mildlyjulie's reviews
1118 reviews

The Simple Art of Flying by Cory Leonardo

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

First-Degree Fudge by Christine DeSmet

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Cute. Made me hungry. Also I didn’t realize being Belgian in the Midwest was such a thing, was that real? 

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Really cute! Fluffy rom com plus developing identity and family. 

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

5.0

 Just brilliant. Absolutely incredible. I'm so glad I did listen and hear him narrate his own life--the voices, the accents, the languages, the emotion. Some parts were funny but overall I wouldn't say this was a funny book. It was really challenging to hear all that he (and everyone around him) went through and survived. 

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It was so loooong. Needlessly so. The main characters personality seemed mainly “surgeon” and she mainly talked about being a surgeon and yet we didn’t really get to see much of any actual surgeoning. The dad was comically ridiculously awful, yet also suddenly changed on a dime. There are a bunch of family members who are very one-dimensional and serve almost no purpose. The massive event that is one of the “plot points” gets almost completely skipped over. After all the talk of the prep and food getting ready for it, you’d think that would actually be a significant scene featuring said food. But nope, we skip right the freak over it. 

Mind the Gap, Dash & Lily by David Levithan, Rachel Cohn

lighthearted medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

“These two are idiots.” Is what was going through my mind for a big chunk of this book. I wanted more London too. I’m glad it all worked out and also that they weren’t like “we will be together FoReVErrrr”.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked this! I felt like I knew these characters. (Except for the non-band record company people, I could not keep them straight.) Man, I *really* want to hear those songs!

Just Our Luck by Julia Walton

inspiring lighthearted

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This kid is an asshole from the first page, and he doesn't really get much less of an asshole. The kids around him are pretty great, actually, and he's not exactly nice to them and he doesn't really apologize for anything or express appreciation. I found the whole dad thing pretty troubling, too. Like, willful emotional negligence. 

AND we get the "teenager is an genius photographer" trope! I really need to start keeping track of how often that comes up. 

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

5.0