bazayas's reviews
102 reviews

Funny Story by Emily Henry

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Daphne has the perfect fiancé, a great house, and her dream job. Then her fiancé dumps her for his childhood best friend and kicks her out, leaving her with only one place to stay in the small Michigan town she moved to for him: the spare room in the apartment of the ex-boyfriend of the girl her fiancé dumped her for. 

I’m fully converted to the Emily Henry fan club. I loved every second of this book, and it swept me up into the characters and the romance in a way only Alexis Hall usually does for me. Opposites attract doesn’t always work but this book is extremely Nick/Jess-coded (iykyk) and that hit just the right spot. The slow burn is perfectly handled, not dragged out, but giving you enough crumbs along the way. The promises of the premise are met, while still having some surprises. 

CW/TW:

parental neglect (absentee father); emotional abuse

For fans of:

New Girl’s Nick/Jess vibes; opposites attract; emotional complexity; roommate romance; small-town Hallmark setting

Tithe by Holly Black

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

Shuffled around by her musician mom her whole life, 16-year-old Kaye returns to her hometown on the Jersey shore, questioning whether her imaginary childhood faerie friends were real. Not only are they real, but they are more dangerous than she ever knew. After saving a wounded fae knight, Kaye is chosen to be the “tithe”, a human sacrifice used to bind the solitary fae to the Unseelie Queen. 

I’ve reread this one countless times in the past 20 years since I first read it and I still love it every bit as much as I did back then. Holly Black is known better now for Cruel Prince, but this was the book that started it all (and the MCs appear in CP!). It’s a perfect (sub)urban fantasy, placing crummy New Jersey alongside  a distinctly creepy faerie world. It’s VERY 2000s goth and teen me felt SEEN. But it’s a classic and has all the good tropes and it holds up decades later. 

CW/TW:

child neglect; SA; violence (torture, murder); joke about implied ED; homophobic slurs; toxic relationships

For fans of:

The Cruel Prince series; urban fantasy; Celtic mythology; fantasy with horror elements; goth vibes (Underworld, The Craft); distinctly American fantasy; well-paced plots

Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope

funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Naive small-town girl Rachel Ray finds herself with a handsome suitor from the city, Luke Rowan, and the two lovers are troubled by those who oppose their union: Luke’s bitter business partner and his wife who would have Luke marry one of their daughters; Rachel’s conservative older sister who thinks Luke a cad; Luke’s own mother who thinks Rachel is beneath him. 

How is this not YA? The close perspective of 19-year-old Rachel felt myopic at times and reminded me of how YA frustrates me often. And that’s a compliment - Trollope is able to burrow into his characters’ heads and envelop us in their biases. It’s laugh out loud funny - the ironic humor took me by surprise and I laughed aloud on the train more than once. A lot of the commentary on Christian hypocrisy is relevant to those of us who lived through purity culture - some things never change!

CW/TW:

antisemitism; classism; misogyny

For fans of:

Jane Austen but going harder on class issues; “North and South”; period piece YA; ironic humor where the narration says things the author doesn’t mean purely for a laugh

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

emotional funny reflective medium-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

5.0

Best friends Poppy and Alex have always had their summer trip together to keep them connected. But after the Croatia trip two years ago, everything changed and they haven’t spoken - until Poppy invites Alex on another trip in hopes of going back to the way things were.

Finally got on the Emily Henry train and I really do get the hype. I’m not a fan of friends to lovers usually, but this story works and makes it believable. It also does multiple timelines well - interspersing past summer trips with the present one to flesh out Poppy and Alex’s friendship over the years. 

CW/TW:

mention of death (parent, grandparent, pet); depression; bullying

For fans of:

friends to lovers; 90s rom com vibes; stories that span over years; comps: When Harry Met Sally, My Best Friend’s Wedding

The Prisoner's Throne by Holly Black

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Imprisoned at the Court of Teeth by Queen Suren, the lover he betrayed, Prince Oak is determined to prove his love and that he is more than his magic manipulations, while his dangerous royal family will do anything to get him back—even if they don’t trust him either. 

I’m a Holly Black stan who’s been here since Tithe in early 00s, and this series always hits right. The protagonists are delightfully complex and morally gray, which means you don’t know how to trust or what will happen right up to the very end. I was gasping aloud more than once, and when one of my favorites died unexpectedly it raised the stakes and tension. I wouldn’t change a thing except I needed more Jude and Cardan (which I hope the next book can give us)!

CW/TW:

violence; death; child abuse; body horror

For fans of:

Celtic mythology; the Fae; fantasy that deals with non-humans as inhuman; morally gray protagonists; MCs who don’t worry if killing makes them like the villain; “touch her and die”; friends to lovers to enemies to lovers

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Anastasia, a figure skater, and Nate, a hockey team captain, try to keep their relationship casual, even as they increasingly spend every day together and can’t keep their hands off each other, in this cozy (and spicy) college romance. 

This book is largely plotless and about 1/3 too long, but largely entertaining, partly because the audiobook narrators are so good. I avoided this book for a while despite the hype because I didn’t want to read hockey scenes—and somehow there’s almost no hockey scenes?? Does the author hate hockey but just like hockey players?? Nobody acts realistic. Nothing makes sense. It IS overhyped. The last 15% of the book is unbearable and even the characters I liked overstayed their welcome. 

CW/TW:

toxic/manipulative friendships; implied ED; adoption; parental death (cancer); sexual harassment; minor violence; narcissistic personality disorder 

For fans of:

college romance fluff; sports romances (hockey, ice skating); tropes: chosen family, friends to lovers to friends to lovers, he falls first, alpha male BS; spice for spice’s sake

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

adventurous hopeful 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

4.5

Raised in an isolated palace by tutors, half-demon Tarisai only wants to please her distant mother, who made her to fulfill her one command: become close to the Crown Prince and kill him. But when Tarisai meets the Prince and is drawn into his chosen family, where she can have the intimacy she never had, she’s caught between giving in and erasing who she is—unless she can make her own destiny. 

Drawing from multiple African mythologies, as well as other cultures, the worldbuilding is incredible. It’s a gorgeous read, with descriptions that made me long for a tv show that could do justice to the costumes. The story is perfectly plotted, hitting all the right beats and pulling out some twists and turns. My one issue is that we don’t get to KNOW Tar’s “chosen family” beyond like 3 fleshed out characters and 2 vague characters—the other 5 barely speak. 12 friends is a tall order—but it’s possible and if they had been more filled in this would’ve been an easy 5/5 for me. 

CW/TW:

child abuse & neglect; implied SA; parental death; domestic violence; death (war, murder)

For fans of:

African mythology; political intrigue; monster girlies; mother-daughter conflicts; found family; lost princess; strong women; friends to lovers; critiques of imperialism

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

During one summer in a small Italian town, 17-year-old Elio finds himself falling for Oliver, a grad student who comes to stay with his family and help Elio’s scholar father.

Enjoyed, but this is one of the cases where I do prefer the movie. Alciman’s writing is beautiful, to the point where I had to start underlining my favorite quotes, and the additional chapters that go on where the movie ended are interesting. The problematic nature of the age gap feels heightened here, with Elio less confident in the relationship, and the themes feel different. There’s a level where the writing itself felt homophobic (and def biphobic) but that may be due to the time it was written. 

CW/TW:

age gap; adult/adolescent (over age of consent in Italy but still); ableism; homophobia; biphobia; racism; transphobia 

For fans of:

the movie obviously; coming of age stories; voicey narratives (Catcher in the Rye); dreamlike writing; the Italian countryside

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Fashion girlie and icon Julia Fox tells it all—her abusive childhood in NYC; her preteen wildness; her whirlwind high school year in Italy; her descent I to drug addiction and toxic relationships; her sugar daddy that brings the only stability she’s ever known; her rise to Hollywood; her weird relationship with Kanye; the struggle of single motherhood.

This was highly recommended to me and I loved it. Julia is absurd and fascinating, and she was right - it is a masterpiece of a memoir, weaving the wild story of someone has lived a life and a half. That being said, Julia’s white privilege is very real, even if it didn’t protect her from abuse, it did allow her a lot of leeway with the law. She acknowledges it but it can be frustrating as she does things because she knows she can get away with it. 

CW/TW:

child abuse; partner abuse; SA (incl. of a minor); drug abuse (addiction, overdose, relapse, death); suicide; alcoholism; fatphobia; bullying; abortion

For fans of:

wild memoirs like Britney’s The Woman In Me, or Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died; gritty New Yorker stories; celebrity drama; getting the scoop on Kanye; high fashion 

The Fox Maidens by Robin Ha

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

In this graphic novel retelling of the Korean folktale of the fox demon Gumiho, a girl conceived through demon magic struggles to follow in her warrior father’s footsteps while also keeping her demon nature a secret from him. 

The art here is beautiful and the story has some intriguing moments, but overall the last third of the book (the romance!) is rushed and unsatisfying. I do think the trope of sacrifice and unresolved love is something that comes up in a lot of Asian media, but I’ve seen it done with more build-up that makes it more heartfelt. 

CW/TW:

violence; domestic abuse; SA; misogyny; suicide; parental death; child death

For fans of:

sapphic romance; mythology; Women Who Run With Wolves vibes