Rebecca Doctor
Way too many points of view. There's a supposedly climactic part where one of the leads is playing the keyboard, and I'm there thinking not about the emotion of the scene but about what the keyboardist is going to have to say about it. And then she weighs in! Everyone has to have their tuppence worth on everything. It's very distracting from the general plot. Not for me.
For years I've been unable to grab on to either series' or YA so it came as a surprise when I picked up Caroline O Donahue's foray into the genre that I loved it enough to continue on. The characters are so well rounded, and Maeve's teenageness isn't irritating, it's grounded in a well explored and likeable character. Ro's journey in this book is also fantastic, playing with the process of growing up vs belief in magic. Also I'm a simple woman I like teen witch stuff. This is my Irish Buffy.
Seeing as how I'm not a series girlie and how I've been in a reading slump lately with a litter of DNFs in my wake this 4 stars is probably an underrate, but if cosy academic fantasy sounds appealing to you then look no further
What a delightful surprise - I thought I was in for another cute but mid low fantasy but this just gets better and better as each chapter progresses. I'm not a series girlie but I might make an exception for this one
Spiderwick Chronicles for grown ups go offffff
Is this... pride and prejudice au fanfiction? And she's called Livvie instead of Lizzie and he is Colin after Colin Firth?! grim. 2.5 stars
My flatmate and I started this at the same time and we both agreed that whilst we were interested we really hated being inside this person's mind and that was quelling all enjoyment for us. I've had way too many DNFs and I'm in a total slump so I soldiered on and it remained the same; interesting but not enjoyable. In the interview that came after Sara Pascoe said that this was initially a book about murder and honestly that would make more tonal sense. The weirdoness was rife.
This was a much better starting point with Terry Pratchett for me than The Colour Of Magic. Very funny and a worthwhile read for any dabblers in theology or fantasy
Guess I'm going to have to officially change my stance that I don't like books with unlikeable characters!
The drama wasn't really drama-ing and the romance wasn't really romancing for me, sorry
loved reading sections of this aloud to my horrified friends when they asked me why I was ‘making that face' whilst reading
Did enjoy listening to this whilst driving and feel like it gave me a perspective on a previous generation of feminists that I was perhaps lacking but not about to say it was particularly revelatory. Norah Ephron has an interesting voice, really liked Heartburn, but this is not that.
Unsure whether the experience of dating straight men is ubiquitous or if Dolly Alderton and I actually just dated the same man, (possible given relative ages of all parties and the fact that both myself and the lead character lived in Pinner). I fear that as I progress in her autobiography I'll find my own ex in the pages. But anyway, I sort of hated this as it allowed me to feed my cynicism towards dating even further but it was overwhelmingly relatable to me, a 27 yo single white female freelancer in West London. Make of that what you will.
A treatise on how you can fail a child via lack of warmth, lack of forgiveness, lack of listening. A bleak and utterly believable read. Difficult, I had to take many breaks.
I think I ought to have read a palate cleanser between In Defence of The Act and this because it contextualised it in such a bleak way.
Oh to be so intensely beautiful that hot and handy small town men will take up renovation projects in your name without you even asking.
I felt I really ought to read a Tessa Bailey as she's so ubiquitous in the contemporary romance space and I'd say this was fairly standard. Not a future favourite unfortunately.