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cassroberts89's Reviews (502)

challenging emotional hopeful 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: Complicated

I haven’t had a book break my heart like this in a long, long time. Ugly crying there towards the end. It made me want to go out and adopt all the kids. Literally all of them. 5 stars. 
lighthearted tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not great. I could not get past the decisions MC kept making. She has her toddler and (5?) year old with her, along with the teenage neighbor kid… and decides to drive back into the path of a hurricane? I think I remember it being forecasted as a cat 4? Like… no. That is not going to happen. There were some sweet moments, like the poor neighbor kid bonding with Gigi, but it was not enough to redeem this book.

Side note: The kids were not written in a believable way at all. There were random moments that made no sense, like her asking the littles to go back to the van to carry over a cat carrier and hamster cage. And asking in a way that says, I could really use some help here guys. From your 3 year old? You need your 3yo to step up and help carry a cat in a big ol’ carrier? What?

At least she owned up to how miserable she was feeling/acting. Doesn’t make her cheating spouse any less scummy, but I’m glad she showed some growth there.
adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Well, that was an experience. I don’t even know how to rate/review this because it is so unlike any other book I’ve read. It starts out slow… actually it’s pretty slow throughout. But after a few stories I started to see threads woven in along the way, which made it more interesting. I was really enjoying this towards the end, and the end itself was pretty satisfying. 

At first I felt like this should really be categorized as a collection of short stories, but that’s not quite right. I’m not sure novel is quite right either. It’s more like a novel with the house/property as the central “character” and the people are really just the… setting? In which the… house takes place? Does that make any sense at all? That’s honestly the best way I can describe this 😆 
adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Golden Goblet

Eloise McGraw

DID NOT FINISH: 50%

Was a literature read-aloud for homeschool. My 12yo and I both kind of lost interest about halfway through and decided to move onto a different book. 

The Next Mrs Parrish: The Thrilling Sequel to the Million-Copy-Bestselling Reese's Book Club Pick the Last Mrs. Parrish

Liv Constantine

DID NOT FINISH: 19%

I just could not bring myself to care about what happens to these characters, none of whom I care for 🤷🏻‍♀️ 
adventurous emotional hopeful informative 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

I haven’t picked up much historical fiction lately. This one was phenomenal! It gave heavy Outlander vibes, but not in a copycat way. It actually made me want to pick up that series again, and those books are THICK 😆. I’ll definitely look for more books by Lawhon. 
tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not great. I feel like I’ve read this same story a million times. Honestly, the characters were basically just caricatures. The dialogue was so unnatural. I can’t even say there was a twist because it was so laughably easy to see how the story was going to go.
I was really hoping that Daphne would enlist the help of the supposedly experienced con artist Amber, and the two would team up to take down Jackson. But… nope. The story just fizzles out in the least climactic way possible. I wanted to finish just to see if it ended how I thought it would.
Part of the reason I started reading this is because I received a free copy of The Next Mrs. Parrish. I did go ahead and start reading it because I was curious if the Constantine sisters’ writing would improve, but I’m not going to finish it if it’s pretty much the same. 

Reese… What the heck? Are we just putting stickers on anything these days?
challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

Late-night review, FWIW:

I enjoyed this memoir, but it did meander quite a bit. I have to respect the courage that it must have taken to share such a detailed look into a very personal journey. Yes, it is frank and at times graphic, but not gratuitously so. Honestly, the stories shared here are something that people simply don’t hear to the point where they are taboo. But I can imagine how lonely and confusing it must be to have nowhere to turn to in order to understand actual, real life details on what
adventurous dark informative reflective medium-paced

This was such a fascinating, cool read. Macabre, sure, but kind of liberating. I should note that I read this only about a month after the sudden passing of my mother. I was not entirely sure how I would feel while reading this, but I loved it. I almost wish I had read it sooner. I may have done some things differently.