Amanda
I want to reread this already. I loved the stories in two timelines (which makes it sound like Lost, but I can't think of a better way to put it, and I REALLY loved the Griggs/Taylor relationship (and all of Taylor's friends, really, especially Raffy). This book wasn't at all what I was expecting from the blurb, which is good, because it's so much better.
Fascinating and creepy. Loved the history of the church - basically none of which I knew before.
Loved the female friendships in this book! I felt like this one went on a bit too long - I understand why, to some extent, but the whole thing with Annabelle's mom stabbing the dude was pretty out of left field and a pretty extreme way to tie up that plot loose end. Other than that, I really enjoyed this one. The chemistry was definitely believable and I liked that the male lead wasn't the usual lord or duke or whatever. Definitely going to read the rest of this series!
More like 3.5 stars, rounding up because I love the author and this series. Only 3.5 because it got a little too dramatic at the end, with carriage chases and fully armed footmen.
Put this down for several weeks (months?) and just picked it back up. Not sure if I'll continue the series.
I devoured this and it was so good and so beautifully written I want to go back and read it again. Stunning.
I'm assuming that not having a whole lot of insight into Hannah's character was sort of the point of this book, and I get that, but it made it hard to get into. Especially since all we end up knowing about Clay is that he is apparently one of only two decent people in the entire high school (both guys, just saying), and he lives somewhere that there are both buses and it's totally safe for 17 year olds to wander around at night. I get the intent behind the ending, but ... ugh.
I love this series! This is a close second to It Happened One Autumn for my favorite book in it so far.
Not my favorite, but well-written and interesting. I would probably have been more interested in this if it had been from Bethany's POV.
4.5 stars, rounding up. Plot got a little complicated at the end with all the various inheritance shenanigans and secret plans, but I really enjoyed this. Kind of hard to call this a slow burn considering the premise, but the progression of Martha and Theo from being barely able to tolerate each other to friends and then more was delightful and really well done. I also liked the side characters, especially Sheridan (Martha's lady's maid). Not a lot to say here but this one is so good! Highly recommended.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: widowed protagonist. Would work for property inheritance as well.)
Loved this. Especially how the three stories that seemed completely unrelated merged and intersected, and reading back over to see how perfectly set up that was.
I read this for “midsummer ball” on Ripped Bodice romance bingo - there's like four balls and a London Season, so one of them is probably in midsummer. Pretty standard Julia Quinn, lots of banter and everyone has a title or six. From the blurb, I thought the secret identity/dressed as a maid thing would be more of the story, but it's all resolved in the first hundred or so pages. Not bad, but not anything that's really going to stick with me, I think.
(2020 summer romance bingo: midsummer ball. Loosely “set on island,” would also work for secret identity, debut novel, meddling matchmakers, and violet eyes.)
This book created its own world and I was totally sucked in. I love Puck and Sean and Finn and Dory Maud; even the most minor characters felt real and the island felt like a place I might have read about before.
3.5, rounding up. The weakest of the series, but pleasant enough. This series is all about the friendships between the wallflowers for me, and this book definitely delivered on that.
I liked the narrator, but everything that the reviews on the first page say about the girl characters is true. Maybe I'm going easier on this book because I've read way more un-feminist YA books (I am still mad that I read [b:Cycler 2970898 Cycler Lauren McLaughlin http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255632240s/2970898.jpg 3001136], yes). I enjoyed this, though, and I can see this book being a jumping-off point for readers to find the music and books that are mentioned in it. I don't know if I'll re-read or not, but it was worth the time.Random side note: this was published in 2006, but no one has a cell phone?
Light and mostly fun (though like every essay collection, some misses). Read last year when it first came out, reread this year because I was tired of reading wedding books but didn't want anything super deep.
Like the characters a lot. Have no idea what's going on with the plot. A lot of mystery and not enough answers for me yet.
Miranda is probably my favorite heroine of this series - she was just fun, and refreshingly non-angsty for the most part. I really enjoyed this one. All the criminal underworld stuff isn't really my thing, but I liked how it was handled and how it didn't (for the most part) overshadow the rest of the story. I also really liked the slow reconciliation between Smite and other family members. I don't know whether this or Unveiled is my favorite of the series, but they're both excellent and worth a read.
Solid romance/general fiction - it really does straddle the line a bit, because there's almost as much about January coming to terms with her dad's death and reconciling who he was with who she thought he was, which is all very well-handled and a good exploration of grief and disillusionment. I do just have to say, however, write as beautifully as you want in letters to your daughter about CHEATING ON YOUR WIFE WHO HAS CANCER, you're still cheating on your wife who has cancer, justify it however you like, you're garbage, sorry about it.
I really enjoyed the dialogue in this book, especially the banter between January and Gus as they get to know each other early on. Some of the drama late in the book with Gus's ex-wife coming back and January kind of spiraling out as a result seemed a little bit unnecessary, but other than that I liked this a lot and the development of the romance was really natural and fun.
(2020 summer romance bingo: “protagonist smells uniquely like themselves,” though really, once you're looking for it, almost every romance has a description or two that would qualify for this square. Would also work for “I'm on a boat,” and maybe for “dad jokes.”)
4.5 stars, rounding down. I screenshotted so many passages from this to share on Twitter because this book kept making me laugh out loud while I read it. I'd call this more of a romantic comedy than a straight-up romance - it's first-person from Luc's POV and there's not much exploration of Oliver's baggage/situation until the last 75-100 pages. I loved basically every character in this (except the ones you're not supposed to love), especially Bridget and Luc's too-posh-to-live coworkers Alex and Rhys. (And Luc's mother and her Drag Race-obsessed friend, of course.)
Anyway. 4.5 stars instead of a full five because I thought the ending was pretty abrupt and this could've used a little bit of an epilogue for the happily-ever-after, but that's really my only nitpick. This was delightful.