No Friend To This House, Natalie Haynes

Book Title: No Friend To This House

Author: Natalie Haynes

Date Started: June 29th  2025

Date Completed: August 22nd 2025

Genres: Historical, Adventure

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆ 

I loved the way this novel told all the little stories that weave together myth, all the crossed paths of epic heroes and the creation of mythical beasts, the legacy of these cities and temples - in the first third, we really got to delve into that and it kept the momentum up enough to stay interested. And, then, I enjoyed the last part of the book, where of course the creative license of retelling has the most to play with. The biggest chunk in the middle, I honestly really struggled to stay focused throughout.

Medea's chapters - yes, the supposed protagonist of the story, basically repeated the same prose over and over again. I've never been a fan of first-person narration, but in this context it makes the female perspectives feel defensive rather than diverse and included. Part of why the figure of Medea has captivated us for hundreds and hundreds of years is really that, even as a sympathetic character, there is space to imagine what could make someone act in the way she does. Writing it out into black and white (which may not have been the intention but was the result) loses that.

No Friend To This House is a retelling that tells everything and shows almost nothing at all. It feels like a stage play in that sense, which, sure, is a nod to the original versions of the myth - but why not just go and read those, which will always be incomparable masterpieces. We're just retelling the same events through new eyes - but we don't seem to be expanding these characters' perspectives, their backstory. Sure, they're given grounded motives, but it's like theatre where we're just expected to accept it to serve the performance. Rather than a story exploring who these characters are out of the plot, so that when they finally take to the stage, we understand them.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros

Book Title: Fourth Wing

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Series: The Empyrean #1

Date Started: June 18th  2025

Date Completed: June 29th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

This book takes a leisurely, indulgent journey to get to the heart of its story - but when it gets there, it undeniably kicks ass. It is addictive, exciting and glorious escapism, but it wasn't until the last 100 pages that I totally jumped on board.

I have notes from the middle of the book complaining about the sacrifice of story for a couple of hundred pages of smut and angst, and there was a point where it felt like we weren't going to move beyond sexy dragon training for this first instalment. I can't lie and say it wasn't fun - the whole thing was hard to put down - but I really wanted more. The book did eventually deliver, and it's cleverly set up that I'm itching for more.

As a side note, I appreciate that the characters are set up so deliberately in the world order, but Violet really is the perfect example of nepotism in action. Yarros doesn't seem to want to draw critical attention to the fact that she'd be dead 20 times if it weren't for tiny actions of favouritism that really let her skip some ladder rungs (I don't mean the saddle or her medical support, I'll get to that). None of this means Violet doesn't work hard - she absolutely does, and has to carry the expectations of her name - but in the current climate, I think it's a useful example of the status quo's normalisation of nepotism.

With that said, it made my heart happy to see the story adapt to Violet's personal abilities and challenges, particularly in its clear point that there's no shame in using mobility aids or your body having different needs. It is nebulous, so I don't know if identifying it as a disability is right or not, but it struck me nevertheless. I would really love it to be more explicitly represented in future books, especially in this of story and genre.

I'm excited to pick up the next one now that the world building, the politics, the relationships and the real threat are set up in prime position. It would've been nice to get a bit more of it in this first book, but I recognise the care that's gone into establishing how we feel about the actions and emotions of Violet and her peers - I'm sure Yarros will make it hurt sooner rather than later.

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

Book Title: I Capture the Castle

Author: Dodo Smith

Date Started: June 8th  2025

Date Completed: June 18th 2025

Genres: Historical, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I love the film version of I Capture the Castle, and have had the novel on my shelf for a decade and a half. There are some moments that have always stuck with me (the Midsummer rights, the writing study in the ruined castle, Cassandra and Stephen in the woods and then beside the Thames), but it was a pleasure to rediscover the whole story in its own right.

A British classic, it is beautiful and melancholic and fanciful and quaint. I certainly haven't read many contemporary 1930s/40s stories that aren't WWII focused. I wasn't aware of the history of the book before reading (Dodie Smith and her husband, a conscientious objector, left Britain during the war for California) but it makes sense in its nostalgic nature, reflecting on the everyday lives of people making connections with others unlike themselves, and the messes we make even with the best of intentions. It is a timeless representation of girlhood, both in its moments of exact shared experience as well as the wild imaginings of adventure.

More so than the film, the book is such a collection of character portraits. Despite being told in first person by Cassandra, who spends varying amounts of times with different people, it struck me how full each character was in their own rite, and the ways that that impacted Cassandra's life. She's not a passive protagonist, but is navigating the decisions of those around her as much as her own - and it's so interesting to learn more and more about these people from their actions that we might not have expected.

I'm so used to first person narrators (especially young women) being intentionally headstrong or sickly sweet or just seeming to care so much about what the reader thinks of them - notably, the reader over the characters they're existing beside. Cassandra is so inexcusably herself and strikingly kind and intelligent and growing as she learns that's not always enough.

Faithbreaker, Hannah Kaner

Book Title: Faithbreaker

Author: Hannah Kaner

Series: Fallen Gods #3

Date Started: May 13th  2025

Date Completed: June 5th 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

What a series to dive into across a year. It definitely started on a high and felt like walking down a very long mountain to reach the valley at the bottom, in both the good and the bad of that. This final book had my attention drifting until two thirds in, but I admit I got goosebumps at the finale.

What I remember loving so much about Godkiller was the sense of an epic landscape and history woven in between this closely whispered story of a trio of strangers and a rogue little god. In Faithbreaker, those characters and their lives had been so lost in the noise, the sweeping war, the tumultuous world building, and the cresting wave of the plot that at times they felt almost forgotten.

I miss what was achieved in that first book, but I especially miss knowing Kissen like the back of my hand, longing for Elo to find what was right for him, for Inara to stand her ground and Skedi to win me over. By the end they felt most like pieces on a chess board - which is thrilling in itself, but not quite how I wanted to part with them.

That all being said, I have to praise the vast normalised representation that is so organic and natural you almost forget it's there. The ease at which Kaner paints all of her characters in hopes and beliefs and ambitions, not regardless of their backgrounds - their disabilities, race, gender, class, sexual orientation etc etc - but because of or in spite of it. It felt effortless and I would really love to read more stories that make it so.

Circle of Flight, John Marsden

Book Title: Circle of Flight

Author: John Marsden

Series: The Ellie Chronicles #3

Date Started: May 4th  2025

Date Completed: May 14th 2025

Genres: Action, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

I'm actually quite emotional at finishing this book, the final in this trilogy plus the original Tomorrow series. I've been reading these since sometime around 2010 (when a family friend gifted me the first book after seeing me read under the table at a family dinner rather than socialise).

I've said it before, but John Marsden makes domestic things like farming, auctions, court hearings and more interesting and emotionally involving. These books are set in high-strung environments, literally and politically, and they have their fair share of adrenaline and pandemonium. But the characters exist in the downtime too, and not just a filler between fights. In so many ways, it differs from my usual reading preferences, and yet I am always drawn magnetically to the next book.

And when all hell does break loose - which, with Ellie, is pretty often - the action continues to rival the best I've ever read. It's exciting, fluid, chaotic but coherent, and oh so intelligent without being over-explained. It's not just this person does this move and then this; it's Ellie sees an opening so moves over here, has an intrusive thought and then gets her head back in the game, tries to do this and completely fails but manages to do this instead, gets hurt but lets the adrenaline take over etc etc. It's messy and raw and scary, but just like Ellie you recognise how thrilling and addictive it is, and maybe feel conflicted about that too.

Circle of Flight has a fitting end to this sequel series without being too self-conscious about nostalgically drawing attention to references of the past. It honestly brought me joy to see reveals and final resolutions done so well; not driven by ego or shock factor, just coming into Ellie's awareness as if they've always been there and she just hadn't looked over her shoulder and noticed (which is very Ellie coded). It's so satisfying, draws you so close to her as a protagonist, and feels like reality.

Ellie has been one of the most influential, present, important role models and characters in my life. I have enjoyed every moment of these books with her and her friend, and I am very grateful for them. This book itself was probably 4 stars, but I've given it 5 as recognition of both the Tomorrow series and The Ellie Chronicles as a whole, being some of the best fiction - the most creative, intelligent and emotionally charged - I've read in my life.

A Forgery of Fate, Elizabeth Lim

Book Title: A Forgery of Fate

Author: Elizabeth Lim

Date Started: March 18th  2025

Date Completed: May 4th 2025

Genres: Romance, Adventure, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆ 

Lim's novels are always enjoyable and grand enough to feel different from the crowd. Unfortunately, A Forgery of Fate falls into too many cliches to be truly satisfying. You could have a full set of cards for YA romance bingo by the end, and it's a well-executed demonstration of each.

Usually, I don't get on with underwater settings in books; it tends to overcomplicate even basic scenes and become a distraction. But this book simplified it enough while also playing with the setting that it worked. I enjoy how Lim uses fairy tales very loosely and then lets herself build whatever elements she likes into something new; the water and dragon elements took the classic Beauty and the Beast narrative and made it far more epic and fresh.

There are some vaguely uncomfortable elements of the romance, but more generally, I just found the book a bit uninspiring. I'm a fan of Lim's writing and I'm sure will continue to enjoy it - this one just wasn't my favourite of hers.

Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins

Book Title: Sunrise on the Reaping

Author: Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games #0.5

Date Started: April 24th  2025

Date Completed: April 28th 2025

Genres: Dystopian, Action, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

This book seemed to come out of nowhere in the wake of the Ballad movie, and yet it's oh so timely. Collins is not only taking a beloved character like Haymitch and portraying a nearly unrecognisable yet wholly aligned character arc, she's adding to her tapestry of what dystopia really means. It felt like things built slowly at the start, and then all at once - but looking back, everything had its place in an impressive performance.

Suzanne Collins only writes when she has something to say? By the time of publication, one would wonder how she could have possibly predicted the current state of the world the book would be born into. But of course, she could, she's been saying it from the beginning. This is what sets her dystopian world apart from all the others; there is an intrinsic recognition of where we in contemporary culture sit in her narratives, and the slippery slope we stand on in privileged countries. The way we access media, how we view others, the lasting importance of the 'posters' we do or do not ignore. You think you're Haymitch or Katniss or Lucy Gray? Look again, because that's not the story you're being told.

The references to other events in the series are frequent but mostly ungratuitous. It's such an interesting place to tell a story in the timeline, between generations but at a point where everything we know about the world and characters is in play as we race towards what's coming, and see how what has come before has made it so. Collins knows this and, other than a few off-hand unnecessary name drops, she's only strengthening a story I'm convinced she knew right from the beginning.

As much as the social commentary and Collins' talent for thrilling action, this book is also just enjoyable to read. I raced through it, having bought it on a whim on a bad day, and funnily enough stories about dystopia but people keeping their humanity within them was just what I needed. The epilogue was truly moving, and oh I would love to write an essay on the use of music in these books, its place in social resistance, traditional storytelling and artistic freedom. I'm very glad Collins has continued to lean into this, and I can't wait to see Francis Lawrence bring it to life on the big screen.