littleredbird's reviews
502 reviews

King of Sloth by Ana Huang

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

4.35

Burning the Midnight Oil by Ashley James

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Thank you to the author for the E-ARC, this book comes out June 7

I just loved this book, it was sweet, it was lighthearted yet had a bit of angst, it was funny, had emotion, had found family and I ate it up. After having loved book 2, I was really excited about Boone and Grady’s story and it did not disappoint. We have Boone who’s a bull rider single dad on his way to getting divorced and Grady who dropped out of college in order to peruse his dream of photography and he happens to be no other than Boone’s soon to be ex wife brother who so happened to move in with them for the summer and who will eventually will end up getting a job as a photographer and having to go on the rode with Boone and there might just be an attraction there starting to flourish but it’s forbidden 🤭 I quite liked both of our main characters and liked their journey individually and together and loved how they had a deep attraction to each other and no matter how hard they tried and they did try to stop, they couldn’t deny it and kept coming back to each other. I also thought that the way both handled and talked to jade was sweet and held emotion and I’m happy that jade too in the end ended up happy plus little Suzy was a treasure too and her relationship with her dad and her uncle was precious. Overall this book really was so cute and I was all here for it, I’m invested in the well being of these people and I loved seeing Xander and Cope again as well as Sterling and Shooter who’s a little shit but we love him anyways. Just the found family 10/10. So yeah like I said I really liked this book and I had a great time with it and I cannot wait for book 4 🤭☺️

The Puck Decoy by G.N. Wright

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Thank you to the author for the e-arc
This book comes out May 31st

What can I say? I think when it comes to this book it was a solid read for me, I enjoyed a lot of it but also they were things that I didn’t love quite as much. If you haven’t read book 1 I do recommend reading it given that though they are interconnected standalones some events from book one does overlap here. In this one we follow Josh and Hallie, Josh is Maddie’s brother from book one who when he founds out that his father wanted to set an arranged marriage for his sister decides to step up and take it himself which leads us to him asking Hallie his best friend and also Maddie’s to marry him in order to protect Maddie and let her be happy with her new relationship. Hallie agrees having been in love with Josh since she’s was 9 and also being bff’s with Maddie and so both embark on this journey of fake marriage and trying to expose Josh’s father. To be honest I think after sitting on this book for a few hours I can say that the over all plot I quite liked and not mentioning specifics because spoilers but I liked a lot of it and I related to Hallie in some aspects being that like me she’s autistic too though that aspect was just a part of her not the focus of the story. I enjoyed seeing more of the team and seeing my husband Nova again and Maddie but I’ll say my issue is that sometimes we were told things rather than showing us and so it was hard for me at times to really see it fully. I didn’t fully believe the relationship between Josh and Hallie unfortunately, I felt like I couldn’t see how Hallie had been in love with Josh for so long given how it was told and not necessary shown and felt her inner monologue sometimes was contradicting and at times didn’t care for her attitude. You can be forward and direct and I love how she didn’t hesitate to talk back expect at times she did come across as mean when talking to Josh not necessarily others and the so call banter between her and Josh felt argumentative and not nice. Josh was clueless and stubborn and did annoy the crap out of me and the man needs anger management therapy, he was really set in his ways and for all he did for Hallie he couldn’t see that he was in love with her and it was frustrating to see Hallie being set in thinking Josh didn’t love her and it all being fake despite the multiple ways in which Josh actually showed it even if it wasn’t said. It felt repetitive and dragged out at times and it did frustrate me and annoy me this back and forth they had going on and the miscommunication this led too and I had a hard time getting into the book in the beginning though I’m glad I did push through. So overall I liked the book but it wasn’t my favorite and even though yes they were cute moments between Josh and Hallie and in the end I did care for their relationship, there was a lot that did irk me about it or frustrated me rather about them both as a couple and some things as individuals that just left me a bit conflicted in the end. And I’m not sure I truly fully expressed what didn’t work for me here given that sometimes I’m still trying to put it down on words and so apologies if this review is all over the place or a bit repetitive but yeah I did like it but not as much as I did book 1 and I wasn’t fully sold on Josh and Hallie as a couple over all though they did have their good moments and cared for them in the end. Regardless overall I had a good time and liked how it wrapped up and I’m excited for book 3. So solid read but not my favorite.

Ruined Secrets by Neva Altaj

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.

Gave up on this book by 30%, so chapter 7, I really wasn't feeling it at all and while Isabella for the most part I did like there were things she did that irritated me and irk me a lot and Luca… what’s this man giving beside nothing and the reminder every so often that Isabella is almost 20. So anyways is a no for me and it’s sad because I loved the previous 3 books 😔

Hidden Truths by Neva Altaj

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dark funny lighthearted tense medium-paced