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jesshiltbrand's reviews
154 reviews
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
tense
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? No
5.0
Somehow this was even better than the first book. I'm completely blown away with Bree's story and everyone in it. I loved Bree truly coming into her own power - literally and figuratively - in this book. I loved watching her grow into herself and come to see what everyone else has seen in her from the start. My one less-than-stellar opinion about this book was Alice's character, I just felt like she was annoying and pretty unnecessary for pretty much the entire time she was involved, but the other plot lines and characters were so incredible that they easily squashed my annoyances quickly. And the END? How am I supposed to wait an indeterminate amount of time until the next book is published to get my answers? This series has easily become one of my all time favorites. I just don't even have the words to express how phenomenal everything about the story is from the writing to the characters to the plot and subplots - I truly cannot get enough.
The Fantasy League by Meg Reading
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
Oh wow was this a book. One of the worst I’ve read in a while but it’s definitely a book.
Firstly with Scarlet, weirdly obsessed with and codependent on her best friend who she only refers to as her sister who is so beautiful and so rich that she lets her live in her pool house but also secretly bought Scarlett a multi million dollar house next door so that they could always live right next to each other… okay.
Next meet Abel, the emotionally and socially stunted football player who gets his dating advice from third graders because instead of just asking Scarlett out the first time he sees her, he hires her as his personal chef and makes her think he hates her for 8 months while secretly pining after her.
The set up of the fake dating was fine I guess until spoiler alert it was all a weird lie that Abel’s coach and daughter, who just happens to be the PR manager, cooked up… for no reason?
I mean you’d think it can’t possibly get worse than that but no, it definitely does. Scarlett and Abel fake date for about 3 minutes before they’re both actually really feeling all the feelings for each other and they’re so in love and decide to be together for real, what a great ending, but wait! You know Abel’s ex that Scarlett and the author have been hinting about the entirety of their week old relationship? Well Abel was hugging her so he must be cheating, oh wait just kidding that’s just his “half-sib” nobody has ever known about. Then when Abel and Scarlett make yo and get back together the author really wants to make up for the fact that for the first 80% of the book there is no smut whatsoever by making the next 40 pages all smut. Morning, afternoon, night. All day, every day. And after being together for a whopping 3 week weeks they’re going to move in together.
Now I would’ve been okay being done there but of course not. Then we have the epilogue. After being engaged for a literal day, Scarlett’s ‘sister’ makes an off handed joke about how the two of them should just get married right then and there and they can just FaceTime their parents for the ceremony… and they do it. They have a their friend OCTOBER, who of course is already ordained, marry them literally 24 hours after the proposal all while Scarlett is trying to figure out how to time her pregnancy to Mae’s even though Mae is literally not in a relationship at all.
I mean truly the whole thing was nonsense.
Firstly with Scarlet, weirdly obsessed with and codependent on her best friend who she only refers to as her sister who is so beautiful and so rich that she lets her live in her pool house but also secretly bought Scarlett a multi million dollar house next door so that they could always live right next to each other… okay.
Next meet Abel, the emotionally and socially stunted football player who gets his dating advice from third graders because instead of just asking Scarlett out the first time he sees her, he hires her as his personal chef and makes her think he hates her for 8 months while secretly pining after her.
The set up of the fake dating was fine I guess until spoiler alert it was all a weird lie that Abel’s coach and daughter, who just happens to be the PR manager, cooked up… for no reason?
I mean you’d think it can’t possibly get worse than that but no, it definitely does. Scarlett and Abel fake date for about 3 minutes before they’re both actually really feeling all the feelings for each other and they’re so in love and decide to be together for real, what a great ending, but wait! You know Abel’s ex that Scarlett and the author have been hinting about the entirety of their week old relationship? Well Abel was hugging her so he must be cheating, oh wait just kidding that’s just his “half-sib” nobody has ever known about. Then when Abel and Scarlett make yo and get back together the author really wants to make up for the fact that for the first 80% of the book there is no smut whatsoever by making the next 40 pages all smut. Morning, afternoon, night. All day, every day. And after being together for a whopping 3 week weeks they’re going to move in together.
Now I would’ve been okay being done there but of course not. Then we have the epilogue. After being engaged for a literal day, Scarlett’s ‘sister’ makes an off handed joke about how the two of them should just get married right then and there and they can just FaceTime their parents for the ceremony… and they do it. They have a their friend OCTOBER, who of course is already ordained, marry them literally 24 hours after the proposal all while Scarlett is trying to figure out how to time her pregnancy to Mae’s even though Mae is literally not in a relationship at all.
I mean truly the whole thing was nonsense.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
medium-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? No
5.0
The Soul Feud by Juniper Jackson
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I received this ARC from a giveaway on Storygraph.
Rate: 2.5/5
I liked this story, didn’t love it, but I liked it. As much as I wanted to love these characters and their story, I just couldn’t. I love a good enemies to lovers plot but I’m not really sure that I want to be rooting for that when half the reason for the enemies half of the story is racism? I also just didn’t feel any chemistry between Raven and Patrick because of the racism implications on Patrick throughout the first 80% of the book and then suddenly they’re hooking up or now in love. There wasn’t really a gradual shift in their relationship - which I don’t even know how there could be because for the majority of the book Patrick is this physical representation of gentrification and white privilege.
With Raven, I loved her character at the beginning, loved what she stood for as she fought to keep her family’s legacy alive… and then she just kind of gave up? I know it’s meant to be a character arc of her letting go and being okay with change, but she doesn’t even really seem to care after the initial reaction? Like how could you leave enough stuff behind - full of sentimental value and ‘legacy’ to fill up an entire restaurant? It just felt that part of what made Raven this strong and bold woman that Patrick fell in love with was just taken out at the end and called growth.
And Patrick… where do you even begin? Everything that comes out of his mouth sounds forced and creepy and unnecessarily sexual. Like I get the enemies portion of this book - which again is almost all of it until they’re somehow actually in love at the end even though they haven’t done anything other than fight and have sex - because Patrick is the worst. And every conversation he had with his dad sounds so emotionally stunted and just not how people talk. His dad is a whole other can of worms of creepy and unnatural speaking.
Overall I really did like the main story and aspects of some of the characters. I loved the way Jackson wrote the descriptive elements of the book, but this one was not for me.
Rate: 2.5/5
I liked this story, didn’t love it, but I liked it. As much as I wanted to love these characters and their story, I just couldn’t. I love a good enemies to lovers plot but I’m not really sure that I want to be rooting for that when half the reason for the enemies half of the story is racism? I also just didn’t feel any chemistry between Raven and Patrick because of the racism implications on Patrick throughout the first 80% of the book and then suddenly they’re hooking up or now in love. There wasn’t really a gradual shift in their relationship - which I don’t even know how there could be because for the majority of the book Patrick is this physical representation of gentrification and white privilege.
With Raven, I loved her character at the beginning, loved what she stood for as she fought to keep her family’s legacy alive… and then she just kind of gave up? I know it’s meant to be a character arc of her letting go and being okay with change, but she doesn’t even really seem to care after the initial reaction? Like how could you leave enough stuff behind - full of sentimental value and ‘legacy’ to fill up an entire restaurant? It just felt that part of what made Raven this strong and bold woman that Patrick fell in love with was just taken out at the end and called growth.
And Patrick… where do you even begin? Everything that comes out of his mouth sounds forced and creepy and unnecessarily sexual. Like I get the enemies portion of this book - which again is almost all of it until they’re somehow actually in love at the end even though they haven’t done anything other than fight and have sex - because Patrick is the worst. And every conversation he had with his dad sounds so emotionally stunted and just not how people talk. His dad is a whole other can of worms of creepy and unnatural speaking.
Overall I really did like the main story and aspects of some of the characters. I loved the way Jackson wrote the descriptive elements of the book, but this one was not for me.
The Ambrosia Throne by Tati B. Alvarez
Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
I just could not get through the poor grammar and writing of this book. I’m so bummed because I loved the concept and think that it would be such a great story but to put it plainly it was just bad writing. It felt pretty juvenile and choppy, and I left it unread for over 2 weeks hoping I’d want to get reinvested into it but I couldn’t.
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0