Last Girl Ghosted

 

Last Girl Ghosted sounded interesting with a refreshing mystery storyline. Sadly it was far from that.

Wren leads a double life, the normal every day girl she presents herself as and the secret woman who answers people's pleas for help in well thought out letters. That is all well and fine for her until her best friend pushes her to do more and encourages her to join a dating app. Soon Wren is swept off her feet by a man and all is going well when out of no where he ghosts her. 

Everything with Last Girl Ghosted was a mess in my opinion. From the ever changing writing style to character development. Nothing really seemed to fit and it was not a smooth read. From third person past tense to first person present tense with no real warning almost had me give up. I wish I had since I wasted too much time on an unbelievable story with remarkable Mary Sue characters throughout. 

Elske

 

This book had a tag from a local bookstore that closed a few years ago but I don't recall buying it so I may have grabbed it from the free library and forgot. Elske is the fourth book in a series but I would never have known that it read like a stand alone.

Wolfer born all Elske knows is fear and staying in her place but all that changes when her grandmother gives her a chance at a normal life. Fleeing the brutal Wolfters Elske makes her way to a northern town where she is thrust into servitude to survive. For some unknown reason all the men in the town are smitten with her and wish to wed or at least bed her. Not desiring the company of any man Elske holds out and is thus thrust into servitude for a disgruntled princess who claims she is a queen. 

For a young adult book the story started out extremely violent and I almost did not keep reading past chapter one. Sadly after that the story calmed down and was rather boring. No real action, Elske had no personality at all. She was a Mary Jane and did not really seem to care what happened to her just the people around her. I kept waiting for her to have independent thoughts which never really happened. The princess she served had more personality but was also boring. While the story was boring it did flow smoothly and I never got characters confused. I will not be seeking more of The Kingdom series or more work by Cynthia Voigt. 

 

WARNING: Review will contain spoilers. 

The Battlemage is the third and final book in the Summoner trilogy. I really do not like writing negative reviews but since I put up reviews for the rest of the trilogy I will add in The Battlemage. 

Fletcher once again is in deep trouble and unsure how he will get himself out of this new mess. After escaping the orcs by entering the nether he now feels responsible for watching over the small party of survivors and finding a way to keep them alive while demons wish to consume them. Along with dealing with wounds both physical and emotional Fletcher knows their time is short since the nether air is toxic and they only have a small supply of the flowers that keep the poison from their body. 

My first major problem with the story was it felt like three stories crammed into one, none were fleshed out and felt rushed. The travel through the ether, the rebuilding of Fletcher's ancestral lands, and the final battle with the orcs. Since the overall theme of the story was the prophecy of a summoner with a dragon was a major theme of the story the resolution to that should not have been thrown into one small chapter. Also Fletcher went into the battle with no mana against a stronger demon and summoner yet it was an easy battle where his first and only maneuver worked. It was just highly unbelievable even for a young adult story. Really the first two parts should have been a book and the last part a book on it's own. I would like to say I will not read any more of Taran Matharu's work but my husband is eager for me to read a different series by the same author.