Honest Book Reviews!

Book information Title: Never Ever After Author: Sue Lynn Tan Genre(s): Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retellings, Fairy Tales Publisher: Hodderscape Published: October 28, 2025 Where to buy:  Amazon ,  Barnes & Noble ,  Bookshop.org Rating: 4 out of 5 *I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.* Quick Recommendation Perfect for people who search for a compelling fantasy read where the romance isn't too much in the focus. It might be medium-paced but the world-building wouldn't have been so impressive as well as the explanations to the magic if it wouldn't have been for the medium pace. As the story progresses one gets to know three Kingdoms (Mist Island, Iron Mountains and Thorn Valley) as well as the magic system that is very intriguing. The love-triangle is unique from others as it has no obvious winner, making one wonder who will captivate Yining's heart at the end. What makes it even more interesting is that both male ...

  Book information Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray Author: Oscar Wilde Genre: (Gothic) Horror, Fantasy & Classics Where to buy:  Penguin Random House ,  Barnes & Noble ,  Bookshop.org Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The novel focus around the themes of beauty, youth, boyhood, purity, obsession, desires (such as Hedonism), corruption, vanity, soul and body, the influence of art, spiritual sensory experience vs pleasurable experience and internal vs external influence. Mirrors but also the portrait itself symbolises inner vs outer beauty and also leaves room for self-reflection. Whereas the portrait in the story is a central role to showcast the soul and its decay through sinful acts. Later on, the books that are mentioned are representin...

The following article is about the novel ‘1984’ by George Orwell. You can buy it on  Amazon ,  Penguin Random House ,  Bookshop.org  and  Barnes & Noble This blog is meant to help people who didn't understand the novel '1984' by George Orwell completely after they finished reading it. While I read the novel myself I made a list of notes and explanations I came across to understand it better. Now I'm sharing it with you, in case you need them. All notes/explanations added in this article will include spoilers for the whole novel and shouldn't be read if not having finished read the novel yet. Proceed with caution. All important characters names Winston Smith (MC, low-ranking Party member), Katharina (ex-wife), Julia (lover), O'Brien (Inner Party member, torturer and enforcer of Party ideology), Big Brother (leader of Oceania), Emmanuel Goldstein (supposed leader of the Brotherhood, vilified by the Party as a traitor), Mr. Charrington (owns a secondhand shop, ...

Book information Title: The Burial Tide Author: Neil Sharpson Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mythology I started reading The Burial Tide expecting a standard horror story mixed with some suspenseful aspects, but this book surprised me. The mythological aspect of this book is not only unique from other horror books who usually don't include mythology but it's also creative as it displays Irish mythology and not Greek or Norse, which is more common to see in a book. But that's not everything that made this book stand out from other horror books and I will discuss this below. The protagonist of this story wakes up in a coffin, she was buried alive and has no memory of what happened before this. With her new amnesia she unravels the dark truth of Inishbannock, the island she is living in. Not only does Mara start to feel suspicious and unsafe around her neighbours as she comes closer to the truth, Declan Burke, a new villager is sharing her concerns. As she starts to remember more of...

Silvercloak by Laura Steven My rating: 3 of 5 stars *I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.* This book was NOT how I expected it to be. More astonishing it is that the most aspects I didn't think to appear in this book happened near the end of the story. It's a mix of good and bad things, but most are rather good. First of all, this book reminded me a lot about Harry Potter — which isn't a bad thing since I like Harry Potter and it isn't just a copy of it. The whole idea that magic can only be refilled by either pleasure or pain and nothing else is a quite unique story idea, especially as one needs to choose between quantity (pleasure) and quality (pain). Thereof it shouldn't be a surprise that this book is featuring lots of painful scenes, which are usually torture. But it also shows happy moments — moments of hope. 'Cause of this wheel between pain and pleasure, I can confidentl...

Miraculous Chibi Vol. 1: Pizza Pursuit and Other Cat Tales by Josh Trujillo My rating: 3 of 5 stars *I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.* Since this is the first time ever my wish for an arc was granted, I felt very excited to read this one. As a mlb fan I was surprised to see that a chibi book was made from this series. Many mlb fans always wanted to have a book version of this great show, myself included. A chibi version definitely fits the usual mood for the series (at least for the first two seasons). The series might mature with its audience, but I like that the children touch of it comes back with this chibi art style in a book. The art style is very cute and I enjoyed the small little stories. My favourite story is the last one. The fourth story was the longest and included a bit more stuff related to the actual show. Due to it having a greater connection than the other stories to the original ...

Classroom of the Elite (Light Novel) Vol. 11.5 by Syougo Kinugasa My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first year is since the last volume coming to an end, but with this extra volume we get some more moments before the school semester ends. I'm personally very excited to read about the year 2 book series as the anime wasn't able to adopt them yet so this would be a new experience for me now too. Some scenes in this volume were (as far as I remember) not adapted into the anime, so it felt very odd reading them and slowly realising that I experience them for the first time. Though it's an extra volume I saw myself drawn to the whole Tsukishiro incident that continued in this volume. Sakayanagi was also seen for a certain chapter so I definitely feel satisfied with ending this book like this. Another thing I liked to see once more which was confirmed now finally is that Horikita did indeed have a great character development and that from this volume...

ようこそ実力至上主義の教室へ 6 [Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e (Novel) 6] by Syougo Kinugasa My rating: 3 of 5 stars I already know that something great, very exciting (in my opinion at least) is going to happen in the next volume! To be honest, this volume didn't feel that special, the next special test occurred but only halfway through and for the previous volumes it always managed to end each volume after finishing a special test, but not this time which is kinda disappointing and also therefore felt more boring. But I did notice that Ayanokouji made more friends, especially ones that he calls by their first name (though the idea wasn't his and is a rule for the friend group he entered). This volume also showed that even though Ayanokouji seems to have no interest in social interactions he does feel some kind of joy of experiencing them. It seemed I was somehow developing a social life. This’d be normal for anyone else, but I trembled w...