Ivy

3.75 rounded up

Okay it was SO cute & I was smiling like a dang fool through a lot of it but I think I'm lowkey such a romance hater overall lmao I have to be very specifically in the ~mood~ to read romance & I *was* when I first started the book, but it took me a while to get through thanks to my varied disability issues (exhaustion + pain, mainly) so by the 70% point I was kind of like, pushing myself through to the ending bc the 'mood' had passed 😂😭

Still really liked it, though! Most of the baseball stuff flew right over my head cause I'm not really a baseball girlie, but it wasn't really over the top and was still enjoyable for someone who doesn't know anything about sports.

It had pretty good ADHD/mental health rep, fun friendships, realistic conflict between characters, cute gays doin cute gay things & plenty of Trans joy ofc

(Was also a tad spicier than I was expecting lol not a bad thing, it just surprised me) 🥴

One thing that was kind of odd to me (and I'm just nitpicking here) was how dodger was just casually allowed to go everywhere with Luis. Only mentioning this because he is described as his emotional support dog - which is, legally speaking, different than a service dog.

This book was one of my biggest let-downs of the year NGL (2.75 ⭐️'s)

Decided to DNF at 46%

I'm just completely uninterested.

The MC is annoying, and the writing is driving me insane tbh 🫠

I don't think I would've made it this far into the book if I'd been reading it vs listening to the audio book [the narrator is great].

7 hours left in the audio book and I just can't listen to it anymore sorry 💀

So it makes me extremely sad to have to do this, but unfortunately this book is the very first one I have EVER decided to DNF (at 76% - page 213) & after skimming to the end, my rating would have to be about 2.75 out of 5 stars. Please understand that I do not believe this to be a "bad" book, there were a lot of interesting and thought provoking quotes and ideas, but overall I just (personally) found it to be incredibly boring! That being said one person's 2 star book could be 5 stars for another, and that's okay! The premise was promising, but sadly, for me, the execution was just not what I was hoping for.

2.75 ⭐️'s

Overall an interesting read, but there was plenty about it I wasn't a fan of.

Many unnecessary details that I assume were an attempt to make the characters feel more "real" but I felt myself getting annoyed while reading through some of the chapters.

Biggest "ick" for me, is the lack of warning about the book containing scenes depicting the violent assault of a child (age 6) & d**th of a child (age 4)

I think I would actually read a book by this author again, given the chance, as I didn't completely hate it - the way the details of the story were slowly woven together actually worked quite well.

Also, I think detective Rita Myers was probably the most interesting character in the book. I didn't care much for most of the other characters though & there were a LOT to keep track of.

This book is a masterpiece

5 million stars

Pls write a sequel lmfao

But real talk what an incredible debut, Sarah Adler will absolutely be an insta-buy author for me in the future.

Queer rep? check.

Beautiful prose? check.

SPICE?! CHEEECK lmao

Also major props to the author for making me love a book with the miscommunication trope in it, because it was actually written/handled super well. It usually makes me wanna rip my hair out

I had the pleasure of being an ARC reader for this beautiful childrens book - it uses a kid friendly approach to explain the adoption process.

I think this book is an excellent way to teach your children (adopted & otherwise) about how adoptions work & helping them understand that being adopted is nothing to be ashamed of nor does it make you any less worthy of love.

3.5 stars

I feel like this is one of those books that depends heavily on who the reader is and whether their interpretation of the stories is literal or metaphorical. Some of the stories "worked" for me (made sense) while others... didn't. Mothers Tongue was just very confusing to me. However, My Better Half was incredibly well done, as was Smaller. I absolutely loathed The Lord Above though, it was just plain disgusting honestly