bencaroline's reviews
55 reviews

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

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funny mysterious tense
  • 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

4.0

not gay enough!

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Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Not ready to write much about this yet! But I really loved this book. Extremely fun.

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Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition by Nisid Hajari

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Did not finish book.
will return to this book! just wasn't/isn't the right time.
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

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emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad 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


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Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

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dark mysterious 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

4.0


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The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish

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

2.5

(note: I wrote up a whole thing and then somehow deleted it without saving, so this is an extremely lackluster, months-later attempt at a review)

God, I wanted to love this book so bad! The Holiday but gay, and in novel form?? Sign me up! 

Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me in the pathos department. It’s as if the stakes were told, but not shown nearly enough. And the whole thing has an undercurrent of pro-default-capitalism that I hate. Aside from the romantic storylines, each of our two protagonists has sort of a B-plot wherein they help people... be entrepreneurs, I guess? I'm all for the creative endeavors but there’s something about it where they are trying to Make Profits and somehow those methods endear them to a community more than anything else they do.

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