dairyfreemozzarella's reviews
241 reviews

Squire by Nadia Shammas, Sara Alfageeh

4.0

Theme for a little heavy handed near the end

The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Can’t believe how many deaths were in this one. Probably an all time high of named character deaths (excluding major battles) for Rick.
Solid.

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

After finishing Love, Theoretically, I had to take a minute to just look up at my ceiling, close my eyes, and smile. Satisfying and perfectly constructed, this book was perfect for starting off my year.

Elsie and Jack were exquisitely paired and written, the plot was well written and flowed nicely, and I enjoyed a lot of the dialogue.

A few negatives were present, with a few cringe-worthy references/terms (no thoughts, head empty — being one I remember vividly) but that is a purely personal preference. In addition, I’ve noticed a few times that Ali Hazelwood’s side characters tend to be evil to the main character for NO REASON. I understand the main antagonist, but I felt like the part about Andrea was totally unneeded and Monica just icked me out.

Aside from those (very minor) downsides, I very thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it widely. The mental health and diabetes rep was spot on, the romance swoon-worthy (need to get myself a partner like Jonathan Smith-Turner!), and the characters were well-balanced. Another A+ from Ali Hazelwood, and I really can’t wait for the next.

Demon in the Wood Graphic Novel by Leigh Bardugo

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

Art was beautiful, but a bit inconsistent. Story was very good, but I wish it had been expanded just a bit more. Overall solid.

Loathe to Love You by Ali Hazelwood

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

18+ warning !!!

under one roof -

jesus christ I literally fell in love with these characters. perfect perfect short story. two critiques — there are a few pop culture/slang terms that are kind of millenial cringy to me & the friends being interwoven kind of fell flat for me.. they didnt really feel like their own characters, i couldnt really picture them as people. they were kind of like the voices in maras head to me. HOWEVER. the romantic tension was SIZLING and i love that the enemies/rivals part was short but the bantar stayed throughout, even in the epilogue when the couple was solidly together. 

Stuck with you -

Not as good as under one roof but very very solid. The one day romance is one of my least favorite tropes but it’s done very very well here!! Yet again, romantic tension = burning.

Below zero - 

I saw a lot of reviews saying that this one was their least favorite but honestly this was very solid. Finally the friends felt like separate entities to me! And wow, Ali hazelwood fmc who’s not paler than pale? Surprising and good. I loved that their romance had time to simmer, and felt like this one could’ve honestly been a full length novel!

Bonus chapter

A sweet little tie together. I’m wondering if Ali hazelwood will include any male pov in her future books… it was a pretty solid voice and tone for each of the three characters.

Overall

If you want smut that has tons of worship and the guy putting the girl first, this is the perfect book for you.

If you want couples that are imperfect but that you can root for anyway, this is the perfect book for you.

If you want cute nerdy references and fmcs that are more quirky than your average Jill, this is the perfect book for you.

HOWEVER.

All Hazelwood has her formula down pat, but when even the physical descriptions of the characters are the same in every book, it’s hard to tell them apart and seperate them in my mind. So far, all the men are huge (not just huge but, oak trees, Vikings, deities, walls, etc) all the women are EXTREMELY petite. The shades of hair range from blonde to dark brown. The eye colors are from hazel to bright blue. The skin is from pale to…very pale (with the single exception of Hannah in this novella). The girls boobs are always tiny, the guys dicks are always enormous (not just enormous, but double take, gasp, is this real life? Big). And this has all been the case in the 5 books I’ve read from her so far. It’s okay for her to have a niche, I’d just like a little more diversity in future.

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

first half very very solid and enticing…but the ending suffers from a too-rushed poor planning stage. went from fantastically-unrealistic to humanly-unrealistic. coukdve been so much better. liked the romance subplot.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

4.0

Some sections were better than others, overall good

She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard

3.0

I guess I just didn’t feel any motivations behind any of the characters actions. It felt like events just happened to get us closer to the end of the book.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

So perf, ending made me so angry (in a good way)

An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi

3.0

“Haram islamic literature” — my friend khadija

My main problem was that the end was very unsatisfying.