literaryjunkie's reviews
247 reviews

Don't Be In Love by Liana Cincotti

hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

This book made me want to travel abroad to London immediately! Such an aesthetic and fun read! This book follows Adeline as she gets involved with London hot shot, Dorian Blackwood. This book has everything from playful banter, romantic walks on rainy days, working at a dreamy bookstore, and a university that sets the picture-perfect dark academia mood! I loved to see Adeline and Dorian's relationship progress. She conquered her inner turmoil and realized she was capable of love. I resigned with this character deeply, so I found her easy to love. Dorian was so sweet and thoughtful as well. Brb I am now going to book a flight to London! 

Picking Daisies on Sundays by Liana Cincotti

hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.75

This is such a cute romance book! The perfect fluffy romance to read on a Sunday evening (no pun intended). Daisy was sweet and Levi Caldwell was amazing! He teaches a Jane Austen literature class, speaks French, loves poetry, and

  </published a poetry book for Daisy!

(need I say more).  The only critique I have is

the miscommunication trope, it is not my favorite.

Other than that a great read! "I once was poison ivy, but now I am your daisy."

God of Malice (Standard Edition) by Rina Kent

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I don't know how to feel. Killian is insane. I don't know why his family named him KILL-IAN and did not expect him to be a physcopath. I enjoyed hearing from the families. I loved Reina, Asher, Levi, and Astrids's POVs. I also liked the complicated family dynamic between Killian and his family. I enjoyed Glyndon as a character, some might say she is boring, but I like how calm and easy going she is. I also love Brandon, he is the only KIng out of the boys that does not need help. The heathens and the elites are a little extreme (why are we trying to k*ll people on college grounds). The other characters seem intresting. I am still conflicted about Killian as a whole and his relationship with Glyndon. He had some sweet moments though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

This was such a fun read! I loved the romance aspect and how it was done in a demure respectful way. Mallory Greenleaf has quit chess to focus on concerns regarding her family, but she decides to play in one last chess tournament and beat world champion, Nolan Sawyer. She ends up joining a fellowship, so she can play chess full-time to support her family. She claims she holds no love for it but quickly rekindles an old flame. Nolan is drawn to Mallory after his recent loss to her, and she can't seem to stay away from him as well. I highly recommend this for a bubbly feel-good book surely to make you laugh and smile.

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you are a fan of Sally Rooney's Normal People", you will enjoy this book! This book is very flowery in the language. It feels like poetry in a sense. I enjoy watching the complex relationship dynamic between the two main characters, Aldo and Regan. They both struggled with mental health problems, and they saw the world in a way that made sense to no one but them. Regan worked with art, but she rediscovered her love for creating it when she met Aldo. Aldo is a professional In theoretical math and is always using shapes and equations to make sense of the world. He was also trying to theoretically solve time travel. He made sense of Regan using equations, bees, and hexagons. People might view this book as pretentious (it is like a lot of Olivia Blakely's works), but it was done in a digestible way that turned out enjoyable through and through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

The Dark Tower: And Other Stories by C.S. Lewis

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

The Dark Tower is an unfinished manuscript of C.S. Lewis. It was published, but it did not have the chance of being edited by him. Even saying this, the stories were fine. The Dark Tower was confusing for me at first (and still was throughout the story), but I could grasp the overarching concepts he was trying to portray. How he conveyed time travel was pretty interesting (matter and conservation of it). These are fragments of stories that are weird and not complete, but it was interesting to have a look at the unedited version of his mind. Would not recommend persay, but you should give it a try if it sounds interesting.

The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land: Stories by Omer Friedlander

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a beautifully told collection of short stories about people living in Israel. It explores numerous themes, such as grief, obstacles, family, friends, love, and struggling through remembrance. 

Each story involves religion, race, and history. These themes are underlying but hold a poetic undertone within the pages. 

Some of my most notable stories are Jaffa Oranges, Checkpoint, and High Heels.

Overall, a wonderful book! Highly recommend. 

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a bizarre book (in an interesting way). The story is about three sisters named Iris, Vivi, and Grey. They are notorious for disappearing when they were younger under the watchful eyes of their parents, then repeating a month later in the same street. Since then, they have had a strong bond they can only understand. Everyone in town and school believed they were outcasts with strange powers. This story follows Iris as she ventures to school alone since her two sisters left to forge their path. Grey is a famous model and  Vivi is in a rock band. Iris lives with her mom

and her dad killed himself when they were younger

. They find out their sister Grey has gone missing after she failed to meet her at Vivi's rock band. They spot a mysterious man with a bull mask/face and suspect he had something to do with it

. Grey's ex-boyfriend Tyler Yang wants to help find her because he believes she is hiding and does not want to get framed for her disappearance. Here are the spoilers.

After searching through her childhood room and apartment, they decide to go back to the street where it all happened, and they find a door to a place called "halfway." It is a realm within the liminal space between life and death. Vivi gets lost in the realm, so Iris and Tyler go to look for her. They find three graves that each hold the actual three hollow sisters. Tyler also ends up dying in this realm, but he gets to meet his sister who died before. Iris finds both of her sisters on a stake about to be burned by their father (the bull-man). He came to this realm, then left to find the sisters (whom he believed were not his actual daughters) to seek vengeance. They escape, and the bull is killed. Grey explains that they are not the original Hollow sisters, and she killed them to still their identity by "skinning them", so they could come back to life. She also urged her dad to kill himself (one of her powers) because he was planning to kill them. They are occupying the skin of someone they are not. The sisters leave the realm and decide not to talk to Grey anymore after hearing this news. They go back to stay with their mom (who claims she always knew but Grey threatened her if she were to say anything). She accepts them because it is as close as she will get to her real children. They attend Tyler's funeral. Then, it ends with an ambiguous ending of Vivi and Iris going back to the realm. Grey was the most interesting character though, I wish we could have got some more of her. She took the desire for the love of her sisters to horrific lengths. A true villain.

This book was a rollercoaster, and I did not expect it to go in the direction it did. This has gothic horror themes. Overall, an interesting read. I did not like the ending though.

From Lukov with Love by Mariana Zapata

funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

3.0

This was a nice ice skating, slow-burn, rivals to lovers book! The dialogue got repetitive, but I enjoyed the ice-skating aspect and relationship. Their friendship was so sweet and seeing how they were there for each other was as well. The ending was very cute, and I loved reading the epilogue. This book followed Jasmine Santos and Ivan Lukov as they join forces as ice skating partners, despite their previous disdain for each other. A nice read for the cold winter weather! 

Consumed by Deception by Rina Kent

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a great ending to the trilogy! I enjoyed how we go to see Adrian and Lina’s relationship progress. There were so many lies and betrayals that they had to work through together to be happy in the end. Spoilers ahead.

We find out when Lina jumped off the cliff, she had disassociated from her other life and believed she lived the life of Winter (homeless doppelgänger). Adrian set the whole thing up to make her confirm what she believed because she could go into an episode if he revealed the truth to her. He had her closely followed by Yan (disgusting as her homeless friend), and that’s when Adrian finally approached her with the offer. That cuts to the first book, where she believes she is Winter. Then, we cut back to the present where she meets Luca at the park (apart of the Italian Mafia), and she regains her memory. She decides that she is not going to work with him anymore since he plans to hurt Adrian and is using her. Unfortunately a lot of damage has been done and some secrets come out, like her stopping and killing the assassin who planned to kill Adrien when she knew Luca had a plan to do something. The big kicker is that Adrian killed a potential mayor that would have helped the Bravta because he touched Lia. The Bravta finds out, and the Phakan sentences him to death. Lia intervenes by talking to her biological father (don of Italian mafia) to share the mayor/ shipments with the Russian Mafia, so they can free Adrian. He agrees as long as Lia maintains a relationship with him, since she is only child. Andria’s is free but has to deal with the don because he wants to know why he kept him and Lia’s lineage away from him. He wants to punish him, but Lia manipulates him not too and all is well. Until, she gets kidnapped by Luca, and he try’s to kill her.Adrian comes to save the day, they reunite, and live happily ever after. Also, I forgot to mention that she helps the real Winter rebuild her life again after she wakes up from being injured.

I loved the action in this book and them trying to rebuild the trust they once had in each other.  Great, quick read!