hannahleelovestoread's reviews
609 reviews

Reclaim the Sacred Self: The Way of the Heart Protector by Malene Kai Bell

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

In Reclaim the Sacred Self: The Way of the Heart Protector, author Malene Kai Bell writes to a primary audience of women who have lost their confidence and/or sense of self. She informs these women that the purpose of the book is to transform them into “Heart Protectors,” or dutiful guardians of their own hearts. As one of Bell’s readers, I found it challenging but incredibly helpful to identify and independently define my core values. These values, Bell writes, should inform one’s expectations, boundaries, and sense of autonomy in relationships. An example of one value upon which Bell places particular emphasis is sovereignty, or the acceptance of all aspects of oneself independent of any other person or outside situation. Perhaps the premise of the book can best be summarized by this Alice Walker quote it references:  “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” I highly recommend this book to any woman struggling with her confidence or sense of self.
Energy Healing [All in 1]: 345 Techniques & Strategies to Unlock Cosmic Energies for Spiritual Transformation. Achieve Holistic Healing with Numerology, Astrology, Reiki, Crystals, & Chakra Balancing by Monique Wagner

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book, a collection of instructions on the use of various holistic healing methods, is one of the most informative pieces I’ve read recently. The highly informative but reader-friendly text is divided into five main sections featuring the following healing concepts, respectively:  numerology, astrology, reiki, crystals, and chakra balancing. Each of these sections is further divided into five to seven pillars or foundations. For example, the pillars of reiki include “elements” and “energy.” While reading this book, I found the astrology section most fascinating, and I was surprised to learn that the origins of the fun we have with zodiac personality profiles today extend all the way back to Ancient Greece. I enjoyed the way this work combined more serious facts with fun tidbits; I learned about both a boom in interest in astrology with the rise of spiritualism in the early 19th century and the attribution of generational stereotypes to the notion of shared Pluto signs. This book is indisputably a master class on the basics of holistic healing methods, and I highly recommend it. 
Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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9 Steps to Build a Life of Meaning: How to Unlock Your Mind, Happiness, Power, and Your Enemy's Demise by Rick Walker

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

Rick Walker’s 9 Steps to Build a Life of Meaning is far more than meets the eye. Rather than prescribing readers a stale and forgettable self-help formula which promises to be simple, this book takes a revolutionary approach in proclaiming that nothing worth doing is easy. The titular nine steps are strikingly nontraditional; examples include “choose one worthy enemy” and “give away what you want to keep.” Employing a reader-friendly format brimming with bullet points and featured quotes, the text focuses on the behavioral examples of great men of history, with a particular focus on Alexander the Great and Jesus Christ. Though 9 Steps was written with young men in mind, women could easily benefit from the sage advice within its pages, as well. Perhaps the crux of the book’s message can be summed up with the following quote from Chapter Eight:  “The effort you give today determines your forever.” This is a can’t-miss read for anyone hoping to find meaning in his or her life.
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Savannah Royals by Lindsay Barrett

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

Savannah Royals by Lindsay Barrett, a mashup of romance and Prohibition-era heist novel, is a fun, action-packed read set in Savannah, Georgia. Female main character Katarina “Kat” Quinn was born in the unforgiving Catacombs beneath the city and lost her mother at an early age. Now, she has made her way up the ladder of Savannah’s hierarchical society and is an upcoming graduate of the prestigious Telfar Academy. She has even attracted the recent attentions of the eligible and famously wealthy Matthew DaMoulin. But nothing can keep her from her roots and the “Wolfpack” she formed during her younger years with her friends Abe and Tony and her first love, their charismatic leader, Paul — or so she thinks. 
The dynamic characters and humorous, lively banter in this book kept me turning the pages. Kat was one of my favorite FMCs out of all the romance novels I’ve read since my recent foray into the genre. While I strongly advise checking content warnings, I admire the author for her treatment of the serious subject of (as she succinctly puts it in the author’s note) “love that has twisted into something unrecognizable.” The novel’s only downside was its falling action, which was a little too tidy and predictable. However, this didn’t stop it from being one of my favorite reads of the year so far. 
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Letter Slot by Owen King

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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The Skydivers by Chris Bohjalian

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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False Note by David Lagercrantz

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

4.5

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Dark and Defiant by Alyssa Rose

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

In this second installment of the DarkFlower Jungle series, the story picks up where Princess Aironell has been taken by mysterious forces who tell her of her beloved Drefan’s true identity. Her kidnapping is a ploy to lure Dref in, but Aironell begins to doubt he cares for her at all. Still, she uses her increasingly powerful magic to find out what these sinister forces (and others who are even darker) want with Dref. But she finds out that her own identity is more crucial to this process and to the DarkFlower Jungle itself than she realized. 
Author Alyssa Rose firmly established herself as a short-form author with this novella. I did find some of the exclamatory language, particularly that of Kyus and Travago, overly modern for high fantasy. However, the magic system and the backstory were complex and interesting, and Aironell’s relationship made the enemies-to-lovers transition. Aironell’s mother, Queen Evalyn of Bachusa, is one of my favorite characters from Rose’s longform Fates Align duology, so I was excited to see fascinating tidbits about her ancestors in connection with the DarkFlower jungle bringing the story full circle. I recommend this novella and eagerly await the arrival of Found and Fated this fall. 
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