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Category: Celeste’s Reviews

Book Review: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

Book Review: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy

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Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m not a lover of thrillers, especially domestic ones. I try, because they often sound so intriguing, but I almost without fail guess the twists so far in advance that I get frustrated with the characters for not seeing what I see. And speaking of the characters, the main “protagonist” is so often a troubled, unreliable female narrator who is billed as highly intelligent but who is constantly making stupid decisions, and I think it’s a trope that has been radically overdone and should be laid to rest. But after hearing Goodnight Beautiful described as brilliant by readers I trust, and being told to go in as blind as possible, I just couldn’t pass this one up when it was offered as a Book of the Month pick. Except, then I didn’t read it for a year and a half.

When I finally did pick up Goodnight Beautiful, I was pretty blown away. …

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Book Review: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Book Review: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

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Book Lovers by Emily Henry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”

Book Lovers was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022, but it was also one of the books I was most nervous to read. I adored Beach Read and The People We Meet on Vacation, Henry’s two previous adult fiction novels, so a part of me was afraid that Book Lovers might not measure up. Also, romance isn’t a genre that I was very into until last year, when nearly half of my 192 reads for the year were romance. I felt like I had gorged on them so much that I was sick of them, and I feared that any romance I read this year would suffer through no fault of their own, but simply because I was burned out. Thankfully, neither factor effected my experience with Book Lovers. It was just as lovely as I could have hoped; different enough from Henry’s other novels to not feel redundant, and with enough plot outside of the romance itself to keep from feeling nauseatingly sweet. …

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Book Review: The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) by Brandon Sanderson

Book Review: The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) by Brandon Sanderson

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The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I first read Mistborn: Era 1 a little over 7 years ago. While I loved it in its entirety, I remembered thinking in hindsight that The Well of Ascension was significantly weaker than the first and third novels in the trilogy. I was mistaken. While it wasn’t quite as fast-paced as its predecessor, this was still a phenomenal book in its own right. It’s not quite perfect, but it is much stronger than I recalled. And there was so much that I had forgotten! As with all of Sanderson’s work, The Well of Ascension is brimming with fascinatingly scientific magic systems, a compelling plot, mysteries that don’t give themselves away too quickly, and characters with flaws but a ton of heart. Rereading this series is reminding me of why Sanderson is one of my favorite authors of all time. He never lets me down.
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Book Review: Elektra, by Jennifer Saint

Book Review: Elektra, by Jennifer Saint

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Elektra by Jennifer Saint
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nothing reeks of trauma and death and shattered dreams quite like a Greek tragedy. Even the more heroic epics, such as The Iliad, often see the heroes victorious but slain among their enemies. But what of those left behind, those doomed to pick up the pieces in the aftermath? What of those stepped on and over by these so-called heroes on their path to glory? What of their “prizes,” those they claim as trophies after their victories? In other words, what of the women?

“Can’t you see that it just goes on, over and over? The gods demand their justice, but we suffer for it, every time.”

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Book Review: Darling Girl by Liz Michalski

Book Review: Darling Girl by Liz Michalski

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Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Darling Girl sounded like something that would be incredibly up my alley. A dark retelling of Peter Pan? Yes, please. However, I found myself pretty disappointed with the book overall. While I didn’t hate it, I found that the tale and the structure and especially the characters left much to be desired.

“Once the forbidden fruit has been tasted, there’s no going back to paradise. For anyone. Even Peter Pan, it seems. Innocence, once lost, is impossible to regain.”

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Book Review: Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6) by Stephen King

Book Review: Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6) by Stephen King

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Song of Susannah by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Song of Susannah is the penultimate installment in King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower. And though I still wouldn’t consider it a bad book by any means, I do believe it’s the weakest in the series since The Gunslinger. That being said, I still very much enjoyed my time in this world and with these characters. I was absorbed the entire time, and the tension was palpable. Even when King isn’t at his best, there’s something about his writing that just sucks me in and won’t let me go, even after I’ve read the final pages.

“In the Land of Memory the time is always Now.
In the Kingdom of Ago, the clocks tick… but their hands never move.
There is an Unfound Door
and memory is the key which opens it.”

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Book Review: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Book Review: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

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The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another of those books that’s been sitting on my shelf for years, but news of an upcoming adaption made me finally pick it up. I didn’t expect to love The Essex Serpent. I bought it at a library sale because the cover is stunning, but it sounded more than a bit slow, and I’m not a huge reader of historical fiction. However, when Tom Hiddleston was cast as one of the leads in the television series, I knew I had to finally dust it off and read it. I’m so incredibly thankful that I did, because this novel was gorgeous. I was incredibly surprised by how much I ended up loving it.

“If love were an archer someone had put out its eyes, and it went stumbling about, blindly letting loose its arrows, never meeting its mark.”

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Book Review: Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) by Stephen King

Book Review: Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5) by Stephen King

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Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I first read The Gunslinger, I wasn’t a fan. But I was determined to get past that first book, because I know King views The Dark Tower as his magnum opus and I really wanted to at least try to read that. Then I got to The Drawing of the Three and fell in love it. I couldn’t help but think that it would be the highlight of the entire series for me, but then I read The Wastelands. And Wizard and Glass. And The Wind Through the Keyhole. And I’ve loved them all just as much. Wolves of the Calla was no exception. I would have never thought that a western-horror-fantasy would become one of my favorite series of all time, and yet here we are. If King doesn’t drop the ball in the last two books, this will have quite possibly been the most epic literary experience of my life. …

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Book Review: They Mostly Come Out at Night (Yarnsworld, #1) by Benedict Patrick

Book Review: They Mostly Come Out at Night (Yarnsworld, #1) by Benedict Patrick

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They Mostly Come Out at Night by Benedict Patrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

They Mostly Come Out at Night is a case of judging a book based on its cover. I bought this and the next three books in the series literal years ago, because I thought that the cover art was gorgeous. And there they have sat since I pulled them from their packaging. I very randomly decided this week that they had wasting away, unread and thus unloved, for more than long enough. I’m glad I did, because I ate up this little book in two sittings and enjoyed my time with it. …

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Book Review: The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1) by Chelsea Abdullah

Book Review: The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1) by Chelsea Abdullah

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The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher, Orbit Books, in exchange for an honest review.

The Stardust Thief is the first in what is sure to be a solid, atmospheric new fantasy trilogy. This is Abdullah’s debut novel, and I found it to be a strong, well written story with compelling characters and an enchanting setting. A new riff on the classic tale of The Thousand and One Arabian Nights at its core, The Stardust Thief carves a new path into uncharted territory while still beautifully honoring its inspiration. I’ve read very little Arabic-inspired fantasy, but this book made me thirsty for more.

“Death in a free land is better than life in a gilded cage.”

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