Tag: goodreads

Review: The Hundredth Queen

~ Author R.K. Gold ~ Leave a comment

The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen, #1)The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Before I get into why this book is only 3 stars I will say some positives. I was always engaged in the storyline; there was never a moment where I thought “I should put this down” or not finish. It was an entertaining and easy to follow plot, and though there was no massive world building the author also never created a confusing environment. Everything that happened had a complete explanation.

If you are worried about spoilers you should stop reading here.

The best part of this book was the villains. The Rajah, the Warlord, the warlord’s daughter and the first wife of Rajah Tarek were the driving force of the entire story. Just about every dynamic moment directly stemmed from them Kalinda was almost never acting on her own, but either under direct order or in direct reaction to something they did. In the end she decided to make her first proactive decision, which showed a good character arc I’m sure we will see for the rest of the series, but that doesn’t stop her presence from being underwhelming at times in the text.

Deven was also a little underwhelming, his only purpose centered around Kalinda, so he lacked a bit of his own identity, one I am sure will grow as the series goes on. His brother though caught my attention and stole every scene he was in. I was not a fan of their instalove either.

Netesa was so meh to me. She was the first sorta minor antagonist we see, but she’s so irrelevant throughout the book that their later friendship just didn’t do anything for me.

Jaya was my least favorite character (that you’re supposed to like). It’s just assumed their best friends on the first page but there is almost no connection between them except what Kalinda says. They behave like two women with a long (and honestly romantic) history, but there were like no flashbacks, and very few anecdotes to build the relationship up so I only knew they were best friends (or soulmates) cause the text said so. As such, her death fell flat with me.

Overall, I will finish this series, I will probably be entertained by this series, but. . . . yeah.

View all my reviews

Review: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

~ Author R.K. Gold ~ Leave a comment

4.5/5

DON’T PANIC

Always great to have a good tidbit of life advice thrown into a book.

well I see why this series has such a following. Wow I can’t wait to read the rest of it. It’s always fun to read a book that you can tell an author had fun writing. Each scene just brought so much joy to my life.

Something crazy would happen then the digital guide would bring it all together and fill me in on why a species acts a certain way. It was a really great way to fit exposition into a story while still pushing the plot forward because I was learning about the universe along with Arthur and as he read the guide I got to read it too.

Though I loved all the characters (particularly interactions between Ford and Zaphod) I have to tip my hat to Marvin. His ability to bring a room down in mere seconds is hilarious. He had the ability to make a ship commit suicide.

Anyway, I’m excited to read the remaining books and until then at least I can rest easy knowing the meaning of life is 42.

Review: Paper Towns

~ Author R.K. Gold ~ Leave a comment

3/5

Originally 2 stars until the last chapter.

This is my 2nd John Green book and until the final chapter I was worried it might be my last. I didn’t hate the book but for a book sorta famous for a road trip and the agency of one of its main characters there really wasn’t much movement.

While the main plot was about the physical quest of finding Margo, I really enjoyed the actual journey of finding who she was as a person. This wasn’t just a lesson for Q to learn but all his friends (Ben literally talking about how he got to re-fall for Lacey once he started dating her and finding out how real she is).

Q was probably my least favorite character “you keep expecting people not to be themselves.” Though the book did illustrate the journey of how he saw Margo I felt Q as a character did not change much else, which is fine, it’s just if I didn’t like him much in the beginning I wasn’t surprised not to like him much in the end.

I preferred the movie Radar to the book one. In the movie he was a real person. In the book he seemed to exist to only be an encyclopedia.

Margo’s lecture of Q at the end of the book was my favorite scene by far because it was just the culmination of everything the book was trying to tell us into an actual conversation. It wasn’t forced at all it was just the perfect dialogue and ultimately the final chapter of this book was really amazing (hence the extra star).

Review: Turtles All the Way Down

~ Author R.K. Gold ~ Leave a comment

3.5/5

When I started the book I expected a cute romance mystery. I’ve never read a John Green book but I knew what he was famous for so I expected his reputation.

What I got was a novel less about plot, or even character development, and more about the internal survival of a teenage girl struggling with OCD.

At times the writing in this book was beautiful and at times not so much. One consistency was Green’s ability to weave a clever one liner into his work, even if the story itself was dragging on a little.

I thought the writing about Aza, from her point of view, was incredibly well done, but as a character I was not that intrigued with her story (and I honestly felt bad about my apathy. I stopped reading and felt bad that while I was reading I felt nothing.)

It wasn’t just her though. No character really developed or changed. They were more already a final product and we spent the rest of the novel peeling away their layers.

Though many reviewers loathe daisy she was my favorite. She was a good friend who suffered from external conflicts and complemented Aza’s internal struggles.

Michael and Noah both existed as singular feelings, the former existing solely as an artist and the latter as the embodiment of grief.

Davis flirted with his passion for Astronomy and space but in comparison to Daisy’s bold personality (and loving of similar topics) he just felt pale at times.

I don’t know. I liked a lot about this book but the plot didn’t just change, it disappeared entirely then rocketed back into the book at the very end.

While I thought this book was very well written it just didn’t last with me. Here I am minutes after finishing it and all I can summon (at most) is a Larry David “Pretty, Pretty, Pretty good”

I will say the style of writing did resonate with me and I will read another book (or more) by Green. It was also well paced, so it did offer that gratification of being fast enough to finish in a day.

Review: Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius

~ Author R.K. Gold ~ Leave a comment

3.5/5

It has been done! This biography took me so long to read! I began in summer 2016 but couldn’t get into it. Picked it back up at the start of my fall semester this year but couldn’t get into it. Picked it up again at the end of the semester and forced myself to through.

All in all his was a fascinating book that did an incredible job capturing the complicated life of an American Immigrant icon.

While I was reading the book I struggled with how in depth and technical it got with his patents and his competitor’s patents at times but once I decided “it’s okay not to retain every word” and just kept reading, these tid-bits of information no longer slowed me down and by the end of the book I was excited to learn more. It almost read like it was letting you in on a secret, at times differentiating what the world saw at a given time and what actually happened (like with all of his feuds and how for decades those who pirated his work were rewarded).

What I enjoyed most about this tale was seeing how intertwined he was with the most powerful American families of all time. This was a man who worked with both JP Morgan and Jr. He was a direct rival of Edison and a pen pal of Elenor Roosevelt.

I am incredibly happy to have finally finished this book.