Amanda
Not bad, but in a sort of weird halfway point between a memoir and an essay collection - wanted it to be more clearly one or the other. The audiobook is read by the author, and she's amazing. I definitely laughed out loud (alone in my car) several times.
Extremely low-conflict novella (I think - not sure of the page count since I read on my phone) about Hugo and Ophelia and how they got together. Fun for the appearances of the main characters from the other novels as kids, but pretty insubstantial overall. 3.5, rounding down.
Well, this was certainly a book I read. I didn't hate it, but I never got much sense of River besides that he's hot and grumpy/introverted, which is fine at the beginning but I need a little more insight/development for it to be satisfying, you know? I liked Jess and loved Fizzy and Juno, but their subplots just kind of petered out for me - Fizzy's new dude being married and Juno's friend drama are both mentioned a couple of times but never go anywhere, which was a little disappointing. Overall, this was fine, basically. Not quite my thing but I'm not mad at it.
(2021 Summer Romance Bingo: scientific pursuit; would also work for fake dating)
Super low-conflict friends-to-lovers romance, works better if you've just read A Duke by Default, because a lot of the main character's family conflict is detailed and resolved in that book (which stars her sister). I like Reggie a lot but I felt like Gus could use more development. This is still a lot of fun, but read as a companion piece to Book #2.
(Ugh, Goodreads, stop making it so hard to put your review with the right edition!)
Anyway, this is probably like 4.5 stars - I really liked it, but it took me ages to read, both because my stupid library holds just kept coming in and because most of the time I try to read in bed now I fall asleep in five minutes and retain almost nothing. (Hashtag mom life?) I like Portia a whole lot and I identify with her hot-mess-trying-to-be-better self. I wish the book had focused a little more on the psych aspects of that, not just the sobriety. If I remember, there are some quick mentions of ADHD and a call to her therapist, but that's about it. I also wish there'd been just a little more of Jamie and Cheryl, who seemed like great characters but weren't quite as developed as I'd like. I loved the effortless diversity of the characters and the setting. The ending was a little bit rushed, but I loved the world of this book so much I didn't even mind that! General caveat: if you're one of those people who demands complete accuracy in your romance, this is probably not the book for you, as some of the peerage details aren't correct. But then, everyone seems to be fine with a Regency England crawling with hot young available dukes (miraculously with all their teeth and free of STDs), so... let's not get bogged down here. This book is delightful.
Amazing book about a part of history that I knew basically nothing about before. Really enjoyed the parallel stories of the three main characters (characters isn't the right word but this book reads almost like fiction, so we'll use it). Great historical background and context to a lot of things that are still playing out in American culture today. Audio edition is very well-produced.
Probably would have liked it better as a book instead of an audiobook - all the #hashtag jokes got irritating when she's reading the word “hashtag” out loud constantly, but I would've been able to skip over them if I were reading. On the other hand, the John Hodgman letter was great and it was really endearing hearing her crack herself up reading her own book.
(4.5 stars, probably, rounding up.) Loved this one! Love Ledi and Likotsi so much - I know the next book in the series is about Portia, but I hope there's a way in the future to go back to Likotsi's story, because I need her to get a happy ending so much. This book had a whole lot going on, what with the secret-prince and the bizarre epidemic and the evil uncle poisoning everyone but it mostly came together really well. The villain's motives and how they played into why Ledi and her parents fled weren't all that satisfying to me, honestly, but I wasn't reading this for that stuff. I was reading for Ledi and her discovery of her family and heritage, and her learning how to let people in after being hurt so many times in foster care. And also because I pictured Thabiso in my head as M'Baku from Black Panther. This is a wonderful romance novel that was like a breath of fresh air - I've loved everything I've read by Alyssa Cole, and oops, I just bought the second book in this series. And preordered the third.
Probably 4.5 stars, rounding down. I had never heard of this book, even though it's a pretty recent release, and I wonder if it's because it could be classified as general fiction instead of romance. (Definitely not saying general fiction is better than romance, just that they're marketed differently.) This is definitely a romance, though, and one I really enjoyed - content warnings here minor character death, force-feeding, police violence, physical abuse, characters in jail, so this is definitely a little more intense than a lot of things I like, but it never got overwhelmingly dark to me.
It's fairly angsty, but again, not dark, and the only real criticism I have is that the slow burn of it all got just a bit repetitive by the end, but overall, I thought this was a really well-told story of flawed people growing and finding their way to each other. It's probably not for you if religious characters are a problem (though I wouldn't call this “inspirational,” the male MC is a priest), but otherwise, I really recommend it.
(2020 summer romance bingo: suffragettes. Other options it would work for: “set on an island,” loosely, or debut novel.)
It was fine, I guess? Not my favorite Courtney Milan, but that's not surprising, considering it's her first novel. I liked how much Ned was involved in it, and it oddly seemed like he was more developed as a character than Gareth, who I really didn't care for throughout a good portion of the book. I'm all for a buttoned-up hero, but he was just kind of a jackass. I wish there'd been a little more depth to Jenny's character, too, or maybe even a friend or something for her - it really didn't seem like she had anyone else in the world besides her clients, and I know that's part of her backstory, but she's been in London twelve years and doesn't know anyone? Anyway, not entirely my thing, but certainly not bad at all. Probably you should start with [b:The Duchess War 13489919 The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister, #1) Courtney Milan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363009176l/13489919.SY75.jpg 19028791] if you want to read Courtney Milan, though.(2020 summer romance bingo: psychics/telekinesis. Would work for a generous interpretation of “set on an island,” and more traditionally for secret identity, title is a pun, or debut novel.)
3.5, rounding up. Very Western-centric, especially in the later chapters, and not sure why it took a detour into molecular gastronomy at the end when before that the focus had been on how people cooked at home, not in restaurants. (Though I'll admit to bias here since I find molecular gastronomy extremely annoying.) The writing style was engaging and easy to follow, and it honestly blew my mind to discover that some things I thought had been around forever, like a reliable can opener or a microplane grater, were less than 50 years old. A different perspective on the usual food writing!
Went back to the beginning of this series after reading [b:Destiny's Captive 20452171 Destiny's Captive (Destiny, #3) Beverly Jenkins https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1395032951l/20452171.SY75.jpg 31828911] for romance bingo, because I like the family and wanted to read the other brothers' stories. I really liked Mariah and her relationship with Alanza and the whole found-family aspect of this. I would've maybe liked a little slower burn on the romance - it all happening in a week seemed fast, but that's a pretty minor complaint. I also really enjoyed the background romance with Alanza. Since I've already read the third book in this series, I know how it turns out, but also this is a romance, so of course.
Suffers a little bit from being the last in a series, especially since the first quarter or so has a detour back to California and Noah's mom getting remarried. Not bad, though, especially since I'm going back and reading the first two books in the series now (so, mission accomplished, I guess!). Marriage of convenience, a little bit of enemies-to-lovers, some fun piracy and a focus on history that you probably didn't learn about in school. An excellent end to summer romance bingo!
Content warnings: sexual assault (in the past, but discussed, though not in detail), segregation/Jim Crow, attempted murder of a character.
(2020 summer romance bingo: I'm on a boat. Would work for set on island, secret identity, and maybe bootleggers.)
Cute, but ran into my usual novella problem - this was barely 100 pages and I wanted more conflict/development, something! There's nothing wrong with two likable characters falling in love, but this was kind of like a doughnut: delightful while you're eating it, but not a lot of substance.
(2021 Summer Romance Bingo: holiday that is not Christmas.)
(Probably 3.5, rounding up.) Extremely readable and compelling story of the rise and fall of a fictional girl group in the early 2000s - I was 18-19 at the time this book is set, so it hurts my heart a little to tag this as “historical fiction,” but it also means I remember this era of pop culture extremely well. I wanted a little more characterization/depth to the other girls back in the Gloss days (especially Rose), and maybe a little more about what happened to them all after the split. I guess maybe that would've been too dark, but I found myself wanting to know what they'd all been doing since then. Very good for a debut novel and I'm interested to see what comes next from this author!
Really enjoyed this - there's a lot less pranking/hoaxing than I expected from reading the blurb/reviews, but that's fine with me. Thought the impetus for their big fight in the past could've used a little more explanation - clearly both their parents are terrible, but it never really explains how/why they decided to match their children up, or why they felt they needed to do it by potentially ruining Violet. The banter was fun, their various groups of friends are clear sequel-bait (and I'm here for it), the dresses are beautiful, all-around fine Regency fun.
You know a book has done a good job making a seemingly boring topic interesting when Wayne Coyne is the least interesting character in it. An unexpectedly fascinating biography of Oklahoma City and parallel history of the 2013 OKC Thunder season.
I liked each individual chapter - I think my favorite was the one about the Tate family and the rise of the idea of victim's rights. I wanted a little more connection/analysis between the chapters, though; I didn't feel that there was much of a through line to them all and I would have liked more trying to connect the dots about why women in particular feel drawn to true crime, and what leads people to focus on one aspect of true crime instead of another. (Also I would have been really interested to read more about whether being interested in true crime is as much of a middle-class white lady phenomenon as it seems - I say this as a middle-class white lady myself, but an unscientific survey of my friends seems to indicate that this is the case.) In reading the notes at the end, apparently most of these were published previously online or in magazines, which is not a problem at all; each chapter is obviously meticulously researched and well-written, but I did want some more connective tissue between them all.
Suspense/thriller/horror isn't really my genre of choice, but Alyssa Cole is such a talented writer I gave this a shot anyway. I loved the NextDoor-style posts that started off a lot of the chapters, and the community garden/gentrification theme of the book reminded me of [b:Open House 46155804 Open House (Uptown, #2) Ruby Lang https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565202407l/46155804.SY75.jpg 71108926], but obviously from a very different angle. I'm not sure what purpose Theo's Russian mafia connections and possible teenage-murderer backstory served, but it seemed pretty undeveloped and I think there was enough going on with him to make that unnecessary. Sydney's POV was stressful and exhausting, but that seemed to be the point - I was legitimately worried for her at times, which is a weird thing to think about a POV character in a work of fiction, but like I said, Alyssa Cole is just that good. The pacing was a little wonky toward the end, but I thought there was a really good gradual buildup of suspense throughout the earlier sections of the book. I probably wouldn't have read this if not for Alyssa Cole, but I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Not a lot really happens in this, per se - the big argument/conflict between Mike and Ben is before the novel starts, and is only referenced in flashback. Even Mike's section in Japan is still pretty slow/meditative. This isn't bad, it's just a change for me, since I don't read a lot of literary fiction. I did have quite a bit of feeling “oh my god, you two, just break up,” but this is so much more about character than plot, and I enjoyed the time spent really getting into each character's head. I also liked how this was about two working-class gay men of color in Houston, instead of my (kind of mean) impression of literary fiction all being about white male lit professors in New York who want to sleep with their students. I'd like to read this again to get a clearer opinion of it, and also because the writing is just beautiful.
When I first heard about this book, it was described as a romance, I think, and it's definitely not that. Romance is an element (how could it not be, with the whole drunken-marriage-in-Vegas setup to the story), but this is much more of a coming-of-age/character study. The writing is gorgeous and poetic, exploring Grace's crisis in the year after she graduates with a PhD in astronomy and without a job. I found Grace somewhat frustrating as a character, but she's supposed to be about 10 years younger than I currently am, and I certainly can't say I always made good decisions in my late 20s. Long story short, this isn't quite what I was expecting but I very much enjoyed it. Effortlessly diverse cast of characters and beautiful prose. I felt for Grace and all the other characters trying to make their ways in a difficult world, but still having each other. Content warnings on the author's site here: https://www.morgwrites.com/content-warnings
(3.5, rounding down.) Started slow but picked up more when it got to the 1960s and 70s. Mostly focused on Margaret, especially in the second half of the book. I wish there'd been a little more insight/analysis as opposed to just retelling, but that's probably more difficult when one of your subjects has been dead for almost 20 years and the other certainly won't be talking to you. Still enjoyable and quick reading.
Fascinating and twisty and gorgeously written. Falls at the center of an unusual Venn diagram where the circles are “books I'll like,” “books my husband will like,” and “books my mom will like.” Loved the tension and cat-and-mouse between Addie and Luc, and the way Addie learns over the years to turn her disadvantages to work for her. I really enjoyed this one!
