Ash
I love characters that have niche/nerdy interests. I love when both love interests share these interests. I'm not mad that this book is similar to The Love Hypothesis because it's a formula that works for me. I know who these characters are and I'm rooting for them. I loved RocIo and Kaylee and their goth girl/Elle Woods romance. I just loved this book. The cats, the kisses, and the Curie history. All of it.
I would have liked this book better if Ari wasn't in it. I loved the dynamic between Emilia and Jasper. If he could have just been the fully-fledged basilisk, I would have been perfectly content. I'm all for mmf, but I didn't like the relationship between Jasper and Ari, and Ari's dishonestly made him unattractive the whole time. I also don't think it was a good idea to read this at the same time as reading a Tiffany Roberts book because they are superior in many ways, but I will still read all of Lark's books.
Have you ever read a book and feel like you didn't take any of it in? Like I know what happened, but I read through too quickly and just didn't absorb any of it. I kept spacing out and would zero back in during very active parts. Either in a hedge maze or during a romantic moment. I think I will need to reread this before reading the next one and try to not dissociate during it. The romance was fantastic and I loved certain lines and confessions. Definitely going to reread because I know I liked it, but I just was not in the right brainspace for it this time through.
I honestly did not have very high hopes for this book as I recently read the Song of Achilles and was not a very big fan. Briseis was one of the few characters I really liked from that book, so I decided to give this one a try. The biggest difference for me is that the story isn't being romanticized. Achilles is pretty terrible and Briseis is aware of it the whole time. The love between Achilles and Patroclus is there. I also liked the portrayal of Patroclus. I felt like I got a better understanding of his character outside of his fealty to Achilles. He was caring and strong. I'm still not a huge fan of ancient Greek mythology (outside of Xena), but I liked this take on it.
This cover is gorgeous and we all know I'm a monster romance girly, but I'm going to be honest, I only read this book to fulfill a prompt. I remember going into the movie thinking I would love it and it was just okay, so I went into the book knowing it would be okay at best. Guillermo de Toro is known for his dark movies, but it's rough when it is translated into written word. The rampant misogyny, racism, violence, and gore, while expected, was grating. I love Giles and I love the creature. Everyone else was written as the worst kind of stereotype. I was going to rewatch the movie after reading...but I'm good. Once was enough.
This book is not for fat women, coming from a fat woman. It's like trauma porn for nonfat people to get a glimpse into the worst stereotypes of the fat experience. I forced myself through this. I'm also not shocked that going through the ratings on goodreads, the people that agree with me are also fat. I really went into this excited about the representation, but the only representation present was the triggering vitriol the mc receives online. I also just did not like Bea's personality. Being obsessed with your best friend who is engaged to someone that you helped him cheat on, but he never gave you the time of day is gross and pathetic and not someone I want to root for. There was no squee moment because the whole book makes you question if any these guys are worth it so I didn't care about her getting with any of them. (If you're not going to have a squee moment, at least give me some smut, ya know?)
If you've read any of my reviews on romance books that I didn't like, you know I'm keeping a Taylor Swift count. Because generally speaking, the more her name is dropped unnecessarily throughout a book, the more I have an uncanny and completely coincidental dislike for it. There were 4 (if you count the author's bio... To be fair other artists were mentioned, but only once: Lizzo, Rihanna, Ariana Grande. I just want to understand this phenomenon with Swifties and their penchant for problematic characters and plot points.
Anyway, if you are a fellow fat and you don't want to read a bunch of traumatic bs, but still want a fat bachelorette Cinderella story where you are actually rooting for the couple, go read If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy.
I loved this book. I love Grace Porter and Yuki Yamamoto. I genuinely do not understand why this book doesn't have higher ratings. The characters are so weird and wonderful. I couldn't help but to compare Grace Porter with Bette Porter randomly while reading. Highly accomplished and under pressure biracial lesbian with a stern dad. (At least the Colonel is only similar to Melvin by being stern and not homophobic.) They are obviously not the same character, but there were definite similarities. I loved Yuki's fondness for monster stories and lonely people. I just loved this book. It wasn't literary excellence, but it was beautiful and I enjoyed every minute of it.
For what? This book was this long for what? There was not nearly enough story to warrant this many pages of boredom. The etymology aspect was fascinating. The history and anti-colonialism was gripping. I didn't like how the 4 main characters were written though. I feel like they were shallow and one dimensional. I couldn't tell you much about them outside of their one personality trait. Letty's white woman tears, Robin's cluelessness, Ramy's disdain for the rest of the group, and I couldn't even pinpoint Victoire's personality (and she lived the longest...). Robin has a complete personality shift in the last book, but he just took the one personality trait from Griffin. It was frustrating. The magical aspect with the enchanted silver was interesting in concept, but felt corny in this setting. If this could be rewritten as just historical without the fiction, it probably would have been better for me. Or I would have much preferred to read from Griffin's perspective within the Hermes Society. This is clearly a historical period the author has studied tremendously. I don't know if she has studied character writing as thoroughly.
Okay so #2 and #4 are the best so far. I loved this book. I loved Manon's humanity revelation. I loved that we got a little closer with Rowan and Aelin. I loved that Dorian came back. I don't know how I feel about the king being a valg this whole time. It feels like that wasn't the original plan. I cried when Lysandra came back as the thing Aedion fears most. I'm pretty sure she's my favorite character at this point. I still just do not care about Chaol and every time I put this book down, it was during a Chaol scene. He's just such a whiny dick. He doesn't deserve Nesryn. I know they won't end up together because the series couples were spoiled for me before I even started, but still. I have to wait for a couple weeks before I continue the series, but I think I'm going to try to do the tandem read.
This book talks about the author's true life experiences while in an abusive relationship. It also talks about the stigmas around abuse in same sex (specifically lesbian) relationships. Abuse can exist between any two people and it's not limited to physical harm. I liked and disliked that if felt like I was reading a monologue as some parts felt like a run on sentence that needed more pause whereas other passages would have made for an excellent spoken word poem. I loved the usage of the Dream House and how it started each experience with some reference to popular culture, fantasy, or niche genre. Remembering instances of trauma with the understanding that it was trauma really forces you come to terms with your perceived reality at the time and what you were willing to accept from someone you love
I feel like this book is the actual start of the series and the ones before it were all just prequels. Also, we all collectively hate the covers of these books right? Her hair is wrong and she doesn't even use a bow and arrow in this book, does she? I can see why this is the book that turns people off to the series as a whole. I really just did not care about Aedion and Chaol's plot, let alone Dorian and Sorscha. I mean we all knew that was going to end up in tragedy. I really liked Manon's story, though it's a lot to just throw in a brand new character to focus a third of the book on when you are halfway through a series. I was bored for a lot of this book, but the ending tied everything together and Rowan is a dreamboat. Beware of the tattooed fae males in a SJM series... As I'm writing this review, I'm already about 100 pages into Queen of Shadows.
I hated so many of the characters in this book, but I was engaged while reading through. Even though the circumstances were consistently frustrating, I needed to know what would happen next. I loved Grandma Nora and I wish I could hear Ray play. I found myself looking up and listening to the pieces he was playing as I was reading along. This is the kind of story that makes me feel like you really can't trust anyone and it didn't help when Ray would make reckless decisions to investigate the missing violin himself. I don't think that any of the people Ray encountered, with like two or three exceptions, deserved respect. I understand that the world as a whole thinks that being “sweet” and respectful to all others is important above all else, but I do not agree. People who are terrible to you do not deserve respect, nor the privilege to engage with you even if they are family. I wish the characterizations went deeper and that there was more nuance in the interactions the main character encountered with both his family and all of the racist people along the way. Every interaction was extreme and didn't help with how shallow all of the characters came across. I feel like I'm begging for nuance in every mystery review though...I liked it overall.
I feel like I've been duped. The premise of this book sounded infinitely more interesting than it actually was and the ratings I've seen for this book seem disproportionately high. I was bored for most of this. I had to force myself through and narrowly avoided a reading slump. I played through the entire trilogy of the Spyro games just to avoid reading this book... I love dystopian science fiction. It's in my top 5 favorite genres, but this was mostly sad and depressing. Ordinary people waiting for their deaths. There were way too many perspectives to follow and any one of them could have been swapped out and it would still be the same book. One of the characters talks about other dystopian books that I feel like the author tried to pull from, but this book doesn't stand up to The Hunger Games or The Handmaiden's Tale. Yes, there was an opressive government, but no overturnng of said government and we don't even find out where the boxes come from. I feel like I've read enough political fiction from actual disenfranchised groups that I'm just not interested in dystopian versions from non-disenfranchised groups anymore. Ugh. I'm sad because I really thought I would love this.
I kind of hated Frankie and Ezra the whole time, but I didn't hate this book. I don't know how to explain that better. I hated everything revolving around Mimi. I get that he needed grand gestures as a defining character point, but Mimi was trash and I'm still not a fan that she got cheated on. I liked the nostalgic late 90's references with music and tech. I liked the mystery aspect. I just wanted Frankie to be less of a “badass genius” and Ezra to be less of a “nice guy” without a spine or any sense of the people in his life. You know...I started this review with 4 stars, but I think it really was a 3 star read for me. I've convinced myself that I liked it less than the last chapters tried to trick me into thinking
Classics are tough for me to follow. I always get about halfway through and see if there is a movie adaptation I can watch so I have a better understanding of what's happening before finishing the book. When I looked up this one and saw that Clueless was a loose adaptation the whole book clicked for me. Mr. Knightly is one of my favorite Austen male leads. I thought it was interesting that the somewhat vapid and bubbly character that Austen usually writes as a sister or side character was the main character for this book. Emma was annoying, but her love for Harriet was beautiful.
I'm not going to lie, I hated this book for the first 50 or so pages. I know that's shocking considering the rating I gave it, but Garrett's first chapter almost put me off the book entirely. I know he was supposed to seem like a douchebro jock, but it was a bad way to be introduced to the mmc. Can't forget Hannah though, because Hannah's not like other girls. She eats 4 slices of pizza and wears polka dotted socks. Lol. Until the deal was made, I was skeptical. This read like a ya book with explicit scenes scattered throughout. All of this being said, I got hooked. Even though the frequent mentioning of her SA was jarring, I flew through the pages. This would have been my favorite book if I had read it at 19 or 20. I was rooting for them almost as soon as the deal was made. I was so sure Justin was going to end up doing something terrible because of Garrett's insistence that he was a bad guy, but I'm glad he ended up being cool in the end. I'm definitely going to finish this series, but I think I'm going to space it out.
This book had elements that I loved and that I hated. I loved the moments when Ellie and Jack were together, but I wish this was written in third person so I could get more of the behind the scenes with Dylan and Andrew. I was equally invested in all of the points of the quadrangle. I also felt like if it were written to include their perspectives more, than we could have avoided some of the miscommunication crap with Ellie. It was almost like there wasn't enough of a conflict to keep the main couple apart so Cochrun kept blaming Ellie's anxiety for not having conversations. I'm glad that Ellie didn't have some resolution scene with her mom at the end, because sometimes you just have to let go of people who are not genuinely trying to be a part of your life. I liked that they showed the mixed family elements with Andrew and Jack's family because it reminded me of my experiences with my husband's family.
I've said it so many times that I classify romance novels into two categories. The ones that I liked and the ones that mention Taylor Swift multiple times throughout. This was an almost exception because Celine Dion was mentioned too. (Before the Swifties get angry, my gripe is not with T-Swift, it's that her fans can't help themselves but to insert her into their books 8000 times to try to get her to notice them...) If I separate just the romance scenes, Jack being the hottest love interest ever, and the funny scenes, I liked this book a lot. As a whole, it was just middle of the road for me though.
Secret tunnels, magical doorknobs, anagrams and riddles, witches in a traveling carnival, and a magical language that can open portals to other worlds. This is what I love about fantasy. I read through this book with childlike wonder. I loved this book. Maas's sequels are always the best in the series for me. I can't believe I get to read 5 more. :))
Look, this book has beautiful moments, but it smells like sweat. I started this book early last year, but was bored so I stopped. I started again because it is a book club read. The story in this book as a story alone, was great for me. I loved Isabelle's brazen bravery and her love for Gaëtan. Vianne got there at like 3/4 of the way through. The delivery of this story, however, was not fantastic. I'm not a fan of Hannah's writing style and choices with descriptive passages. She described it as smelling like sweat at least ten times and it was distracting. It was grating how often Isabelle was described as beautiful because of the importance assigned to her being beautiful. When she used it to maneuver around the Nazis, how it was part of her eulogy, and how despite going through a concentration camp, she remained beautiful... As if it mattered. The settings were hard to keep track of because the weather didn't make sense. Snow appeared and disappeared frequently within the same day. The ending was obviously the best part, but it didn't make up for the rest of the book for me unfortunately. This was a meh.
This book delves into the abuse in Hollywood, but instead of it being a # metoo article where the author is either trying to capitalize off of victims or gain points for standing with the movement, it looks into the life of the individual that experienced the trauma and shows the effect of said trauma. I went into this book not knowing what it was about at all. While I enjoyed the insight into the subject matter, this book was not perfect. It was a little slow in places and we were just as confused as the mc when she couldn't remember aspects of her life prior to being sober. It was an okay read.
This book was not what I was expecting it to be after reading the prequel. I think there was too long of a lull in the middle. I wanted more of the scenes with the tests and less of Celaena in her room contemplating Dorian and Chaol. I'd rather she chose Nehemia tbh... I liked it better than I liked ACOTAR when I first read it. That being said, though liked it better, it still felt like a filler book instead of an introduction to a series. I'm going to start the next one today so, we'll see.
I love books that follow a group of people, and do it well. This book does that. All of the characters were distinct and all of their lives were interesting. I liked that there weren't really any unlikable characters. The ones that you could potentially dislike had redeeming qualities. The ghost aspect was a little silly, but it helped move the plot along. I liked Chad and Alessandra the best because they were the most morally gray characters. This is my first Elin Hilderbrand book, and it was better than I was expecting it to be based on cover judgements alone. I'll have to get a few more.
Meh. I was a huge fan of the Silent Patient, but this felt sloppy. The creepy professor, the creepy stalkers, the creepy fan girls, and the creepy dead husband. No thanks. I'm not a fan of mysteries where the mc is trying the whole book to solve it and none of their investigating has anything to do with the actual mystery. Like it's cool that she caught the professor sleeping with his acolytes, but she didn't get any sort of feelings from her murderous pedophilic dead husband as a psychotherapist and she claims to have loved him? Bruh. The logic is missing.
