A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

 I received a copy (on NetGalley) of A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe from Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review and to partake in the blog tour. Some parts may contain spoilers please read at your own risk.

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe is an interesting read and I did manage to finish it in three days. I fell in love with Dominic and Valentin because they felt like the most authentic characters. Every action and reaction that they did make me feel like they could react no other way. I had a love-hate relationship with Thea because there were some parts where I could not stand her because she felt like she was trying too hard to be something she was not. 

The cover intrigues me because at first, I did not realize that it was a girl holding a candle. It has the perfect blend of ambiguity and simplicity. It feels like it could belong to a historical book that I love and it is eyecatching.

I am not going to lie when I first read the beginning of the book I could not stand the characters because they all felt the same and were all either being extremely bitchy or absolute pushovers. I felt like every man was a potential love interest for Thea, which did not work in the book's favor. At first, I was all for Thea and Will being together, but as the story progressed it felt less like love interest and more like actors in a play halfheartedly reciting lines. I am a hopeless (and helpless) romantic so I need to feel like they would die for each other and only each other, which Will and Thea never do. Thea always had to have somebody else in order to go to Will or do something that would save him. One example is when she finally meets him again after a year (which I feel should have been longer, but that is the romantic side of me where it has to be at least three years of being apart before they can truly say if they love each other or not) and he has consumption. If she loved him she would have not wanted to not want it to be him sick and living in squalor (which is one of the reasons I don't like Thea she always acts like she is better than everyone, which might in part be to her dear mother telling her constantly to be better than everyone else, but not everyone can be rich and if you are only in it for the money then you do not love that person like you claim). She should have wanted to embrace him regardless of who or where he was or what circumstances had befallen him. I think she was more in love with the idea of Will then she was of the actual Will.

The two characters I despised the most in the book were Thea's mother and Will. I will start with Will since I have talked about him at some length already. The reason I cannot stand Will is how the author made him at the end with his character arc and turning him into a scoundrel who had a baby with another woman while claiming that Thea is the only one for him. Plus, he stole the Philosopher's Stone in an attempt to heal himself from his sickness. He was suddenly a villain where there was no prelude that he was one in the first place because it was all in Thea's POV and she is not the most trustworthy narrator. Some can argue she is perfect because she is naive and sheltered because of her mother and could not see the signs that Will was a scoundrel. Or was it that he changed after being kicked out from Thea's mother for holding Thea's hand near a creek? For me, him being a revolutionary to a scoundrel felt like a leap and maybe the author was trying to get a message across of don't always trust men they might not always have your interests at heart. I have no idea. As for Thea's mother that is short and sweet. She never changed throughout the book from when she had her fit of madness from the curse to when she got cured. She never had much depth to her or any changes to make the reader feel something for her. I have no clue if that was intentional or if the author could not figure out a way to make the mother more human, but I wanted her to be a little more compassionate towards anything.

The worldbuilding was unique as the actual places that you were in throughout the story Normandy and Oxford you get told from the character over and over again to the point I was shouting at the book that I get it we are there, but what is there besides apple blossoms (Normandy) and building in ivy (Oxford). London was slightly better because you did not get told that you were in London over and over again. In fact, London is mentioned once and after that, it focuses more on the characters, which could be fine if it was a modern piece because barring the pandemic we could take a flight to those places and immerse ourselves in that world, but this is the end of the 18th century. I want to be immersed in the world and feel like I am there in 1792. The best parts of the book are when she gets thrown into the madness and the things that she sees and does are fabulous. I was in love with Thea because when she was at her most unreal moment she felt real. The worldbuilding was incredible because you wanted to know what this shadowy creature lurking in the corner was and you felt like her face was not her face. It was filled with horror and dread and darkness that left me wanting more. When she starts communicating with the Stone I was pulled right in and wanted more of that feeling, but then Will became Will and it all died. I loved Thea near the end because she finally started to become more I can help people without needing their acceptance and I can be with people without judging them for what they are and thinking everyone is out to steal my achievements. (Part of that could also be because she grew up with her mother telling her to never rely on men and that she needed to achieve great things). The reason I love it is because Thea changed and she grew in the story.

For me what would bring this story to a five star is if the story had multiple POVs so that we could see what the letter that the mother wrote to the father was (as honorable as it is for Thea to not read someone's private correspondences for the sake of the story nobody cares) or why Will is the way that he is. Is he always a scoundrel? Did Thea's mother make him a scoundrel? Was Will's father a scoundrel so Will thought it would be okay since his dad did it? What made Thea's mother the way that she is, is it because she is a woman in a man's world and feels she needs to protect everything that is hers from everyone including Thea's father? Why did she never tell Thea's dad about Thea being born? There are so many things that could be answered if we had more then Thea's POV and maybe more on this revolution that gets mentioned in the blurb but is like a blip in the story. There is always talk of it, but never anything to indicate that there is a revolution going on. I also wanted more memories like proper memories not being told about the memory, but being immersed in it so that maybe the reader could see the signs even if Thea cannot. I apologize but Will's character pisses me off so much and I am trying to figure out how he got that way and was he always that way. We will never know because it is only in Thea's POV.

Overall, I did like the book because I never would have finished it in three days if I hadn't, but the ending leaves a lot to be desired and I would be curious to read a second book if there was ever another one. I want to know if they caught Will and what is life like for Thea with her father now that all of the nastiness is out of the way.

I would recommend buying it if you love curses and fits of madness because I do and it did not disappoint. 😈

3.5 out of 5 stars. It could have been higher, but the trick for me is that it has to leave my romantic side feeling like it melted and is in a little heap on the floor begging for more.

Wicked is as Wicked Does

 I received a free copy of this book from the author via Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review. This review might contain spoilers; please read at your own discretion.

They Tell Me You Are Wicked by David Hagerty is an exciting mystery/thriller novel with a unique twist where a father runs for Governor, but his daughter dies. Most of the book follows him trying to figure out who killed his daughter while also running a campaign.

Maybe I read too many crime thriller novels, but the killer felt apparent, and it was hilarious that it took the father until the end of the story to figure out who had actually done it. I love that the author tried to be historically accurate, and I have a lot of respect for the author for doing that. However, I found myself getting bored about halfway through the novel because it kind of felt like the same thing being written. I was starting to get pissed off that the father tended to fixate on one thing and how this black man must have done it because he was "caught" in another woman's house about to do the same thing that happened to his daughter Lindsay. However, even when the man tried to plead his innocence, it was all "no, he is lying, and he must be the man because he has a criminal record of stealing things." The poor guy never denied his record, so I loved Oges. He felt like the only real character in the book, which is sad because he is a criminal. However, it juxtaposes nicely with the treatment between black people and the rich white people.

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Duncan (the father and main character in this story) because, at times, I get why he is the way he is because back then, those things are every day. However, it's funny how his entire campaign runs on something that an individual person is guilty of yet will get away with it all for the sake of an image and a reputation.

If you like crime novels I will recommend this as one to read.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Mother of Confusion

 I received a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers read at your own discretion.

I had read The Mother by Andrei David a little over a month ago, but first impressions left me in a bad mood, so I had to take a step back before reviewing it to give the book the benefit of the doubt. Now I can give it a 2.5-star rating (which is higher than what it will be).

Where to begin? At first, I loved the characters as they felt unique, and you wanted to root for them. However, there became too many of them for me to keep track of, and most of the book was spent with me trying to recall who some of the characters were because it felt like we were never introduced to them except surprise we were, but they were slightly different. 

Most of the book brought me back to ten years ago when I was in grade 10, and my guy friends were explaining quantum physics and mechanics to me. I was proud of myself for keeping up and understanding what they were saying until they threw in things like Guy Fawkes and fireplaces with Falcon Punch. It sounded less like quantum mechanics and physics and more like a video game. This book was so much like that where at first, I could understand what was going on and felt proud of myself for it, but the longer it progressed, the more I started to feel like I needed to be a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on. 

This book is also magical; characters appear in places that they cannot be in because it is physically impossible for them to be in two spaces at once. I got confused on most of the plot points because I could never figure out the characters' motivations behind their actions or why some of the things happened. And a question: if the man is who I think it is and might be the child that they saved as a baby, then did they really save the world or is everything doomed to repeat? If everything is doomed to replicate, then the book feels rather pointless, but if it is the former, what will the new world look like?

Also, many moments feel kind of far-fetched, like when a girl is basically dead and gets brought back to life by nanobots like how? I found myself suspending disbelief for a lot of the book, and because it was sci-fi, so maybe some things could be plausible but are not in my wheelhouse? 

I love that the author tried to be diverse, but did not like how he went about some of it like you are attracted to this person because you touched them while you had embraced the Flame. I feel like there could have been some other way to have the characters be gay without things like that. Or maybe I completely misread the whole book, and it was meant to mean something else, but I could not follow half of what happened.

Also, I love mythology, so when I read Banshee, I thought it was actual banshees, not a group of women that are like warriors who fend the others from these shadowy wolflike monsters that are apparently children of the universe. Like I said and will probably repeat many times before this review is over that I could not follow half of what went on because some of it sounded like the author thought it would sound like a great thing to have in the book. But never checked to see if it could fit with the book or if ordinary people will follow along.

Part of me knew it was supposed to be on earth, but it confused me as to where on earth or how earth got that way, and by the end of the book, you still do not understand how the world got to be the way it was. I think there was a nuclear war or something, and half the time, it sounded like we were on an entirely different planet.

I still don't fully understand who Three is and whether she is a Banshee or an old fashioned space cadet or what. I have no clue who or what Cerebus is, even though it is often mentioned in the book. Of course, when I read Cerebus, I think of the three-headed dog in Greek mythology, so that is what I thought it was, but as it progressed I was less sure. If the author had renamed things, it would have worked a lot more in his favor instead of naming things after mythology and giving a girl like me who loves mythology false hope that it will have a significant role in the book.

Not all of the book is bad or confusing, and you have read the review so far, you are a champion. Since this book takes place, god knows how long in the future, the author did a great job imagining what the cities would look like in disrepair and what people who have never set foot in a town would view it as. Actually, when they visit the city, it is my favorite part because it is a little ambiguous, but it feels like you are discovering everything for the first time. For a while, I did like Sam and Lucas (or is it Lucius? Shoot. I'm going to be calling him L from now on and feel wrong about that), and in the end only liked L because at least his character arc was consistent and felt like the only one I could root for. He was deliciously a morally grey character, which I loved. I feel bad for saying this, but I loved Sam up until the moment she embraced the girl in the Flame and magically became attached to her because I stopped believing in their characters after that moment because it felt so odd and far-fetched to me as a girl. If the author had taken the time to explain things more and did more world-building, I could easily see this book as a five-star book, but alas, the author did not, and I was left with only questions and no answers, which is kind of what left me in a foul mood and took so long to write this review. (Otherwise, this would have a lot more expletives in it).

2.5 out of 5 stars.