Teija

Emily Henry is just out here rolling 20s on emotional damage every dang time. This one didn't dehydrate me like Happy Place did, but it was still a moving and emotional story of two people with believable flaws and captivating personalities. I loved Charlie and I loved Nora. Now I need to take a break to recover before I pick up another...

Sort of accidentally stumbled into a Love Inspired set through Libby, but I'll read just about anything so here we are. Patch's writing isn't great—there were a lot of awkward sentences and places where I thought a stronger editor would have made tweaks for clarity or flow. But her trope selection skills are impeccable. Stone's a great romantic lead and Emily's trust issues stem from a genuinely trust-shattering family relationship, so it worked out. Overall enjoyable.

Merged review:

Sort of accidentally stumbled into a Love Inspired set through Libby, but I'll read just about anything so here we are. Patch's writing isn't great—there were a lot of awkward sentences and places where I thought a stronger editor would have made tweaks for clarity or flow. But her trope selection skills are impeccable. Stone's a great romantic lead and Emily's trust issues stem from a genuinely trust-shattering family relationship, so it worked out. Overall enjoyable.

This book has been sticking with me ever since I read it. It's a twisting, turning scifi thriller that takes you in one direction and then slams you in another, and the end result is a world that has you thinking for days and days. Really interesting conceit, and I can't wait to see where Worrell goes with it. Looking forward to the next book.

I really enjoyed this one! The characters were likeable and the plot was compelling. I particularly liked Jacob.

This was a twisty, turny whodunit with well-written suspense and characters you care about, even the one who spends 99% of the book dead. A satisfying mystery.

Fine story, terrible writing. Will not be continuing series.

So the overall plot of this book is an interesting magical-realism psychological thriller well worth the time and effort. But my absolute favorite thing about this book is the way the author absolutely reams the “white women with vocal fry and quirky attitudes milk the stories of dead and missing women for podcasts and cash” genre, using a podcast investigation into the main character's disappearance to both drive the narrative AND zoom in on the worst of the exploitative true crime podcast genre. Incredible. Worth it just for that, but the whole book is solid.

There was a little bit of superfluous side drama that was honestly unnecessary and dragged one section out a little, and I wasn't impressed by the resolution. The author didn't honestly seed that well enough that it didn't feel like a random decision she made at the end and not the goal all along. But overall this made a long drive go by faster, and sometimes that's all I can ask for.

An interesting and fast-paced read. Very unsettling to get the serial killer's POV alongside the investigator! Neat twist, too.

A satisfying ending to a really great series. Loved everything about it. Especially Hypnos

Look. It's a great deal of fun and Willy Wonka is hilarious, but a big whack of nothing happens in this book. They go up into space, do one thing, then come back down and proceed to first sincerely screw up and then, with complicated science fiction frippery, undo the screw up, the end.

They return to essentially where they start and I'm not entirely sure anyone learns a damn thing from any of it?

My kid loved it though, so here we are.

Overall I thought this was a good story, but I think it had a bit of a tonal problem. Part quirky character development story, part family history mystery, part paean against sexism... these parts of the pie don't all fit together, like Garmus had six pies made and took one slice of each to create the whole.

However, overall I found it charming and imminently readable. The characters were gripping; I found myself rooting for Elizabeth even when she was being particularly obstinate (relatable), hoping the myriad men that wronged her paid the piper, and surprised at a few characters who grew along the way.

I recently read this with my son and it was just such a delight to revisit after all this time. I know I read it as a kid, but it had long been supplanted by the film editions. I highly recommend reading old favorites with a child. My son's excitement at major moments – the classic golden ticket in particular – was just so contagious, and so joyous. Nothing quite like it.

This book is fascinating. It's a take on what the world might look like in the future, upon the release of a bizarre plague from beneath melting glacier ice. There are scientific advances, institutionalized processes for helping people die, entire industries revolving around funerals and memorials. It's jarring and at the same time not to imagine a world with a high powered funerary lobby making plays at government funding.

Nagamatsu weaves multiple storylines together in such a heartfelt and moving way. The subtle connections between characters, the through-line of love and family and remembrance, it's gorgeous - if anything, I would consider this novel a paean to human resilience. To love and what keeps people together in difficult times. It's not necessarily a crying emotional narrative, to me the whole book is just voices from an imagined future in which death and dying, regardless of how, have lost any taboo or stigma, allowing people to make their endings with thought and care and support.

I'll definitely be thinking about this one for a long time. Four stars instead of five, though, but I won't explain why to anyone who hasn't read it.

I liked this one a lot better than the one prior. The issues facing the characters felt more real, and so the conflicts hit harder and the resolutions were more satisfying. I still think the first in the series is my favorite. But this one was very enjoyable.

This was cute enough but it didn't have the same appeal to me as the first one did. I think my problem was Stacey. Or rather, her revelation at the reveal of the big twist seemed sudden and weakly foreshadowed. I did really like the stuff involving Emily and Simon's continued storylines and I'm excited to read the next installment based on who is featured, but I think this one may not be one I return to. It was cute overall.

Boilerplate Viking romance between a seer and a warrior. She's a deus ex machina fountain and he's territorial to the point of being called unhinged, but overall it was fine.

I don't feel right rating this so I'm not going to.

Britney Spears has been through so much. Her family has used her as a piggy bank her entire life, and men have used her fame as a shortcut to their own—it's no wonder she crumbled under the pressure. There are some appalling revelations in here: Justin Timberlake forcing her to get an abortion, Kevin Federline essentially extorting her using her children as bait, her parents calling SWAT teams on her and having her institutionalized for defying even small requests... the amount of control these people exerted over her could amount to torture. But she tells her side with grace, and even extends them compassion despite all of the ways they've wronged her. It's truly astonishing how big her heart is, and how much she has endured.

I hope she puts her evil fucking father away for the rest of his miserable life, though. “I'm Britney Spears now” is some cartoon villain bullshit. What the fuck.

This was EXACTLY what I love in romances. A delightful setting, good reasons for the characters to have their hangups and reservations, realistic mistakes and makeups, and an absolutely to die for leading man. So well done.

A romantic thriller that does exactly what you want a romantic thriller to do. Solid main characters, interesting crime plot, and great tension between the wants and needs that resolved in a cute way.

Tamsyn Muir does it again! I love this series so damn much.

I was on the edge of tears for 75% of this book and the other 25% was just straight up crying. This book is PAINFUL, like... in that good way, where the angst is earned and the emotions are real and visceral. These characters are lovable and yet frustratingly flawed, like real people are, and it was such a journey to see them come apart and together as a friend group (and Harriet and Wyn as a couple).

The plot of this is better than the writing. The author head-hops a LOT, and some words are used incorrectly throughout (bespoke, for example, is not a fancy old fashioned way to say “spoke”). But I really liked Gillian, the protagonist, and the story of her family's strife was interesting.

Brice, the love interest, I found hilarious. Literally every time he even thinks about his wife he is suddenly walking around entirely consumed with nothing but his raging erection, that he can't control, that is just constantly throbbing with lust for this woman. Is he a grown man or 16 years old? His internal dialogue is genuinely 80% boners and tits.

Anyway, I finished it, weirdly written head-hopping be damned. And I'd probably try the author again, tbh. The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading.

Too short!

I would gladly have read more about Ozias and Lita. This book feels like it could have been paced a little slower. It goes from action to action and never really zooms in anywhere. Like it's a skeleton waiting for flesh.

Solid introduction

CW for sexual assault. An introductory novella to a series, short and smutty. There's a lot of unresolved tensions with other characters as a result of this being the introduction. But I'm intrigued.