hollielovesromance's reviews
598 reviews

I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body by Carla Sosenko

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

What a powerful collection of essays. Sosenko tackles topics surrounding her medical conditions including having physical differences, ADHD, anxiety, depression and takes on a journey exploring how all of these things are part of her and also make her the woman she has become. As a fellow small fat who has done their time in the WeightWatchers cult I particularly enjoyed reading her essay on her experience with diet culture and eventual usage of wegovy. It felt as if I could have written just about all of it myself. I appreciated the way that Sosenko isn’t afraid to show all aspects of herself even the ones that folks might judge her for (hello shopping issues!). The flow of the essays was perfect and I felt like each one built on the last to create this whole picture of where Sosenko finds herself now.  

Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan

emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

Kennedy Ryan the woman that you are!! Can’t Get Enough brings us Hendrix’s story. Finally!! All throughout the Skyland series I have been waiting to get to see our girl Hen find her love. Hendrix is ambitious, driven, bold, and the most loving human you could ever hope to encounter. I have always been drawn to Hendrix as a person who is also child free by choice. Hendrix is happy and fulfilled in her life and shows that mothering isn’t always done by biological mothers to their children. When we meet Hendrix in this book she’s got so much going on. She’s about to achieve her ultimate dream of breaking into producing television, her venture capital fund is about to start round two of funding, and her beloved mother is starting to experience more severe symptoms of Alzheimer’s. She’s being pulled in a million directions and really doesn’t need one more thing on her plate but enter Maverick Bell. Maverick is the ultimate Kennedy Ryan hero. He’s a hard worker, knows what he wants, and will move heaven and earth for the people he loves. I had so many moments during this book where I was just kicking my feet giddy for Hendrix. Maverick goes out of his way to show her in small and big ways that he loves her and wants to help her achieve her dreams. He doesn’t want her to give up her career and isn’t trying to help her buy her way to the top. He’s there to support her and clear things out of the way if he can. A true power couple. I loved watching them come together and grow. I also really loved getting to see Hendrix care for her mother. She doesn’t always get it right but she’ll do whatever she has to do to take care of her mom and her aunt. This was such a delightful read and I’m glad that all our girls in the Skyland series found their love with their partners and their sisterhood together. 

This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

I’ll be honest when I saw this book I really didn’t know much about Zarna Garg but the book blurb intrigued me. I’m so glad that I gave this a read. This is a voice-y book in the best way possible. I felt like I was sitting down having drinks with a friend. Garg achieved a balance of being funny but also vulnerable. It would be easy to try to make the harder moments of her life this small blip in the book but Garg takes her time allowing us to sit with a younger version of her who is scared and trying her best to survive. I loved getting to go on this journey with her and I can safely say I will be tuning into her comedy specials from here on out. 

Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara

fast-paced

4.0

An interesting exploration of technologies and capitalism in our lives both positively and negatively. I personally do not use AI generative applications like Chat GPT but found it interesting to see how these applications built by scrubbing the works of others would interpret works written about them and their founders. I could relate to Vara in this pull between knowing all the things that entities like Meta, Amazon, and Google due to surveil us and yet not being able to stop using their services due to the convenience and reliance we’ve developed with them. Ultimately I found the chapter Ghosts to be the most illuminating surrounding the limitations of AI. It can try to replicate the way humans talk and sound but it ultimately will always add in information that isn’t true and feels unauthentic to the piece. This will be a book that I think about often as I continue to explore my own use with technology in our capitalistic society. 

Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

My god I know better than to listen to these books at work but I just keep doing it and I find myself crying at my desk or trying not to scream during the last 45 minutes.  Another masterpiece of an adventure with Bree and the crew fighting against like one million different forces. This book was everything and more than I could have wanted it to be. I cannot wait to see what comes next. 

Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

Noelle has found herself in a rut working in the same job that doesn’t appreciate her, living in the same apartment, doing the same thing day after day. All of this changes by chance when she visits a night market and an order of dumplings has her repeating June 20th over and over again. At first she panics until she meets Avery who is also stuck in the loop. Together they attempt all sorts of things to try to escape the loop. Noelle is convinced that a first kiss with a very handsome stranger, Cam, will change it but when they keep repeating June 20th Cam becomes more than a stranger to Noelle. Can they escape the time loop?

This was really cute. I’m a huge fan of Jackie’s books for a lot of reasons. Her main characters always have a great set of friends or family members to support them. This one is no different. Avery is the best friend you hope you wind up with when you can’t escape a time loop. Like Jackie’s other books food is a huge part of it and I found myself longing to be walking in a night market during summer eating dumplings, poutine, and all sorts of yummy desserts. I really loved the dynamic between our main characters and the journey they go on that’s filled with so much trust and faith in each other. What a treat of a book. 

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

After the disappearance of their friend in high school, the remaining four friends have been spread to the wind until one of them contacts them to meet up due to a health diagnosis. When they arrive to the site, they find out it’s actually to explore a staircase in the forest like the one their friend disappeared on. A quick decision sends them all into a journey through self and friendship that they might not escape. 

This was a really fun read. I didn’t necessarily like any of the adult versions of the characters that we meet but I could see how they had become the people that they did. The pacing of this book was so spot on. If I ever thought I’d have a moment to catch my breath and adjust to where we were in the story that quickly was flipped on its head leaving me feeling as disoriented as I imagine our characters felt. The imagery in this book was just absolute horror perfection. I ultimately enjoyed this book but found I had predicted the twist midway through or else it would have been a 5 star read for me. 

Fan Service by Rosie Danan

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

What a fun quirky little rom com. Rosie Danan the woman that you are—thank you for the spice and laughs. 

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

5.0

If at 16 you would have told me one day John Green, author of Looking for Alaska, would one day write a book about Tuberculosis and the various ways our society has decided to let this very treatable still exist I would have laughed at you? Tuberculosis is obviously a disease of the past. Wrong. In this short book Green spells out how tuberculosis continues to exist after major advancements in our world. This was a fascinating read. I appreciated how we got to meet Henry, a young tuberculosis patient, and get to know his story and the ways that many factors including poverty almost lead to his death. Through Henry we are able to build a real connection to individuals who have tuberculosis and empathize with their fight. It’s easy to feel discouraged with everything that is happening in the world but this book encourages us to remember that there is hope. We just need to reach and fight for it. 

“We can do and be so much for each other-but only when we see one another in our full humanity, not as statistics or problems but as people who deserve to be alive in the world.”

Deadstream by Mar Romasco-Moore

dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

3.0

Following the death of her best friend Teresa finds her world shrinking until she only feels safe when she’s in her room. To occupy her time she sinks deeper into the world of streaming both watching and having her own channels. When one of her favorite streamers starts to behave oddly Teresa finds herself at the epicenter of plague spreading through the internet infecting folks until they die. Can she figure out a way to save herself and the ones that she loves?
I thought the premise of those book was really interesting and definitely had moments that were creepy. I think there were some issues with pacing as we have our big “aha!” moment at around the 66% point leaving us meandering towards the ending. It was still an enjoyable read and if you’re into online gaming and streaming it’s right up your alley.