5 star – Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Notorious Virtues #1

A glamorous media darling, a surprise heiress, and the magical competition of a lifetime.

At sixteen, Honora “Nora” Holtzfall is the daughter of the most powerful heiress in all of Walstad. Her family controls all the money–and all the magic–in the entire country. But despite being the center of attention, Nora has always felt like an outsider. When her mother is found dead in an alley, the family throne and fortune are suddenly up for grabs, and Nora will be pitted against her cousins in the Veritaz, the ultimate magical competition for power that determines the one family heir.

But there’s a surprise contestant this time: Lotte, the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. When Lotte’s absent mother retrieves her from the rural convent she’d abandoned her to, Lotte goes from being an orphan to surrounded by family. Unfortunately, most of them want her dead.

And soon, Nora discovers that her mother’s death wasn’t random–it was murder. And the only person she can trust to uncover the truth of what happened is a rakish young reporter who despises everything Nora and her family stand for.

With everyone against her, Lotte’s last hope is hunting for the identity of her father. But the dangerous competition–and her feelings for Theo, one of the Holtzfalls’ sworn protectors–turns her world upside down.

**The Notorious Virtues comes out April 1, 2025**

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for this copy in exchange for an honest review

Family trials. Cousin against cousin. Social unrest in a society built on crushing the lower classes even further down. Magic only the elite could access. The scary woods filled with the stuff in legends and nightmares.

This book has it all, and while the tropes are by far from unique, the way Alwyn Hamilton weaves the story together really makes every piece come alive. I was astonished at how much I liked this book while reading it as I feel I’ve gotten more jaded with time in my reading.

Built on 4 POVs that bring to life very different perspectives, we the reader can see this world from all angles.

Nora, the heiress apparent until she no longer was with the death (murder?) of her mother, the next heir in line
Lotte, the long lost cousin and descendant of the Holtzfalls, who grew up being abused at a convent in a small town away from the city her family rules
August, the newspaper journalist seeking after the truth, or at least the next big thing to get his paycheck in a city that keeps oppressing individuals like him
Theo, the knight bound by oath from his ancestor to protect the Holtzfalls with his life, though perhaps they don’t always deserve it

I felt the pacing and tension for the next plot piece was the perfect amount. Who doesn’t love a family competition for inheritance? From Jennifer Lynn Barnes’ Inheritance Games to Kayvion Lewis’ debut series, it’s definitely a trope that draws us in. I will say that the games were not solely the focus of the book, so you are forewarned if that is what you’re hoping it would be. While the trials they face are present, it’s time on page is less often than expected. The true highlight of the book comes in figuring out the mystery behind Nora’s mother’s death.

The lore crafted behind the rise of the Holtzfalls and the purpose of the Veritaz trials was well developed. Everything has a purpose and everything is more linked than one may expect. The integration into the same world of Hamilton’s other series is also probably a huge luring factor to this book, although I haven’t read it yet. It definitely takes careful planning to draw out a world that fits with an existing story but also add new details for this part of the continent. I loved the piecemeal way we got to see how this skewed society came to be and where the Holtzfalls lost their way somehow from what it once should have been.

Beyond the plot points, the characters equally drew me in. While I definitely favoured August and Nora’s POVs, the perspectives they all provided were supremely helpful in adding individual stakes in the overall game. The unlikely alliance between a lowly reporter and the heiress was always fun to see, and their witty banter was absolutely perfection. I’m a little less enthused with the romantic turn Theo and Lotte were headed towards, but if you enjoy the damsel in distress feel, then it works well enough. The biggest character development though comes from Lotte and Nora’s growth together as they figure out what it means to be an actual virtuous individual who doesn’t just look out for themselves or their rich buddies they control. I enjoyed the progression in their characters, especially as they’re competitors for the same ultimate prize.

The ending was also not what I expected and leaves the door wide open for what may come next in the series. I love that the author enjoys shaking things up and possibly having a different story arc in each book. The overall murder and family trials definitely wraps up in book one so it’s not that kind of cliffhanger, but the tidbit of what awaits in the next book has me almost wishing I didn’t read this book so early. Whenever book two comes out, it’ll be worth the wait if it’s anything like its predecessor.

5 star, adult, nonfiction

ARC Review: Kinda Korean: Stories from an American Life by Joan Sung

January 28, 2025January 25, 2025 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

For fans of Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H-Mart and Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings comes a coming-of-age memoir about a daughter of immigrants discovering her Korean American identity while finding it in her heart to forgive her Tiger Mom.

In this courageous memoir of parental love, intergenerational trauma, and perseverance, Joan Sung breaks the generational silence that curses her family. By intentionally overcoming the stereotype that all Asians are quiet, Sung tells her stories of coming-of-age with a Tiger Mom who did not understand American society.

Torn between her two identities as a Korean woman and a first generation American, Sung bares her struggles in an honest and bare confessional. Sifting through her experiences with microaggressions to the over fetishization of Asian women, Sung connects the COVID pandemic with the decades of violence and racism experienced by Asian American communities.

**Kinda Korean: Stories from an American Life comes out February 25, 2025**

CW: sexual assault

Thank you to Sparkpoint Studio for this copy in exchange for an honest review. Note: all quotes are subject to change.

Where shall I begin? I’ve been on hiatus for a long while, barely reading anything last year. So it definitely takes a truly remarkable book to draw me back out of my non-reading shell. And Kinda Korean was the right book to come back into my life at the start of this new year.

Whenever I read a memoir, I struggle with how to rate it, let alone review it. This is someone’s story. Who am I to tell them if their story is “good” or not? Perhaps some people may think certain people’s lives are more worth chronicling, such as your favourite celebrity or a revered leader on the global stage, but don’t we also need to hear stories from the every day person? The kind of person that we can relate to?

This is what makes Joan’s story one that bowled me over in the best way possible, and I hope it’s one that does the same for many others out there. I’ll try to put all my thoughts down in a coherent way. This was not a book for my brain to simply appreciate; it was very much a book that saw into my heart.

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5 star

Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager

February 28, 2024February 27, 2024 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.

Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

I’ve had some experience with this author’s work before, and while the premise is usually very good, my impression is that it doesn’t usually quite live up to my expectations. However, this time, it really did. The number of twists and turns were outrageous, and they were just on the brink of acceptable plausibility too, which was impressive for the number of times I had to experience that suspenseful emotional whiplash. Even though I picked this book up on a whim, I’m so glad I did, and honestly I’m not surprised I finally found one of Riley Sager’s books that I really enjoyed.

The Only One Left is based off a very charming schoolyard chant reproduced above, about the tale of Lenora Hope murdering her whole family at age seventeen. Our protagonist, Kit, who isn’t perfect herself, finds herself working to take care of the now very old Lenora Hope. Lenora had been sequestered away in her gigantic palatial home for over fifty years, and no one has seen her since. When Kit meets her, she finds out that Lenora only has the use of her left hand. But still, she can use it to communicate and tries to tell Kit the truth of what happened all those years ago. But is she telling the truth? And what secrets just beg to remain buried?

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