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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Domestic abuse, Suicide, Trafficking, Death of parent, War
i thought marie lu hated me for a sec there but it's all good now we're besties
Safety info:
- no virgins, both are really experienced
- in book 2 they both have ex’s that are in the book but no kissing their ex’s
- not clear if they were celibate during separation or not
- one of the MMC’s ex flings is his best friend
- bi MMC
- my mind has gone blank on anything else oops
- no virgins, both are really experienced
- in book 2 they both have ex’s that are in the book but no kissing their ex’s
- not clear if they were celibate during separation or not
- one of the MMC’s ex flings is his best friend
- bi MMC
- my mind has gone blank on anything else oops
ATY 2023: # 10. A book related to one of the Spice Girls' "personalities" (Posh)
SFF Shelf Cleanup: Showstopper
This one was too YA for me. I liked the author's Warcross series but I wonder if I would like her other work.
The author describes this one as "Kingsman meets The Bodyguard" and that's pretty accurate. I don't know much about K-Pop or the boy band scene and that might have kept me from attaching too.
I think the problem was that I could not believe in or like either protagonist. Winter Young (what a name) is a poor little rich boy. His older brother is gone and he feels like he's just a disappointment to his mom as her only remaining child. This international superstar closes flower shops so he can hand select the tulips that he thinks his mom will like the most (tulips are her favorite flower) so that he can bring her a bouquet every time he leaves for a tour stop. His mom only likes unwrinkled money bills, so when she got stuck in Paris that one time because all she could get was wrinkled money, he personally flew in his private jet to bring her fresh bills so that she could get out of that rough predicament.(Yes, this really happens in the book.) But she just doesn't love him the way she loves his dead brother (who Winter also idolizes). Plus he is incredibly beautiful and the hottest guy ever, so smart that he can flawlessly imitate how to take down a person with a knife after seeing it once, worked his way from backup dancer to his own solo brand, took hiphop and tap lessons and even spent six months in Russia learning ballet all while writing his own songs that no one can resist, all before the age of nineteen. I just can't anymore.
Sydney the bodyguard. She's a natural polylinguist, can kill you with a piece of paper, but doesn't trust anyone because she comes from a Hard Life (her mother died when she was a young teen). She also is nineteen. She can steal the earrings out of your ears. I just didn't like her.
So, the Kingsman style secret agency with James Bond technology needs Winter's help to infiltrate a very very VIP party in order to get evidence on the bad guy who is throwing it. The James Bond technology idea sounded cool but nothing much really comes of all the gadgets. Winter and Sydney of course can't resist each other even if they don't like each other at first.
This would probably have worked well as a movie when you could just spin along through all the pretty people, settings and glittery technology and romance. There was too much time in this book for me to notice the silliness. The plot is pretty easy to predit, which again wouldn't be too bad in a two hour movie but drags in a book. I don't feel the need to go any further with this series.
SFF Shelf Cleanup: Showstopper
This one was too YA for me. I liked the author's Warcross series but I wonder if I would like her other work.
The author describes this one as "Kingsman meets The Bodyguard" and that's pretty accurate. I don't know much about K-Pop or the boy band scene and that might have kept me from attaching too.
I think the problem was that I could not believe in or like either protagonist. Winter Young (what a name) is a poor little rich boy. His older brother is gone and he feels like he's just a disappointment to his mom as her only remaining child. This international superstar closes flower shops so he can hand select the tulips that he thinks his mom will like the most (tulips are her favorite flower) so that he can bring her a bouquet every time he leaves for a tour stop. His mom only likes unwrinkled money bills, so when she got stuck in Paris that one time because all she could get was wrinkled money, he personally flew in his private jet to bring her fresh bills so that she could get out of that rough predicament.(Yes, this really happens in the book.) But she just doesn't love him the way she loves his dead brother (who Winter also idolizes). Plus he is incredibly beautiful and the hottest guy ever, so smart that he can flawlessly imitate how to take down a person with a knife after seeing it once, worked his way from backup dancer to his own solo brand, took hiphop and tap lessons and even spent six months in Russia learning ballet all while writing his own songs that no one can resist, all before the age of nineteen. I just can't anymore.
Sydney the bodyguard. She's a natural polylinguist, can kill you with a piece of paper, but doesn't trust anyone because she comes from a Hard Life (her mother died when she was a young teen). She also is nineteen. She can steal the earrings out of your ears. I just didn't like her.
So, the Kingsman style secret agency with James Bond technology needs Winter's help to infiltrate a very very VIP party in order to get evidence on the bad guy who is throwing it. The James Bond technology idea sounded cool but nothing much really comes of all the gadgets. Winter and Sydney of course can't resist each other even if they don't like each other at first.
This would probably have worked well as a movie when you could just spin along through all the pretty people, settings and glittery technology and romance. There was too much time in this book for me to notice the silliness. The plot is pretty easy to predit, which again wouldn't be too bad in a two hour movie but drags in a book. I don't feel the need to go any further with this series.
maybe it’s because I haven’t read her other books to compare it to but this was fun
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It took me SO LONG to finish this story but I finally did it! I'm not sure why I was so slow about it because I loved the concept of the story and the author. She's always been my go to author and several of her series are ones I think about constantly. So I should've finished this much faster.
Winter and Sydney were great characters. I loved how he was the pop star and she was the spy. I feel like it normally would've been the opposite in this spy genre so I'm glad to see it subverted. Winter getting the hang of this spy life so quickly was also very fun to watch. Winter and Sydney saw each other so clearly that they knew what the other was thinking and how they might respond and they also saw behind each others masks and walls that they put up. Without giving anything away, the last 80 or so pages were so good. The whole sequence of events leading up to the end of the story was incredible to witness. I'm super excited to read the sequel!
Winter and Sydney were great characters. I loved how he was the pop star and she was the spy. I feel like it normally would've been the opposite in this spy genre so I'm glad to see it subverted. Winter getting the hang of this spy life so quickly was also very fun to watch. Winter and Sydney saw each other so clearly that they knew what the other was thinking and how they might respond and they also saw behind each others masks and walls that they put up. Without giving anything away, the last 80 or so pages were so good. The whole sequence of events leading up to the end of the story was incredible to witness. I'm super excited to read the sequel!
This was such an enjoyable read! Was not what I was expecting, in a good way. Really liked Winter’s character. He was an international popstar but he was humble and down to earth. Not what his partner Sydney expected when she accepted the mission. She thought he would be self centered and hard to work with.
They are both 19 in a very grown up world but they hold their own and have been taking care of themselves for years.
It was enemies to lovers with a workplace romance in there. They fell for each other against their better judgement even though they were from very different worlds.
They are both 19 in a very grown up world but they hold their own and have been taking care of themselves for years.
It was enemies to lovers with a workplace romance in there. They fell for each other against their better judgement even though they were from very different worlds.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes