allie_oop's Reviews (672)

adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Another hard to rate book!
The premise of this book is absurd, and both the MC and Shara are not particularly likeable people for the first half or two thirds of the book.
But the story is entertaining, the side characters are fantastic from the beginning, and the MC and Shara both have growth arcs, so in the end I did end up enjoying the ride. 
adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I'm a little torn on how to rate this. On one hand, the premise and scope of this book was absolutely fascinating, and I'm going to be thinking about it for a while.
On the other hand, the science lectures were longer and more often than needed, the politics in the middle almost made me give up, and the ending felt strangely abrupt. Definitely not a perfect book, and I will think twice about picking up this author again just for the sheer amount of science explanations. But this particular story was worth it.
hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

*For clarity, I read the informational portion of the cookbook and flipped through the recipes.
This book is incredibly valuable for the informational section alone. It goes over all of the sensory categories and how to counter or enhance them to meet individual needs, and it has recipes tagged by what sensory preferences it meets. There really aren't that many recipes, but it's a starting point.
I needed this so badly 10 years ago! I had to figure all this out on my own, because everybody around me was saying "when they get hungry enough, they'll eat" (spoiler: no, they really won't) and "you just have to be firmer" (spoiler: that creates MORE food problems, not less).
If you are cooking for someone with food aversions and are unfamiliar with the issue yourself, do yourself (and them) a favor and read this book!

The Writing Retreat

Julia Bartz

DID NOT FINISH: 31%

I legitimately don't care about any of the characters or anything that's happening, and I don't want to keep watching the author trip over herself trying to talk about race or sexuality. This isn't particularly well written
funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Really appreciated the strangers to friends to romance progression instead of instalove or lust driven romance, it felt a lot more natural to me. I really resonated with Aiden's struggles with how he's perceived, and I related to Maggie's desire to just be left alone 😆

Natural Beauty

Ling Ling Huang

DID NOT FINISH: 63%

Intensely uncomfortable with the sexual tones and scenarios of this book, they're dubcon and noncon
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is entirely adorable and sweet!
dark sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Still truly disturbing!
This performance was good, but I'd recommend reading the standard edition first, I do feel like maybe I missed some things? I'll need to go read another version.
challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Okay, wow. Definitely check the trigger warnings, but so worth it if you can handle the subject matter, and such an important conversation. Starts off slow, but picks up speed toward the end as Melinda starts to find her voice again. Also really recommend reading the afterword and the author interview at the end, if you're someone who normally skips those.