maggies's reviews
584 reviews

Talk Flirty to Me by Livy Hart

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emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.0

It took a long while for me to warm up to the characters and the tone of the story, and there were several details that took me out of it. Also, my evergreen complaint: everyone needs therapy. Overall though it was a fine steamy second-chance romance, just not my fave.
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Small Game by Blair Braverman

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Back when I still used Twitter, Blair Braverman was one of my follows, and I loved her threads about dog sledding and the outdoors. She's an incredible storyteller, and Small Game, her first novel, really lived up to that for me. While I would never participate in a show of this kind and I'm not outdoorsy by any stretch (I always say I'd prefer to go first in an apocalypse), I was captivated by Mara and the other "survivors" and their creativity and problem-solving. In an episode of You're Wrong About, Blair said—paraphrasing here—that nature doesn't feel any animosity towards us and that's comforting to her. After reading this book, I can absolutely see what she means. I wouldn't quite call this a thriller, but it was very thrilling just the same.
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Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Truly, Madly, Deeply is great for anyone looking for contemporary romance with relatable fears and obstacles, bi representation, and a whole lot of hope. With fun banter and a conversational tone, it's super readable, and I especially love the way Alexandria Bellefleur writes spice with ✨enthusiastic consent✨—she is really the gold standard. Maybe some of the banter went a bit too far (
I hated the way Truly's dad spoke to her and Colin about their sex lives...it gave me the creeps for a father to be that inappropriate in the name of banter
), but I'm willing to forgive it because 99% of it was character-appropriate, witty, and lighthearted.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

What could easily have been just a run of the mill contemporary romance actually packed quite a punch, exploring loss, grief, and a bit of PTSD along with the strength it takes to love and be loved in return. While the plot elements that brought Hannah and Jack together were contrived, the growth of their relationship felt natural and I sure did root for them. When a romance makes me cry, it's a goodun.
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Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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

5.0

Superbly performed by Meryl Streep, Lara and her daughters come alive in this masterclass of family dynamics, love, and hope. A story-within-a-story, as Lara tells her adult daughters in the present day about her time as an actress in her 20s, reminding us all of the lives we live that even those closest to our hearts won't know about unless we share. It's a sweeping generational family saga, a sweet summer romance, and all the points in between that make up a full and rewarding life.
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The Supper Club by Sophie King

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I really struggled with this book. The synopsis seemed promising, but this edition appears to be a re-release of a book from 2008, and while that isn’t that long ago, I think contemporary literature has moved on in lots of ways. These characters do not have much redeeming, and what empathy I might have felt for them was too little, too late—they had already sufficiently annoyed me. To a person, the cast is horrendously judgmental, they lie and cheat on their partners, and they cannot communicate with anyone with love or respect. I was not convinced by the reveals of their various traumas. My biggest compliment is that the narration is wonderfully well done, making it bearable to listen to.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Audio UK for providing my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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The Catcher by Kate Raven

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dark 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? Yes
This is another that I don't think I can fairly rate - I mostly read it because it was short, but I knew it wasn't going to be for me. I liked the baseball, though! I just think this was a vehicle for twisted SA fantasies and that's...gross. What plot there was didn't make sense, but I suppose if this is what bully romances are, fans of the trope are probably not reading for plot.
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Glitterland by Alexis Hall

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emotional funny sad 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

5.0

I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I went from mildly annoyed with Ash to my heart breaking for him and Darian both. Alexis Hall writes such beautiful characters, flawed and whole and real, and they deserve the world.
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If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury by Geraldine DeRuiter

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

5.0

I really took my time with these essays, partially because, like a good meal, they deserve to be savored, and partly because they're also just a lot. This is, of course, a criticism leveled at women early and often, but here I mean it with tenderness. The author shares so much of herself with us—her salty humor, her acidic anger, and her unquenchable hunger—that to fail to see the depths is a disservice.
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Impostor by LiAnne Kay

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

3.0

The time traveling element of this book was interesting but ultimately kind of nonsense, and it made the timeline really hard to follow. On the other hand, it did explain some things from the first two books, so I'll forgive it. As with the other two books, typos and grammar errors were fairly common, but I enjoyed following the development of Sol's self-understanding and the relationship between her and Hector.
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