Ash
I totally get the hype. I love this book and every character. Definitely in love with Delilah...but I love Iris too. I'm so excited this is a series so I can continue to be around these women. The miscommunication trope in romance is one of my least favorites, but when it's between sisters, UGHHHH. I loved that Delilah and Astrid just wanted to be there for each other, but without the help of an intermediary, they didn't know how to communicate. I hope the story revisits Ruby and her friend and why there was tension because that was just left open. I want to jump right into the next one, but I have other books on my tbr list that I promised I would get to first. T-T
The loosest of retellings of Pride and Prejudice. This book was cute. I liked Elle and Darcy and I was rooting for them the whole time. I wanted the scene of Elle taking Darcy home to Christmas and having the reconciliation between Elle and Lydia, but I can just infer it. I hope there is more development with Darcy and Brendon's mom in the next book. I'm assuming it is going to be Brendon and Annie in the next one based off of the cover and the hints throughout this one.
I liked this book while I was reading it, but I'm so annoyed with the main character and main plot. Marley was written as being effortlessly pretty, kind, and funny, and landed the two hottest guys in highschool, but still thinks she was a loser during her time there? The self sabotage was frustrating. Her parents were amazing, her friends were amazing, and the build up to the “terrible” thing she did at homecoming was not creative. It just led back to her being a hero and everyone thinking she was great. I think if this book was reworked with an actual dilemma, I would have been all for it. Or even if there wasn't the drama of the build up to the lackluster homecoming story, it wouldn't have bothered me as much. I loved Jake, but he was perfect. How could I not? The side situations were great. I loved the soccer team, Vicky, Andrea, even Amie Jo. This is still a 4 star romance for me, but I wanted so much more after finishing.
I flew through this book. I thought it was going to take me ages because I tend to put off reading books that make me sad, but I think this book dealt with grief so well. I will admit I was upset for the first 75% of this book because I was not a fan of Sebastian at all and could not accept him for Clover. Hugo was beautiful. I wish he had made an appearance earlier, but I know this is more classified as Contemporary than Romance. lol. Claudia and Leo and Grandpa and Sylvie. I loved all of them. I loved Clover's notebooks and the way she kept a separate one for the three distinct utterances made by her clients. As a sentimental hoarder, I related to Clover a lot in her need to keep Grandpa's things. This was a beautiful read.
As someone that used to belong to a fanfic community and has also been a longtime fat person (lol), I loved this book. I related to April in so many ways. I loved reading about the way Marcus viewed her and how he described her body with reverence. I gathered from the references throughout that Marcus Caster-Rupp was not so loosely modeled after Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, that Gods of the Gates was Game of Thrones, and that E. Wade was George R. Martin. Fanfiction inception. I wanted to watch Gods of the Gates and read the books though so I could be a fan. I loved the tags for the fanfics and the mention of kudos. I also loved that the biggest complement April (as a fanfic writer) received, was that her smut was great from E. Wade. The relationships Marcus and April had with their parents were important. I think this was almost a 5 star, but sometimes it teetered over the edge of fluffy into corny. I definitely want to continue this series, and I haven't looked into who the next book is about, but I realllllly hope it's Lauren and Alex.
I started this series off of the Goodreads average reviews for it alone. Didn't do much research into what it was about other than that it was fantasy and well loved. I should have. I am not a fan of gang politics and that's all this series is about. Pretty upset with myself for purchasing the whole series. That being said, there were aspects that I liked. The existential questioning that all the Kaul children went through and the growth, guilt, pressures and how they handled the pressures were great. I have a hard time with books that create a fictional world with a specific emphasis on prejudices based off of skin color and parentage and aren't trying to combat it. The way the Abukei are talked about and the Stone Eyes, it's just uncomfy. Like Wen got to smuggle shit...that's not really redemptive or honorable. This book read as if a man wrote it, and that's really not a compliment from me. The women were few and didn't have anywhere near the depth or respect as any of the male characters. I find it incredibly hard to believe that if Shae were an actual woman that had a close friend SA'd by Uncle Doru, would she have pardoned him at the end. Even if it was to keep grandpa company. I'm almost tempted to complete this series just to enjoy Doru's death, but I fear I would not enjoy anything else about it.
At first I thought this book was going to be similar to Nora Goes Off Script, at least for the first couple of chapters, but then it went every other direction possible. I loved all of these characters. Vero stressed me tf out, ngl, but I loved her. I loved hating Theresa and Steven. They were awful. I love that Julian won out over Nick. I definitely need to purchase more of this series. I will say that I was let down that it was Aaron who did it. I get that it's fun to make the most unlikely character the one “whodunnit” but it wasn't satisfying at all to find out. Oops. Spoilers. I will say that the most terrifying part of this book is how after thinking she had fully murdered another human, Finn did not have any sort of existential crisis...she didn't even cry. Wild. And once again reading about a mom character has further solidified my absolute desire to never have children. lol
Um. I wanted to like this book way more than I did. Luli was insufferable and I get it, she viewed herself as a cold and monstrous thing, but she was really just self-centered at the end of the day. Not unlike any other person starved for fame. The symbolism wasn't lost on me, but the fantasy elements were so weird that I didn't appreciate them in the way the author intended. Her experiences were going to be specific to not just being a woman trying to make it to the silver screen, but a queer Asian actress. If it was stripped down to Luli's climb through old Hollywood and her romantic encounters, I would have liked it more. I just needed it to either tilt into full fantasy or tilt all the way to historical fiction. The magical realism in this instance was not working for me. Henry and Greta were great. Emmaline's negative character arc was great and I was glad that Luli ended up happy with Jane. I liked it, but I didn't love it.
This book was refreshing. Someone needs to confiscate Draven's thesaurus every once in a while, but it read smoothly enough. Learning new words while reading is one of my favorite things, but doing so on every other page was exhausting. And it's not about not being smart, these words have fallen out of the vernacular of all English-speaking cultures (let alone in Louisiana). That being said, I love love love Brishen and IIldiko. I love their teasing and gentle way with each other. The slow build to burn was great. I was wondering why nothing had really happened yet while on page 200, but then I remembered it's a series. I feel like the missing POV from Brishen after he was captured left it feeling rushed and unfinished. I also really wish he could have kept his eye... I will be reading Eidolon as soon as possible.
Oh my god I loved this book. I'm not going to lie, I pre-rated it at 5 stars after the taco bell note. I love Briana and her humor. I want to date her. lol I feel like a lot of romances become meh for me because of a lack of humor in the leads. I loved the way Jacob's anxiety was written. I loved how Briana paid attention to his anxiety the whole time. Ughhhhh. I loved the letters so much. The perfect amount of tension. This is the first book in almost 5 years that I actually deprived myself of sleep for. So good.
I loved Orquídea and Ray. I loved the star and the river monster. I loved the fantastical elements and the zombie rooster. They more than made up for the unfaithful partner, the secrets, and the murder. I was not a fan of the flowers. It creeped me tf out. I would not be okay with a flower sprouting out of my body. I think the author did such a great job of capturing this family and the tumultuous dynamics within.
I love the way Moyes writes female friendships. Aleks was a dream in a realistic way and I loved him and Nisha together. I loved everything about Jasmine, Andrea, and Grace. I was more interested in Phil's POV's than Sam's. I hate Sam's parents. The fifth star was knocked off because of the multiple instances of fat phobia/shaming, but this book was great otherwise.
This lived up to all of my expectations. I loved the small elements of Pinocchio that were added in. The Fox and the Cat, the donkey ears, the blue fairy being in the Luxor because of the light coming out of the top, and of course, the whale. My favorite part about TJ Klune's writing is his ability to jump between humorous and endearing moments so well. I loved every character, at least, every side character. Like with his other two books I have read, I found the “hero” to be the most boring and uninspired character in the cast. Outside of being human, Vic didn't really add a whole lot to the story for me. That being said, I loved all of the inappropriate jokes Nurse Rached and Rambo made at the expense of Vic. I'm a sucker for dick jokes. lol I loved this book.
I generally hate stories involving cheating, but I hated Cory so much that it made this tolerable. I loved Jane. Merit was incredibly annoying, but I wanted Jane to be happy. I liked the way their friendship shifted over time, though I had issues with the way the author was basically insisting that these were two straight women who just happened to fall in love. That felt yucky. I know my review is making it sound like I didn't actually enjoy this book, but I did. I fell for Jane when Merit did and I felt just as trapped by Cory and the basic “okay” memories they shared.
I'm glad I went to one of the book signings on the book tour for this one before reading it. Meeting Sally really helped me to point out and appreciate the humorous bits in this book. The way the characters were written challenged my preconceived notions of typical character archetypes. I liked that we got little snippets of the bigger picture as went along. I loved Fern and Wally, but I wanted to read about them as a romance, whereas Gabe and Pippa were disastrous and perfect for a mystery setting. I loved the soap opera worthy twists.
This book was depressing, to say the least. It was cool that they all had different ways that they connected to nature, but I hated all three of their stories. The constant bouncing to each character made it hard to keep the specifics straight. Could be because their lives weren't all that different, or because they all were equally boring and sad. I don't know. I was waiting for something more meaningful and dying for that locket key to open something much more fantastic than a cabinet with sad letters inside. I am clearly not the target audience for this book.
I liked the endearing parts of this book, but the “humor” was not it for me. I have issues with being gullible and overly literal in social situations and most of the comedic aspects of this book are laughing at Don's misunderstanding in any given moment. I liked that Rosie saw Don and met him where he was. I hated the constant mention of BMI. This is not my brand of romance or comedy. Daphne and Don's relationship was the best part and worth the 3 stars alone.
