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222 reviews
A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan
2.0
There’s no way to describe it other than: this book felt flat.
There wasn’t ever really a moment that made the MCs feel like real people. They were just a smattering of cliches and tropes and some predictable but poorly fleshed out drama to keep things sort of interesting.
And random people kept showing up that weren’t really fleshed out at all but expected to be accepted as part of the larger cast. (Yes I know this is part of a larger universe of books but would it be so hard to write a sentence or two about someone’s general personality?)
It wasn’t for me.
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
4.0
That cliffhanger though!
This book sucked me in in a way that the first didn’t quite accomplish. Since all four Londons had already been built in the previous book, this book was all wild plot adventures.
The new characters we met were intriguing and the returning characters only grew with the second part of their story.
I love the way Schwab intertwines reality with fantasy. There’s just enough of the familiar to keep you grounded but so many unexpected folds and layers to the world she’s built.
I’m genuinely sad I didn’t read this series sooner. Because I cannot put it down.
This book sucked me in in a way that the first didn’t quite accomplish. Since all four Londons had already been built in the previous book, this book was all wild plot adventures.
The new characters we met were intriguing and the returning characters only grew with the second part of their story.
I love the way Schwab intertwines reality with fantasy. There’s just enough of the familiar to keep you grounded but so many unexpected folds and layers to the world she’s built.
I’m genuinely sad I didn’t read this series sooner. Because I cannot put it down.
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
I kind of hate loving an author so much that I always think their books are going to be amazing. And sometimes they’re just… not it.
Listen, I’m obsessed with Ali. The way she writes characters is flawless and I fall in love with every single person she writes, MCs to the most unimportant of side characters. That holds up in Bride. 100%.
But the plot? I found myself almost totally uninterested. There were a few moments that I was like “oh I wonder what’s going to happen” but for the most part, it didn’t drag me in the way her books usually do.
The world building was a bit informational rather than storytelling and I think that just turned me off in the beginning.
I hope she writes more fantasy. I think it’ll only be more and more amazing. But this did not do it for me unfortunately.
Listen, I’m obsessed with Ali. The way she writes characters is flawless and I fall in love with every single person she writes, MCs to the most unimportant of side characters. That holds up in Bride. 100%.
But the plot? I found myself almost totally uninterested. There were a few moments that I was like “oh I wonder what’s going to happen” but for the most part, it didn’t drag me in the way her books usually do.
The world building was a bit informational rather than storytelling and I think that just turned me off in the beginning.
I hope she writes more fantasy. I think it’ll only be more and more amazing. But this did not do it for me unfortunately.
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
5.0
I had impossibly high expectations for this book after reading the first one. It exceeds every one.