Mini-Reviews, Feb. 21, 2018

[fa icon="calendar"] Feb 21, 2018 10:01:00 AM / by Suzanne

Welcome to the February edition of thoughts too small for a full review! Quite the pitch, I know. We'll work on it. This month we have a m/m historical fiction with romantic elements, a contemporary m/f romance, and a sci-fi f/f novella.

Rating refresher! Categories are based on whether or not we recommend them to fellow readers -  DNF (Did Not Finish), Pass, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), Read it Eventually, Read it Soon.

 

the-song-of-achilles.jpgThe Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
Suzanne says: Read it Soon

This book blew me away. The story will be familiar to anyone who's read The Iliad or watched the movie Troy, but it's told from Patroclus' perspective and embraces the theory that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers. They were, after all, interred together. It's a story of love and magic and honor, but you already know going into it that they don't get a happily-ever-after, unless you count the after-life. I adored Miller's prose and this 2012 novel has me eager for her next book, Circe, a retelling of the story of the mythical witch from The Odyssey. Many CWs, it's a story set in part during a war. Source: Library

You can buy it at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, etc.

 

trade-me.jpgTrade Me, by Courtney Milan
Suzanne says: Read it Soon

Trade Me is a complex contemporary romance that balances themes of poverty, parental pressure, and mental illness. It suffers from some pacing issues at the end, but I loved Tina and Blake enough that I hardly noticed. Milan speaks to the experience of being poor in a way I don't often read, something that really resonated with me personally. The story also touches on immigration law and the assumptions we make about other people. On a lighter note, Milan's love of gadgets is evident in her descriptions of Cyclone's tech. Source: Audible Romance Package

CW: drug use, disordered eating.

You can buy it at AmazoniBooksKobo, and all the other places.

 

sparks-fly.jpgSparks Fly, by Llinos Cathryn Thomas
Margrethe says: YMMV

For a science fiction romance, Sparks Fly is actually pretty light on the science fiction, and I really struggled to get a sense of the setting in spite of the book taking place at a futuristic performing arts school. In a way, I know more about school administration than what the zero-gravity artistic displays the school specializes in look like.

Sparks Fly has some decent components, but they don’t fit together in a terribly compelling way. The romance plot is secondary to the main struggle of the school, but neither plot had enough conflict to really maintain my interest. After finishing the novella, I was left with the sense that I barely knew the characters. Both Marianne and Jo are almost sketches. There’s so little room for the characters to grow, fail, and change that, as a reader, I never connected with them. The plot of Sparks Fly almost completely favors Marianne, and yet the romance favors Jo, which makes them not impossible love interests but sometimes difficult to reconcile as love interests.

In the end, the often ambiguous setting and the lack of emotional connection between the heroines made this a difficult book with which to connect. Source: Author provided a copy for review.

Buy it at Amazon.

Topics: review