3.5 rounded down.
I thought this was a cute Christmas book, and if I hadn't read The Summer I Turned Pretty, I probably would have enjoyed it more.
It has a warm loving family, great traditions, a decent plot for a Christmas story, but I found like too much focused on the background and not enough of the main characters and their growing love.
3.5 stars, rounded down.
I feel like this was almost... David Rose fan fic, although Matthew Prince was slightly less funny and likeable, and his family didn't lose everything.
There was a big spotlight on anxiety, which I found nice to see highlighted, however it felt almost like it was too much in the spotlight. It detracted from the story at moments.
Overall a nice holiday read.
3.75 rounded up
I found this novel very atmospheric. I felt like I was in the town, in the house. It did a great job setting a whole vibe, that was creepy yet inviting.
It was the first time where I've read a book that described main characters as ugly, but I didn't hate that.
The theme of found family was strong, and although the chapters weren't all likeable, you wanted to know their story and see them succeed.
2.75 stars rounded up.
Personally, I did not enjoy this book.
I think it is overhyped on booktok. I found it was a lot of repetition. The buildup was too long, and the ending was rushed.
If horror/paranormal/suspense is your main genre, this might be for you, but for someone that only casually reads those types of books, it wasn't one that I enjoyed or that would inspire me to pick up another horror next.
My second Hendrix book was as lackluster for me as the first.
There is something about him trying to write female perspective that erks me a bit.
The plot I thought would be really entertaining was just okay. Characters weren't my favorite. Not as atmospheric as I would hope for an autumn horror read.
3.5 rounded down.
Cute, fluffy small town romance. Just like reading a Hallmark movie.
Not a lot of spice.
Cute town setting. Like, I want to move here, join the book club, drink my coffee at the cafe, go to the bakery, pick apples at the farm, get my books from the local bookstore, etc.
The characters, side and main, are all fine..not a huge amount of deep development, but wasn't really expecting that with a book like this.
It was a good read, I'll read the whole series, but it wouldn't be the first book I recommended to someone.
This was a surprise 4 star for me.
It's been sitting on my shelf pretty well since it came out and I have been avoiding it, worried I wouldn't like it, however I found it a very interesting play on a multi-time line theme.
I thought it was engaging, well written and I enjoyed the ending.
When I first started this book, I think I expected multiple people venturing through the library, so when I realized it was just a book following one main character I was a little worried I would get bored, however, it was so well done, that I loved living multiple lives through the eyes of our FMC.
This book wasn't for me.
I went into this book blind, as I always do, and didn't realize it was a rapunzel retelling. But that was obvious pretty quickly.
This book was filled with the worst, most annoying angst. I didn't enjoy it. I thought the world building was poor, so you couldn't visualize the story in your mind very well.
I felt like the witch and vampire aspect was used to draw in readers, but they weren't deep character with rich histories.
It felt like a story written by a teen girl, that had a crush on her best friend and didn't know how to vocalize it, and being witches and vampires were an afterthought
3.5 rounded down.
I feel like this book almost tried to do too much. Like we brainstormed what could happen, but didn't edit it down and tried to include it all.
That said, it was still an enjoyable read. I liked the characters even if they were surrounded by a little more chaos then they maybe needed it be.