maryp20's reviews
68 reviews

All In by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

What the actual fuck just happened. Holy shit. My heart hurt for Sloane this entire time but so much at the end I cried. I just want her to be happy. And Judd! Judd has grown on me so much, I adore that man, he truly is a father figure to all of the Naturals and if anything happens to him, I will riot. And now I see the foreshadowing from Redding in the last book
”You’ll never find your mother’s killer.” Umm yeah because no one killed her! What the fuck?! I’m trying to keep hope that she’s just trying to stay alive to be able to get back to Cassie but I don’t know. But I loved the cult ties in this case cause wow that threw me for a loop.
I think the pacing in this book was perfect, we were always getting new details and little bit of action to keep everything moving in the best way. Wow, I can’t stop thinking about this. Time to jump into Bad Blood!
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Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I cannot get enough of this series, I eat them up so fast. Now this story, felt a bit slower to me but I think it was because we were focused on the case and the details and not Cassie being introduced to the Naturals and getting settled. However, the twists in this, amazing and Jennifer does a great job keeping me engaged throughout the entire thing, to a point that I read these in one sitting. Onto characters, Sterling was really pissing me off in the beginning but oh how she grew on me, she’s just so loveable. I loved learning more about Dean and I’m happy he and Cassie are having their thing instead of Michael. He’s being a little dickhead at the end so I’m curious to see if he comes around in the next book. UGH and Lia and Sloane are my favorites, I love them so much and I love getting little tid bits about them and their pasts. I think Jennifer is doing a great job with this series, it really does feel like Criminal Minds meets Pretty Little Liars at this point and the vibes are just amazing.
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The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was so insanely fun to read, and I did it in one sitting. This truly felt like I was watching a young version of criminal minds. Now at the beginning it felt too cliche or close to criminal minds but then it felt different either because of our characters or our little love triangle. And I love these teenagers; they are all so interesting and I want to see more of Sloane and Lia’s backstories. I’m also so amused thinking about Jennifer doing all this little research for Sloane’s stats and facts. Ugh but this was seriously done so well and I was not expecting the twist at the end, that was a wild ride. I’m so excited to jump into the next one!
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Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

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challenging dark lighthearted tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Murder In The Family was such an intriguing and captivating cold case mystery. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the format and was hoping Cara Hunter had more stories like this, I think it could be a format to continue maybe in a series with the same experts to different “cold cases”. The second half felt more like a reality tv show which was kind of the point, but I could have gone without. Now that ending I called half-heartedly in the very beginning and I was so shocked to be right because it seemed so wild to think about.
Also that ending! Rebecca, Jonah’s sister, definitely killed Guy and stole his watch as a token of sorts to avenge her brother even though he was a con artist.
This was definitely an enjoyable read and kept me from going into a reading slump after reading Sunrise on the Reaping.
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Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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challenging emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I’m an emotional wreck. Suzanne Collins has ruined me. I take back ever saying that I wanted to get books about Finnick or Effie or anybody else, I don’t think my heart could take it.
With that being said, I absolutely loved how this connects everything all together, everything happens for a reason. Between, Katniss picking Haymitch’s mentors as allies in Catching Fire to her mockingjay pin being Maysilee’s to Lenore Dove being Lucy Gray’s kin and being essentially a rebel against Snow and just everything. My heart hurts for Haymitch and Beetee with everything they go through and losing their families. My heart hurts knowing that Haymitch didn’t think and couldn’t protect his allies in the arena and goes on knowing he can’t protect the tributes he has to mentor for the rest of the games. My heart hurts knowing that Louella’s family won’t truly know what happened to her. I think it’s insane that Haymitch was essentially the first mockingjay in a way and was always apart of the rebellion with Plutarch and Beetee. And Effie! Oh Effie! I loved seeing a younger, big sister version of her who immediately saw the good in Haymitch.
Ugh, my heart is in pieces but I still love this book like all-fire.
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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emotional informative 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

3.5

Let me start by saying that I did watch the movie first so I knew the plot and whatnot. Now, I really enjoyed this story and seeing how Snow’s brain works. I love the connection to the original trilogy and seeing why he got so triggered with Katniss. I do think there were a couple things that I liked better in the movie, I.e. some tributes’ deaths and Reapers show with the Capitol’s flag. Sejanus was my favorite character, I loved what he stood for. But I also really love the meaning behind all of this series in terms of the government being controlling and masking it as it being for everyone’s benefit when that’s not the case. Very excited to move on and read Sunrise on the Reaping.
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The Chase by Elle Kennedy

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

3.75

I’m officially in love with Colin Fitzgerald. That man melts my heart. And I love Summer and how she knows what stereotype people associate with her but she continues to be herself and be sure of who she is. I also loved the learning disability rep and how Summer’s inner critic played such a huge role in her personality and emotions because it’s such a real thing to deal with. Now there were some flaws in here that made my rating drop. Firstly, the way Fitz describes himself and how Summer would never be into him was such an ick; and then the cliche of ‘we’re too different it wouldn’t work’ just rubbed me the wrong way. However, Elle moved away from that as the book progressed so I felt better. The ending though?! I’m upset, it felt like there was a perfect opportunity to give us an epilogue. I just wanted to see if Fitz would take the offer and to see what Summer ends up doing career wise or even just the placement for the next semester. I’m hoping that we get to see that information throughout the other books. But as always, I love Elle and everything she writes.
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That One Night by Emily Rath

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It was perfectly fine for a quick little one-night stand novella. I like the characters, Jake more so than Rachel but I like the connection they have. Spice was written well and I loved the dirty talk. The writing overall was more casual than I was used to and it almost felt like I was reading fanfiction, this isn’t going to stop me from devouring the next book but definitely took a second to adjust to.
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The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

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

4.0

This was a surprisingly good read for me. I’ve had this book on my shelves for so long and I suddenly had the urge to pick it up. I loved the story between Nella and Eliza and the one between Caroline and Gaynor, I think both Eliza and Gaynor were huge catalyst in the growth and development of their friends in such a beautiful way. And honestly, all these characters were such girl’s girls that brought this sense of unity that was so beautiful. I’ll definitely consider more of Sarah Penner’s books in the future.
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The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

This was absolute perfection. I could read this over and over again and never get tired of it. Between the character growth and relationship development, I couldn’t love these characters any more, my heart is so full. This story was also executed so insanely well. The love, grief, growth, betrayal, and all the emotions fueled so much of the character development in a beautiful way where there was the hesitation to accept them to finally allowing themselves to feel. I think the relationships were so well done between the introduction of new characters and relationships to the pacing of the relationship between Raihn and Oraya. I also have to say that Oraya is very high up there on my list of badass FMCs, like specifically this book, she had so many similar vibes to Aelin from TOG. I cannot wait to read Mische’s story in the next duology!
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