Exquisite Captive

Hi,

It's me, finally recovered after two days. That last post? It was a mess. This? This will be great. Tea will be spilled, then cleaned up because I'm at my house. We can't have my parents yelling at me, can we? And now, here's the tea. I reread a book I read in the 10th grade.

It's called Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios and it's about genies, or jinn as they are called in this book. Nalia is the royalty in the jinn world but on Earth, she's a victim of the Dark Caravan. She's been a slave to one of the most powerful men in the world, Malek. She's hidden her caste for this long, but the leader of the revolutionary over in Arjinna seeks her out, asking for her help. Then Malek, the dirty pig, is treating her as something more than a slave. Lot's of issues, but Nalia will do whatever she can to get back to her brother, even sell out the entire jinn race.

So. I have feelings. First of all, I don't understand why this book only has 3.8 stars out of five on Goodreads? Like, it's so good? I didn't read the reviews, because I try not to do that, but I'm truly confused. The dynamic between Nalia and Malek? I hate it. It's the worst thing, but it's understandable. It's clear that Nalia is a victim of Stockholm syndrome and an abusive relationship. She just wants love, leave her alone. Raif? The love of my life. He is a babe, and I love him. I normally have an issue about people falling in love too fast [insert rant about that free Kindle book I read Friday here], but they aren't people. They're jinn. And they're clearly soulmates. They can fall in love however fast they want to. Malek can eat rocks, as can Haran. Haran is an insane jinni that road the team too much bus, but it's fine. Everything's fine.

I liked that enough time passed that it was almost like reading an entirely new book, I'd call this a successful reread, and I encourage you to go to your nearest American bookstore and see if you can find it. I like it a lot. Unfortunately, I won't have Blood Passage until tomorrow evening, because I only brought Exquisite Captive home with me. AND THEN I won't be able to read it until Monday, because I have homework to do tomorrow night, because my professors are rude and ungrateful. But it's FINE. I LOVE  school. College is great.

Ship: Nalia and Raif
Snake: Malek, Haran, Jordif
S'friend: Zarani, Leilan

8/10
~Book Panda

Rook

me rn

Hi, it's me,

Exhausted. Instead of having a BREAK for my spring break, I went to D.C. and Columbus, OH to advocate for a university I don't like. But. I finished a book somehow in all the zero free time I had. So, let's get started.

I finished Rook today, by Sharon Cameron. It's basically about a girl, Sophia, who moonlights as a character she created called the Red Rook and saves people from being wrongfully imprisoned and executed. As a normal girl of the Commonwealth, she is engaged to this pompous idiot. Of course, in this dystopian western Europe, no one is as they seem. Wow. I explained something correctly.

Anyway, this book starts in a very confusing way, especially when that person is an introvert in an airport and trying to drown at the voices and presence of the people around her. But, it's pretty good. Sophia kind of sways from strong to not a little erratically, but that also may be because I was out of it most of the time I was reading this book. I never liked Spear. He was always too much and I wanted him out of here. Dad Bellamy needs to get his crap together. Maman Hassard can also leave the area. René is a babe, and no one can tell me any different. Anyone who can be pompous and basically a pirate is my favorite. Though, he's not really a pirate. . . you know what? It's fine. Everything's fine. This book is very interesting. You should go read it and find all the interest. Bye, I need to stare at a wall for three hours and blast Kehlani and Ariana and Waves by Normani on repeat for a good thirty minutes.

Ship: Sophia and René, Jennifer and Tom
Snake: LeBlanc, people who also change later

7/10
~Book Porter

All the Wandering Light

Hi, it's me,

I gotta travel tomorrow and I still need to do things like shave my legs and do a whole assignment, so. I have to make this quick.

This book was all right. Lusha being a bit of a main in this book was a minus for me. I hate her. She has no redeeming qualities. I feel like I was supposed to feel bad because all these people depend on her and stuff, but I don't. I just feel animosity towards her at all times. There has not been one second where I felt one drop of pity or sympathy towards her. She deserves Elin, who's also a dick. They deserve each other. I still ship Tem and Kamzin more than River and Kamzin, but whatever. I'm okay with this ship, despite it never really being a thing. All they did was kiss a few times.

Overall, I wasn't really impressed with this series. It was all right. It wouldn't make me jump to read this author's other books, but I think it was also her debut. People on Goodreads gave it a 4.1 out of 5 stars, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm just a single person with a silly opinion. Go read it, if you wanna. Or don't. I don't control you.

Okay, I gotta go shave my legs now. Bye!

5.5/10
Series: 6/10
~Book Panda

Even the Darkest Stars

Hello mountaineer explorers,

It's me, back with fresh content and positive feelings for once. Who would have thought that would happen, huh? Wanting to wake up in the morning. Wow. It's crazy out here. I made pizza rolls and they froze too well, so now they're all soft and floppy post microwave, which is upsetting. Anyway. Books happened.

The book that happened today was Even the Darkest Stars by Heather Fawcett. It's about a girl named Kamzin, second daughter of the village Elder, who just wants to be an explorer. Not just any explorer though, a royal explorer who maps the lands for the emperor. Because of her aspiration, she is pretty ticked when she finds out her older sister, who harbors no climbing instincts, is chosen to join the emperor's most favored explorer in climbing an unclimbable mountain. She ends up joining him, River Shara, anyway but climbing a mountain isn't all fun and games. She has to make it up mountain alive with the added push to beat/protect her sister drives Kamzin to be a bit reckless while completing her task.

This book was interesting. Mountain climbing is not anything that interests me at all, but I've read a book with a bit of mountain climbing, like, six times, so I thought it'd be okay. It wasn't. If this book was told about traversing through the forest, it wouldn't have made a difference to me. Mountains don't hit for me. I think that's why it took a bit for me. Also, my ship was practically shut down before it ever started. We find out that it tried, but it didn't hit for her and it made me sad. That was the only good ship. Kamzin has this thing for River, which is basically like catching feels for your boss and I don't vibe with that.

Also. Tell me why the best characters were a half-feral fox and a fire demon. We weren't supposed to associate with the fire demon, but alas, she does. Because she's a silly girl and her family sucks. But like, seriously? Props for the fire demon. Even though he's going to end up screwing us over, I like him. You know who sucks beyond measure? Lusha, the sister. She can eat rocks. I don't like when people are so sure of their superiority and just look down on everyone, and that's the embodiment of what she is. I hate that. I also don't like that Kamzin's whole two person family look down on her and make her feel dumb. That's literally the only reason why she did what she did, because she was trying to prove that she was somebody. Ugh.

Well, I gotta go. This book was kind of meh, just because more things didn't work for me than did work for me. It wasn't bad though. Go read it if you enjoy magical mountain climbing with dragons.

Ship: Kamzin and Tem, that is all

7/10
~Book Panda

Always Red

Wow! Look who's back?

It me. You know, reading goes much quicker when I'm not stressed out of my mind and have time for extracurriculars. Crazy how that works, huh?

Always Red is the sequel to Caleb and Veronica's love story. After ending things with some dumb communication issues, Veronica is trying to win Caleb back. And then there are all of these things trying to pull them apart, but love prevails.

All right. This book? This was a whole mess. Like, I liked it, I think, but there were so many times where I was like. Bruh. For reals? Like, there's like five chapters in a row that take place in a single night and they go from making out to making these grand speeches to each other, and I'm like, [peep Rihanna] regular people don't talk this way. Especially not college students. And there were so many random speeches like this. And then Veronica suddenly turned into a water fountain? So. Much. CRYING. For no reason! And all this possessive stuff? Do not vibe. No vibes. You know the love story I really want? What the h*ck happened between Cameron and Kara? Why is he so tortured for no reason? Why the hell do I know more about freaking Justin than Cameron? I care about Cameron the most and he's rarely in either book. And how is Beatrice-Rose such snake, and no one knew except for the love of my life, Cameron? What reality am I in? Then there's this line, "Every time you break me apart, you put me back together. And I always come out better than before" which also confuses me. This was the only, if not the second chance he had for "ruining" him so I have no clue what he's talking about. They've been together for a whole three months. How much ruining can happen in three months? I feel like not that much. Then, this book turned into a bit of a smut-fest, and I didn't need that while sitting in my Geology class and lab.

This book is just unnecessarily extra in all the wrong ways. This book was very much not as good as the first. It's an easy read, and I could get through it. I think it was just dramatic enough while interesting for me to get it. It's not horrible, and you kind of need it to see if the ship sails, but it's sooooo much. Idk, dude. I feel like I need Colleen Hoover to destroy me so I can have hope in the romances again. Gotta remember this was a Wattpad story. Anyway, see you in 2-6 days.

Ship: Cameron and Kara, Veronica and Caleb(?)
Snake: Justin, Beatrice-Rose, all dads
Like: Damon, Cameron

6/10
Series: 6.5/10
~Book Panda

Chasing Red

Hi it's me,

Being incompetent and silly. So. You may be wondering,  "Dude, where's the second book? What The Dark Days whatever? What is red?" To that, I have a tiny, crappy story. I was trying to read that second book, I don't even remember what it's called, and it took me like 3 days to read 100 pages. Lady Margeret was testing my nerves and those Elizabethan or Victorian or whatever sensibilities were also testing me. Then I had this flashback of my finishing the book years ago and thinking I didn't really need nor want to read the last book. I then tried to make it through another hundred pages, but alas, I wasn't having it. And so I switched, to something sensible in a stressful time. Romance. Not only romance, but romance recommended to me by my sister, the love of my life. A birthday present, if you will.

Chasing Red was originally a Wattpad story by Isabelle Ronin. She then got it printed and made it into two books, the first of which being Chasing Red. Simply put, this book is about a manwhore who finally sobers up, sexually, because he's enraptured with this girl he saw at a club. That's it. That's the story. The two main characters are Caleb and Veronica, who Caleb almost exclusively calls Red. Veronica is very wary of everyone, having been burned often in the past by those close to her. Caleb is a rich boy with little to no cares in the world. Basically, he gives her a place to stay and so it's the roommates to lovers thing.

Was this a fantastic, Beautiful Disaster level book? No. But I liked it. I had a few problems with Caleb early on because he was unnecessarily pushy in my eyes. She'd be like, nah I'm good. And he'd be like, you're doing it. I didn't like that. And then she'd be like we aren't dating, and he'd be like actually we are. Because we kissed. And I was like ????? [insert Tolo noise here]. Eventually, he grew on me, for better or for worse. Veronica I liked. She had like, lowkey anxiety, but a little anxiety never hurt anyone. Except for those people fifty years ago they put in facilities. But, she's cool. She's independent and wants to do stuff on her own. She doesn't want stupid rich boys to try and pay for her stuff. She just isn't going to eat, thanks. There were some chapters from the perspectives of two snakes, and I could have done without them. I mean, did I need to know about them? I guess. Did I need to know just how snake-like they were? Yes. But do I like them? One hundred percent no. They can both go fall off the edge of the earth.

Hmm. I have nothing else really. Also, I have to go to work, so I gotta go. This book wasn't perfect, and I can tell it was on Wattpad or something before, but it's good. Okay, gotta go, byeee.

Ship: Veronica and Caleb
Love: Kara, Beth
Confused: Cameron
Snake: Justin, Beatrice-Rose

7/10
~Book Panda