Painted Devils by Margaret Owen

Pages: 512 

Publisher: Hodderscape 

Released: 16th of May 2023 

Let’s get one thing straight—Vanja Schmidt wasn’t trying to start a cult.

After taking down a corrupt margrave, breaking a deadly curse, and finding romance with the vexingly scrupulous Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad, Vanja had one great mystery left: her long-lost birth family… and if they would welcome a thief. But in her search for an honest trade, she hit trouble and invented a god, the Scarlet Maiden, to scam her way out. Now, that lie is growing out of control—especially when Emeric arrives to investigate, and the Scarlet Maiden manifests to claim him as a virgin sacrifice.

For his final test to become a prefect, Emeric must determine if Vanja is guilty of serious fraud, or if the Scarlet Maiden—and her claim to him—are genuine. Meanwhile, Vanja is chasing an alternative sacrifice that may be their way out. The hunt leads her not only into the lairs of monsters and the paths of gods, but the ties of her past. And with what should be the simplest way to save Emeric hanging over their heads, he and Vanja must face a more dangerous question: Is there a future for a thief and a prefect, and at what price?

What I Have to Say 

Despite the fact that my favourite character from the first book was barely in this one, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a good adventure with the same level of excitement and creativity as the first book. It's a series that takes tropes like hauntings and virgin sacrifices and turns them on their head, making something original and unique. Really this is exactly what I want to see in a book, especially a fantasy book. 

I really like the relationship between Emeric and Vanja and this book was all about them getting ready for the next step in their relationship. In short, they're getting towards the point where they might, maybe be ready to have sex and they need to talk about it. I honestly thought it was a really good portrayal of the awkwardness and need for assurance that comes into these conversations. 

I really liked the ending of the book. I had a wonderful moment just before it was all revealed that it all came together and I figured exactly what was happened, which gave me the fun sense that I worked it out by myself, without it feeling obvious. 

Really looking forward to the next book in the series! 

4 stars 

My thanks goes to Hodderscape and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

Editing Emma by Chloe Seager

Synopsis (Goodreads) 

Pages: 368

Publisher: HQ

Released: 10th of August 2017 

When sixteen-year-old Emma Nash is ‘ghosted’ by the love of her life Leon Naylor, she does what any normal teenage girl would do…

Emma spends the summer lurking in her bedroom, avoiding all human contact (and the shower), surrounded by the collection of chewit wrappers she saved from packs Leon gave her, back when he actually acknowledged her existence…

But seeing Leon suddenly ‘In a relationship’ on Facebook with the perfect Anna, spurs Emma into action and she embarks on a mission to make positive changes to her life (or ‘edits,’ if you will) and vows to use the internet for more than obsessively stalking Leon’s activities! Instead, she will use it for good and noble causes like finding someone who will actually be nice to her, and recording her findings for the rest of the world to see (i.e. BFF Steph and her mum) on her new Editing Emma blog.

But Emma soon discovers her ‘habit’ is harder to break than she first thought – turns out she’s not the only one ‘editing’ herself online (thank you Tinder for finding her mum’s profile, age 35, really?) and that life through an Instagram filter isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. But it could be worse, she could have outed her best friend, accidentally chatted up a 12 year old boy and revealed to the world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl’s time or virginity… oh no wait, that’s exactly what happened…

What I Have to Say 

This book had good messages at the heart of it, but it had way too much stuff about sex and masturbation in it for me. I think it's good that it showed that girls masturbate as well as boys, but it just made me feel really awkward when Emma kept going on about how much she masturbated? I felt like it was just a little too much. It just felt like the whole book was about sex really. 

There were a lot of feminist issues addressed in the book that I approved of though. The story, behind all the boys and dating and masturbation is really about Emma finding herself. It's about her processing what happened with Leon and finding out that her methods to deal with it are really that great. I really felt there were some good messages in this book, especially towards the end. 

All in all though, I was just so put off by the sex stuff. I found it hard to empathise with Emma, even though I felt so sorry about her having to suffer through such a horrible way to be broken up with. By the end I liked her a bit better because she was a more developed character, but it's the beginning that invests you in a book or not. 

As an adult reading this, I do think that maybe actual teenagers would connect better with this book. 

My thanks go to HQ and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 

The Cows by Dawn O'Porter

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 464

Publisher: Harper Collins 

Released: 6th of April 2017 

COW [n.]

/kaʊ/

A piece of meat; born to breed; past its sell-by-date; one of the herd.

Women don’t have to fall into a stereotype.

THE COWS is a powerful novel about three women. In all the noise of modern life, each needs to find their own voice.

It’s about friendship and being female.

It’s bold and brilliant.

It’s searingly perceptive.

It's about never following the herd.

And everyone is going to be talking about it.

What I Have to Say 

This book really wasn't my thing. I just don't like too much sex in books. I get that the book was all about encouraging women to speak up about sex and everything, but for me, male or female, I'm just not interested in that much sex. I prefer different kind of stories. 

I also don't think the whole video going viral subplot was that realistic. I think that a video of that kind of content would get flagged as sensitive pretty quickly and removed. Even if people kept reposting it, I just don't think that a video of that nature would get the kind of traction needed to become a viral sensation like that. A thing that I think would have made this part of the plot better would be if more had been made about the fact that she'd been filmed without her consent. I would have been far more interested had Tara tried to get legal action taken against the boy who filmed her. 

Another thing I did like was the question of whether the father has the right to know about a pregnancy. It was interesting the way both sides were shown and it honestly has me questioning my opinion on the subject. The whole controversy over Annie's father and the way that Tara found out what he thought on the matter really has me thinking that sometimes keeping a child's father from knowing is the kinder thing to do. 

I'm sad because I really like Dawn O'Porter's writing, but like I said, this book just really wasn't my kind of think. 

My thanks go to Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review.