Book Reviews: The Wives, The Crown of Gilded Bones and Shine

Hey guys! Today we have another book review post! We’ve got three very different books in today’s post. What can I say, I have very varied taste. And if you prefer audio-visual book reviews, my book video will be going Sunday so stay tuned for that (I’ll add the video to this post once it’s up). Let’s get into it.

The first book is “The Wives” by Tarryn Fisher. This one was lent by my neighbour and my mom read it before me. My mom’s quick review I got before reading the book was ‘the ending was crazy’. Not very descriptive. This book follows a woman whose husband is a polygamist, but she doesn’t know his other wives. Now I just want to note the synopsis on the back of the book and Goodreads is different. Goodreads says the main character’s name whereas the back of the book doesn’t. So it took me half the book to realize the main character’s name is Thursday and not just a nickname. But anyway, Thursday is curious about the other wives and befriends one. Then Thursday learns that her husband is abusing one of the other wives and becomes concerned. This is an adult thriller.

Unlike a lot of the reviews on Goodreads, I found the first half of the book pretty boring. It was mundane and just about her domestic woes at the beginning. It wasn’t until about halfway through that it got interesting. The more interesting it got thought the more confusing it got. There were a lot of twists and turns right up until the end of the book. I didn’t necessarily enjoy reading it because it’s pretty messed up what happens. But the book itself is written well, with the book flowing and I read it pretty quickly.

I will say that mental illness is a big driver of the plot and I’m unsure how I feel about it. I think mental illness can add to a thriller. For example in the book ‘The Women in the Window’, the main character was unreliable due to her mental illness. But it was not the main cause for the tragedy. In this book, it caused all the tragedy and was put in a negative light, with words like ‘crazy’ and ‘psycho’ being thrown around all over the place. It just didn’t sit well with me.

Overall I gave the book 3/5 stars. It was a thrilling book. But I just didn’t vibe with the reason for all the mess and found the beginning to be boring.

The next book is “The Crown of Gilded Bones”, the third book in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series. I won’t go into too much detail about the plot as to not spoil the other books in the series. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the book so I was hesitant going into the book. This is a new adult fantasy.

I can say I understand why the book got mixed reviews. First, there is a lot of info-dumping at the beginning of the book. I read the other two books in November so it was a lot to try and remember the old information and process the new information. It took me almost 200 pages to get into the book. And second there just wasn’t as much spice compared to the other book. Like don’t get me wrong, there are spicy scenes, but they weren’t as memorable or special compared to the first two books.

I think the second half of the book was much better. The world was developed at a much more even pace and some really big plot twists happen in the end as well. While the book might not be my favourite in the series, I can see how it’s going to be important in the overarching series. Lots of both plot and character development happens in this book so be prepared for that.

Overall I gave this book 4/5 stars (for reference I rated the other books in the series 4.5/5 stars). If you are into fantasy and want something spicy I highly recommend this series. But be prepared for a long read, because each book is over 600 pages long.

And the final book I read in May is “Shine” by Lauren Myracle. This book follows Cat as she tries to discover who committed a hate crime against her gay friend Patrick. This book is a YA mystery.

The mystery is the best part of this novel. It took me a while (but not as long as Cat) to figure out who committed the crime. I kept on going back and forth on who did it. And I found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading the book. If you’re looking for a good mystery this is it.

But the book overall is quite sad. This book is set in rural North Carolina. There is a lot of hate, homophobia, poverty, drug use, abuse, violence – the list goes on. It’s not necessarily enjoyable to read about all these awful things but it’s important in some ways because this is life and reality for many people. Made me think and reflect on my privilege.

Overall I gave this 4/5 stars. Pretty dark subject matter but the mystery is really good. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good mystery. And don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a YA book because it’s still a serious novel.

And those are my book reviews! Let me know in the comments what you thought if you read any of these books. And always let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations for me!

xoxo

Lea