Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around an urban fantasy slash detective thriller sequel that let me down for the first time in this series and a contemporary romance I had mixed feelings about.
Title: False Value
(Rivers Of London #8)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Detective
First published: February 20th 2020
Publisher: Gollancz
Finished reading: March 7th 2022
Pages: 416
“I think they’re hoping that if they don’t talk about Falcon, then Falcon will hardly ever happen. Ironically, this is known as magic thinking.”
Sometimes you come across a series that speaks to you from the very first book, and each sequel continues to enchant you in the same way… Up until those dreams are shattered and you are back in reality, blinking your eyes and wondering what went wrong. This point of no return is what represents False Value for me. True, I was already a tiny bit worried how things would continue after book seven, but I was still excited to return to Peter Grant and see what happens next. To my surprise, it was almost like I had picked up a completely different series when I started reading this sequel! I don’t know where the magic of the first seven books went, but this was hands down my least favorite sequel by far. The messy switching between the December and January POVs in the first part had me SO confused, and almost had me DNF this sequel there and then. The extremely weird terms related to the Serious Cybernetics Corporation were highly annoying and also contributed to the almost DNF… Apparently they are supposed to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy references, but 1. I never particularly liked that book and couldn’t care less about references to it, 2. if you are (like me) not familiar with the terms, they can be confusing and 3. there is a serious overdose of them that I think will be too much for anyone unless you are a superfan of that series. The plot itself was mostly rather dull and Peter wasn’t as sharp and funny as usual. Like I said, the spark of the first seven books was most definitely missing here. I’m keeping my fingers crossed book nine will bring better news, because otherwise it might be time to retire this series to my abandoned shelf…
Title: Much Ado About You
Author: Samantha Young
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: February 2nd 2021
Publisher: Berkley
Finished reading: March 10th 2022
Pages: 384
“We find people we love and they become our home. Jobs, houses, they can all change, but it’s only when we lose someone that we lose that feeling of being anchored in place.”
I admit that I was sold as soon as I saw that adorable cover and discovered that the story had a bookish element. I mean, being able to go on a holiday to a small English village and getting to work at the local bookstore as part of the package sounds like any booklover’s dream, or am I wrong? Anyhow, Much Ado About You sounded like the perfect feel-good romance, and I’ve been looking forward to finally pick it up. What I didn’t expect is that I somehow ended up with mixed thoughts instead. It’s not a bad read and I still love the idea behind this story. There were things I loved including the bookish references, the many appearances of Shadow the dog, the village itself… But there were also things that didn’t work that well for me. First of all I have to say that I feel that the author tried to squeeze too many different topics into one book; among others abuse, alcoholism, cheating, race, family feud and so many side stories that it kind of distracted from the main plot. I wasn’t really a fan of Evie swooping in and trying to ‘fix’ everyone with a problem in the village either… And the romance itself was quite cliche and almost cringeworthy; a healthy dose of insta-love topped with a friends-to-lovers trope when it’s so obvious neither wants to be just friends nor behaves that way… The constant denial of especially Evie when there is no real reason for them not to be together can get REALLY frustrating. I wasn’t a fan of the sexy scenes, and the cliche hotness of the male character and the swooning got old fast. Evie was a bit annoying in general, and especially how she overreacts after the big reveal… I did really like the banter and writing style though. All in all Much Ado About You had its moments, but as a whole I had too many issues with it to truly enjoy it to the fullest.
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Fab reviews Yvo! I was so disappointed with False Value as wee, it really did feel like a different book compared to the rest of the series. Here’s hoping he’s newest is back on track! xx
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I’ll be keeping fingers and toes crossed! I guess without the Faceless Man he has to find a new threat, but there is still Lesley to wonder about as well.
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Oh, no! That’s too bad about False Value. There’s not much worse than a beloved series letting you down. You did a great job of explaining why, Yvo💜
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It’s such a shame because the first seven books were so much fun! But some series just aren’t ment go on forever… I will still read book nine, but it depends on how I react to that one if I will continue or abandon it.
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Hmm… Maybe I’ll skip Young’s books and keep reading her backlist.
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I haven’t read any of her other books yet? I’m curious about Fight Or Flight though.
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I haven’t read that one. I’ve only read her Dublin Street series. I’m not sure if it would be for you or not. Probably not.
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I think you might be right about those!
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Much Ado About You does sound intriguing to me. But, I agree, a too-perfect hero with a lot of swooning is not for me.
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A lot of romance seem to have that perfect male lead though? I guess it depends on how strong the rest of the story is how well I can tolerate that cliche, but there were other things lacking here.
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