juliad55's reviews
195 reviews

Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

fast-paced

3.5

ok, but not my favorite. the main characters constant fear and paranoia that someone is going to murder her is very relatable though 

Happy Place by Emily Henry

5.0

genuinely, that was painful and wistful and hopeful and sad. UGH 

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

5.0

The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster

3.5

so han solo’s death is equally upsetting in book form……..good to know. and WHY is it implied that kylo ren had some knowledge of the force dyad business to
come. like, sir, REVEAL YOUR SECRETS. ugh. 

The Mortal Instruments: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 2 by Cassandra Clare

4.5

in the spirit of becoming a graphic novel fan i was so intrigued when i saw this. i wish i had all the volumes! but the art style is really cool. everyone looks more mysterious then i pictured them being. minus half a star for the sibling plotline reveal here because cassandra clare WHY i will never understand. 

Ambush at Corellia by Roger MacBride Allen

3.0

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare

5.0

crying. traumatized. these characters have my heart in a GRIP and their trauma in this book is gut wrenching. no spoilers but WOW some twists that i did not expect. and i especially thought the narrative about showing others more kindness and grace (no pun intended) than they showed you is quite a good one. lucie, cordelia, matthew, and christopher <3 but also james, thomas, anna, ari, and alastair are loved. what an emotional roller coaster 

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

fast-paced

4.0

ahn-dre-ah……nothing can compare to the film for me, but the fleshing out of andy’s friendship with lily and the complications with her boyfriend made this worth the read. i also appreciated getting more depth from emily and seeing the alliance between andy and emily. interesting critiques on the beauty industry - sometimes well placed and other times not. also, book miranda is more horrible than film  miranda. i didn’t know that was possible. that’s all. 

The Catch by Alison Fairbrother

4.5

what a moving book that reflects on grief, love, and the impacts of our relationships with one another. i liked that this book contained so many flawed characters - including the narrator - and that there’s so much nuance to the idea that people don’t exist as just a singular “good” or “bad” person, but are rather collections of many choices and quirks. and the setting feels like an adoring love letter to DC, one of my favorite places in the whole world, so i really enjoyed that as well. grief is so hard and so complicated, and with the narrator’s search for answers about her late father, readers get to consider how wanting to know everything about someone we’ve lost has costs and affordances. in attempts to memorialize the legacy of a loving but complicated father, the narrator must contend with all that he is, and that doesn’t allow her to sensationalize him. really great storytelling, really emotional plot. so personal. 

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

5.0

love. love the critique of the romance formula and the type of woman it privileges. love the commitment to a character who knows what they want, who is career driven, who cares deeply and works hard and can learn and change but isn’t told that being career driven is wrong. love reading into the idea that it’s important that we don’t stereotype/caricature ourselves based on our media consumption, and that there’s more nuance to who we are as people than the surface level reads of our occupations and demeanors. loved and felt complicated about the big sister element of the story, the responsibility of it, because… yes, just yes. and i cares about the characters more than i thought i would so THANK YOU emily henry for that dialogue. i appreciate how this book gets into the thick complicated area of how relationships between people who love one another (family members and romantic partners alike) really work, but then it’s also just like…. sweet! things that resonated with me in a horridly sappy manner — reorganizing the local bookstore. ordering two drinks because lightweight and getting sick the next day (HA), wanting and needing a desiring life to be lived around literature, sisters (SISTERS!), caring about people so deeply it hurts, loving and longing for places and feelings, and dancing to james taylor under sparking lights. ugh. this one digs a layer deeper than other romance novels i’ve read lately, and i think it works so well to delve into so many layers of complication, because the reality is romance does not exist in a vacuum.