The Hunger Games, except Marvel, except half the plot is a physically affectionate romance that is somehow both insta-love and a slow burn 🤔

⭐ WHAT I LIKED:

👉🏼 The concept of this book was super engaging and what drove me to read it: In a society of super-powered humans, a powerless girl is thrust into a bloodthirsty competition.

👉🏼 Expanding on the above, I loved seeing the wide range of superpowers that the people of this world were granted. From fire to strength to telekinesis to shapeshifing, it made me immediately look up a quiz for discovering what power I would have 🤪 👉🏼 Paedyn is a strong (though stabby) FMC whom I enjoyed reading (for the most part). Though she is clever and strong, she is also human, as she wouldn't survive the novel without outside assistance.

👉🏼 The prose was well-polished as far as sentence flow goes, and I enjoyed highlighting sentences in my ebooks that packed a punch 😁 (that being said it was far from perfect and very repetitive, but we'll get to that later).

👉🏼 There are some genuinely cute moments in this romance, as well as some empowering themes for women--feminist without belittling men.

⭐ WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: ...and this is where my hot takes come in. Buckle up!

👉🏼 KAI AZER. In reading reviews for this book, I have found that there are two main kinds: the review that is angry about this book ripping off The Hunger Games (more on that later), and the review that swoons over Kai. Let me say this: if I met Kai in real life, and he treated me like he treated Paedyn, I would run far, far away. Kai is extremely flirtatious and handsy (to the point where I frequently wrote "ew" and "ugh" in my Kindle notes), and although his fingers don't wander into any swimsuit areas (that swimsuit being a bikini 👙), at least 60% of his love for Paedyn stems from sexual desire (aka "lust") and possessiveness. And while he does genuinely care for Paedyn, often using his flirtations as a tool to distract her from pain, he definitely fits the category of "(very) morally grey MMC."

👉🏼 While we are on the topic of romance, I think it's safe to say that depth of plot was sacrificed so we could have more depictions of a tight-shirted (or shirtless) Kai teasing Paedyn with whispers in her ear. The Trials are given a brief explanation, but the reasoning behind it isn't quite satisfactory. Not to mention that the entire system the Trials run on is never explained to the reader. There are three rounds, but apparently the first two have no bearing on who actually wins, as the winner of the third trial takes home the gold. In addition, the people's vote seems to play a huge part in the development of the Trials, but we never see how on earth it actually affects the outcome. In the end, plot was merely a tool to give the reader a sensual and sensational romance.

👉🏼 Speaking of which, Paedyn's "ocean eyes" and Kai's stormy grey ones--like "fog" or "iron"--are brought up literally every time the characters see each other with basically the same description. LITERALLY EVERY TIME. Not to mention that there are certain phrases the author repeatedly uses, in addition to Kai mentally waxing poetic every time he sees his "darling" Pae (and vice versa). Sure, there's drama, but this borders on melodrama. Part of the reason it feels over the top is because the sexual tension is present from the beginning--almost like insta-love, even if they go from (attracted) enemies to kinda-lovers. Had the romance been given a slower build, and the meet-cute felt more like a meet-cute and less like a meet-heat, it probably would have felt better.

⭐ CONTENT CONCERNS:

👉🏼 Let's start with the romance. I would rate this low-spice 🌶️ according to Fable's standards. Physical affection makes up most of the romantic tension (actually, most of the romance period): Kai is frequently handsy right from the get-go, and both characters are (almost constantly) physically flirtatious (brushing and rubbing skin), though they both avoid any swimsuit areas (though Pae's hips are not off the menu, considering Kai puts his hands on them more than once). Kai frequently waltzes about bare-chested (often distracting Pae), and when he's not, he's probably in a thin shirt soaked in water. Kai teases Pae by saying that he'd be "glad to undress her" and that she "wants him naked," much to Pae's (and my) annoyance (though neither things happen). At one point, Pae gets into bed with Kai and he holds her against his chest, though nothing happens other than them sleeping cuddled together.

👉🏼 There is violence aplenty in this book. People murder and are murdered, and there is some detail concerning the feel of a weapon tearing through flesh. Blood and some gore are present. One character kills herself in a dream. Kai is the instigator of much of this violence, considering that he is basically the King's hitman (and that he is numb to most murder as a result). Characters are fueled by rage and revenge, and half the deaths in this book were probably unnecessary.

👉🏼 There is also some language present in this book. Pae's favorite nickname for Kai is "cocky bd." "Bh" gets a few uses, as well as "s*," "h*ll," "dn," and "a"

Ever wondered where to draw the line when it comes to fantasy and magic in books? On Magic and Miracles offers a deep dive into supernaturalism in real life--both today and in Bible times--and examines through this lens and through the lens of storytelling how to discern between good and bad fantasy.

⭐ WHAT I LIKED:

👉🏼 First of all, the author puts God at the forefront of her book, stating with humility that though she has done her best, every book is imperfect and hers is no different. She urges the reader to enter her book with God, and I absolutely love this.

👉🏼 The author put a ton of thought and research into her book, and she balances the perspectives of someone ready to throw holy water on anything remotely magical and someone who grew up with Harry Potter. Her self-conducted statistical experiment is fairly reliable by statistical measures (to my knowledge), and all of her opinions are well-researched from articles on both sides of the argument.

👉🏼 I also appreciate how she starts with the basics and then build her research throughout the book, answering one question at a time: What does the Bible say about magic? Does it exist in real life? What's the difference between magic and a miracle? Why is fantasy important for Christians? Why is basic literary structure important to understand? How do I discern good and bad fantasy in books? And...what about Harry Potter?

👉🏼 In a world where Christian art has been neglected or was cheesy for a long time, Christians have entered an age where well-written Christian literature is needed and growing. This is an Esther book, written "for such a time as this."

⭐ WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

👉🏼 The author touches briefly on Word of Faith, mentioning that such people tend to demand things from God rather than fall onto His grace. As someone who grew up in this movement, I would like to clarify: Word of Faith is not demanding things from God, it's claiming the things that He has already promised us in Scripture. If I go up to a fancy restaurant and "demand" a table when I already have a reservation, that's not demanding...that's redeeming. Big difference. That being said, one should still remember to keep a heart posture of humility before God, which was the author's point.

👉🏼 The author gives a very good toolbelt on how to discern fantasy magic intellectually. However, she seems to brush over the idea that words have power and can open doorways to the devil or to God. Even if I read Harry Potter for its gospel themes and love-conquering-death moral (which was cool to hear about since I've never read the series), I still can't deny that I can sense spiritual darkness walking past the Harry Potter aisle in Barnes and Noble.

*I recieved this as a free ebook from NetGalley. This is my honest opinon!

The last installment in Lewis' Space Trilogy ties up some themes and loose threads from the preceding books, but overall, it feels disjointed from the first two.

In a nutshell: Orwell's "1984" x Peretti's "This Present Darkness" dipped and coated in Arthurian Legend (for no apparent logical reason other than that Lewis was into that kind of thing.)

⭐ WHAT I LIKED:

👉🏼 I enjoyed seeing the effects that Perelandra had on Ransom after the previous book, and his character arc ends with an apt conclusion.

👉🏼 Lewis displays his wry sense of humor throughout the second half of his book--whether it be through animals or human stupidity--which was quite enjoyable to read

👉🏼 Speaking of animals, they (along with the humorous moments) were probably my favorite part of this book. Whistle-trained mice? Housepet bear? Yes, please!!

⭐ WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

Oh boy. Never expected the negatives to flow more easily than the positives in a book by C.S. Lewis, but here they are:

👉🏼 This book was very difficult to get into at first. Rather than having Ransom as the MC straight off the bat, as in the first book, or a short Ransom-centered prologue, as in the second book, we get alternating POVs from a couple, Mark and Jane. Ransom doesn't come onto the page until about halfway though the book. In addition to new characters--which isn't necessarily bad--most of the first half of the book is a slow-build of plot involving a host of easily confusable college professor characters. The plot doesn't start kicking in until chapters 6 and 7 (nearly halfway through the book).

👉🏼 The inclusion of Arthurian legend feels strange and a little forced compared to the first two books in this series. Had Lewis focused more on the spiritual, societal, and extraterrestrial aspects of this story, it would have made for a much more coherent conclusion to the Space Trilogy and felt more focused as a book. As it is, this feels a little like C.S. Lewis' great mashup fanfiction. The inclusion of Merlin also leads to some tipsy theology.

👉🏼 Picking up the theme from Perelandra, Lewis continues to explore themes of the ideal male/female relationship in the context of marriage. While much of his ideas are Biblically based and could well be true, some of it (perhaps because he one-sidedly focuses on the female sides of the equation) also smacks of 1950's misogyny. That being said, this is still a topic I am exploring for myself, so take everything with a grain of salt.

👉🏼 Although I genuinely love Lewis' writing as much as the next person, his weakness is that he tends to overromanticize and overphilosophize certain concepts, so you get wisdom that isn't necessarily true. There are a couple minor examples of this in this book.

⭐ CONTENT CONCERNS FOR CHRISTIANS:

👉🏼 As mentioned above, some of the marriage theology smacked of the misogyny of Lewis' day, though the lines are not clear-cut.

👉🏼 Bringing Merlin into the mix means some fishy theology concerning real-life magic. The idea presented in this book is that all evil grows worse and worse, and all good grows better and better, and these two are becoming more and more separate and defined (which alone is a questionable theory). Thus, while magic would be unlawful to do now, back in Merlin's day, it wasn't quite as evil (though it wasn't quite lawful either), thus enabling us to have Merlin as a morally grey good character of sorts. However, long before Merlin was an idea, God condemned the practice of occult magics in the Old Testament. At any rate, it makes the book...interesting.

👉🏼 There is plenty of violence in this book: people are murdered, a prisoner is unjustly tortured, animals maul and kill people, someone is decapitated.

👉🏼 It is implied that animals are pairing off to make love (off-page); a woman goes to join her husband in the bedroom after seeing from outside that his clothes have been removed and are strewn around (and the scene ends there).

👉🏼 There are a few naughty words (but not many), "b***h" being one of them.

👉🏼 As in Perelandra, there are planetary spirits (angels) who are referred to as "gods," however, it is clear that they are not to be worshipped, as they are "fellow servants."