micaaaaaaa's reviews
18 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.25

I do not know why I expected this to be the exact depiction of the original Beauty and the beast. I am delightly surprised. You see, I have no issue with the original story but this book with its descriptions and reasons to why certain situations leveled up the story even more than the actual story.

Usually remakes or fan fictions can never beat the original story but this book does not entirely remake the story but uses a twist to build the original story even further to perfection. Some details were definitely changed but they were to give a push to the original twist. (You will understand me only after reading the book)

Love the book. It touches on all the rightful genres. All the magical parts were beautiful. I was highly blessed to read this because it just reawakened a part of my childhood of my favorite disney princess movie (Alongside Mulan). It also shows the aftermath and beforemath of the entire incident which is truly so necessary for this trope to work. I also adore the realistic progression of each of the characters.

Im looking forward to reading the other disney stories as well. Thank you Liz Braswell I pray for your well-being to bring this masterpiece into life. I pray that your pillows will be cold on both the sides ಥ⁠_⁠ಥ

Many might argue that the ending was a bit unsatisfying but I genuinely found the ending very satisfactory. The abrupt death of the Monsier to the Prince not being able to change. I do think that made the story even more epic because the beast chose to sacrifice changing in the good heart of the people.

The House Across the Street by Lesley Pearse

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is extremely random while I was reading this book I got fascinated by the author’s name- It was a unique name which I believed it to be - Lesley Parsley. Turns out its Lesley Pearse instead. Although the actual names did not rhyme like I wished for it to change but if I really had the chance to change some details about this book I would.

House across the street - is a mystery, crime and a little bit of thriller novel centred around a family of 4. Where this family had neighbours living across the street whose house was abruptly burnt down - leading to the death of two women. Further discovery revealed the arson being intentional and the father of the family becomes a prime suspect of this case. It is Katy who is the daugther, who fights to prove the innocence of her father.

I liked the book for its simplicity. But yes, there were a few details that were amiss and a few unnecessary details as well. As far as the story was concerned it was a good enough mixture of mystery, crime and a bit of romance. Do I love it? No. But I cannot categorise it under an official bad book.

What I cannot deny is the fact that it is an incredible hard job to capture the momentum of different characters and their progression at the same time. Lesley Pearse did help in bringing the story together.

The few other good aspects of the book which made me stay in the long haul were the tone and the language of the book. It is an easy to read because of the simple language used. If you find yourself hard to understand complex scenes and traumatic incidents in most crime thriller books, this would defintely be a good start to dive into crime and mystery. But yes it is indeed a light read so do keep your expectations low.

Love
Mica

Content Warnings

Beach Read by Emily Henry

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? No

5.0

This is my first book that I'm rewarding a 5 star review for. Emily Henry is no joke. She defines what good story telling, romance and a mix of drama with a realistic form of a plot looks like. At first, I was a bit hesitant when I picked up this book because of how many have recommend this but itmemds up being a disappointing literature of just smut and the plot is just 2%. But this book made me hooked from the very beginning. When I tell you Emily served, her writing is no joke I could not stop reading for continuous 7 hours it took (yes I took more time than required but I was just trying to absorb every single detail). The plot design was a common design where two authors are competing which other but it was also unique on how they were competing to write a book based on genres they both wrote but vice versa.
It may not a be cliché where they were enemies from the beginning and they just compete to try to prove they can outbest each other. Sure it was a bit in the beginning. It later turned out to be a friendly banter to outgrow themselves by choosing a genre that was different from what they usually do but in their style of writing. Pacing of this novel was great. The character designs were also good. The other backround of the things that went through their lives was so brilliantly portrayed. It wasn't just an existing element of the characters just to have a plot but it was a very realistic picture on people with toxic households look and their challenges to compensate were completely valid for the same because anyone in that position will also feel dicombulated. Even if you wanted to hate specific characters after understanding their reasons and their struggles in their perspective was so well done that it was too hard to even complain. Emily did a wonderful job showing thought provoking realisms through these small number of characters but the right ones to be able to connect them as pieces of a single puzzle. My most favorite thing about this book was that it was not just the romance but it was the characters, their backgrounds, and emphasis on supporting characters, the setting, and just everything was so well connected for the plot to work. I think EMILY is a genius. And I am not going to hesitate to read more of her work. Thanks for reading my review.
Love,
Mica

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Easy 4.5 stars . It was just brilliant. Writing was easy to understand and play with. At first, I was doubtful because of the complexities of the inner book that was being talked about but once you get into actual plot it hooks you on. It was such a page turner. And a very super important book that sheds lights on toxic cancel culture. Love love love. Will recommend it to anyone who is looking for a tense, realistic but also a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat? This book is for you!!!!

Content Warnings

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins

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3.25

One Day in December by Josie Silver

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad

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

3.5

If you end up reading this review I would like to advice you that it is going to be a very informal review because I have a few complaints, and I am also not the best writer but here we go.
So, after reading a very depressing book. I wanted to start a new life altogether. I wanted to distract myself mainly from the depression. Therefore, I went on a journey to find a list of books that I can read which were light hearted, romantic, a typical young adult sort of a book to read on Christmas. And boy, I would not lie that this book is definitely not Christmas themed. There will be spoilers here and there. So, please be warned.

I was anticipating something else from this book. The cover looked nice and the book name sounded fun. I ended up deciding to read the book without reading the reviews. Mostly, because I do not want to spoil the fun of a hearty romance. But I also wanted to surprise myself if it was a fluffy romance like I had expected. I was utterly wrong. And I do regret not reading the reviews before I picked it up. Sadly, this book was not at all a light-hearted read at all. I am surprised that 57% voted for it. But I would like to disagree. Not that I am saying the book was bad but it was kind of an emotional rollercoaster.

Basically it is indeed a love story. But without much romance actually happening. We have Laurie and Sarah, the best of friends who live together. One particular day, Laurie ends up falling for a random stranger she sees from the bus station. And when they make eye contact, she experiences love at first sight immediately. They both were immediately hooked and Laurie had the spontaneous wish of inviting that stranger on her bus. He tried to jump in but could not get in as fast as possible.
Laurie ends up dreaming about him, wanting to find this so-called "bus boy" again. Little did she know that the boy she dreamt off ended up being the lover of her best friend whom she wanted to marry. When I started reading it, it hit me how skeptical I was about the entire trope. I was convinced that this trope will not work at all. But my suspicions were false, Josie (the author) actually did an amazing job making it work.

Now, I will try my best to not spoil the entire book. But this romance was more of a different perspective but also essential to understand. When I was young, I used to be so delusional about marriages. I used to find it so upsetting when people could just divorce so easily. But after reading a perspective about splitting up, it just taught me more about love not being perfect all the time. And people do split up for different reasons. This book explored different areas of love, friendship, and relationships not working out for many reasons. It showed a very realistic picture of how love can bloom but also at times not enough for a relationship to work.
I was also surprised to learn a very essential element of the book. Which was, losing the chances you do not take. I always see alternative quotes being used, but this one was the main theme of the book. It pretty much encapsulated this idea throughout the story. It was also a bit sad too because you also sympathize with the situations of all the characters that are involved.

Now, you would be guessing why I did not love it? There are a few reasons I would like to point out. First, I could not sense the tones and emotions of the characters sometimes. I do think the writing might not have not been the best, making sense of it being a debut novel. I do think it can be improved upon. Second, I was also confused about some of the perspectives of the guy, Jack. Sometimes, It came off as rushed. I also did not understand the genre of romance in the book. From my understanding, the book was not romantic but more about the emphasis on relationships. Last but not least, the book might have been a bit long that I wanted it. But I also can put my finger around why it was long but the ending seemed to be a bit rushed because of it.

While all these details were amiss, I think that it was still quite promising. It did end up showing this trope of hopelessly falling in love with your best friend's lover but would not act on it because you love your best friend too much. The way I even phrased it seemed ridiculous, but trust me once you read this you will understand exactly what I mean. Although, I do discourage cheating whatsoever. But it also taught me about compassion for those who end up in that situation, Josie did an incredible work on that. And realising how this was her debut novel surely raised my expectations about more of her work. For a debut novel, I think it was great.
Now, I am a sad potato because I read a real life picture of what the modern form of romance actually is when all I wanted was some fluffy romance. My dream of reading a fluffy romance is still on the run. But after reading this, it has made me realize that fluffy romances are at the end of the day very rare to find and fictional too. Anyways, a great book.

Wowww I will be suprised if you read my crap of a review. Thank you. I shall award you a star ✧。I will try my best to get better at writing.

Love,
Mica

Content Warnings