Book Blog #387: Alchemised by SenLinYu

 

Title: Alchemised

Author: SenLinYu

# of Pages: 1030 (ebook)

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit? To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

Review: This was a very solid read IF you're reading it from the perspective that it originated a Harry Potter universe Draco x Hermione fanfic. 

As a stand alone book, the character development is actually quite weak. I haven't read the original fanfic Manacled (although I'm tempted to read it just so I can compare), but presumably SenLinYu relied on the character/relationship building from the original Harry Potter series that is now missing in this new world she created. 

The story also READS like a fanfic, and not just because of the romance (in fact, although the romance is a prominent part, there were less romantic/smut sections than I would expect from a fanfic). The characters were overly expressive and descriptions of their expressions were repetitive (e.g. characters often have their face contoured in rage, which read as an over dramatized and unrealistic).

But from the perspective of a fanfic, the story is quite good and insanely addictive. Since I care about Harry Potter characters like Hermione, Draco, Harry, Ron, etc, I was invested in their continued story through this book (it's pretty obvious to tell who is who even with their names/descriptions slight changed). 

Despite being over 1k pages, I flew through this book (Part 3 I read in one sitting!). Part 1 was repetitive and slower to get through mostly because the world building isn't clearer until later in the book (so up to you if reading 200+ pages before really getting immersed in the world. 

Solidly a 4 star read, but I would only recommend it if you're familiar with the Harry Potter characters.

Book Blog #386: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

 

Title: The Couple Next Door

Author: Shari Lapen

# of Pages: 308 (paperback)

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying. Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour. Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone. You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.

Review: This is a classic whodunnit mystery that's fast paced and easy to read. Perfect for some light reading that is actually best enjoyed if you turn your brain off.

The Couple Next Door is told in third person omniscient perspective, drifting primarily between the parents Anne and Marco and Detective Rasbach. This works well for the book aside from the weakness where the reader will obviously know more information than the other characters. Usually this is frustrating, but Detective Rasbach is great at his job, and I found that he (and thus the author) was always one step ahead of me. 

The ending was sloppier than I liked. Lapena tried to incorporate too much for the grand finale that made unrealistic, and a particular character's backstory felt too underdeveloped. 

Part of why this story is so easy to read is Lapena chooses to tell the reader all the possible theories rather than showing them implicitly through observations. This story could have been richer and grittier if Lapena showed rather than told, but it was still an entertaining read nonetheless. 

This book definitely leaned more toward the mystery aspect than thriller. There was only one aspect of the book that was ominous but isn't the focus of the plot. 

This was a solid read that I could not put down, but Lapen isn't doing anything groundbreaking here. It's in the low-mid 4 star range (low 4 for execution, mid 4 for enjoyment and readability). I would recommend it if you're a fan of mystery!