liblibby's reviews
209 reviews

Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Uh. Huh. Well.

I would have loved to get an editor to take a second pass at this book. Some parts are so long and drawn out and then other important parts are thrown together so quickly that it’s absolutely muddy and confusing. I’m not sure I know what happened here—but not because the author wants me to feel that way.

Content Warnings

Funny Story by Emily Henry

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emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Just as charming as you would expect! Flawless execution. IMO Emily Henry is the best in her league.

Content Warnings

Worry by Alexandra Tanner

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Ordinarily I don't enjoy books in the "depressed twenty-something woman who lives in NYC" genre but I rather enjoyed this one. Maybe because it's about sisters and I have such a complex non-relationship with my sister that a story about sisters who love each other--even if they hate each other, was what my soul needed. But also, this story stayed on the humorous side of realistic. It didn't get too depressing but it still felt very honest.

Content Warnings

When You Are Mine by Kennedy Ryan

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 82%.

This. Book. Sucks. It's marketed as a sweet story between an orphan who got her life together and a billionaire.
But there is SO MUCH TRAUMA in this book. And it's not handled well at all.

There are two former orphans and they both lived through childhood sexual abuse (one of them goes into way too much detail imo).

On top of that--as if that's not enough for us to get the point that people are going through it, there's child death, kidnapping, infidelity, on-page murder, spousal r*pe, and at least two instances of cancer.

I was determined to finish because I wanted to see how this author wrapped it up into a happy ending. But then I read some reviews on StoryGraph and learned that it's part of a duology--so this story doesn't resolve itself at all. So I just quit.

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really like this author's works--I LOVED The Woman in the Library and I might even have liked this one more than that if it weren't for all the... tedious inaccuracies that I kept catching throughout the piece. It's so important to get a reader from the place where you're going to set your book if you're not terribly familiar with it.

It felt like there was a lot of research done to determine, say, the names of streets and certain landmark businesses in Lawrence, KS. But then other basic things were really overlooked. For example, an American would never say "I just got out of hospital." They'd say, "I just got out of the hospital." I know it's small but it really sounds strange to an American ear. Also, there's no such thing as the Kansas Police Department. Here, it's the [City] Police Department (so, in this case, Lawrence Police Department) or the [State} Bureau of Investigation (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).

Like I said, the story was great but I, personally, really struggled to stick with the story when I kept getting distracted by these little things.

Content Warnings

Salem's Lot by Stephen King

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

I never want to read Stephen King ever again.

Content Warnings

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell

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mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

It took me a long long time to get through this one. But maybe I’m just in a reading funk. It really picked up about 2/3 of the way through. I normally don’t give books that long but I love Lisa Jewell.

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced