A lovely, sapphic retelling of It's a Wonderful Life. Loved getting to spend time with Bailey, Maria, and their friends in Lanford Falls. Now all we need is a movie adaptation and my queer little Christmas loving heart will be full.

The Christmas Swap by Talia Samuels

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

3.0

A solid, cutesy Christmas rom com!

Content Warnings

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

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adventurous emotional 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? No

3.0

It took me about a hundred pages to get into this book, but once I was in I was hooked! I've loved most of the other things Kate Quinn has written, so this was an auto-buy for me as soon as I saw it. I can always count on Quinn to bring me a heroic war story, and I love her focus on women and how they contributed to the War. I loved the character development Quinn put into Mila throughout the novel. It was really rewarding to watch her grow into her own and stand up to her asshole "husband" Alexei. Some of the plot was a bit unbelievable, which knocked off a few stars. Specifically, the whole "marksman" thing, especially because we all know the FDR wasn't assassinated and we know Mila makes it back to Russia, so like I knew how it would turn out? Idk, I feel like the story could have been just as good without that whole weird little plot, but I see why Quinn added it to explain Mila's creepy stalker dude on the tour. Overall, a good novel that did well tieing together historical fact and creative license/fiction.

Content Warnings

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride, Jo Piazza

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-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

4.0

Required reading for White people. This book caused so many emotions in me: uncomfortable, angry, sad, annoyed, and so many others. I gave this 4 stars because while the message and emotion was there, the writing fell a bit flat at times. Like, I fully expected to bawl, but the prose just didn't move me like I expected it to, despite the tragic subject matter. For all the pros (if you can call them that) of this book, though: I thought the authors did a great job of showing "both sides" and the internal/external conflicts around race in the horrible situation Riley and Jen were in. When the tension came to a front in their friendship with the conversation in the car, I think the authors did well to make it not a complete resolution to the tension, and I also think they did well to "give credit" to both sides, both in that convo and throughout the book. I was equally frustrated with Jen's naïveté and Riley's refusal to call Jen out, and then in that convo I could really sympathize with both Riley's frustration and anger and Jen feeling like Riley didn't give her a chance by always hiding the "hard" parts from her.

Above all else, I appreciated that this book made me wrestle with my biases. I think the authors did something important in

making it so that Kevin wasn't the "main officer at fault"

in the shooting, because it made me more sympathetic to Kevin/Jen, even though the whole point is that the system is broken and Kevin and all cops are as much at fault in being complicit in the system. It was hard to care for Jen as a character while knowing that truthfully she and Kevin are racist in their biases and complacency in the system. I also really appreciated Riley's perspective, especially for how it showed the intricacies of being a successful Black woman in a predominantly White world. I feel like, though I'll never fully and truly understand what it's like to be Black, I could gain more insight and understanding for the uphill battle that exists for Black people, especially Black women, in America.

Content Warnings

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Honestly didn't wow me. The prose was beautiful, much like "Ariadne," but the story felt flat. Maybe it was because I've read 2 other books on the same myth previously ("A Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haynes and "Clytemnestra" by Costanza Castasi), but I didn't feel like this book brought anything new to the table. Also, I was expecting to have only Electra's POV, and I think that having the 2 other POVs was interesting but just really made me hate Elektra more. Like I really didn't like Elektra. She was so so focused on hatred for her mom over a man she basically never met. Also I just hate Agamemnon in general so her weird devotion to him just made me dislike her even more. Honestly this novel overall wasn't great after having already read 2 others on the subject, but if it hand been my first on the subject I might have enjoyed it more.

Content Warnings

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This wasn't really my cup of tea. For starters, it was quite depressing, but I guess realistic future always is with the climate disaster being what it is. So, for the first half of this book I was depressed because I was like "ahh is this really what we'll be like in 25 years???" Then the second half was just trying way too hard to be feminist/woman forward. Like, I get it, the author is trying to say that patriarchal society and oppression of women can be compared to how the climate gets as bad as it is, but it just felt way too forced to be poignant in my opinion. Also, I would have appreciated if the three storylines converged a little sooner in the book, because right at the end it felt super rushed.

One thing that this book did well was describing the perspective of current (and many moren

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kenzieburns's reviews 48 reviews

kenzieburns's reviews
48 reviews