(I received a free copy of this book, from Curiosity Quills Press, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I was a bit surprised at just how much was happening in this book. That isn’t always a good thing, but it worked really well in this book, because I felt that the different storylines worked really well together and that the characters were all really well-developed.

Dreams are used a lot in different kinds of fiction, but I thought it was quite interesting to make the use of nightmares in this book. I also liked that there wasn’t really any romance here… it makes a nice change from the books where the romance takes over the whole storyline and quickly becomes the main focus.

One of the things I particularly liked about this book was the evolution of the relationship between Carrie and George. I felt that the author clearly spent quite a lot of time on that and it was one of my favourite parts of the book, even though there were some things that were a bit sad.

The nightmares Megan experiences are particularly creepy. I really don’t think I’m ever going to look at clowns in the same way again… though there is something that, I have to admit, is a little disturbing about them. Which is probably from all of the horror things I watch with clowns in…

I would have liked to know more about some of the characters, such as Steve and Rose. Both of them had enough hints to make me curious about their history and how they knew each other. Mercury was a character who intrigued me as well, even though I didn’t really like her.

There was a lot about this world that I would have really liked to see further explored. If there’s a sequel to this book, I’d definitely be interested in checking it out at some point in the future.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’m not sure when or where I first found it out, but I remember learning somewhere that Bram Stoker’s Dracula was likely at least inspired by Vlad the Impaler.

I already knew bits and pieces about Vlad – probably the most obvious things, really. This book did contain more interesting information about the real-life Dracula, but I felt that it was somewhere in between a factual, non-fiction book and a historical fiction novella.

The author did a good job of showcasing Dracula’s brutal side, but not so much how he could have been considered a hero. I was a bit surprised at the sudden mention of his wife and son – they hadn’t been mentioned so much before, so I had very little idea of what they were like with Dracula.

I did think there was a lot of opinion in this book, such as the author’s comments on how Dracula would have felt about certain things.

It was interesting to see the quotes taken from sources and I felt the use of footnotes worked really well in this book. I also like the illustrations at the end of the book.

At least one of the other books by this author looks like one I’d be interested in reading at a later date. This book was intriguing and violent and there was clearly a large amount of research that had gone into it.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I would ideally give this book 2.5 stars if I could give half stars. I found this book somewhat difficult to get into, even though the blurb and front cover of the book were both really intriguing.

I felt that a lot of the issues I had with this book came from the fact I felt that, although a lot of research had clearly gone into this, there was too much info-dumping. Dialogue’s good, but there was much more of it than the action.

The characters were interesting, though there were a couple of things I noticed, such as the spelling of Abbey’s name changing from Abby. There were also a couple of observations made by the characters that didn’t really sit right with me.

I felt that Abbey’s background was quite an interesting one and although I felt that she came across as a little too much ‘centre of attention’, I would have liked to see a bit more of her as a character.

I felt there was too much of the book focused on the technological aspects of the dig. I felt that the mystery parts didn’t work as well as they could have done, mainly because there seemed to be so much dialogue and explanations of things going on.

I felt that this book might have been better if the dialogue had been condensed further down and some of the characters further expanded. I would have liked to know more of the backgrounds of other characters.

I’m not sure if I would read other books by this author. I would have to judge them on a book-by-book basis.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book, but I was definitely intrigued by the blurb of it and was quite happy when I won it in one of the Goodreads giveaways.

I found it really easy to relate to and empathise with Laika pretty much from the start of the book. It was interesting to see the contrast between the country of Trea and Lisan. I found myself experiencing very similar emotions to the ones Laika was experiencing as the book progressed.

I found a lot of the other characters to be fairly interesting as well, though I would have liked to see more of the reasoning behind the actions of other characters. Although first person POV works to allow the reader to connect to a character, I also feel that it’s very limiting, since other characters are in danger of coming across as less well-rounded.

I really liked Laika’s relationship with Rodya. I felt that came across as sweet and believable. It was nice that the author took the time to develop the relationship.

There was quite a lot about this book that was intriguing and well-written. I think I would definitely be interested in reading a sequel to this book… and in checking out more books by this author in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book from Vook Publishers, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt that this book was a really intriguing read, even though I did also think it took a little while to get properly into the storyline. I felt that the first person perspective worked quite well, particularly since the author just kept to one POV, rather than continually switching.

I felt this book did work, to a certain extent, as being multi-genre… but I also felt that a lot of things that could have been explained weren’t. However, the air of mystery about this book worked really well and I had a lot of questions as I read. Many of them were answered, but I still had some things I was left with that I didn’t understand.

Cassie was an interesting character and although there were things that were different about her, I didn’t feel like she came across as ridiculously over-powered. I did have some difficulty believing in her feelings for Ethan, though. I didn’t think that enough time was spent on them interacting for that to be really believable.

There were a lot of parts of this book that were really creepy. I felt the author did a really good job of describing what the house was like and what the reality was when the characters ended up there.

I’d like to read the next books in the series at some point, because there are things I hope are properly explained later on. I still have questions that I’d like to get the answers to.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. It was an interesting historical read, but I found it difficult to follow the different storylines at times.

Although this book was the second in a series, I found it fairly easy to follow, even though I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the time this book is set in. Luke’s character was a fairly intriguing one and I liked the relationships and friendships he had with other characters, though I kind of wished more time had been spent showing how those developed.

One of the things that I liked about this book was Luke’s skill with the horses. I wasn’t entirely sure if there was supposed to be a supernatural element to that, though. I felt the book doesn’t really make many of those things clear.

Another thing that worked fairly well was the politics in this book. Some of the characters were thoroughly unlikable and it was a bit disappointing that more time was spent on them. There were also some developments in relationships that weren’t shown, so they didn’t feel too realistic.

Many of the descriptions in this book worked really well and I could see a lot of the events happening in my mind – and I cringed at many of them. I’m not sure if I’ll further explore this series or not. It’s an interesting historical epic, but it does focus a lot on the tyrants.