Flaire
It was a great read. It was dark, and magical and there was a few twists. It starts out a more medium-paced read with a lot of big stuff happening towards the end so I'm definitely wanting to see where the series goes. For me the end was interesting but almost a little too much revealed at once. Which made me almost tip this to 4.5 stars, but upon reflection I really really enjoyed this so I'm going with 5 stars after all.
This was really well done. I love a good nonfiction about food, but occasionally some of them drag or I find them far to tangential to follow. Sourdough Culture didn't have these problems. Eric Pallant has a sourdough culture rumored to be from the Gold Rush era, and he embarks on quite the adventure to figure out if it's true. Telling both a history of bread starting with the ancient Egyptians to modern times and his own personal history with bread he does his best to track down where his sourdough starter could have come from. Pallant's voice really comes through in this book and I felt like I was listening to a story the whole time, even when he was giving facts or talking about history, something I personally love in nonfiction works. I intend to try some of the recipes included in this book as well and I'm sure it's a book I'll read again some day.
This really is the perfect coming of age book, I see why it's a classic. Anne is so whimsical and imaginative and I just know I would have loved her if I had read this as a child. Seeing her grow and really come into her own is even better though, and I bet I find that much more satisfying now then I would have as a child.
This was great! An awesome way to finish off the year. I admittedly don't like mustard but food history is a favorite niche genre of mine so when I saw this book I knew I had to read it. I think this book was really well organized which I find to be really important in a historical nonfiction. I also love that the writing was to the point and not super tangential. So nicely structured and I enjoyed learning about Mustard which I knew pretty much nothing about previously.
It was cute. Definitely your typical fluffy holiday story like a movie you would find on hallmark. I liked the premise, the two storylines were pretty decent it just didn't super wow or engage me. My favorite parts were toward the ending where the sisters were in the same place interacting. The cozy small town vibes are my favorite and I'd probably really enjoy a book about the girls daily lives in Starlight Peak.
So the Who in this book was pretty obvious from the beginning. Who else? The book was kind of entertaining regardless, like I was definitely interested in unraveling the why and all the weirdness surrounding Erich and his mother.
I can't understand the main character, Jenny's, motivations at all. You know a guy two weeks and then marry him and move you and your girls to a different state to be with him. Yeah, that's going to end well.
This was beautiful. I cried straight through the last how many chapters, but it was a good cry. And I like a good cry every now and then.
This book kept me enthralled from the start. Evelyn Hugo, of course draws you in, everything about her is interesting. I loved the storyline, loved the exploration of famous LGBTQ relationships from the 60s to today, and loved the way it the story was told. I also loved the inclusion of those magazine articles.
This will definitely be a reread for me at some point, and it's going to be a strong contender for my favorite book of the year.
In the beginning this was funny and interesting and really pulled me in. The second half really started to drag in comparison. Don't get me wrong there was still plenty of interesting ideas in the second half, but the author also had an idea of breaking off into tangents. And these tangents would last for pages, making the chapters feel quite long.
The concept was great, and I did enjoy the content, but I think it could have been paired down a bit. But that may just be my personal preference.
This was pretty good. I really enjoyed the plot and the mystery of this faire which kept me engaged throughout. I also really like where we ended up and am excited to dive into the next one.
The only reason why it's sitting at a 3.5 for me is some of the writing was a little repetitive. For example the phrase “put this in my rear view mirror” was used two different times she left the faire. Using a cliche once is one thing, but then pretty much the exact same two sentences again the next time stood out to me in a bad way. There was other repetitive parts as well. The main character essentially saying the same things over and over about herself, her condition and her friends.
Overall though I did enjoy this enough to finish off the book pretty quickly and really can't wait for the next one so I would recommend it for those who like creepy circus vibes and/or dark romances.
This was great! I knew nothing about it going in, and found myself instantly hooked on the writing style and story. A awesome magic time-traveling thief and it's a woman? Checked a lot of boxes for me. I also love books with like gangs of thieves so this hit quite a few buzzwords for me. And I personally loved this slow building trust and romance thing going on too. I will be planning to pick up the sequel shortly!
I binged this really fast, it was compelling and the writing was fantastic. I really enjoyed learning about this town and it's way of life as well as how Emma's life has been going since the death of her father. The fantasy elements with the fae creatures were really well done, and while some might be saddened we didn't get more of them, I'm alright with the fact that they were just one part of the bigger story. The only thing that fell flat for me was the romance, we really don't get that much personality from him. There was a cute scene or two but I was hoping for more depth, then again this is a three hundred something page novel not a five hundred one so maybe I can give it some slack.
I'm feeling a little indecisive about this one. So maybe a 3.5?
I liked the writing style very much, and felt myself pulled to continue reading all the way through. I enjoyed the unreliable narrator aspect, and from the beginning I was trying to guess where this would lead. I didn't really see the ending coming, but maybe I should have. My main complaint on this book is that it's a little slow. For a lot of the book you're waiting for something, anything to happen and it all does in the last 20-30 pages, so a lot of waiting. However, I never felt the need to give up on the book or skip through parts so I suppose the writing speaks for itself. And because of that I will probably check out this author again.
So I read this when I was young, in middle school I believe, and I really liked it then. I was curious to see if one of my childhood favorites held up to my adult standards so I gave it another read. The verdict? It didn't. The plot was okay, but the ending wasn't surprising, in fact I was waiting for a twist the whole time, but it never came. The characters are all awful, very shallow, I know they are in high school but that doesn't mean they have to be terrible to each other.
Also the writing. Why were there so many weird descriptions when it came to Chad, lots of “scrumptious” and talk of bottling his scent and washing herself with it. And then this treat towards the end “five alarm hot wasabi sexalicious kiss”. I'm sorry, what? Did this really not bother me as a 13 year old? Because I know I didn't think like that about my crushes and it screams awkward to me now. There was also the gem of a line from Chad to Stacey on why he likes her “You're not like other girls”. Which of course is eye-roll worthy, especially considering he liked other girls enough to date Drea on and off for a couple years...
Anyway all and all, I didn't like this very much, and I will probably stop here in the series instead of continuing to reread even though I know I read at least the first two when I was a kid.
Sometimes I'm not sure what to say about classics. I had always meant to get around to reading these and I'm so glad I did. I personally really enjoyed them and the way fate weaves its way through these characters lives. I went ahead and read them in the order the penguin classics edition had them in and all the introduction/background information as well and I felt that was really helpful to deepen my understanding of the plays. I liked them all so much, it's hard to choose a favorite but I may be partial to Antigone.
So I'll start by saying neither of the characters are particularly likable in this book. Usually that's a shortcut to me hating a book, but I actually felt like it worked okay in this one. I didn't feel like I needed to like the characters to read this story. I liked the way things wrapped up in the end, and overall it was enjoyable but not something that I will feel the need to read more than once, hence the three stars.
Why? That's how I felt about this whole book. The main character Martin was the worst, which I think was part of the point of the book especially with the ending proving he was crazy, but... I simply don't really like reading about horrible people. I'd rather have a character I like in the book. Lucy was decent, but we didn't get nearly as much about her.
All in all the theme of the rich playing by their own rules and getting away with anything and everything was pretty boring. I feel like I've seen everything in this book, somewhere else.
I think I'm most upset that the book is compared to Clue on the back, which probably isn't the authors fault, so I was expecting more a whodunnit mystery going in. This wasn't really a much of a mystery at all, leaving me disappointed.
I will say the writing style itself is as very beautiful and I did find myself really enjoying certain descriptions and word use. So while this book may have not been for me, it's possible I would enjoy something else by this author if she has something written with more like-able characters.
I loved the atmosphere of this book. Great descriptions of this new world created by the Tox, and lots of tension created by how these school girls were dealing with this situation.
The romance to me was okay, it was actually hard for me to picture the two girls together, as it seemed like they were always on completely different pages of thought for me.
I'm okay with the open ending I suppose but some of the stuff leading up to the ending I just didn't love. As another reviewer points out some of the character motivations were hard to understand, a little flat. This makes me wish the book was longer so we could have filled in some more back stories or details for them.
I did like this a lot however and I think it will stick on my mind.
I enjoyed this. I've been in a reading slump so this book was refreshing since I had the constant need to pick it up. It was a pretty quick read, to the point where I was confused at how it was going to end since there wasn't much left in the book. The writing was very atmospheric, the overall book was creepy not really scary but I didn't mind that.
I wish we had gotten an explanation for how this all started just because that's the type of person I am, but I understand why there wouldn't be one... that's life after all.
I think I will be thinking about this book for some time to come.
