"Furyborn" by Claire Legrand

This is another YA fantasy novel about two queens separated by time. In fact, the points of view alternate each chapter between Rielle, the blood queen who lived 1,000 years before, and Eliana in the present, who does not know her destiny but is plunged into the world of violence and war.

This book is a first in the series or a trilogy and certainly has a lot of potential. It kept giving me the Queen of the Tearling vibes. There is a great evil in the world, the future seems bleak, the pages are filled with death and violence and all hopes rest on the prophecy of the sun queen who will defeat the evil forces. I did not like the first book in the Queen of the Tearling trilogy, and I think many people will not like Furtyborn either. It is too long, and definitely not a page-turner. But it lays the foundation of what's to come in the the rest of the series and creates the context for the world, belief system, mythology and history. I just hope that the sequels are really good, otherwise, the entire series is going to be a huge flop.

In short, if you like epic fantasy, queens, prophecies, magic, time travel - this book has all of these elements. It also has some steamy scenes that seemed a bit out of place to be honest, but nonetheless if you like romance in fantasy, this book has it as well. It just somehow fails to grip the reader. The characters are not well-fleshed out and I did not feel any attachment to them. I will definitely check out the sequel, but am a bit apprehensive at this point. 4 out of 5 stars (mostly for the complex world and potential).

"99 Days" by Katie Cotugno

With the weather finally warm and sunny, all I want to read are fluffy contemporaries about summer, friendships, and love. Katie Cotugno is the author whose name I hear a lot from various book-tubers so I decided to check out one of her books. Unfortunately, this one was a huge miss for me.

99 Days is about a girl named Molly who just recently graduated from a boarding school and comes home for the summer (99 days to be exact) before going off to college. When Molly abruptly left for the boarding school a year ago, it was not because she wanted to be there. She left because she had to, and now that she returned, her past comes back to haunt her.

Overall, it was hard for me to relate to the main heroine for most of the book. She kept making the choices I could not understand, and even though the entire book is written from her perspective, she spends zero time analyzing her actions or impulses and just continues to drift along. I guess the entire story is a picture of what NOT to do. Many situations in the book are written as though Molly is unable to think rationally or have any sense of propriety. For example, the scene when Patrick drags her behind a tree at a birthday party and they start kissing even though her boyfriend is literally 20 feet away is completely incomprehensible to me. Cheating in itself is bad enough, but such blatant disregard for anyone else's feelings and lack of any sort of decorum is mind-boggling. I did like how the book ended, and this alone bumped the rating up to 2 stars. If you are just looking for a light summer romance book, do not pick this one. It is pretty frustrating to read.