Cute little short story set before Half A Soul. I was a bit disappointed that you don't really learn anything new. It's just the story of Elias and Alberts friendship in a bit more words. But I really liked the end!

Wow, I just binged this in one sleepless night.

You know the feeling when you're just a few pages in and can already tell you're gonna love the book? This was me last night with Half A Soul.

This book is giving magical faerie Bridgerton in the best way!

The main characters are so funny and witty and adorable and nuanced and their interactions are so wholesome and lovely and ahhhhh I could go on and on.

The writing is enchanting and fit for a faerie-tale setting but still straightforward and easy to read.

The story is engaging as well, a few things are rather foreseeable but others took me completely by surprise.

Probably gonna need to binge the next book tonight haha, we'll see!

WITCH. WHORE. VILLAIN.

What a premise. I love a good feminist retelling.

I have to admit I knew close to nothing about Cleopatras story before reading this book.

But even not being a history girly AT ALL this book made me deep dive Cleopatra and everything surrounding her. And I was delighted at how much of that is found in this book as well and how accurately Saara El-Arifi is depicting her story. Minus the misogyiny, racism and every prejudice strong women face being depicted throughout a patriarchal history where men are scared of women. Especially women with power.

Only negative points: I sometimes struggled with the way the story was told. It has a few lengths in my personal opinion. And also Cleopatra foreshadows - no, right out tells you what happens before it happens. As someone not familiar with her story I would have liked to follow chronologically.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sapphic bachelor in space whaaaaaat!!! I was sold on that premise in an instant. And all in all this was a fun and easy read. Has minor Hunger Games x The Selection vibes as well and a neat little murder mystery thrown in!

It didn't live up to its full potential though.

Regarding the love story: I get that the main characters are to be displayed as yearning for each other but for me it was a bit too much and too repetitive. Also it was too instalove-y to really feel authentic.

Regarding the plot: The world building came together quite easy and nicely without being massively explained. But for a setup with an intergalactical war pending just in reach I felt that the political aspects could have been more pronounced. Hoping that the sequels feature more of that, because there is so much potential!

Otherwise I really didn't see the plot twist at the end coming and the last part of the book really made up for a lot!!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Auch ich bin - mal wieder - wütend jetzt. Cool, cool, cool.

Ich dachte, das wird so ein Buch durch das ich mich eher durchquälen muss, weil mich das Thema so fertig macht. Es ist aber stellenweise trotzdem so wunderschön geschrieben, dass ich es super schnell weggelesen habe.

Die Story, die Charaktere, die Interaktionen, alles ist so realistisch und nah geschrieben, dass es einfach nur wütend macht, vor allem auf die beiden männlichen Hauptcharaktere. Ich hatte aber auch mehrmals Tränen in den Augen.

Einzig die Entwicklung von Lola fand ich leider nicht so gut. Kam mir dann doch alles etwas unrealistisch vor. Und vor allem dass sie am Ende selbst übergriffig wird ohne, dass das irgendwie als falsch eingeordnet wird hat mir nicht so gut gefallen.