Some Average Mini-Reviews

Wahey Guiders! Have a few mini-reviews of books I read that were along the average reads lines – because that’s totally normal to do!

Disclaimer: I received these e-arcs through Netgalley/Edelweiss and the publishers in exchange for free and honest reviews. The image header and the link in the books’ details are to the book’s Goodreads page. The summary is my own (well, I summarised the Goodreads description). All opinions expressed are my own.

Title: Mechanical Dragons: Fire and Water
Author: Bobbi Schemerhorn
Year Published: 2014 or 2018 (think it’s a reprint or republishing?)
Publisher: Bobbi Schemerhorn
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) ~ Science Fiction ~ Fantasy
Stars: 3

Khaly, a student at this academy of Polytechniques (which sounds super freaking cool, but also very very difficult with a lot of Maths).

A school project – a mechanical dragon she created (best school project ever) – comes to life with her powers.

Now people (or well, the Guild), are after her for her magic. To take it. To control it. To control her.

CW/TW: Extreme and sudden death – violent. 

It was a quick and easy read. There were mini dragons involved and a smart female main character – I was interested. But that’s all I was – just merely interested. I don’t remember much of this other than a cave? And the school project? There was enough to keep me reading, sure, but there wasn’t enough to keep me involved in the story, and not enough for me to want to read further.

I liked the writing, and the characters, Khaly was probably my favourite character and I do like how spunky she was. And like, yes, tell the superiors off, definitely, because they don’t want to listen to reason – just because they think they’re the better person or more educated – you can always learn from another person. I like the cover – it’s a good drawing and partly why I took it (as I think it was a download now arc).

Do I recommend this: From what I can remember of this was a cute and quick read. Something you could read in a day and maybe carry on with the series. And it has dragons. 

 

Title: Body Swap
Author: Sylvia McNicoll
Year Published: 2018
Publisher: Dundurn
Genre: Young Adult ~ Magical Realism ~ Contemporary
Stars: 2.5 (rounded up to 3)

Susan, an 82 year old. Hallie, a 15 year old. Then Hallie becomes Susan and Susan becomes Hallie.

And together they have to learn how to live as the other one while trying to finding a way to get back into their own bodies, and looking for the meaning in life.

This was an okay read. It wasn’t anything really special and didn’t stay in my heart. Partly because of the characters. Partly because of the writing. I enjoyed the plot, don’t get me wrong, but it fell flat a lot of the times.

So, Hallie was the 15 year old who got stuck in Susan’s body, and Susan was the 82 year old who got stuck in Hallie’s body – which seems pretty easy enough, since you think their two voices would be vastly different – and not just because of their ages, but because their personalities –  but so many times I had to flick towards the start of the chapter or read on until I can find out whose chapter it is.

If I had to pick a favourite character (of the mains), I’d probably choose Hallie? She had the more interesting personality and I maybe even wanted to be friends with her. Susan, I felt, fell into the stereotypical old person viewpoint – which isn’t exactly the wrong thing here, because as you get older, you do have a different viewpoint on issues and whatnot – but Susan was definitely on that stereotypical line and it was annoying to read.

The plot, though a good one, did have some flaws. A big thing was that I thought it felt too preachy, too life-lessony. Now the author is an older person (which isn’t the issue here because older writers can and do write YA), it’s just that there was a definite feeling of the writer pushing a life lesson onto the readers – there’s even a Dear Reader letter that speaks about what inspired the book – again, sounding preachy.

Do I recommend this: It was a good read, so you can be sure of that, and the characters were fun. 

 

Title: The Swooning Moon Saga: Wing Walker
Author: M.T. Finnberg
Year Published: 2018
Publisher: Wide Avenue Publishing
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy  ~ Science Fiction
Stars: 2

So there’s this girl (Cassie) who likes to sing, opera, but she sings with dragons. And her entire family also sings with dragons.

Except she fled to find a sage dragon to sing with in the chance that it might bring back her best friend.

Except that she’ll be most likely to find said sage dragon in the wild. Where bombs have landed and dragon catcher ships lie in the sky waiting for the perfect catch.

Well, first of all, the synopsis (the true synopsis, not my summarisation) is fantastic and it’s a major major reason that I took the book; it is also massively long. Even for a fantasy novel. So, picture this, right? The synopsis is all fantastically good, makes me super excited to read the book and I can’t wait because it’s going to be epic… aaand it… just fell apart.

And by ‘just fell apart’, I mean the synopsis built up this expectation and I was already thinking of like it’s gonna be like Game of Thrones with the dragons or some type of siren-like power with the singing, but it didn’t have any of that.

And the whole thing with the actual wing walkers (who only showed up a bit) – this confused me a lot because I thought they would be there a lot and that their role would be important; and while it was, I didn’t think it was properly used. And that was a shame because they could’ve been fantastic. But alas.

Do I recommend this: Listen, if the book lived up to its synopsis, I would be all over it. But if you like dragons and magic involving dragons, maybe pick this up! 

 

Do you think average reviews are necessary? Are they good? Tell me your thoughts (and your thoughts on the reviews above (if you’ve read them or want to) down below in the comments! Happy reading!