“If this is how you act when you hate me,” he says, glancing down at my hands on his body, “then I wouldn’t mind if you hated me more.”

rating: 3.75★

i did expect to love this more, but i just didn't quite click w chanel. also liang's previous books the mc's have more established history between themselves to build on, and i felt like that was a challenge for this book starting as strangers.

there were some great moments and lines tho. it was a fast read and i empathized a lot with both chanel and ares's respective family struggles.

not one of her top reads for me, but still enjoyable!

an honest arc review ✎ (❁ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈) ༉‧ ♡*.✧

“telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. (I am a dreadful liar.) I should make myself a hero. Pretend I knew certain things before I did, was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind. I should claim that I understand love. This last is most important, and I am trying. I am always trying. Is that not enough?”

a memory called empire meets murderbot (albeit far less humor and bleaker than both), this was a bit of a sleeper hit for me.

on the brink of the arrival of planet-destroying shockwaves from a not-too-distant collapsed star, pilot Mawukana must make a dangerous mission to doomed planet Adjumir to quickly retrieve an item of importance before the fallout hits.

Mawukana is no ordinary pilot tho. there is something in the darkness of space that haunts, even mentally destroys them. but it doesn’t seem to mind Mawukana 👀

def a lot of parallels to present day’s late stage capitalism, militarism, and refugee events, in addition to creative & detailed worldbuilding with customs, genders, language (verbal & body), etc across different planets & their governances. this is something for the readers who want dense, slow paced storytelling that thrives in its details and philosophical ponderings, not action-packed epics.

overall, i enjoyed this. eery mystery of space, the hard persistence of rebellion, the devastating loss of defeat, and the quiet of moving forward. life is what you make it, so make it about love.

“We are the seeds of the forest, we blaze so bright, no life is special. No life is special. No life is special and all of them are. No love matters more than any other, no story is more important, nothing matters more, nothing matters less, so choose, choose, we choose every day to be more than just ourselves, to live for more than just ourselves, because it is beautiful.”

a solid start to a new standalone series, i mostly enjoyed it for the caper mystery.

the romance lacked only bc I agree w other readers that it’s annoying when MMC is pining the entire book for his “one true love” who is not the FMC. they had their moments tho.

“First you will be unmade. First you will be broken.”

i'm absolutely loving this series omg.

i do feel like helene is kind of the show stealer rn, but i still love the rest of the cast. big sacrifices are made in this penultimate installment and things are gearing tf up. i'm still shocked when something particularly brutal happens; it's YA so it's not graphic, but this is definitely something more on par with GOT at points.

what the absolute hell is keris up to, what is her ANGLE. i'm genuinely RIVETED to see how this will conclude!!

“Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure.”

save me class difference yearning save me.

something about this dynamic just hit right for me. i loved philippe's immediate adoration of her son too. this revived my motivation to go thru this whole series.

“Descartes was wrong, you know, when he said, 'To live well, you must live unseen.' To live well, you must learn to see yourself first. Do you understand what I'm saying?”

finally reading ann liang's debut after the rest of her books, and i was pleasantly surprised by it! v much in the vein of magical realism birthed by academic pressure as jessica chen, i felt like the overall tone and message was quite similar.

i was surprised by how much alice and henry's relationship dynamic delighted me; she thinks they hate each other as academic rivals, he thinks they're just having fun 🤭 every time i think i'm too old to read hs YA, liang comes along and has me giggling at the banter.

i really enjoyed the overall message, tho i did feel like the * spoiler* kidnapping plotline went a bit off the rails and was pretty wild compared to liang's typical book plots.

this was a satisfying read tho and i'm excited to get into my arc for i could give you the moon!

an honest arc review

He cursed the universe for giving him the ability to talk to birds but not boys.

i waited far too long to read this conclusion!

teo and aurelio had some very cute moments, and i liked the character development and journey xio had in this one. aiden thomas also does a great job of writing bff's in his books bc i always love them; niya brings a lot of life to the page whenever she's around.

the pacing was decent and while sometimes the very contemporary references threw me off i think i mostly kept forgetting this is set in current time. i never read the PJO books so i'm def missing that vibe experience that this lends itself to.

“My sister always made me brave,” he confessed, looking into Teo’s eyes. “But you, Teo … you make me fearless.”

overall, i had fun with this duology!