haileyrt's reviews
333 reviews

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I thought this book was going to be a simple, every day thriller written by a black woman, but I was surely mistaken. I really enjoyed the use of the stars and ancient Egyptian figures in the book, and I also like the development of the characters, the story, and the plot. I feel like everything was organized very clear and it didn't leave me confused once I finish the book but it can be a bit confusing in the beginning. I really loved diving into the black girls from the past and getting each of their stories and hearing more from Jack the Jackal on what each of the girls "taught him." I also really like the ending and that it was a lot more unexpected and I thought it would be, especially Jack and Liz's standoff. I don't want to spoil much of the anything but the book does take you on a whirlwind of whodunit and trying to figure out what's really going on. There's so many coincidences that make you believe that it's one character, but it's a really good novel despite the wild goose chase to try to figure out what's going on and who did what. This was incredibly well written and I love the dialogue and development of the characters, especially Liz and who she was able to become towards the end of the book. Erin definitely put so much hard work and detail into this book and it shows 100%. This book is definitely a great thriller by a excellent black author that I highly recommend.

The Fake Boyfriend Fiasco by Talia Hibbert

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad 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

3.75

Although I did enjoy this book and I did enjoy the romance and spice, this isn't my favorite Talia Hibbert book, only because I'm not a huge fan of "love at first sight" romances. I did enjoy Aria and Nik as characters, and I did enjoy seeing their relationship and romance blossom throughout the book. It was a bit difficult for me to believe that Nik had fallen in love with Aria within a week but it does happen to some people, which I do understand, it's just not my favorite book trope. The spice was pretty decent, I just wish that with the shorter scenes there was more of a build up instead of it's just happening, but the longer spices did have enough build up which was good and is one of the reasons why I like Talia's writing style. Can't wait to read "The Roommate Risk!"

One Last Job by Anise Starre

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

4.75

Just when you thought the second but couldn't be better than the first one, it was! I think this is my favorite book in the series and it was so memorable and so swoon worthy. I love Finn and Amber so much and I knew just from reading the first few chapters that I was going to enjoy this book. I really enjoy Anise's writing style and steamy scenes were very much top tier 😌. I really enjoyed how we were able to dive deep into each of the characters and their careers and family lives, will also have a character development. I also really enjoyed that anything that was mentioned or anything that was an issue they were able to talk about it and solve the issue instead of just dwelling over it or ignoring it, if that makes sense. As much as I love this book I can tell that it was one of the more realistic books despite Finn and Cash raising my standards and Finn raising the bar constantly. I cannot wait to see what's next for her and her upcoming book that features Bailey's brother and Elliot. 

Take A Chance by Miyeko May

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

This was a good romance, especially for a novella. The only thing and the reason why I gave it a decently low rating was because I felt like a lot of the writing was very similar fanfiction (iykyk). I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I've been reading fanfiction for years and the writing is very similar to fanfiction but nonetheless it's really good for a debut novella. Obviously I know that in novellas things are going to go a lot faster than longer romances, but I feel like so much of the story was rushed because I just thought it was odd that Cassandra and Cyrus slept together when the last time they saw each other was when they graduated high school years ago and obviously they wouldn't be the same person that they are now. I feel like they didn't take enough time to get to know each other before that happened but obviously they were on a short vacation so I didn't understand why that wouldn't make sense to get to know each other since the vacation was so short anyways. The smut was decent but I feel like so much of the writing was a bit rushed like there wasn't any character development that gave enough depth or like any type of setting the scene for the romance it just kind of happened if that makes sense?!? Like the smut just happened instead of the book setting the scene and making you comfortable and reeling you in and then the smut slowly happens, instead it just kind of happened, but I digress. I did enjoy this novella despite feeling like it was a bit rushed and I didn't really feel any connections or depth between the character since everything was happening so fast, but if you do enjoy short novellas with spice, romance, and black love, you would definitely like this. 

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.0

I'm honestly a big conflicted on how I feel about this book. For one I thought the writing was pretty decent and I feel like the idea of the plot revolving around mothers going into an institution to get guidance and help for their "bad parenting" would've been interesting, but I feel like this book fell a bit flat. I felt like a lot of the beginning was a bit hard to keep me interested and I feel like a lot of readers might lose interest in initially reading the book because they don't know where the book is going until you're about 30% into the book. I also feel like this book in a way and maybe not purposefully hold onto the idea that in order to be considered a good parent you have to be a perfect parent/person which isn't true at all. I feel like the different mothers' experiences we're all pretty interesting to read about but I feel like Frida's character wasn't incredibly interesting. Now I will say that the troubles she went through with her own mother and being a mother to her child or compelling to read about but I truthfully don't know how to feel about the ending. I feel like despite how much she cared about her child and really loved her child, Frida definitely should not have did what she did at the very ending. She literally jeopardized her relationship with her daughter and everyone around her more than once and literally just erased and redid all the progress she made at the school at Pierce, and it kind of just made all the development and everything that she did at the school irrelevant to the fact that she's going to do what she wants to do at the end of the day for her child instead of learn to become not only a mother but her own person. I feel like this might've not been done on purpose but her unhealthy attachment to her daughter is what made me a little bit skeptical as to why Will even let her see Harriet in the first place, but I just feel like so conflicted as sad as the ending was I still feel a bit disappointed in Frida for all that progress just for the ending to happen. I will say that this book was a decently interesting read and was very compelling in the sense of seeing how an unhealthy and emotionally unavailable relationship between Frida and her mother, lead to Frida's entire life revolving around Harriet once she was born. It was very interesting to read about how complex her relationship with the men around her and her daughter was. The ending was a bit disappointing in the sense that all the progress she had made meant nothing, but if you enjoy reading about flawed readers who have a lot of shit going on and don't have a necessarily good but not bad ending either, you'd definitely like this book.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The story of the disappearance of Ruthy Ramirez was strong, interesting, and it some places hard to read. I've never read a book that said "fuck" so many times in my life. 

I felt like there is so much build up to find out if Ruby was Ruthy, and then the end just kind of happened. I enjoyed the last chapter and I'm glad that I wasn't left on a cliffhanger, and that we actually get to find out what happened to Ruthy.

I feel like this book's depiction of a Puerto Rican family of women trying to find their long lost family member is a good concept, and I enjoyed the different POV's of the different characters, but I wish we were able to delve into each of the characters emotionally and mentally. I feel like especially with what happened to Jessica, delving into each of the character's issues and backstory would've definitely made this book worthwhile and more hard-hitting. 

I did appreciate and enjoy the issues dealt with in this book, as painful as some of them were to read about as so many of the characters were so young at the time. Nevertheless this was a good read but I felt like I was kind of disappointed how dragged out whether or not Ruby was actually Ruthy and it just sort of ended there. 

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad slow-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

3.75

As much as I didn't enjoy the first book, this book definitely was so much better. I really enjoyed the tension between Anthony and Kate in the beginning of the novel, and as much as I wish that the show adaptation in the book adaptation were similar, I really enjoyed the way the book concluded. With Kate fear of thunderstorms and Anthony's fear of falling in love, I really felt like this book captured their care and love for each other in a good way. As much as I didn't really like Anthony in the beginning, I did come to like him towards the end. I also really enjoyed the character development between the two characters and the lowkey "enemies-to-lovers" trope between them. Still conflicting on whether or not I want to read Colin's books since I do really like Anthony, but if Shonda delivers we shall see 😌

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

emotional sad slow-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

1.0

I was super excited to read this book after watching the first two seasons of Bridgerton, and I loved the angst, trouble romance between Simon and Daphne, but this book feel a bit short for me. 

For one I'm glad that Shonda made the cast of the show way more diverse than the book because I don't really care for Victorian-esque period novels, but as much as I tried to imagine the characters based off the show's interpretation, this book is painfully ✋🏻. I don't really like to judge based off of this but I wish there were more diverse characters in the series since I really enjoyed to show's characters. 

Secondly, iykyk that one chapter.....where Daphne basically....you know..... as much as I tried to like her in the book she was a bit insufferable when they first got married, especially about having children. Simon even literally mentioned that even though he knew he wouldn't be able to give her children, he'd try his best to make her happy otherwise and mentioned multiple times how he felt about having children and even went out of his way to make sure he pulled out and yet she still went out of her way while he was still drunk and not fully conscious to try to make him finish inside of her like.....she even mentioned that she wasn't ashamed of what she didn't but she was sad that he was angry like girllllll are you dumb or are you stupid. I'm glad they had the conversation on the real reason why he wouldn't have kids and the fact that she miscarried but she still is so weird for that.

Thirdly, maybe it was just me and I'm lazy almost always but this book put me in the biggest reading slump I've ever been in in my life. A lot of the beginning was quite boring and uneventful, and the ending was just trying to finish the book. I was so ready to finish the book I didn't even care to read the 30+ minute second epilogue. As interesting as I found the show to be interesting and dramatic, the book kind of fell flat for me. 

I'm hoping that 'The Viscount Who Loved Me' is good or I've lost all hope for this series lol. 

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human by Kimberly Lemming

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

I love this series so much! I'm not a huge fantasy fan, but I love that the series is pretty easy to follow throughout the books. I've been waiting for Dante's story for the longest and this definitely did not disappoint! I loved Cherry's character and I truly appreciated Cinnamon's sister's return and the ending omggg (iykyk 🥲). I loved the diversity of the characters' backstories, dialogue, and lives. The smut was a bit there but it still did it's mf thing 😌. Can't wait to see what's next for Lemming and what she has to offer!

Love and War #3 by Killian Ng, Andrew Wheeler

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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