that it was about Ted Bundy, I hated pretty much everything about the book. I only read it because it was a book club book...and then she came to the book club (it's a zoom book club through a larger content creator conglomerate) and now I don't like the author anymore either. I don't think it was the author's fault, I think it was poorly moderated (the usual moderator wasn't there) and they allowed 1-2 people to dominate the entire bookclub, both the pre-author arrival discussion and post arrival discussion.
💗💗
worst book I've read so far this year definitely goes to ripe by sarah rose etter. what does hearing a white woman be sad about her life for seven hours but do nothing to change it do for me. like main girl was truly just WALLOWING in it, marinating in that sadness. and maybe it's because I've been going to therapy and have been medicated for years but by the time I finished the book I was so irritated that finishing the audiobook was a relief, ugh.
Remarkably Bright Creatures was a DNF for me. It was so boring. So, so, so boring. I picked it up because I find Octopuses fascinating, but instead I ended up stuck with boring white people I didn't care about.
Worst book I read in 2024:
I DNF’d “Spy Kids volume 3”. I liked the first two volumes, but they didn’t blow me away. Then I just lost interest/didn’t care about any character in volume 3. I know it’s a beloved Manga, but it’s just not for me
My worst book of the year: The Kingdom of Sweets. It's as if you are stuck in a room filled with decaying sweets that were Cheap imitations of your favorites anyways, that the confectionist were trying to replicate them out of pure spite and little research of the actual product to make the ideas more unique. I've already ranted about it in a previous comment so I'll leave it there.
I would argue though Kingdom of Sweets is on the same level of problematic as Twilight. Only with slightly better first person where it was tolertable to read through.... to a point. So you would probably not enjoy it either because I'm sure you'll catch on the VERY problematic storytelling it uses by the voice of the Protag.
I know it's not exactly "Romantasy" persay..... As it's more seen as a Monster Romance, but..... You may actually enjoy a Soul to Keep because it takes it's time with the romance. it is Spicy, but it doesn't go straight into the sex right away as it has a more realistic building of trust within the setting it's in. I'm doing a Buddy read of it right now with my friends and I'm absolutely enjoying it. You can get it in Physical, ebook, and audiobook so you have your choices and won't be stuck with just audiobook, though the Audiobook is actually really well done as well so there is that.
A *Fantasy* you may really enjoy is Bringer of the Scourge. I'm finally almost done with it (due to the fact that I was reading Paranesi and Bringer of the Scourge around the same time when the buddy read starting for A Soul to Keep), and it's really good world building for only being 255 pages and the second book is coming out real soon if you end up enjoying the first book. It's more Sword and Sorcery, so it's a little different from Epic Fantasy in a way as the charaters have more personal stakes that aren't *about* saving the world. It flips the whole "Princess in the Tower" trope on it's head at the beginning where while she got help, she mostly already trying to gain her own angentcy through out the book over just the whole marriage thing.
Nooooooooo I had the Kingdom of Sweets on my TBR
@@BookishRealm If you do end up reading Kingdom of Sweets, I will still watch the review. This is also the one Retelling that was was thinking off during my pet peeve comment that was very little to no research to the *actual* story that the ballet is based on. It's only using the ballet as it's base, just to give you fair warning.
It may be a 3 star or at least a 2.5 star for you because my friend that I was buddy reading it with (Different from my buddy read with A Soul to Keep) gave it a 3 stars because she actually liked the direction of the second half of the book but still felt like it was poor retelling to the Nutcracker and should have been more Swan Lake. Though she thought it was a dark fantasy and not a Horror with a flavor of fantasy. For me though it was a 2 star. it was going to be a 2.5 due to one scene that actually gave me slight chills but lost it about half way through the book for reasons I won't spoil. As someone who was expecting and new it was horror and reconized a lot of the tropes used from 80s Horror (both book and movies).... I wasn't impressed personally.
Worst book I read in 2024:
I DNF’d “Spy Kids volume 3”. I liked the first two volumes, but they didn’t blow me away. Then I just lost interest/didn’t care about any character in volume 3. I know it’s a beloved Manga, but it’s just not for me
I find Saara El-Arifi frustrating because she comes up with great ideas, but when it comes to the story, it feels like she doesn't put in much effort. It ends up feeling generic and lacking depth. For example, in Faebound, the idea of African fae could have been fascinating, but no folklore or history was incorporated, just generic fantasy terminology. It was disappointing.
Worst for me was “End of Story .” The pacing was sooooo slow. Horrible.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
❤💜❤️
❤️❤️❤️
@@BookishRealm 💜💜💜
My biggest disappointment this year was 'Til Death do us Bard' by Rose Black. Its not really talked about at all here or on Booktok but wow, does it have a fabulous cover! Don't be fooled though, i found it so boring, characters so one note and lots of gross non consentual lusting and "humour" in it that got so old so quickly and i really wanted to love this one as a cosy fantasy that was a little underground for me
I haven't been active on Instagram for a variety of personal reasons, though I'm hoping to get back to it in the future.
But oh man, seeing one of my favorite books of the last year or so on the thumbnail gave me a shock! I really loved Assistant to the Villain! It was a random airport book catch for me, having no ties to tiktok, so I didn't know it stemmed from there till like halfway through the book. But yeah, the cover and the book description, is what grabbed me.
I recc'd it to my monster lover book club friends as a palette cleanser from some bad books, and some loved it, and one of them just thought it was a bit too slow and needed more romance/smut haha (doesn't have smut). But we all are eagerly waiting for the next book.
I didn't think the writing was that terrible? I thought it was fresh and different from old fantasy books and yeah. The dialogue and thoughts between the main characters actually reminded me a lot of my TTRPG character interactions I have with my partner. It's not 100% perfect and it did end kinda abruptly, when it wasn't marketed as a duology or whatever, but yeah, definitely not the worst I've read this year or ever.
While I've seen the first movie, I never was interested in the Twilight series. I did follow that one tumblr account that analyzed all the books and basically was almost a Mystery Science Theater 3000 experience, so I do know a lot of it haha. So terrible. But. The fandom is one of the nicest fandoms I've ever encountered both online and IRL at conventions, especially when interacting with non Twilight-fans.
Worst book I've read this year, is two terrible smut novellas that I think were only published through Kindle Unlimited. One seemed like it was trying to troll romance readers and hurt my brain at only like 60 pages long. And the other...Getting Freaky with Frankenstein... THAT was poorly written and I don't think edited. Just bad dialogue, not sounding like it was set in the 1950s (when it was supposed to), dropped plot elements, no chemistry, and then everything being suddenly tied up in a neat little bow just because, in 100 pages... It was rough, haha.
💜💜