ashleigheva's reviews
60 reviews

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

5.0

jesus christ my heart is so fucking sore right now
in my head i was thinking "i've heard this all before" in the sense that love triangles are by no means an underused trope in romance fiction
and yet i felt so strongly for the characters and shed tears here and there
i should be embarrassed about feeling this strongly about a book directed at young teenage girls (despite the fact that i am precisely that) but my feelings stand

and my love for jem has only grown and swollen like a precocious bud; he's absolutely precious
also he has introduced to me one of my new favourite pieces; telemann's fantasia, and for that i am eternally grateful

Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

4.0

i didn't cry and then i did
FUCKKKKKK love triangles are such a common trope but i don't think i've ever seen it as well executed as with this series

i heard someone say that will is jace done right and oh boy yes
ah and jem carstairs currently reigns as my favourite fictional character

i listened to most of the second half through an audiobook and i think i might've enjoyed it more if i had actually gotten to read it but i still really liked this :-)
clockwork prince is still my favourite of the trilogy tho!!

Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

3.0

[listened to the audiobook]
[3.25/5]
at its best, this book made me relish in the glorious pain of feeling understood
but at its worst, i was turning the audio speed up to 2.3x to get through the sex scenes faster

edit: wait what this is a novel? holy shit my dumbass really listened to this thinking it was a memoir HAHHAHAHHAA i think i might've liked it more if i had known it was fiction

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

5.0

[4.25/5]
[listened to the audiobook]
oh john OH JOHN you have always held such a dear spot in my heart and this book has only further solidified that
there are times where amidst my great wonder of the world and its secrets i am able to let loose the reins of nihilism and despair, though those times are scarcely felt
but this book made me feel that way the whole time through :-) thank you john!

One Day in December by Josie Silver

3.0

okay originally it was a 2.5 but the ending bumped it up for me haha
i always found the fact that jack worked in radio an aspect to his character that could have been used to add to the plot so i'm glad that happened

parts of this felt a little too contrived and hollow? parts that should have been emotional were not backed up by the development that it needed to carry much weight at all
still, it was a cute romance i suppose :-)

oh also i would've been interested in getting to know oscar's mother better, i think she had a lot going for her that was written off as being part of the evil mother in law persona

but man so many of the descriptions in this are gorgeous
jack's speech at the wedding being an example
but even just a lot of the passing sentences used to illustrate a trivial image are so incredibly potent with underlying symbolism, it's lovely
(ps lovely is one of my favourite words so the fact that it was used repeatedly made me happy)

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

2.0

i don't know if booktube's overwhelmingly positive reception of this book was what raised my expectations to be too high but i was pretty disappointed haha
in the initial exposition of how much the two hate one other, i couldn't help but find it incredibly childish and contrived. i had to remind myself that these are 28 year olds in a corporate environment who have bills to pay (is that a jerky thing of me to say??? i feel kinda bad bUT)
i'm a huge huge lover of steamy action in romances but this is the first time i've gotten bored reading love scenes and silently wished that the couple would stop/wouldn't start making out lol

on an entirely personal note, huge size differences in couples have always made me uncomfortable so i guess that kinda rubbed me the wrong way as well haha

also, i haven't fully developed this point but: i wish romances would stop biting off more than they can chew in relation to trauma. i mean this in the sense that the "damaged male love interest" and his issues should be really dived into and it should not just be used as a gimmick to explain away his shitty attitude and behaviour only to be given one short scene near the end of the book where his trauma is briefly touched upon. and in the case of this book it wasn't even the person in question who confronted the source of trauma. yikes.

i say all this but of course this book has it's merits as well
i think conflict was created and resolved in a timely and effective manner
i also think the complexity of both main characters was well explored; neither felt like a husk whose only quality was loving the other character

An Unreliable Man by Jostein Gaarder

2.0

i didn't expect the book to get quite so into etymology and religion
i was worried that would make the book too inaccessible but somehow i think i was interested enough in the plot to keep going even though i kinda felt out of the loop haha

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

4.0

[4.25/5]
"The pain will never go away, Miles. Ever. But if you let yourself love her, you'll only feel it sometimes, instead of allowing it to consume you your entire life."

MAN i am so happy with how this book handled moving forward from trauma/survivor's guilt
i was so terrified that it was going to just pull a "suddenly has an epiphany about how much i love this girl so woohoo everything's all good now", because that's not how it works. when you've spent so much time and energy mulling over this dead weight you've been carrying, of course you've thoroughly thought through every possible course of action, including letting go, but every time it leads back to the same answer; the comfort of torment.
i'm also just a huge fan of the overall message that the fear never truly leaves, but that you learn to manage it so that your life is still able to grow and flourish.

however, one huge gripe i have is that because so much of the book is mainly voiced through an emphasis on their mutual sexual attraction, their subsequent union doesn't feel nearly as gratifying as with other romance novels that have the characters fleshed out throughout the course of the book in a manner that clearly highlights that compatibility as lovers, beyond just sexual partners. it's really a shame, but i can understand that the focus of the book is more so on how the very basis of their agreement is what prompts miles to change his opinion on love and open up, and not on their time spent together as a couple.

i think it ends with us holds a more tender spot in my heart, but nonetheless, i'm glad to have read this, and look forward to reading more of hoover's novels :-)

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

3.0

this really should've just ended with the third book
this book opened up a whole new can of worms and it's not a particularly captivating can

for a series is driven primarily by characters and secondarily by plot, the fact that this book lacked in both departments made for a pretty forgettable book
the solid pacing and narrative structure is this book's saving grace

after reading tid and hearing someone say that will is jace done right, i can't help but feel a lot less fond of tmi

also alec best boy

Maybe Not by Colleen Hoover

2.0

[listened to the audiobook]
i recommend this to sexually depraved heterosexual males who enjoy jerking off to words on a page (or audiobooks at 2x speed).

i didn't expect anything special from this book so i'm not disappointed but it is what it is