ellenareads's reviews
428 reviews

Twisted Games by Ana Huang

The Alpha of Bleake Isle by Kathryn Moon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 73%.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.

Since starting this book, I found out more about it and I'm intrigued/motivated to push through some of my confusion early in the book to see how the author handles these ideas. But, I've been on the verge of a slump for half a month now and I just need something that is fast paced and easy to process. I'll probably try reading this one again in the future.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

4.75

P.S. You're Intolerable by Julia Wolf
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.

Is there such a thing as too sweet?😅 
I know I won't give this book more than 3 stars so I might as well stop reading now.

Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.

I'm just not vibing with the way the author is choosing to narrate the story. I feel like some major parts of plot and characters' internal thoughts got left out in service of starting the story as soon as possible. It left me questioning how the characters got to the current place in the story since a lot of reasons behind why they chose to do certain things get glossed over or not even explained. Also, there were numerous times when I cringed at some of the dialogue in here, and I have a pretty high tolerance, so that brought my enjoyment down a lot.

Jade City by Fonda Lee

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

5.0

The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells

medium-paced

2.5

This book is exactly as advertised, hitting on all of the mainstream tropes in this type of story and a lot of loose threads left at the end.
It was great for my reading streak since I kinda get overwhelmed when I start a big book and feel like I’m moving really slowly through it, so picking up something fast-paced and quick that I can read in 1 or 2 sittings works great to fend off a reading slump. 

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

Dead Winter follows Crista going on to the Rocky Mountain retreat with her boyfriend, while they get stranded in the middle of a snowstorm with the other passengers on the bus. 

I loved the atmosphere, you could not help feeling the cold described and the endless white of the snow. The horror elements were really good and kinda unexpected with some of the gorry descriptions since I had the impression that Darcy writes cozy horror. 

While I really enjoyed this book, something that bothered me enough to keep it to 4 stars was that it took me about halfway point to get invested in the story. I think it didn’t need to be this long also since the kills became kinda repetitive at one point. 

That said, the mystery was interesting. I predicted some stuff and was shocked by other staff. I think the ending was great and thrilling until the end. 

If you want a horror with an isolated winter setting where you suspect every character in the story then this one could be great for you. 

A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley

lighthearted medium-paced

2.5

Sadly, this book did not work for me. And if I’m completely honest, I'm not sure I can pinpoint a specific thing that bothered me, it was just average overall. 

I feel like the focus of the book was all over the place. It was trying to straddle the line of serious discussion on trauma while still having a happy unserious tone and it just didn’t work for me. I felt like the magic was under-explained, the whole family situation was a mess and so awful that I have no words. The friends were there as plot devices when the FMC needed them to show up in the story. Arguments were happening so often, and it would all resolve in the next chapter despite them saying some awful stuff to each other or other side characters. 
Also, the whole conversation where she admitted who MMC was to one of her bff but let the other one believe an assumption without correcting her (for absolutely no reason) is just wild. Also, I can't be the only one who finds it weird when her friend makes her sleepover at her house to keep her from going home with MMC while drunk, but not even once tries to shield her from the abuse her mother is having on her every single day. All of the parent-child relationships in this book were pretty poorly handled tbh.

And despite all of this, I wouldn’t say it was badly written or that nobody would be able to enjoy this, but I just don’t think it handled any aspect of the story very well. If you are looking for a quick story for when you are in a specific mood with the right expectations, I could see people liking this more than I did.