haileyrt's reviews
331 reviews

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-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? No

4.0

A great Sci-fi, Afrofuturism short story. I love that the world building isn't too complicated and complex and I that I was able to understand and appreciate Okorafor's writing without feeling too overwhelmed with the information and conflict of the book. I liked Binti and Okwu as characters even though I was a bit confused about who the Meduse were at first and how they got on the Khoush ship to begin with, but it was good to understand the inner conflict between Oomza Uni and the Meduse. Really would like to read more from Okorafor since I like the way she writes, will definitely read more from her. 

Sweet Like Honey: A Black Sapphic Romance by Aricka Alexander

emotional sad fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

I thought this was an okay romance novel. I really read it because I've been wanting to find more Black WLW books. For a beginner getting into romance, I'd say it's not bad, but as a veteran, it's not my favorite romance I've read. I say this only because I didn't quite like how it was written. Things would either be over explained or give a lot of context that wasn't entirely necessary. I'm not sure how to explain it but it was written similarly to fanfiction, like the writing style, things happening suddenly, and the smut being super quick and ending abruptly. The smut was okay but I felt like it didn't have a lot of depth or proper buildup, it just happened and ended. It felt super rushed and repetitive, and some of the smut felt kind of flat despite the romance kind of being there. I also didn't like how rushed their relationship seemed. I mean I get that they'd known each other for a few years before Adrian had left, but I felt like they needed more time together and with their trauma to heal. I also wish we got to get more into the side characters as I didn't quite feel like they had depth or purpose outside of the main characters Adrian and Drew. This wasn't a bad novel, I thought it was okay. I definitely was a bit cheesy and some of the dialogue was a tiny bit corny or cringe, but it is a romance novel so I don't hold it to a high standard. It's a decent Black WLW novel, but I'd like it a bit more if the dialogue was more natural, we got to see more of the side characters outside of Drew and Adrian, if the 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Tracy you're paying for my therapy 

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

This would be the sixth book I've read from Lemming (I've read her Mead Mishaps and the novellas from her) and it didn't disappoint! I'm not crazy about romantasy or science fiction/romance, but I still enjoyed this book. I really liked seeing Dory's character development and become more independent and stronger, and I liked Sol and Lok's characters as well. I wish we were able to dive more into Sol's backstory a bit more, since I felt like there was a focus on Sol and his soldiers against the king for a bit. It was a bit silly at times and the dialogue could be a bit cheesy for some, but I thought it was good. I definitely will be reading this series as more books are released, as it's a pretty interesting plot of alien abductions and discovering planets, while trying to coexist with other aliens. 

Unhinged by Octavia Grant

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the plot being about the antagonist's stories she wrote, as brutal, a bit crazy, and surprising. I wasn't too fond of the smut scenes, especially since I didn't expect them and they happened frequently, suddenly, and didn't have any proper build up, just straight sex. It's interesting to read about black women being the antagonists in thrillers, so it wasn't terrible but some of the stories did lack a bit of depth and just happened. I wish we got to see more of her character development and going through each of the stories and how the characters connect with her personally. There were a few grammatical errors like missing quotations or sometimes I got mixed up with narration and dialogue, but it was a decent collection of short stories. 

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-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? Yes

4.5

Never trust a man and always have the confidence of a mediocre white man 🙏🏽

Ward D by Freida McFadden

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This definitely was one of McFadden's decent but not incredible novels. I felt like even though it was interesting to get depth to Tegan and Jade's characters, I wish we got to learn more about Jade's story about why she is who she is, perhaps to redeem or find out why she is the way she is outside of her mom. Also I wish we learned more about why Jade really believes Tegan should be in the psych ward with her, instead of her mainly being portrayed as the victim of Jade's escapades and rebellion. I felt like some parts of the story towards the end were predictable, but there were some moments where I didn't see certain things coming. I did see there were certain parts of dialogue where there'd be an explanation or something like that to describe what happened, but sometimes it'd be unnecessary as either the scene or the context clues would give the clues or the story away themselves, and didn't really need to be explained or made obvious with dialogue. It definitely does help with reading slumps and reading McFadden's books do help whenever I have a slump, but it's understandable if some books put you in a slump. This book was a bit quicker and I did enjoy the shorter chapters. 

The Crash by Freida McFadden

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Tegan is so much better than me because WHAT WHY IS EVERYBODY WEIRDOS

GhostBox (Comixology Originals) #4 by Pablo Raimondi, Jose Villarrubia, Mike Carey

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0