daniellelardi's reviews
63 reviews

In at the Deep End by Kate Davies

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

this book got recommended to me by a girl on hinge and i’m gonna have to buy her a bouquet of flowers! 

what a fabulous book oh my god. while i was reading this book i also came out to my family which was A LOT. i felt like mine and julia lives were happening in tangent LOL. 

i really did love everything about this book. it reminded my of emily austin and her books. i wasn’t expecting the majority of the book to be about

an extremely abusive relationship so i think that’s why im not giving it a perfect 5, but julia and sams relationship was so real and honestly i felt myself looking back on my first queer relationship and found a lot of similarities just with the jealously and the controlling behavior, which was a lot!

julia parents and friends were great! i loved her little pen pal! it’s was a great great great book! the sex scenes were also SUPER intense which i wasn’t expecting but nevertheless enjoyed LOL! 

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

eh? i was excited to read this one but it just couldn’t catch my attention the way i wanted it to. 

i was expecting w little more. it felt very childish not so much adult fantasy. i also didn’t love the dialogue, i was hoping for a little more flirting and fun. it was all honestly boring to me. 

there were parts when it was playful and i liked albert and dora a lot. elias was okay but i still am like…we know nothing about him really. there was an afterwards included in my edition of the book but honestly im just happy to have finished it. 

i don’t think i would recommend, sorry!! 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

i cannot lie i thought i was going to love this book so much but i do think it fell a bit short for me. there were days when i simply could not get one page. i do think that some of the squire and scion got a little lost on me and i just couldn’t get into it in that respect. 

the plot tho, the grief, the history was 5 stars. the grief that bree feels is so beautifully and tragically depicted. to lose one’s mother is always going to be the loss of a life time, but to lose a mother so young is tragic.

the history MWAH oh my god. i am a big historical fiction girl and the memory walks and the looking back on memories that took place in plantations were beyond my wildest dreams. the imagery was astounding and i was throughly impressed from start to finish. 

the writing was flawless, genuinely. i just don’t think im a king arthur girl! 

also i said this in my reading journal but this little love triangle…..can bree and up with sel?! like fine there i said it!!!!! loving the fact that their moms were friends

i will def read the second book and the third one when it comes out but i will be taking a break for a bit. 

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-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? No

2.0

eh i didn’t really love it. i can’t be sure what i was expecting but it wasn’t that. i didn’t love the ending,

The having a baby really threw me LMAO and obviously i know it was genetically modified and whatever but that point i was just sooooo over the scifi of it all

 

idk i just couldn’t get through it. it was kinda boring and once you knew the plot of what was going out there was nothing else to really look forward to

besides them landing on a new planet which was fine and good but also like….whatever LMAO

i don’t think i would recommend :/ i don’t think i’ll be reading the sequel either lol

The Women by Kristin Hannah

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

4.0

this book was PHENOMENAL! i genuinely loved every moment of it EXCEPT

the moments with fucking Rye i was literally trying to to rip my fucking hair out and it’s the reason that this book is not five stars for me. i understand that it couldn’t have been jamie from the jump when she got home BUT WHEN THAT MOTHERFUCKER WAS ALIVE AND KISSED HIS WIFE ON THE TARMAC I LITERALLY SAW RED like i was actually irrationally angry!

 

anyway! what an intense and sad and heartbreaking and beautiful story all wrapped into one. very happy with my first book of the new year, very much looking forward to reading more by my girl kristen hannah. 

the scenes in vietnam were so fucking intense i literally felt like i was watching a movie/i was there. so so so well done. 

what a time in american history truly. how fucking insane and devastating and DELUSIONAL of america to march into someone else’s country and assert ourselves and lose our citizens in the process. one line from frankie struck me so hard towards the end

we were the last believers, my generation. we trusted our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the american myth of equality justice and honor. i wonder if any generation will ever believe again.

LIKE WOAH THAT WAS CRAZY. 

beautiful book. loved jt. 

The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? No

4.25

i LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!! this reminded me so much of the hawthorne legacy (book 2) which was my favorite out of the trilogy. i love how much JLB keeps adding to this series!!!!!! this one was her most creative yet!!!! i thought it was so much fun from start to finish!!!!! cannot wait to keep reading 

The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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? No

3.0

i love that i get to continue this series!!!! 

i am still slightly unsure of when this timeline occurred but it’s seemingly like it takes place almost between the second and third book of the trilogy just because of the way it ends. either way the story all flowed really well. 

i liked reading about the brothers in another POV besides avery’s. 

as always with JLB books the last ~150 pages fly by and that was exactly what happened to me with this one. the beginning was def slow to build but over all i enjoyed it! 

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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? No

4.5

Benjamin Alire Sáenz. You are the stuff of legends truly. I am at a loss for words honestly. your novels are so important to me, i am going to miss aristotle and dante so dearly. i feel truly lucky to live in the lifetime where they exist with me. 

gosh this book was heart wrenching and heart breaking and heart warming and if i could memorize every word and only speak in quote from this book for the rest of my life i would. 

i was disappointed by the lack of aristotle and dante content within this book compared to the first HOWEVER at the end of the day it’s ari’s story that we are truly being told.

i felt like a proud mom by the end of the book ago ha watched her children grow! 

lives ari’s relationship with cassandra i think that was a treally beautiful aspect.

ALSO what a beautiful homage this novel was to teachers everywhere

i absolutely loved the lizard story and cried my eyes out when i read the letter that he wrote to mrs. mendoza LIKE GAH!! also….ari’s dad dying was Heavy and him meeting his brother Heavier but so important? so beautifully written? such a gorgeous depiction of two completely different kinds of grief.

this book made me chnage my new year’s resolution to journal while i read. i never have before bc i feel like it takes me out of the book, but i really need to book mark quote or something more bc i really want to memorize every line from this one as previously stated! LOVED!!!! 

okay also one more thing to add. absolutely loved that within this universe aristotle and dante’s parents were supportive through every moment of the books. i hate the overused my parents hate me theme in LGBTQIA+ books, not because it isn’t real, but because that narrative is too often spoken of when the opposite can be and is true.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

“Somewhere toward the end of the shift we all started singing U2 songs. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Yeah, that was a good song. My theme song. But really I thought it was everybody's theme song.”

LIKE OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! 

ARI!!!!!!!!!! the boy that you are. i have been dying to read this book forever and my god it didn’t disappoint. it was just so emotional and raw. the whole plot of ari’s brother and how his parents world view changed because of it. 

dante my sensitive boy!!!!!! i wanted to bottle him up and just hold him forever. 

what a beautiful book! 

Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous by Mae Marvel

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? No

2.5

i don’t know why but this book was like pulling teeth for me. i am a romance girlie at heart and im gay so this should’ve been everything i wanted and more and it just wasn’t. i couldn’t get into it in the slightest. i felt like the writing was kinda clunky? i don’t know it just wasn’t my fav. the characters were lovely and so were wil and katie’s deep conversations were so important but i kept wanting more????? idk something about it wasn’t doing it for me.