Welcome to the start of my new series: Maddy’s Mini Reviews Monday! We’re starting off with the fantasy books mini reviews and next week a new genre of reviews shall be published! I started this series as honestly reviews were seriously becoming a task I felt that I could never complete becuase I was just so behind. So mini reviews were my answers, short, snappy, to the point, but you all still get my overall opinion too! But don’t fret, books I absolutely adore, hate or have ARCS – I’ll be sure to have a full review for them 🙂

Fantasy Books Mini Reviews: The Series

I have no doubt that there will be many fantasy editions within this series, so separating them by either standalone or series will be more organised and easier for me! My last two full reviews on a fantasy book was A Deadly Education and Raybearer if you’d like to check them out!

Nevernight By Jay Kristoff

I had high expectations going into this book, but unfortunately they were not met. The writing style annoyed me with random footnotes that often had nothing to do with the plot development. Also, it was just too descriptive to the point I was skimming. I enjoyed Mia as a character, but Kristoff sexualised her to a point I was uncomfortable. She’s supposed to be an assassin, kept to the shadows, – overly describing her body does not in fact do that. Overall 2 stars.

We Hunt The Flame By Hafsah Faizal

I was tempted to give this a full review, but I have a fish memory. I can’t for the life of me, remember this book in detail, even if I did enjoy it. But I do have mixed feelings about this book, I went from being bored to omg plot twist, I’m loving it. I do appreciate the rich descriptions and the amazing culture/world building in this book. The characters are complex and with an enemies to lovers romance, I’m sold. But there were times I felt the book had a slow pace. From the fact I’ve kinda forgotten the plot and its slow pace, it’s a 3.5 star for me.

House Of Earth And Blood By Sarah J Maas

This heck of a book is one that’s been weighted on my mind since I finished it. Not because I was completely wowed by the plot, but because I have such mixed feelings. First of all, it did not need to be 800 pages long, I felt that there were too many filler chapters. Second of all, I kinda felt that some stereotypical YA tropes were a bit overplayed in this adult book. Finally, despite all of this and it being a little similar to SJM’s other books, I lowkey enjoyed this book? We got some good chemistry, interesting world building and a kinda gripping plot. It’s not enough for a 5 star, a 4 star means I wasn’t bored at all, so a 3.5 star it is.

Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi

Juliette was interesting and we love a good Dystopian world. Except I felt that there was barely any world building and that this was a romance novel, with a semi decent plot. Kenji pretty much carried this book and from what I’ve heard from others, the series. I actually didn’t mind the writing style, it was intriguing and different. As cheesy as this book was, it came out in 2011 and younger Maddy would’ve been so freaking invested in this love triangle (older Maddy completely disagrees). I’ve heard the series gets better, but I’d rather read books that I enjoy rather then me waiting for enjoyment. Overall 3 stars!

Lady Midnight By Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare has written some of my favourite books and so I definitely wanted to try binge her other series which I hadn’t read yet. Definitely a fast paced book filled with plot twists and I love the family aspect of this book too. Often in fantasy, the main character rarely has any siblings which is annoying. So whilst shocking, this proved to be wholesome too. To be honest, the romance wasn’t my favourite which is a shocker for me! I more so enjoyed the jam packed murder mystery vibe. Also, loving the mental health rep for Ty. A definite 5 star, If I’d remembered to write this review straight away, I could’ve fangirled way more but this is why we are having fantasy books mini reviews!

And that’s a wrap! I really enjoyed writing this one and I’m so excited for next week’s post! I’ll be posting hints on my Instagram story with mood boards, correct answers may or may not be entered in a fun raffle 🙂