daiinty's reviews
154 reviews

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

“There is such a thing as looking through a person's eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another's soul in one hour than it might take you a lifetime to discover, if he or she were not disposed to reveal it, or if you had not the sense to understand it.” — Anne Brontë

this was my first anne brontë novel i have read after being more aquatinted with the works of her two sisters. the literary genius relegated to a single family truly beguiles me, and i’m further surprised at how anne’s works are not more widely touted, especially considering this is said to be the first sustained feminist novel. 

i’ve always loved the epistolary novel, and i feel like it can be hard to do well, though deft writer’s of this period certainly had a grasp on the style. i loved how seamlessly brontë transitioned between gilbert and helen’s POVs, making me so swept up in the mystery surrounding helen in the first part, and her subsequent tale of her hapless marriage and escape. i really enjoyed helen’s character. she was so steadfast in her beliefs and respect for herself, and often spoke out on the position of women in her time. to me, she was quite the strong heroine. how often did we get stories of women leaving their husbands (which, in fact, was illegal in this time period), acting on their own agency, and not being punished for it in the end? in fact, helen is rewarded with a true love match. as far as the prose, i found this to be quite readable and would honestly recommend to someone looking to get into classics. the story is pretty fast paced, keeping you on your toes to find out what will happen next. the context of this novel is also fascinating to read into when you look at her brother, branwell, who was likely the inspiration for arthur huntington. i will definitely be looking into agnes grey next, anne’s only other published novel. 

Blade Breaker by Victoria Aveyard

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

“Maybe we belong to each other, we who belong nowhere.” — Victoria Aveyard

i was surprised at how much more i like this book than the first one. usually sequels, especially in a planned trilogy, suffer from “second book syndrome” but this felt like there was more substance with this book and i found myself less confused by the world building than i was with realm breaker. i think that is partially to do with the significant amount of political and war planning that went into this book. i felt like a lot was cleared up. now that i felt like im more aquatinted with these characters i feel so much more connected to them. i loved seeing sorasa and dom’s character growth, and the scene with the assassins was badass. aveyard also writes such compelling villain characters with erida and taristan, i find their POVs to be fascinating. the ending made me cry, and it takes a lot for a book to bring me to tears. this is the epic adventure book i was looking for in the first book.

my biggest question is why is this considered YA? i feel that aveyards writing and world building in this series is much more advanced. is it because one of the characters is 17? i would argue there isn’t necessarily a single MC because many of them get an equal amount of POVs. i just feel like women authors often get lumped into YA when they really have no reason to be unless they fill it with smut and then have to be placed in adult. i feel like this deserves to be an adult fantasy. 

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a married man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an heir.” — Julia Quinn

i decided to read this just because i watched the show and was really surprised at how much i genuinely enjoyed the writing of this. the biggest difference i noted between this book and the first season of the show was how exclusively the book focuses on daphne and simon. i wasn’t totally upset about that, though. to me, for this form it made sense to develop the characters it was trying to focus in on. the dialogue between all of the characters was very witty and i found myself smiling quite a bit at the exchanges. i honestly expected the writing to be garbage, so that’s why i think im rating it as high as i am. i had a good time most of the time. 

is this book perfect? no. while i felt simon was pretty well developed, daphne just felt like she was lacking. just because a character doesn’t go through a huge amount of trauma doesn’t mean they don’t have experiences that shape them, and i felt like that was lacking in daphne. now, of course, i need to get into the coercion scene. that felt so gross to me in the show and even grosser here. i feel like quinn could have accomplished what she was trying to do without it. sure, it adds a shock factor, but so would any accidental pregnancy scare. you can’t make a character do what daphne did and make my sympathize with them after. it’s simply not going to happen. 

overall, though, i was intrigued by how well the writing of the story was and am definitely interested in catching up before the next season comes out on netflix. 

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

“You have to speak the thing that you’re feeling, even if it scares you. You have to tell your story. You have to raise your voice.” — Britney Spears

this was such a heart wrenching read. reading britney’s story in her own words, it is just unfathomable to me just how many people failed her. i went into this with very little knowledge on britney spears. of course, i grew up listening to her music, but when most of the events in the first half of this book took place i was really young. britney spears was kind of like this idea i had in my head based off of pop culture and people’s ideas of her. come to find out everything i thought i knew was wrong. my perceptions of britney growing up in the early 2000s during her “breakdowns” was fully from the media so this whole time i did think she was on drugs or something around the time she shaved her head. really interesting to find out she never had a drinking/drug problem at all. as someone about to be studying law, it just blows my mind that the conservatorship was able to happen at all, but the fact it went on so long while she was still working her ass off? crazy. as sad as many aspects of this book were, britney’s strength and optimism for the future is very aspirational. i really enjoyed this read.

i’ve seen that britney used a ghost writer for this book, but in reading it, it feels like someone just captured her talking about her life and maybe just edited the grammar and changed some words around. this story was a long time coming, and i’m glad she finally is able to share her story with the world. 

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-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

2.0

“I believe there are far more possibilities than happily ever after or tragedy. Every story has the potential for infinite endings.” — Stephanie Garber

this book has a lot of hype around it, so that’s why it’s been on my tbr for quite some time. while there were aspects of the book i enjoyed, i don’t really see where the hype comes from. this is a very silly book, which often can be an aspect of similar books that i enjoy, but for me the silliness lacked substance and made it hard for me to take anything seriously when the plot demanded seriousness. i feel like it was trying to attempt something in the same vein of india holton’s Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels series, but didn’t quite achieve that. i get that this is YA, but i’ve read plenty to YA that didn’t infantilize itself. 

SPOILERS:

there were some lazy plot devices in my opinion. for instance, at the very beginning out FMC is turned to stone and we miss six weeks of huge events like this week of terror and apparently a regicide and transition of power in the north? we just completely miss all of that. i also think had the book started with more of evangeline and luke’s relationship i would have cared more about them and evangeline’s heartbreak. similarly, i think her and apollo’s relationship should have been more developed. i know he was under a spell, but again i would have cared more when he “died”. the world building also felt pretty lackluster to me. one thing i did enjoy was the like reveal in the den of vampires, but i doubt i will be reading on to find out anything else that happens to his character. also, marisol is a sniveling bitch, but her character was confusing. 

overall, the story was cute, but i feel like it would have been really good had the characters and plot been more well developed. unless i hear something particularly interesting i won’t likely be continuing with the series.

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

“I love you. I fell in love with you in the depths of my soul, and it’s my soul that will find yours again in the next life.” — Sarah J. Maas

i truly didn’t see myself liking this series as much as a did. urban fantasy was never my thing. the ending to this trilogy though was what gave it my stamp of approval. maas set up so much not only in this series, but others as well that got us to an ending that was pretty satisfactory. the insane possibilities of the “maasaverse” as i see some calling it are very impressive. the thing that has always drawn me to this author since high school is her ability to weave a story together. as a TOG fan through and through, you can bet i caught on to the connections between lidia and aelin, so i will be pouring over reddit threads as theories begin to come up. 

the story, however, isn’t perfect. while i can commend the complexities of the lore and weaving together of storylines this book in particular was so heavy with world building and info dumping it was hard to keep up with. i truly don’t believe this needed to be a 800 page book, especially for the lack of character growth. insane length does not necessarily equal a literary masterpiece. as always, there were some aspects of maas’s writing that made me cringe. pretty much most of bryce’s dialogue (probably my least favorite of sjm’s fmcs). now, to address the crossover, i think everyone really hyped it up which heightened our expectations. i think because there was so much focus on the crossover it then felt a little lackluster, but with the power of this fan base it was bound to happen. 

despite my criticisms, i truly did enjoy the read. the cross over between sjm’s three series was so exciting for me to see as a long time reader and the ending to this trilogy had me smiling like crazy. having a background in creative writing can make me hyper critical, however if i book is able to make me feel things like this did then i still count it as a good book. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

4.0

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

4.0

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

3.0

really just an “okay” book. i felt like the main character april was portrayed as trying way to hard to be “not like other girls” when really she was just an unlikeable character at points. the ending was very unsatisfying, i don’t know if they’re trying to leave it open for a sequel? i give it three starts because the last couple chapters had me pretty engaged.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

5.0

holy. shit. this was such a good read. it made me so nostalgic for my time in oxford and was full of suspense. i’m so excited to read the silent patient now!