classyklassen's reviews
389 reviews

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

3.75

 okay!!!! cute!!! I got really addicted I got really addicted to this. however, I think part of it was because I read it right before I started my degree in writing and editing and this book really got me excited to begin?!! this is all about a washed up child of two celebrities and someone working at the publishing agency he signed with to release a memoir. he hasn't been responding so she goes to help him write it? I feel really bad cause I really did like this romance but to be honest i was really rooting for them like to get the book done and for them to have a great professional relationship and for them to be friends but I didn't really get the romantic chemistry. they were trusting each other so much and they were building such a lovely friendship but then every now and again the author would be like just adding a part where she was like "oh he was so hot like I'm not usually attracted to that but like he was a sexy, whatever" and I didn't really buy it. I just don't feel like if they had a relationship it would be a super healthy one and I'm not really a big fan of the emily henry type "he was actually in love with you the whole time!!"

it just feels a little cheap to me when you have the entire story in the woman's perspective and then at the end you find out that the guy actually liked her the whole time and that she just didn't realize because of whatever reason. it's just. can you not just show me two characters who maybe don't like each other at the start and then slowly grow to respect each other. it just makes me feel like their growing friendship wasn't really that, it was like the guy with an ulterior motive (even though they made it pretty clear on the book of that's not what it was, it just it just makes me feel a little icky to me). I feel like it doesn't really change the story that much if you don't have it so that he's like obsessed with her from the beginning,

I don't know anyway, still was a very fun book 3.75 stars! 

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

3.75

 oooo I like this!!! I was lowkey calling anne a flop before but I really enjoyed this one!!

here are some spoilers in case you don't want to read but liked the first book: anne movea in with priscilla and another SUPER ULTRA mega cool girl who needs her own spin off phillipa for uni!!! seriously lm montgomery come back to life and write me a phillipa spin off. the college shenanigans are so it. much better than the AVIS drama from the previous book😭😭 anne still visits home a lot so we still get a lot of diana, marilla, rachel and unfortunately the annoying twins😭😭 anyway, here's your updates: jane proposes to anne on behalf of billy (she rejects), moody proposes to anne (she rejects), gilbert proposes to anne (she rejects), a super rich guy she dates for 2 years (she rejects) THEN at the end of the book she finds gilbert and I think they get engaged or at least get together. champagne problems who😭😭 diana marries a guy called fred and has a kid and it was a boy but diana is upset cause she wanted it to be a girl so she could name her anne😭😭😭 marilla and rachel move in together, who can do this with me when we got old and outlive everyone else❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 speaking of OUTLIVE, ruby dies of TB at age 19😭😭 and jane marries a millionaire and has the most expensive wedding ever slay Jane (but the guy was like 40-50 and she was like 20??😭😭)

anyway, loved catching up with Anne, really picked up in the second half 3.75 stars 

Sonnets from the Portuguese: The Most Treasured Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

3.0

 okay i have to accept that I'm not a poetry girlie :// sorry i just don't vibe with it!! my grandpa gave me this collection which is a bunch of poems elizabeth barrett browning wrote after she got married! cute but yeah once again i don't really like poetry so I'm giving up on trying to read collections, if i want to read poetry i will just read random assorted ones. it just takes a lot to get me to actually resonate with the poem ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i took a photo of one that i enjoyed in the moment but when i was rereading it to make this post i actually don't get what i liked at all?? anyway lol. what was fun though was that i was watching anne with an e season one the day after i read this collection and anne actually recited one of the poems!! it was cool to recognise it and what a strange coincidence!! anyway if you like poetry maybe check it out but I'll be avoiding poetry in the near future lol. also this woman is not portuguese. 3 stars ig. 

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

1.5

 FLOP!! BORING!! I did listen to the majority of this audiobook while sitting in a glacial traffic jam so maybe it's negatively colouring this review but idc. this is about gregor who wakes up one day as a bug. that's it that's the book. i don't really think i "got" this book, it just seemed so pointless to me and i don't really know why this book, out of the thousands that are published every year, became a classic?? does this actually resonate with people?? do people actually study this and write essays on it?? what would they even write?? this is just a bucket of nothing. wouldn't recommend. 1.5 stars 

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski

5.0

 hi not even exaggerating this changed my life😭😭 this is basically just a book about female sexuality and damn🥲🥲 like I'm not even joking guys wow🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 I would go as far as to describe this as a philosophy book, I literally wrote out a notes app list of takeaways I took from this, and have changed my views on life. this is such heartwarming book. WE ARE ALL NORMAL😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 EVEN ME😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 

Slammed by Lola Keeley

3.5

hi I got obsessed with the AO like I do every year and am up to date with all things tennis for the 2ish weeks of the tournament then promptly forgetting about everything until next year. decided to pick up a tennis romance!! this is about world no. 1 tennis girlie who is only a few slams away to break the record and a up and comer who is coming back from injury and they maybeeee fall in loveee🫶🫶 this was charming and because I was already v invested in the tennis aspects this was fun. I think all the queer relationship dynamics were done realistically but the race issues side plot felt a bit forced and straight forward and the relationship development was wild. likes the side characters and was a fun romance debut ultimately not super special. for a tennis fix I would recommend carrie soto is back way more! 3.5 stars 

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

4.5

 hi I haven't posted in so long because it is as taking me ages to write this review😭😭 just realized that this is my own show and if I don't want to elaborate I don't have to, I really enjoyed this book about howuch it sucks to be a woman!! and how straight people hate each other!!! I recommend for queer people and straight women and straight men so ig I recommend for everyone. hm. I think I will come back and write an actual review later but I actually do not want to write down my thoughts so deal with this for now, I will update my story if I ever end up posting a proper review. anyway. 4.5 stars 

The Book of the Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

3.5

shoutout to james this is the first book recommendation from you that I've enjoyed! slay. this is a nonfiction book about martial arts which teaches more so the philosophy of a good warrior. i don't really think I learned that much as a lot of the stuff was pretty basic information that as someone who doesn't do martial arts already knew. stuff like "if you're trying one strategy and it doesn't work, try a new strategy!" or "try to anticipate what your opponent is going to do so you can counter it" like yes that's obvious🙄🙄 idk ig this was written in the 1600s or something and yes this is important but how relevant is it now??? all of the warrior philosophy I can see resonating with a martial arts anime nerd who has never understood of the concept of emotional intelligence but it didn't really offer me anything that I hadn't already thought of/experienced in my own life💀💀 trying to cut this book some.slack though cause maybe it was revolutionary at the time or have never properly been written down by anyone in 1600?? idk lol. I think I also have to consider the context of this book, from my understanding the guy who wrote this was a great warrior and was about to die so he wrote this as a summary of all his teachings as supplementary material for his students and it definitely reads as it. like it very much feels like a written summary of a lesson that was taught to someone with physical examples (especially the explanations of certain sword movements). anyway, despite all my complaints I still thought this was cool but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're already interested in martial arts and specifically the philosophy of martial arts and you need some where to start with literature about being a good warrior or whatever 3.5 stars 

This Coven Won't Break by Isabel Sterling

3.75

 this is the second book in a series (first book is these witches don't burn!!!) so there's not too much I can say without spoiling the first book, but this is about Hannah who is from a family of elemental witches who live in Salem (from the witch trials!!!) and it's about the witchy shenanigans with her, her friends and her ex gf and this book continues that story. first I just want to say: I LOVE THIS WORLD. this is such a cool magic system (there are three different types of witches, elementals who draw their power/can control the elements, castors who can make potions and blood witches that can do like body magic??? but they need your blood to be able to use their magic on you). these magical communities are just so believable, there are different cultures for each type of witch as well as different stereotypes that each of the different types of witches put onto each other. small details like how elementals mostly congregate in covens that usually have the same families but castors have different spell "languages" depending on region is so so cool!!!! this was a duology so there's nothing else in this series but I would LOVE another story in this same universe just because I think this magic system is awesome! okay onto the actual story. I think this was a great continuation from the first book but by god is the main character annoying as fuck😭😭 I thought she was bad last time but man!!! girl shut up!! girl stop lying!!! that part during the raid.... iykyk.... and then she's like it's all my fault nooo I'm so sad and I'm just like😑😑 yes girl it is your fault. god. I think this just soured the novel for me. I did really think that her relationship with Morgan was sweet and I was sad that we didn't see as much of veronica this time, I loved their dynamic and I love that they stayed friends! always good to see cal but I thought that the detective being such a main player and a father figure for hannah and cal was a bit forced and I wasn't super emotional about it. I think the main conflict was really well done and I really liked a peak behind the curtain of the "evil people" (sorry I don't want to spoil) and show how this ideaology forms and is perpetuated. I saw the plot twist coming from a mile away which was a bit boring but on the whole I did enjoy this and I liked it more than the first book. 3.75 stars 

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

3.5

 guys I'm really pissed off cause i wrote this review and then scheduled the post and then it disappeared 😠😠 now I have to live this book all over again. this is about a woman who tries to sell her apple peeler on a queer website and then forms what ig you could call a "relationship" with another woman on the site, horrible and disgusting times ensue. this is an epistolary book so it's told in the form of emails and instant messenger chats sent between the two main characters (set in 2000 lol). this was such a visual book and I mean that in a bad way. this book actually made me feel nauseous because it was so disgusting and there was a point where I had to put the book down and have a little break because some terrible stuff was happening 😭😭 I am super queasy when it comes to this sort of stuff. this author is amazing at imagery, like I could really see every single one of these scenes and I loved the themes of obsession and ig loneliness and how past truama manifests. it just put me off a little bit after I found out that this wasn't written by a woman. men can often fetishize particularly lesbian relationships and this could definitely be read as truama porn😭😭 I don't think the rest of their books are like this which leads me to believe that this is not written in bad faith but it was something I thought about. anyway, 3.5 stars