meetlyss's reviews
818 reviews

Leave the Window Open by V.E. Schwab

5.0

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Genuinely shocked at how much I enjoyed this book. After being fairly let down with ACOWAR and absolutely bored to tears with ACOFAS, I was ready to give up on the series with ACOSF. Especially because I knew it’d be from Nesta’s POV because I genuinely disliked her so much. At least I knew I’d get Cassian POV chapters, too.

To my surprise, I devoured all 750 pages, loving both POVs intensely. I wouldn’t say this book made me a huge Nesta stan, but I understood her character more and could sympathize with her. I’m not sure if I like her, but I definitely don’t hate her anymore. And my love for Cassian only grew, of course.

Though centered on Nesta and Cassian, I loved that this book still featured all the other members of the Inner Circle constantly. It genuinely felt like a continuation of the series—just from different POVs. I really liked that there was still action and drama happening with all the other characters.

Funnily enough, though, this book made me dislike Rhys even more than ACOFAS. Since turning from Tamlin in book 2, I’ve been a big Rhys supporter—until that stupid novella where we get his POV and it was so atrociously written I wanted to vomit. There’s no Rhys POV here, but I severely disagreed with him on multiple occasions. I kind of wanted to punch him in the face. SJM is making me question all my feelings all the time!!

Overall: a few boring bits, but mostly a solid read and excellent continuation of the series. The last hundred pages or so were nail-biters!! Highly recommend if you enjoyed at least the first two books in this series. 

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Not my favorite Schwab story, but certainly not my least favorite, either. This one had too slow of a start for me. It took me almost half the book to really become interested in the story. But once things picked up, I was hooked and couldn't read fast enough. Most of the twists I saw coming, but a few caught me off guard. I'm excited to see what happens in the sequel. Hopefully I'll enjoy it right off the bat, since I'm already familiar with the world and its characters. 

Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

5.0

Tell me why this one made me cry so much 🥲

Shuna's Journey by Hayao Miyazaki

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

It's really a shame that this was never adapted into a film. I've love Studio Ghibli films ever since I saw my first one -- Howl's Moving Castle -- but have yet to read any of Miyazaki's books. I'm so grateful to First Second for translating and publishing Shuna's Journey. It made for a quick read with very little dialogue and short snippets of narration, the gorgeous illustrations being more of the focal point of this story. The art style is brilliant and captivating, portraying so much meaning with few words of narration to accompany them. I very much enjoyed this story and would love to follow Shuna on the rest of his journey someday.

The Unbound by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. Once again, I am astounded and shocked that I enjoyed this book so much. Schwab's Archived series is seriously under-hyped. This is probably my favorite of all her series so far, though tied with the Villains series, of course.

I wanted to read this book every second of every day until I finally finished it, but being an adult sucks and I had other obligations instead. So it ended up taking a week -- a week of being extremely on edge and nervous and excited to see how the book ended. Reading this book was like running a marathon -- I finished it with my heart pounding, out of breath, and desperate to lie down. I truly loved this story, despite it containing one of my least favorite tropes of all time: the miscommunication trope.

I hate this trope because it frustrates me to no end. Mac holds everything back in this book, but I think it only added to my nerves and excitement to keep reading, so I guess that's technically good, but also, my poor heart couldn't take it much longer. I love Mac, I do, but also... that was painful. I love Wes to pieces, obviously. And I enjoyed the inclusion of new characters that I fell in love with, too.

To say I am disappointed that book 3 is not published, let alone finished being written, is a giant understatement. I am devastated. I want more! But I'm going to trust in Schwab's process and try to be patient. (Try, and mostly fail.)

The Archived by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

Tell me why I was sleeping on this series???? This book was so good! Definitely gave me Cassidy Blake vibes but for older readers. I loved the hotel-turned-apartment setting, the unique concept, and the main characters. I loved Wes so much and was so nervous he was going to wind up a villain. But also, I’m emotionally unstable and love villains, so either way, I knew I’d love him regardless. I liked Mac a lot, too, despite being a bit too naive at times. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book. Fingers crossed for some serious romance between Mac and Wes.

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Stayed up past my bedtime last night to finish this incredible book. I definitely prefer the first book in the series to this one, but it's an admirable sequel that I truly enjoyed. I loved getting to know Eli better and learn more about his backstory. It was so hard for me to sympathize with him in Vicious, but this book made it a lot easier. I still think he's awful, of course, but I understand him now. I love to hate these boys <3

I enjoyed Syd's chapters, and even June's, but felt like I didn't need as much about Marcella as we got. Though I liked her character, I wish the story had focused more on Eli and Victor like Vicious did. For me, they're the stars of this series and I'm always craving more.

I'm really happy that I fell in love with this series thanks to my dear friend Heather - and I'm beyond excited to see that Schwab is writing a third book in the series. Can't wait to buddy read it ;)

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

challenging emotional sad 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

It’s clear at this point I’m just a sucker for CoHo books. They all kind of follow the same flow—hot and heavy romance with a kick-to-the-balls twist towards the end—and I gotta say I love it. These books are so readable and get me through my work day. Ugly Love is up there as one of my favorite CoHo books. I didn’t hate the love interest, I enjoyed the alternating POVs back and forth through time, and I definitely felt a knot in my gut through the last 20% (something that definitely means I’m enjoying a book). I flew through this one.

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I was so scared I wasn't going to like this book when I first started reading it, which made me sad because I loved loved loved Today Tonight Tomorrow and I love time loop stories. I'm not sure what it was about the beginning of the book, but I wasn't immediately hooked. I also felt so much secondhand embarrassment thanks to our main character Barrett. I stuck with it, though, and I'm glad I did, because I adored this book. Barrett and Miles had the perfect "enemies" (I say enemies, though really they just kind of annoyed each other) to lovers relationship that made me swoon. Highly recommend.