ladylovestead's reviews
292 reviews

The Promised Neverland, Vol. 20 by Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

This wrecked me in the best possible way.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

4.0

There was one scene at the end of this that felt more brutal than it needed to be and didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the story. That took it down to a 4 star but overall I had such a wonderful time reading this. Seadragons reminded me of axolotls so of course they melted my heart. The characters felt appropriate for a YA audience. Some people have mentioned issues with the pacing but nothing about the pacing threw me off or pulled me out of the story. There's only so much an author can do in a standalone when it comes to pacing and world building so I wasn't bothered by anything there. I can see myself coming back to re-read this one.

The Last Word by Taylor Adams

dark tense fast-paced

4.0

First and foremost you need to know the dog survives. 

Next, I thought this was awesome in part 1 and pretty good the Part 2 to the end. I didn't love when in part 2 there were suddenly multiple POVs. It works for the structure of the story, I just didn't like it as much. And the very last twist felt pretty unlikely/unbelievable, but the overall creepiness was great.

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

I thought Davis could have done a little bit more with this but overall it was a helpful read. I appreciate the author's attention to making sure it was an easy book for neurodivergent brains to read.

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

funny mysterious fast-paced

2.5

Was this book supposed to be funny? Because I laughed my way through it. It was highly entertaining but in the "it's so bad it's good" kind of way. 

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

DNF after 30 pages. I loved the vibes and atmosphere but my eyes rolled so hard at the hero's OTT insta-love.

Rainbows over Puddleduck Farm by Della Galton

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

3.0

Cute contemporary cozy. Slice of life story.

They Called Us Enemy by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, George Takei

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

George Takei's family story is powerful and a graphic novel was the perfect format in which to tell it.

It's Not You by Ramani Durvasula

emotional hopeful informative reflective

5.0

People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

I wouldn't classify this as a thriller. It's not quite a horror or contemporary either. Its kind of a genre-bending mix of all three. It's slow and character driven builds up to to an ending where everything falls apart for the characters. I thought the writers did a good job exploring influencer life intermixing themes of motherhood, roles in marriage, and revenge. It asks the question: who are we when no one is looking?