Emi
2.5/5 stars
Honestly, this series isn't bad at all. If you like dystopians and Marie Lu's other books you'll love it. It's just not for me and I'm thanking God it's over.
Maybe I'd round up to three stars if I felt any sort of attachment to the characters, but I feel more chemistry towards the rocks in my driveway then I do anyone in this book.
Of course this book was super cute and fun to read because it's Morgan Matson and I'll never not love a Morgan Matson book but no one is talking about how this book had a Kidnapping/Belgian Mafia/Undercover CIA subplot that I was not expecting at all and had absolutely nothing to do with the main storyline and I'm still kind of confused by it but I'm still living for it
And with that, I am officially done with all the readings for my Into to Fiction class
I don't think I learned anything about fiction
But this book wasn't awful so let's give my teacher some credit. Just ignore my newly found hatred for Dr. Jenkyll and Mr. Hyde.
Um hello why was this book so good and why has it taken me years to read Taylor Jenkins Reid books????
This feels like the longest book I've read in my entire life and I'm glad I'm done with it but also if you have the opportunity to read this, please do
4/5 stars
Ahh this book was such a pleasant surprise. I absolutely loved it.
There was so many important conversations about race and stereotypes and unnormalizing racism and internalized sexism. And it was done so beautiful, in a way that I think some books strive to do but often miss the mark.
And the main character, Alina, was so consistent. I absolutely loved her. The way she acted and responsed to events that took place around her seemed so realistic for a 17-year-old girl trying to reevaluate her life.
I loved this and not enough people are talking about it. Highly recommend.
I was looking forward to a cute, sex-positive book about a boy finding himself in a big city but what I got was an 18-going-on-12-year-old boy who lied constantly, for no reason, to all of his friends (as well as cheated on them :/) and then he had the audacity to wonder why they were all mad at him in the end.
There was some positives about this book, including LGBTQ+ representation and um, I'm sure there's other stuff. There really isn't that many positives. I'd take the time to make a list, but considering 99% of this book was just Jay making lists, I honestly hope I never see a list again.
Jay's entire personality trait was the fact that he wanted a boyfriend and/or dick. I mean, it's fine to want to be in a relationship and/ordick. There is nothing wrong with that. But if that's your entire personality, then there might need to be some stuff you have to work through first, or the situation is just going to end up badly. The relationships in this book is 100% an example of this and I hated it. You should be in a relationship because you feel like you want to be in one, not that you need to be in one.
Every other sentence was a joke that tried way too hard and fell flat or a pop-culture reference that will be irrelevant in two years. Jay kept on making lists for every little thing, which is fine until they show up on every other page. I literally had to hold myself back from ripping one of the lists completely out of the book. They became so annoying.
I can't. This book was not it. I ended up skimming through most of it and read the entire thing in an hour and a half. That is an hour and a half I will never be getting back.
This book is not what you think it is and part of me absolutely loved it and part of me never wants to read a scifi book ever again
but also this book also had an almost identical plotline to another 2021 YA release I've read this year *cough* [b:The Ones We're Meant to Find|44084665|The Ones We're Meant to Find|Joan He|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600354595l/44084665._SY75_.jpg|68554141], if you really wanted to know honestly that is kind of unfortunate for both books but at least this one was lgbtq+
2.75/5 Stars
I'm honestly debating whether to give this two stars or keep it at three stars.
For the first 90% of this book, I was absolutely loving it and was planning on giving it four stars. But then the last 10% of this book happened and I honestly hated it. It ruined everything for me.
But I don't think the problem is with this book. It deserves all the hype and all the stars. Emily Henrie is the literary definition of a talented author.
The problem is with me. This book just wasn't for me. I found the main character's job unrealistic. I felt like the buildup fell flat. And while I did enjoy Poppy and Alex's relationship, I also didn't think it was anything special. I didn't think Alex was anything special. But I didn't even realize this until the characters were finally together. Like I should have been excited but I was literally just like, “meh...“
Idk. It wasn't for me.
June 1st, 2021 Update: This book comes out today and I'm sooo excited to read it to see if it actually deserves its less than 3 star rating.
Should this book exist? No.
Am I still gonna buy it and read it? Yes.
I'm actually excited to read it and see if it deserves it's 2.79 average rating. Like bring it on. I'm gonna be binging it on release day.
So I did like this book and thought it was good and 100% recommend it and blah blah blah but I've just been thinking about it the past few days and I don't love it as much as I did when I first finished it? I think Jane was very manic pixie dream girl and I just didn't love that. So yeah, I dropped a star.
12.15.2021 Update:
This is so good omg. makes me want to scream “Fuck Simon Cowell” at the top of my lungs but this book is totally not inspired by that man and a certain boyband he may or may not have formed on the XFactor on July 23rd, 2010...
Alexa play One Direction
Prereview:
I may or may not have a tattoo that may or may not reference two songs that people may or may not associate with a certain conspiracy theory about a popular boyband and two of it's members that may or may not be the first thing people think of when they read the synopsis of this book
but anyways I am 100% the target audience for this book so I need it asap please and thank you
but I got the tattoos because I like those songs, not because of other reasons implied
2/5 stars
This book had so much potential, but it missed the mark so much. The dialogue was so stiff and often unnecessary. I never felt connected to any of the characters. The entire book was 350 pages of weak plot. There was a good overall plot, but the character-specific plot gave me nothing. It was an original idea-witches that helped control the climate-but the plot was Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault).
2.5/5 stars
I didn't hate this book. It was actually kinda cute. It just doesn't deserve 3 stars.
4.5/5 stars
This book was so creepy and weird and I had no idea what was going to happen the entire time but I loved it so much. 10/10 would recommend.
RTC??? Maybe?? If I'm into writing reviews again
2.25/5 stars
This is really a three star book, but Poppy was so annoying that I'm giving it two stars out of spite.
And also because the word “flesh” is in the title and that word is just so unappealing. That's like a whole half a star off of my rating right there
It's a shame really, I actually really liked the first book. I gave it 5 stars. But here's a short list of what went wrong. Warning spoilers and all that crap.
0. (which I'm adding a day after this review was written, on 5.17.21) I just watched a Tiktok saying this series is one of the best enemies to lover book AND WHERE THE FUCK IS THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE. Where it is? Can someone show me? Because yeah, she was mad at him for like a day, but she got over it and they did the devil's tango again. SHOW ME THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS PLOTLINE
1. The dialogue was excessive, repetitive, and annoying. Characters would ask a question and it would be a page full of back and forth one-liners before someone finally answered the question. I ended up skipping like half the dialogue because it was so effing pointless. Or it would be a page of Poppy thinking about something and then another page of her asking Casteel the question that she was thinking and then another page of him explaining the answer. I'd rather be shot. And if I took a shot whenever someone talked about how “unexpected” their engagement was, I'd be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning right now
2. Like I said earlier, Poppy was so annoying in this book now that she can finally speak without restraint. She has such major ~~I'm not like other girl~~~ vibes. It was so annoying. I hate her.
3. And all Poppy ever did was threaten to stab people. Sometimes as a joke, but sometimes it didn't feel like a joke. And whenever she did, other characters would swoon and be like, “I can see why Casteel likes you.” And I'm just over here like, “this girl needs therapy. this is not normal.” I'm not exaggerating when I say 500 pages of this book was her talking about stabbing someone or her actually stabbing someone.
4. And Casteel is just not attractive? He's just this feminist vampire which is great and all, like I love feminism, but like he was also suppose to be a fucking prince and idk how he got anyone to ever listen to him. does he have a backbone? unconfirmed. I was expecting a toxic love interest that made me question my morals but all I got was a fucking labrador retriever of a person. And then there was the scene where he was hungry and lost control? Like what a dick you are an idiot. Just go eat some vampire blood, don't do this to yourself. or die I don't care.
5. Nothing happened in this book. At all. They were in a town and talked to Descerters/Atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then have sex and then they fought evil vampires and then fleed/traveled to a new town full of descerters/atlantians and had excessive annoying dialogue and then they had sex again and then they fought evil vampires. And then more sex even though they should be fighting evil vampires. Rinse, lather, repeat.
6. Also fucking Poppy like I get she lived under a rock for her entire life but she's such an idiot. She spent half the book going on and on about how Casteel doesn't actually like her and it's all pretend and crying in her room and blah blah blah but how did she get to that opinion? HE LITERALLY CHANGED HIS PLAN TO GET HIS BROTHER BACK TO KEEP HER ALVIE AND IN HIS LIFE.
7. Also the relationship between Poppy and Casteel is pretty much instalove and you can't convince me otherwise. Looking back at FBAA, it felt like there was no build up to their relationship and then suddenly they are engaged to be married. Casteel has known this girl for 3 weeks AND IS CHANGING ALL HIS LIFE PLANS FOR HER. He needs to pull a HSM 3 Gabriella (who chose her education over Prom with Troy) and get his fucking life together. Urgh I hate him.
2/5 stars
My brain is telling me to give this book three stars, because it really wasn't that bad and I'm probably being overdramatic, by my heart wants to give it two stars just because Aaron Blackford creeped me out so much. Just urgh. No. I hate possessive men.
I'm gonna sleep on this and rate it tomorrow.
Actually, nevermind. I'm not sleeping on it. I'm giving it two stars bc it's been 20 minutes my hatred for Aaron is growing uncontrollably.
Most of the time when it comes to romance books, I don't love them and I 100% know that I'm the problem. Romance books aren't for me. But this is different. As I sit and stew on what I read, I think I'm actually right this time when I say this isn't great.
Lina literally gave us an entire page about how she hates being called Catalina and what did Aaron call her the entire time? That man definitely had the audacity. If someone did that to me, since I also go by a shorted version of my name because I literally despise myactual first name, his ass would have been left at the airport. I would not be getting in a giant flying tube with that man. Please respect my basic requests.
And also the chemistry? Where was it? Nobody told me this was gonna be a Where's Waldo book. We literally went to “he hates me. I know it” to him asking Lina how wet she is for him in like .02578 seconds. Just urgh that's so awkward.
And like maybe I should judge bc I literally don't feel sexual attraction but he was so possessive? I returned the ebook to Amazon already bc I wasn't wasting $10 on this so I can't find exact moments to support my claim, but like he creeped me out. He seemed so demanding. Very much like “you're mine.
Everyone seems to skip over that? And small things like not telling her what the fundraiser was for just seemed very
3/5 stars
Okay so the plot was good and had so much potential, but it missed the mark for me. I never quite got attached to the characters and I felt like the setting could have been fleshed about more.
I almost DNF this book at first, but I'm glad I didn't. It was so good. More thoughts to come
2.25/5 stars
I can see the direction that this book was supposed to go, but there were wayyy to many missed turns. And in 370 pages, not once did I ever care about the characters or plot.
I was expecting to give this book 5 stars up until the last part but the fact that Emrie and Gwyn won the Blood Right didn't make sense tome. They have only been training for a couple months, and yet they were able to win a dangerous competition that only few have won before them? I'm all for strong independent woman, but this just didn't make sense to me. There are Bat Faeries have been training their entire lives and don't even get close to the mountain to win. Emrie and Gwyn and Nesta were training for months. It just annoyed me more that it should. I'll probably write a review about it later.