Mars
4.5
initially this book wasn't engaging or keeping my attention & i was thinking about dnf'ing it like 60 pages in but i decided to keep going and i'm so glad i did!!
this is a fast paced thriller mystery with twists i absolutely did not see coming! i couldn't put this book down & whenever i did i couldn't stop thinking about it!
i think the author does a really good job with keeping the pacing consistent and keeping you interested in what might happen next, i was on the edge on my seat the closer and closer we got to figuring out what was going on!
This book was amazing!! I figured I would love it just based on the synopsis. I really enjoyed the concept of The Darkness & I found the topics spoken about in this novel, albeit heavy, were handled with care and discussed really well.
I definitely did not see the plot twists coming the story tied together so nicely. This was my first time reading a book by Stacy Stokes and I truly enjoyed the writing.
The story kept me engaged from start to finish and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was so in tune with the story that I was even writing down theories and genuinely following the story and going through the motions as much as our main character Whitney was!
I felt connected to the characters, they all felt fleshed out enough to make an impact on me in some way! I laughed at loud at some scenes & even got emotional at others which I wasn't expecting!
I was just so invested with this story & I will 100% be recommending it for others to hopefully enjoy as much as I did!
PUB DATE: April 9th 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the ARC copy of The Darkness Rises in exchange for an honest review.
This was so cute & bookish!! I really enjoyed this one & i'm so glad I finally had the time to pick it back up after soft dnf'ing it! The only thing that had me a little annoyed was the fact that Nick had so many opportunities to tell Lily who he was & he just didn't. It felt like he was just lying to her for so long & for what? Other than that I ate this up!!
This book was an emotional rollercoaster for me. I was experiencing so many different feelings while reading.
The humor in this book was very hit-or-miss. During the middle portion of the book, I found myself growing disinterested in the road trip, feeling disconnected from the characters activities and losing investment in their journey.
Some aspects of the story feel forced, such as Logan's incessant use of celebrity names in place of curses, which quickly becomes grating.
While the themes of Joe's storyline adds depth to the narrative, it often overshadows the central romance between Logan and Rosemary which left me wanting more from the romance. The romantic relationship between Logan and Rosie started too early in the story, and I didn't really feel connected to them despite their earlier friendship and love for each other. There was an excessive amount of miscommunication between them, this trope was used too frequently, making it feel unnecessary and repetitive.
While I found the characters likable, I longed for deeper exploration into Logan & Rosemary's backgrounds, traumas, and teenage friendship to provide a more nuanced understanding of their motivations and complexities.
Thank you so much to Atria Books for providing this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
It's so beautiful how happy humans can make other humans. How broken, how fulfilled, how angry, how complete we can make each other feel. How much impact a person can have over another's life. How one person or multiple people can change the entire trajectory of your life. Your whole being. For better or for worse. It's all so glorious don't you think? Even when it hurts. It's so fucking magnificent. What a privilege it is to feel.
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” - Angela Davis
Lol why am I literally fucking distraught??? This book destroyed me. It shredded me from the inside out. No seriously, I mean it ripped out all of my organs, chewed them up, and spit them out. Utterly obsessed with how hollow yet satiated I feel after reading this, wow.
PUB DATE: April 16th 2024
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC audiobook copy of Late Bloomer! Here is my honest review.
Late Bloomer was such a fun and cozy low stakes romance! It's grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, there's queer and lesbian representation, as well as autism and nuerodivergent representation!
Words genuinely cannot explain how much I LOVED the neurodivergent representation in this book as a queer autistic person myself! I felt myself really relating to Pepper specifically and honestly she may be my favorite character in this entire book!
This book was a little cringey and cheesy at times, but regardless, I ate it up! I'm almost positive that this audio production made me love the book EVEN MORE! I love how truly southern some of the characters accents are, and the Narrator did a great job at bringing this novel to life!
I will say, this book made me realize how much I don't care about flower farms, or flower competitions, or flowers in general. So when anything of the sort came up I was a little bored, but not to the point where it was unbearable.
The romance between Pepper and Opal was so extremely cute! I did at times feel like there wasn't much chemistry between them, and I found their banter to be somewhat awkward, but by the end of the book I was absolutely in love with both of them and their dynamic!
If you're looking for a sapphic, cute and cheesy, cozy romance, Late Bloomer is definitely the book for you! The nuerodivergent rep was probably my favorite aspect of this book by far. Such a nice read!
This was such a cute & simple story!! I loved the queer polyam representation and I hope I get to read more books like this in the future!
Unfortunately, I didn't find myself connecting with the characters much, they fell a bit flat for me. I wish that they were more fleshed out. Alongside that, I wanted more relationship development between the 3 of them especially Mel & Kade but I just didn't get that. I felt very detached from their relationship.
Surprisingly enough I actually did enjoy the smut scenes in terms of what was going on but if I cared more about the relationship between the characters I would've loved it so much more.
A little bit later on in the book there was a scene where mel basically yells at an employee for misgendering Kade & not only did it add nothing to the plot I kind of felt like it was unnecessary.
I wasn't really interested in Mel's drinking competition & the outcome with how the competition would go was very predictable. I just feel like the time talking about the competition could've instead been more relationship development & going deeper into learning the characters.
Overall I am really glad I read this book, it was sweet & cozy & a pleasant read.
PUBLISH DATE: June 4 2024
Thank you NetGalley + Atria Books for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!
I don't usually rate memoirs but I have to say, the non-linear writing style just did not work for me. It's not very cohesive & I was quite confused about what point in time events were happening. It felt like there were a couple random stories that didn't really fit & were just kinda thrown in there? The organization just isn't good.
It was hard for me to connect to the material majority of the time & I wish elliot could've really delve into some of the things he talked about more descriptively and truly unpacked all of it. I really wish Elliot spoke more about his transness in this, those moments are the ones I felt most connected to & I teared up every single fucking time.
Why the fuck would you break your violin... all cuz you don't know how to say no....JUST TO END UP SAYING NO ANYWAY?! now look at you. Broken violin for no reason!
There's no way someone's this much of a pushover like bitch stand UP.
This book wasn't what I thought it was going to be and to be quite honest I'm disappointed. I was mostly excited for this book because Quan is such a good character and I couldn't wait to explore his story & his romance. The romance was on the back burner in this one & that's really upsetting for me. I was expecting a cute little romcom & instead I got a coming of age novel about our FMC Anna.
I feel so cheated
This book was heavy, and dealt with themes of losing a loved one as well as difficult family dynamics. The actual romance was only about 20% of the book & even then it wasn't enough for me to care. And to be quite honest I didn't care about what was going on with Anna in general.
Also Anna did quan dirty idgaf.
The beginning of this book started off so strong for me, I was sure it was to be a 5 stars. I'm feeling very let down.
This book only got good for me around the last 20% because that's when things really started picking up. Nothing really happened in the first 80%.
Granted this is the first book in a duology, you can still actively have a very intense/fast paced/action packed plot while world building, introducing characters, etc.
Don't know if I'll continue, we'll see.
It's probably not fair that I always have such high hopes for a Michaelides book whenever I go into it, but The Silent Patient is my favorite book of all time so I just can't help it!
That being said, regrettably, The Fury was very underwhelming for me. The twists were just like... “that's it?” Nothing remarkable about it imo.
Lots of people think this book is slow in the beginning but I thankfully didn't have that problem, though I think if I would've bit the bullet and read this in one sitting I would've enjoyed it much more!
That being said this book was fast paced for me in the first half and I was thoroughly intrigued, I really really loved it and I was sure it was to be a 5 star read! All of that changed in the second half where I was just left with anticipation fatigue because I felt like the story was being dragged on with not much happening. Until things did happen! But by that point I was just like “oh ok.”
Regardless of The Fury not being my favorite, I'm always looking forward to Michaelides next novel!
P.S. in the epilogue there's a MAJOR spoiler for The Silent Patient so if you haven't already I suggest reading that book before this one!
I'm actually surprised I liked this as much as I did. I haven't been the hugest fan of hazelwood considering the love hypothesis was just ok for me but as I make my way through her work, gotta give credit where it's due...I personally think this was rlly cute! I laughed out loud multiple times & enjoyed myself! In the same vein, someone tell this lady to stop writing smut. It's just bad.
