monicalaurette's reviews
302 reviews

emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

In my journey to read the Spoiler Alert series backwards I have finally finished All The Feels and I indeed have many feelings myself - possibly all of them at once. I think this might be my favorite of the stories within this little Hollywood circle of actors and actresses. First off, the cover is so cute and warm and was my favorite of the three books too. And the way that Lauren reminded me of myself a little bit and that I’ve always wanted someone like Alex to love me so fiercely like he did her. From the start he was smitten with her - and of course he didn’t know it until much later but I KNEW IT JUST FROM THIS QUOTE:

“Her eyes were brighter now than the stars about could explain.”

Like EXCUSE ME YOU’RE IN LOVE GOOD SIR!

Of course I got my dreaded third-act breakup, but this one for some reason didn’t bother me as much as Peter & Maria’s so maybe that’s why I liked the book just a little more. I know I liked the book more because of the way I held onto it so tight and caused damage to the spine 😂

And of course we had our text chats and fanfictions which I loved and seeing more into Alex’s life and how he thinks. Because I’m reading backwards on this sort of interconnected trilogy I know part of Marcus & April’s story but I’m not upset about it because I just want to see how cute they are compared to the couples I have now come to love from Dade.

Content Warnings

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

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emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.75

“Some emotions needed to be acknowledged. Others could remain private.”

This is my first book by Olivia Dade because I didn’t realize how connected this book is to Spoiler Alert & All The Feels. However, with that said, it will not be my last book by Olivia Dade because I fell in love with her writing and characters so quickly that I was able to finish this book in five days, and that’s a record for me!

Really the only thing I didn’t like in this book, which I know is common in romance books in general from my understanding, is the third-act breakup. However it only lasted like a chapter and a half so I just have to deal with it. Other than that I loved this journey of these two plus size characters being in love and not being afraid of it. Part of me just wished the tension went on just a few chapters longer for my own enjoyment lol.

I also liked how old the characters were because I’ve yet to read many books where the characters were past their mid twenties, let alone in their thirties! But my favorite character has to be the train guy who left the comment on the derailment video. I actually scream-laughed at that.

Adding in the fanfiction and text chats were a fun touch too and (because I’m now almost done All The Feels at the time of writing this) I like that it connects all the characters together and the interconnected stories.

Content Warnings

Borderline by Mishell Baker

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.

I just wasn't as pulled into this book as I wanted to be. I didn't like Millie as a narrator and the way she thought of things felt off. It seemed very quick that she was just okay with things, and even more so too early for her to be sent off on missions and jobs the first full day she is there.

There were other parts of Millie's internal thoughts about others in the house (Gloria & the baby) that I just didn't need and they made me feel uncomfortable.

Like why did I need to know anything about the baby's 'doodad'?

Now I don't know if this was my specific copy either but I came upon a lot of grammar errors like missing words or words in the wrong place that also threw me out of the story. Normally that doesn't bother me but I felt that about 25% of the way through the book, the amount that I caught was a lot.

Not going to go into the representation of this book because I just have depression so I'm not sure how wonderfully or terribly it's written here. All I'll say about it is that it's nice to see the types of representation, BPD & amputation, in the book and there should be more of it.

about triggers

I put down rape because I'm not sure if that's what is going on with the professor from UCLA and Millie but that's the feeling I got and I'm not reading more of the book to find out if I'm right

Content Warnings

Sneakthief by J. R. Rainville

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

What to say about this book, it took me basically two whole months to read because I started the first few chapters early October and then didn’t touch the book again until the end of November (maybe I have something against starting a series?). And also to be honest, though this does not affect my review, this was written by my old high school fantasy literature teacher. It has been MANY a year since I was in high school and this book was released in 2023 so it’s not like she was handing them out to us in class to read - I paid for it myself because I wanted to support her!

This book has such a great concept and I think that it flowed well to help us get to know the different characters and their motivations and how it comes together at the end and will set up the next books. There was a diversity in the personalities of the characters that I enjoyed that helped me be able to determine who was who in the chapters without needing their names at the beginning and I liked when a chapter would switch between two people.

Was this my favorite book of the year? No. Was it a terrible book? Also no. I enjoyed my time reading it (when I did actually sit down to read it) and am more than happy to wait for the next books to come out - however J.R. Rainville if you’re reading this please release it sooner because I also hate waiting for books in a series to come out.

I’m giving Sneakthief 4 stars because I think it was a great first book and sets up amazingly for where the rest of the story will go and has so many questions that I still want answered.

Content Warnings

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.

While I’m interested in the unsolved Borden case, I didn’t like this fictional take. It almost felt wrong to make up what the characters would have been thinking at those times, and I just don’t like John either.

I’ll just stick to true crime stuff if I want more on Lizzie Borden.

Content Warnings

The Blind Dragon: A Tale from the Canon of Tarn by Peter Fane

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.

Concept to me was interesting but just didn’t want to keep going. Think it’s a mix of the main character being much younger than me and just being confused about everything else that is going on in the story in such a short time.

Kept getting confused on the names and people. Maybe if the main character was older, and she just seemed like too knowledgeable for her age, but then again I’ve never been a dragon squire and the daughter of a dragon rider/commander so maybe that’s normal.

Content Warnings

Dust by Hugh Howey

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emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I almost didn’t want to finish this book because then it would all end. But I was pushed through with my desire to know where the story ended. But I’m emotionally wrecked by what and who was lost in the journey outside the silos.

“Without the silo, she would be a skull on a hill looking blankly to the cloud-filled skies.”

I read this book on a plane for the most part so I wasn’t able to save any quotes but I also was just reading so fast I don’t think I would have stopped to write any down even if I wanted to. But this one above I thought was so powerful for Jules to think back on her journey so far and how she’s the only one that has walked away from the Silo, only to walk back.

As the end of this whole story arc I knew we’d lose people along the way but the specific people that were lost made me want to cry because they were so important to others around them that made it.

Overall the Silo series to me was great, excited to watch the show soon and see how that stacks up. I’m giving Dust 5 stars because it didn’t have a full happy ending, but more of a bittersweet one. I was happy with how it ended and where they got to, but I wished others were there to see it.

I told myself if Lukas died I would cry so you can already infer that I cried because of this book. He loves Jules so much and to have him go the way that he did was so brutal. Why can’t Jules have love in her life without losing it in terrible ways?

Wonder why Anna never switched the argon out of all the silos instead of just 17, because imagine if 18 were saved.

I like that Donald brought down what he helped to create to allow the other silos a chance outside. I like to think that the group that made it went back to the other Silos and told them what they needed to do to get out.

Had to reread the passage about seven times trying to convince myself that a grown man DIDN’T marry Elise but nope that’s what happened, wish Jimmy had shot that man in the face.

Content Warnings

Shift by Hugh Howey

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

“Troy was tired of forgetting. He had decided to remember.”

I almost didn’t think this story was connected to Wool when I first read it. I was wondering almost the whole time how it all connected and if I would ever hear about Juliette again. But as the story went on I was enthralled again. I feel it’s a crime that I didn’t find this series when it first came out and I was still in such a large dystopian kick with my reading because I would have EATEN THIS UP back then. But hey better late than never to the party!

The jump between both different silos and different timelines and years was fun. Trying to figure out what was happening as the story went through to figure out who each person was and how they connected to the overall story of the underground silos. I got to know some people for just a moment and then just see how Silo 1 really works and what they do to keep order when it leaves.

“And so life was lived accidental. It was lived because he wasn’t brave enough to do anything else.”

Because the world building for the most part was already done, this was just extra building to describe how it all came to be - and I really enjoyed it and the journey that Donald went through to to learn what his role was at the beginning, to the lies becoming clear at the end to the true purpose of his involvement. I can’t wait to see what is going to happen when/if Juliette and him meet.

I’m giving this book 4.5 stars because I really liked this book, just not as much as I did for Wool. Also so many things happened and I was feeling like my neck was gonna snap from the whiplash which is okay but my neck hurts now.

“The world had grown as rusty as his memory of it.”

About a chapter before it revealed that Troy & Donald were the same person I literally had the thought of “hey what if they are the same” so that makes me very smart.

I was confused a lot about the importance of Mission’s story but excited to see if there is more that spills in from that time to what happens in the next book since it was Silo 18.

Did NOT expect Donald to do that to Anna, I thought he’d just keep her alive for a little bit to learn more instead of just…killing her right away but glad he shot Thurman. But I felt that if he kept Anna alive longer she would have helped both him and Charlotte in whatever they are about to do. Maybe a hindsight thing for Donny boy.

Not me actually crying about Shadow and how Jimmy was thinking about how ‘oh if he was here he’d be rubbing my leg or meowing at me’ and it made me very sad and go to hug my own cat.

Content Warnings

Wool by Hugh Howey

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

“And yet, his feet moved. They carried him down the hidden passageway and into a room full of the strange and curious, a place that made the charting of stars seem insignificant, a den where the sense of the world’s scale, of size, took on wholly new proportions.”

This book was, to me, a roller coaster. There was confusion at first of what is going on, why are people doing the things they are, and then I just quickly fell in love with so many of them just for some of them to be ripped away (sorry for the spoiler but don’t like any characters until at least half way through just to be safe but even then you won’t).

The world building in this book was also very interesting. While for most of the book you’re just in that Silo, there were so many layers and groups of people depending on those layers was so interesting. Like how was there such a disconnect from the lower levels to the top levels when they are all one big community? To me you can just find that with different cities in the world that have different areas where the people who live there have different levels of socio-economic status.

“And so the descent, this spiraling downward, was much like the drowning that swallowed her at night. It felt inexorable and inextricable. Like a weight pulling her down combined with the knowledge that she’d never be able to claw her way back up.

I wish I had found this book when I was younger, or I had read them when I first added them to my shelf because I loved it so much. I give this book 5 stars because it was just such a fun experience for me to go through and I can’t wait to read more about these giant silos in the ground.

“These would be the parts of her that rotted last, the bits left over once the rest skittered off on the wind or was drunk deep by the roots.”

I almost ended the book when Marnes died after Jahns because I wanted them to be a couple so BAD! Literally wrote down that they’ll be together in the dirt because they were buried during the same week basically.

From the first moment I saw Bernard I disliked him, and he in my mind is the one that killed Jahns.

At first I didn’t know how I’d like the relationship between Lukas and Jules but by the end of the book I feel that I grew to like him just like Jules did - though I could see them being a couple by the first time they interacted.

I thought Solo was killed and almost ended the book again there but glad that he’s got a purpose now with those kids!

Content Warnings

Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I really loved this volume of Heartstopper. I liked how it showed the way both characters were able to grow away from each other instead of just as a couple and how they both stayed together through it all.

I know that the ED discussion in this book is something that I've never dealt with personally or have helped anyone with so I don't know how to feel about it in this book. From my knowledge of it this book handled it well - along with the mental health aspects, and liked how the families changed around it too and how it was sort of a snowball to make people look into themselves a little more.

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monicalaurette's reviews 302 reviews

monicalaurette's reviews
302 reviews