Mari

Mary Jane Watson's revamp and team-up with the Black Cat makes my heart happy. Two badass ladies taking on baddies to Hell and back--can't ask for more.

I've reached the point of dimishing returns with the Hunger Games series. This book mirrors the other books to closely, hitting major plot points in past books with disappointing accuracy. Some aspects were interesting--learning a little more about the Covey, meeting younger versions of future characters, the "sister" relationship, some new mutts in the games--but not enough to make me remotely interested in reading another book in this world, if it continues.

This harrowing story is written with so much historical context and sympathy that humanized the Donner-Reed Party very well. This book does an incredible job of breathing life into these emigrants' stories and legacies.

Throughout the entire tale all I could think was, "Why? Were things that bad in Illinois that they had to risk everything in the wildness?" Mary Ann Graves said it best in her letter to family back east, "Stay at home--you are in a good place."

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning about the Old West, the wild idea of Manifest Destiny and the people who embarked into vast nothingness to create what they thought would be a better life.

Love this book! Lies and Weddings embodies the sassiness, fabulousness and love triangles of Crazy Rich Asians with a dash of mystery thriller. This book would make a spectacular movie too! With settings ranging from English estates to volcanic Hawaiian weddings and resorts. Kwan always knows how to sweep a reader away behind velvet ropes swathed in couture, and this book is no different.

I thought I was savvy Henrietta Stackpole going into this book eyes wide open, but I was actually Pansy, completely innocent and oblivious to the reality right in front of me.

Isabel Archer is such a complex character. She thinks herself free of Society's expectations and wants to see every inch of the world, yet she is somehow still ensnared by those expectations.

The book lags a bit in places but when the last third of the book gets going, it's like a high-speed rail of drama and intrigue toward an ambiguous ending. I almost threw the book aside, but then laughed at the hopeful mystery Henry James left us.

Actively living an engaging life can be tiresome and neverending, but it can also be filled with hope and joy until the final page is turned.

As a Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age fan, this book hit all the right notes. I couldn't put it down! Plenty of bread crumbs and red herrings were sprinkled throughout great world and character-building. The author struck a satisfying balance between sumptuous settings and drama. The ending left me a little cold but it felt true to the characters. This was one of my most fun reads this year.

The pacing turned dismal about halfway through. Annie and Sam's relationship was problematic in the first half, and then they talked in so many circles that I lost interest and had to speed read to the end. The Rotten Rosie angle was vaguely interesting, but I would've rather spent more time with Sam's family, the Cheyenne.

What a melodramatic rollercoaster ride and I enjoyed every minute.

Dr. Sloper is the coldest, unmoving monolith of a father. No one is spared from his articulate and analytical observations, not even his sister, Mrs. Lavinia Penniman, or his daughter, Catherine.

The things this man said about his daughter gave me chills. With a father like that, who needs enemies.

I wish he would've pointed his ruthlessness at his sister a little more because my goodness! That woman was hilariously insufferable. I almost threw the book down a few times when she wedged her nose where it didn't belong countless times, and still thought herself a hero to lovers everywhere.

What a fun read with meticulous insight into the rules of social class and finances of the time.

We don't forget our sadness or grief, we hopefully learn from it and grow beyond it.

I learned about the Vietnam War in Vietnam, so I knew what I was in for with this book, but it was still a hard read.

Yet, I learned more about the post-war era and how poorly people treated war vets from this book.

Frankie isn't the heroine I'd imagined, but no one really is in any situation until they're forced to dig deep and push through.

People laughed to keep from crying, and I was able to laugh with them to some degree. I felt like I spent so much time with Frankie that when that quiet exchange happened on page 459, I teared up.

The historical detail in this book is impressive, but never overtakes the characters or their arcs. There were several soap opera twists and turns that I can forgive in favor of how satisfying this book was to read.

This is my first Evelyn Waugh book and I did not expect the wildly modern twists or turns from a book published in 1934.

Tony and Brenda's relationship was so tedious at first--socialite babble--I almost quit. Then, the this crazy train really picked up speed.

By page 132, I already gaped and gasped a few times, but then a few pages later I had a dark laugh when Jenny Abdul Akbar said, "Little Jimmy."

Waugh's dark sense of humor and keen insight into Society life rivals Julian Fellowes. I'm a fan.

The first half of this book is what I imagine the Olympic Village is like during competitions. The graphic descriptions constantly took me out of the book. I knew more about the characters' favorite sex positions before I got to know the characters themselves, so the sex felt hollow on the page.

The second half is when the book takes off with the real drama. I started to love the verbal sparring between all the characters in the second half, whereas the sniping in the first half felt unnecessarily cruel instead of engaging a lá Ms. Bennet and Mr. Darcy.

Page 292 had me rolling a tear when Stasie and Nate bared their souls. Very touching and genuine moment.

Stasie made me roll my eyes when she said the egotistical thing about having more therapy than Nate so she knew better. I thought he did go to therapy after all that stuff with his parents and that's why he was such a good communicator?

Anyway, in spite of all that and the typos throughout, the ending was satisfying. That is, until the epilogue ruined it. Why can't authors just let their leads enjoy themselves? Why do they always have to book-end a relationship with The Life Script ™️?

This book was a fun read, though. Now I'm going to rewatch The Cutting Edge (1992).

"These places are not there for your kids' well-being. They exist because it's a huge money-maker... Let's not silence our children by making them fear more punishment and hurt from speaking out."

Like a lot of kids growing up in the 90s, I heard of "troubled teens" get dragged off stage on Jerry Springer in front of near-rabid audiences to boot camps. That was fiction, so I didn't think these places actually existed but they do, and they aren't run by specialists or anyone trained in the fields of Psychology or Education. They're represented by glossy flyers and modern websites promising results, when in reality they crush individuality and ruin lives.

Allie Burton, who was raised by strict Mormon parents, and so many other kids were abandoned in these programs by parents. Imagine parents of all walks of life foisting their "problem" children on complete strangers and then going on cruises and vacations like nothing happened. Somehow there was never a whisper of consulting with psychologists or therapists, just banishment to Casa by the Sea and the myriad of fascist rules and regulations.

Yes, fascist because kids were forced to report on each other and dole out consequences, and if they didn't, then they would be punished themselves. There was no privacy in or out of the bathroom, no shoes (just socks and sandals), no freedom to even look in a mirror, no speaking to each other unless someone else was present, etc. A kid could be given a consequence, lose points and extend their stay at Casa just for leaving one hair on their hair brush. Few program rules loosened in higher levels, but the damage was already done. The fear and night terrors followed these kids home, and some kids never recover.

Burton wrote about her experience at Casa with raw honesty in a stream-consciousness diary style that may leave you gasping and/or triggered. This is such an important read to spread awareness and healing with the hope that these abusive institutions can be shut down forever.

This book was a pitch-perfect first generation BIPOC girl's experience in a nutshell complete with conservative religious family, parentification and resulting trauma. Yet, the tone was upbeat and fresh with excellent twists of dry humor throughout.

Innocent Maddie was so realistic and relatable as she struggled with familial love, romantic love and self-identity in modern London. The parade of racist micro-aggressions and unconscious bias also had me livid but also rooting for Maddie to stand up for herself and break free.

Beautifully written novel.

This book started as a slow-burn Spanish-Mexican political tale of colonialism sprinkled with Zorro vigilantism. The swash-buckling adventure is slowly interlaced with fanatsy and folklore towards the second half, although the Prince storyline left me a little cold. There were a lot of new elements in the second half that felt a distracting and little overwhelming, especially Amelia/Amalia's scene late in the book. This was a fun read that turned into a speeding, runaway train by the end.

I expected more resolution in this book but it was just filled with more loose ends.

The late nights Violet spent researching solutions were tedious and really slowed the overall pace of the story. Apparently, we couldn't find this information out any other way, even with a mind reader on the home team. (More on that later.) Despite all that time together, Dain and Violet's relationship remained unresolved.

Aretia and the warding component was an interesting world-building addition. The dragons and gryphons coming together was also interesting enough. Cat and Violet spent a while trying to kill each other with some brutal emotional manipulation, so their beef was resolved way too easily.

Then, Xaden disappeared for huge sections at a time and the reasoning seemed weak. Maybe his character was inconvenient to the plot with his ability to read minds? Once a character becomes too powerful, some plot twists don't hold water. Extra note: Violet has two signet because she has two dragons, but why does Xaden have two signets if he only has one dragon? Violet spent so much time wondering about Xaden that I almost put the book down.

Finally, the change in POV in the end was so jarring left on a terrible cliffhanger. All I wanted was some modicum of closure for something, anything.

Despite the all the unresolved things, I enjoyed seeing Violet and her siblings come together, charging totems, and every scene with Andarna.

This book was entertaining enough but I won't be reading the next one.

The story of Will Stanton and The Old Ones is an enthralling, snowy Christmas quest full of cryptids and dark magic. Definitely a fun read! My only criticism are the week female human characters, which read more like nuisances than anything else.

Zinnia is back and getting into all sorts of funny yet sinister trouble with Snow White's The Evil Queen at her heels. I didn't expect this installment to be so poignant and beautiful, while offering a few new perspectives on dark fairytale characters and their true natures. I can't wait to read more.

As much as I love the main Outlander books, I can't get behind this novella. Minerva/Minnie is likeable enough and her parents' backstory is fascinating, but beyond that I just couldn't really get behind the plot. There wasn't enough tension or sense of immediacy that makes the first Outlander book especially addictive.

If you're into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Locke and Key and Mexican Gothic then this book is for you.

A mysterious house with an even more mysterious owner, and the burgeoning dark secrets underneath threatening to swallow a town whole. This book was such a fun read!

Unfortunate Opal, not much of a family or history to speak of, she did her best to provide for her little brother, Jasper, and send him to greener pastures. The oppressive small town have bothered her and her kin long ago and would rather have them gone.

Opal somehow keeps her curiosity and wonder alive partially in part to her favorite book, The Underland, a Lewis Carroll-esque written by a previous owner of Starling House.

Then, Opal meets the current young legacy owner of Starling House and breadcrumbs turn into life or death decisions. Trust is earned and easily dashed.

I loved how all these storylines intersect as the characters get to know themselves and each other, all while they fight an even greater evil. Yet, The Big Bad is not painted in black or white but in satisfying shades of grey. The final hurrah, as characters dash forward to fulfill their purposes, felt earned and satisfying. Great book.

Beautiful and heartwrenching.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Hearing the original actors play their rolls in this audiobook made it an epic audio experience.

Spike gives this story a little taste of Noir as he brings us back into the Buffyverse to meet Indira (newest slayerette) and many old friends.

Tara was not my best-liked character of the TV series but Amber Benson and Christopher Golden give her the royal treatment in this book, and now I actually like her more.

Whay a treat to have Julieta Landau/Drusilla back in the fray being devilish and amazing like always. Emma Caulfield/Anya made me laugh so many times--she's a pure delight as Anyanka.

They all also managed to tip their hat and wink through the series call-backs without taking me out of the story.

This is a great read for Buffy fans.

The terrifying part wasn't a blood-thirsty killer, it was the cold, bloodlessness about everything else. This book is a terrific character portrait, but not of whom I originally thought.

The Maidens was a fun read--mystery and intrigue intertwined with ivy-covered historic places and rich literary references. This author loves reading and it shows.

The juicy red herrings were plentiful, but half of the final reveal was heavy-handed and off putting. There's no guessing the full reveal because the motives didn't even happen within the current storyline.

This book could have been so much better had the reveal not come from the other side of the world.

Mesa doesn't lift her foot off the gas as Rose/Luna struggles with identity, mobsters and earth magic while she tries to make it big in 1920s New York City.

The scene and character descriptions were as visceral and beautiful as Rose's culture and supernatural abilities. I also didn't expect the hard look at intersectionality threaded throughout the story, giving characters additional weight and meaning.

This book kept me entertained and guessing from page one. Love it!

The Lost Bookshop is my favorite book of 2023.

Martha searched for truth and healing in the present while Opaline searched for strength and direction in the past. Both women found more questions than answers in old bookstores and back alleys across Europe, while overshadowed by specters from their pasts.

The author wove Irish, English and French history together into a sparkling story with characters that I'd expect to meet living and breathing, here and now. A little magical realism was sprinkled across the second half, but I was so riveted by the mysterious breadcrumbs as the adventure picked up pace that I wasn't taken out of the story.

Martha and Opaline almost lost hold of their dreams and sanity as they weathered their own storms. Each found their footing in unexpected ways. The literary easter eggs also added to the richness of the characters and story.

What an exciting and fun read! I was actually sad when I finished this book.

Books with similar vibes: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow, The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid