deannaroy's reviews
5 reviews

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This one definitely makes you think about life and regrets.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt

The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-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

5.0

Careful about listening to this audio -- I wound up sitting in my car for fifteen minutes crying so hard I couldn't go into an appointment. It's next-level sad. You fall totally in love with Lenni and this story is HARD. But I'm all about the ugly cry so this is a memorable five-star read for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, and Child death

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

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

5.0

My favorite book of all time. I've read it every summer since 1978. It's been wild, first aspiring to be the older sister Wanda, then realizing I'm probably most like the younger sister Sarah, then becoming the older sister, then eventually becoming Aunt Willie! 

I get a fresh perspective from it every year and moved through not understanding why Sarah acts as she did toward boys and herself, to experiencing it, to looking back on it (and glad I'm not there anymore!)

The perfect coming of age story.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

I've read this book a dozen times, and it's been required reading to date me since 2005! (All the guys have loved it, too.) Yay! I love all of Sonya Sones books. I'm a huge fan, although she sets the bar high high high for novels-in-verse.