laur gluchie
[8th Grade]
I read this as an alternate project. The class was reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”, but my mom felt I was too young to read it so requested that the teacher give me an alternate assignment. The assignment was this book.
I finished it in the span of a few hours in a literal (hi welcome to) Chili's. This book was just so moving and emotional that it took a lot of will to not cry in the restaurant. This book taught me to value your family, friends, and every day you have as if it's your last.
The assignment was to write an essay on how the plot of the book changed me as a reader and how the characters decisions influenced me as a person. I never did the assignment.
DNF ~ 10%Meh. Can't be bothered to say anything. Go read my [b: An Abundance of Katherines 49750 An Abundance of Katherines John Green https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1360206426l/49750.SY75.jpg 48658] review. :)
i have nothing to say but the olive and adam cameos were peak and i'm an emotional wreck bye
A fun, kinda silly and dramatic novella, and Pip's origin story, that essentially explains why she picked the Andie Bell case in the first book. It also has a bit of foreshadowing for the first two books as well (more the first than the second). It's a nice little palate cleanser between the dark book two and what I assume will be the even darker book three.
first of all hooray for me because this is book numero 100 for the year!! the first time i've read over double digits in a year like omg go meee
I have received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through a giveaway hosted by the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.
I Like Me Better by Robby Weber is a sweet contemporary romance between two high-school boys- Zack, a soccer player and Chip, a seaside conservationist. It has elements of comedy and enemies-to-lovers (one of my favorite tropes of all time) as well as discussions on environmental and sealife conservation.
I liked Weber's writing style, and the characters were well-developed, entertaining, and enjoyable. I particularly liked Zack, I found him to be a great main protagonist. I also liked Zack's love interest Chip and his friend Meyers.
The plot of the novel was very well balanced with the romance- a problem I typically have with contemporaries. If you know me at all, you probably know that I'm not the biggest fan of contemporaries as I find them having an imbalance between the romance and the actual plot of the novel, or even lacking plot entirely. However, this was one of those contemporaries where I did not have this problem! I was also really happy about all of the Taylor Swift and marvel references. This was a great mellow, summery novel.
I Like Me Better is a short, fast-paced contemporary romance I highly recommend this to fans of the Heartstopper novels by Alice Oseman!
I have received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through a giveaway hosted by the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review in any way.
Abeni's Song is an epic of a novel. That is to say, I had a bit of a hard time with this one.
Firstly, this novel felt like it was written as an adult fantasy and later dumbed down into a middle grade novel. I understand that Clark is coming from an adult fantasy background but this hardly felt like something for younger readers at all. There was an intense amount of world building, too much for a middle grade novel. The intensity of the world building eventually took away from the story itself, as I found myself growing bored and uninterested around the midway point.
I wanted to like this novel so badly, but I just couldn't find it in myself. The characters weren't intriguing enough for me to attach to or care about them, with the world building taking precedence in this story. I also wasn't a fan of Clark's writing style, as for example, too many times I noted his overuse of exclamation points similar to Sarah J. Maas's writing in the first Throne of Glass novels- almost as if he were trying to sound condescending or patronizing. I wasn't a fan of the overly long chapters, finding myself fatigued after reading so many longer paragraphs with so little dialogue and scene or chapter breaks.
Now these are some minor personal issues I had with the book; considering this is an Advance Reader's Copy I found many spelling and punctuation errors which I hope to see fixed in the final version. Also, my copy was so poorly printed that some of the words were cut off at the top or bottom of the page. It was still readable but it certainly wasn't easy and it somewhat affected my reading experience.
Overall, I was disappointed to find that I didn't like Abeni's Song. I believe this novel just wasn't for me.
I have received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through the publisher. This has not affected my rating in any way.
This review contains spoilers for books three through six in the series! You have been warned!
Random Shit I Wrote Down In My Notes While Re-Reading Heir Of Fire Because I Have Limited Internet Access Right Now:
• Why r we still calling her Celaena
• THERE HE IS!!!! ROWAN MY BOY :))))
• I still miss Tower Of Dawn Chaol :(
• AEDIONNNNNN
• MANON!!!!! I MISSED U
• Sorscha :((( I'm sad now
• All of the characters I missed are returning Merry Chrysler to me
• SJM's writing is so addictive like I literally had to force myself to stop reading for the night so I wouldn't fuck up my sleep schedule more than it already is
• FUCK U MAEVE
• Oh nooo I forgot Aelin and Rowan are distant cousins dear god-
• As much as I love Manon, I forgot how much I hated her POV chapters in this book ughhh
• ELENTIYAAAA
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: ★★★★
The Assassin and the Healer: ★★★★★
The Assassin and the Desert: ★★★★★
The Assassin and the Underworld: ★★★★
The Assassin and the Empire: ★★★★
Overall: ★★★★
This review contains spoilers for books zero through six in the series! You have been warned!
Random Shit I Wrote Down In My Notes While Re-Reading The Assassin's Blade Because I Just Wanted To TBH:
• My copy of this is damaged because my dumbass spilled soy sauce on it a few years ago :( fortunately it's only on the top of the first hundred or so pages and is still readable :)
• Sam
4.5 Stars
This review contains spoilers for books two through six in the series! You have been warned!
Random Shit I Wrote Down In My Notes While Re-Reading Crown Of Midnight Because I Have Limited Internet Access Right Now:
• This is my least favorite book in the series imho so I hope this goes quick so uh that was a fucking lie
• Could totally do without the over-descriptions of the body parts thanks x
• I genuinely think I hate Chaolaena more than Dorlaena
• There's no way every woman at the palace is simping for bland ass Chaol lmaoo
• Poor Kaltain :/ I mean she kinda deserves it but I also feel kinda bad for her y'know
• Mort laughing at Celaena's fake name will always send me
• LYSANDRA MENTION LYSANDRA MENTION
• Ooh Chaol was gonna finish the job himself ooh so scary
• At least the writing in this book is better than the writing in Throne Of Glass
• Dorian bro “would Aelin have been my bride??” no she's Rowan's bride my guy
• AEDION MENTION AEDION MENTION
• NOOO NEHEMIA :((((( I knew it was coming but it still hurts all the same
2.5 Stars
House of Marionne was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023. That said, this book was... a bit disappointing.
I went into House of Marionne expecting a complex historical fantasy romance novel with Bridgerton and the Grishaverse vibes. What I got was something similar to Harry Potter mixed with The Belles or Rebel Belle in an urban setting. Not only that, but the magic system was explained so poorly that by the end of the book I still didn't completely understand certain terms. Certain roles like Tracer or Shifter were never explained properly. All that was explained about “toushana” was that it was a dark magic that made skin cold to the touch, and in four-hundred pages it was never properly explained what exactly the main character's magic actually does. Though my copy was an Advance Reader's copy, it still desperately needed a glossary.
As for our main character, Quell Marionne, I felt as though the author didn't know who she wanted her to be. In the beginning of the novel, Quell felt like a badass genius. By the end of the novel, I felt as though Quell wasn't a very intelligent main character, constantly making the wrong choices and asking the wrong questions— or simply not asking questions at all. This left some plot gaps that I hope to see resolved in the next novel. The romance was also pretty subpar. It didn't seem to be a major focus of the book as the author focused more on the plot and magic, which I wasn't expecting. This, however, is not a bad thing. Just a note that this book has a lot less romance than to be expected from its description.
My final complaint would be the number of typos, grammatical and punctuation errors in this book. Again, my copy was an uncorrected proof, but I think this wins the award for most typos in any Advance Reader's copy that I've ever received. That said, I don't fault this novel for any of that and only hope to see them fixed in the finalized copies.
All in all, I did not hate this book. In fact, it's quite the opposite. My review may have been mainly complaints, but my overall feelings of this book are towards the positive end of the spectrum. I had a lot of fun reading this novel and to me personally that's what matters the most.
This review contains spoilers for books five and six in the series! You have been warned!
Random Shit I Wrote Down In My Notes While Re-Reading Empire Of Storms Because I Just Wanted To TBH:
• The last chapter of my last read (Lodestar by Shannon Messenger) ended with Nightfall. The first chapter of this book is titled Nightfall. What the fuck-
• Every time they mention the Bane I think of the Bubbleshock drink from The Sarah Jane Adventures
Under One Roof: ★★★★
Stuck With You: ★★★★.5
Below Zero: ★★★.5
Overall: ★★★★
idc what everyone's two and three star reviews say, this was entertaining and fun and so so good. i'm just a girl ok. (also stuck with you >>> under one roof + below zero but i loved all three <3)
I've received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through a giveaway hosted by the publisher. This has not affected my rating in any way.
DNF ~ 30%
If We're Being Honest by Cat Shook was not my cup of tea, and I knew this going into it. When I originally requested this via BookishFirst, I thought I would enjoy it and be able to mark of a square on my 2023 Bookish bingo card (for category: book from a genre you've never read before) if I won a copy. However, once I won I began to have doubts on whether I could truly enjoy this book. I considered contacting BookishFirst to have them cancel my win but I decided not to, thinking I might be able to push through.
If We're Being Honest follows the four cousins of the eccentric Williams family after the passing of their grandfather Gerry in Eulalia, Georgia. For me, I was so bored and miserable trying to read this to the point where I dreaded trying to pick it up most days. I couldn't find it in myself to like any of the characters and the story was bland compared to what I normally read. So I didn't push through. I just couldn't.
However, this was not because If We're Being Honest is a bad book but because it's too far away from my preferred genres that I'd feel more comfortable reading. While I normally read young adult fantasy, this is general adult fiction/women's fiction. It also heavily centers on grief and family connections which are things I'm currently struggling with, thus I was not in the right mental health space to be reading this book.
This was truly a case of it's not you, it's me. I fully believe that readers who frequently enjoy books from this genre and can handle topics such as grief will truly enjoy this book.
Listen, I love Ali Hazelwood. Reading one of her books is always a pleasure. But with Check & Mate being her first foray into the young adult genre, this definitely has a different tone than the rest of her novels. It has more of a focus on the teen “coming-of-age” plot than the romance, which I'd argue that her adult works have it the other way around. Also, I personally prefer her STEM stories over this, or Bride. Overall, though, an enjoyable read.
Pre-Reading Updates:
my friends' reviews are telling me i'm going to hate this and i should listen to them (but i never do and always end up regretting it cough cough zodiac academy)... but i'm so curious and i know i'm probably going to make myself mad lmao
Hmm. Not as good as the second book unfortunately. The plot and its twists were a bit out there and it ended on a good but strange note, like I still have unanswered questions. Maybe I missed something or I didn't understand what was going on, but I enjoyed this overall.
I don't even know what to say. Yes I do lmao.
When I first started Gild, I was horrified not only by the absurd amount of graphic on-page sexual violence and overwhelming misogyny from every single male character, but also by the main character's Stockholm syndrome, stupidity, and whininess. Auren, who I unfortunately have to share 83% of my first name with, is one of the worst main characters I've ever had to read about. Actually, none of the characters were enjoyable. None of the plot, if you could go as far as to say that this book even had a plot, was enjoyable. This read like a glorified, drawn-out prequel or prologue, with no substance except to set up the upcoming novels. I'm trying to think of a redeemable quality this book has... it was a fast read?
I DNF'ed this book twice while reading it, first at the 10% mark and again at the 50% mark. I picked it up again twice in the hopes that the hype was real and that it would get better by the end— spoiler: it doesn't. This is a boring, shitty, awful, poorly-written book. By the 60% mark, I had lost any hope for this book and I was basically just skimming and hate-reading. Though fortunately for me, things started picking up with the pirates and the Fourth Kingdom plot— though the misogyny and sexual violence was still uncomfortably rampant.
When I finished this, out of pure wonder and curiosity for what the fuck I just read, I went down a Goodreads-TikTok-Reddit rabbit hole only to see that a lot of other people agree with me and think that this book is absolute shit. And while it feels nice to be validated in my feelings, these people have also unanimously agreed that the second, third, and so-on books get better and better and that it's worth it to push through this pile of utter garbage. So, against my better judgment and because I just can't help but be morbidly intrigued, I will be reading the next book, and maybe the book after that. At minimum it will be a hate-read to fuel my stress into. I'm done.
TL;DR: It is SO bad I wanna give it a zero, but that's not possible so I give it a one.
Edit: raising my rating a little because hindsight is an interesting thing. still the worst one in the series tho.