nikkicruz_md's reviews
275 reviews

Happy Place by Emily Henry

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

You. You. You
In every universe, it's YOU for me.

Oh! to be loved like this... 🥺

More than Wyn's vast and fathomless love for Harriet, what made me cling to this book more is Harriet's found family. Maya Angelou flawlessly once postulated that "Family isn’t always blood, it’s the people in your life who want you in theirs: the ones who accept you for who you are, the ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what."

I love a good romance but a good romance + found family is just another level.

Funny Story by Emily Henry

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

I knew from the moment I finished Chapter 1 that this is going to be an unputdownable for me.

I love everything about this book. I love Miles, Daphne, Ashleigh, Julia, Harvey and of course, I would very much love to strangle Peter and Petra.

Waiting, for someone who rarely came, feeling worse every time, until finally, I realized that the feelings wouldn’t stop until the waiting did. You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.
Trust people’s actions, not their words.
Don’t love anyone who isn’t ready to love you back.
Let go of the people who don’t hold on to you.
Don’t wait on anyone who’s in no rush to get to you. 

You have no idea how much I relate to Daphne's cynicism and her profound sense of unworthiness to be loved. At some point in life, I may have been a Daphne once - fully convinced that I am unworthy & a total pistanthrophobe.

But what I love the most in this tale is how Daphne unexpectedly found love in the place she got her heartbroken; the place she want to run away from, leading us to believe that love can bloom in the most unexpected place and it's beautiful.

And to sum it all up, it is showing up and being present that makes all the difference in the world.

Things We Hide From The Light by Lucy Score

adventurous emotional tense slow-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

3.0

The Housemaid Is Watching by Freida McFadden

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I knew I could finish this is one sitting.

Of the three books in this series, this is lackluster at best. But I have to admit that Freida McFadden really knows how to put us at the edge of our seat! Another unputdownable albeit a humdrum.

Would still be recommending this to everyone who loved The Housemaid.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I am fully convinced that the live adaptation from Netflix is way better than the book.

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

4.5

I'm fully convinced that Abby Jimenez is a genius!

Got all her books right after finishing this one.

In a world where you can choose anger or empathy, always choose empathy.

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I love Holly Jackson and AGGGTM so much that I had high expectations for this one.

Kind of disappointing how the story just got dragged on for so long and that some scenes were really not that important for the plot. hehe

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

4.5 ⭐️
You have no idea how much this book broke me.
The last few pages were written in a parent's perspective which made me bawl my eyes out.

Harold: "Do you think he was happy with me? Because he deserved happiness. We aren't guaranteed it, none of us are, but he deserved it."

I have been warned about this book countless of times but there's this enormously substantial weight of pain it could inflict no matter how well prepared you think you are - which I think very much resembles real life - there is no way you could have been really prepared for it.

As Jude strives to become selfless, he has become more and more selfish (I don't know if that makes sense?). I understand that he had been through a great deal of unimaginable suffering & exaggerated cruelty as a child but he had found the people who loved him, the people who cared for him deeply, who stood by him through the bad and the ugly; the people who wanted him to live and yet their love for him remained insufficient. His soul irreparably broken.

I thought that love from the people who matters would be enough for one to continue living but as it turns out, there are ugly experiences one could go through that would haunt them unrelentingly. Jude tried and no matter how much he tried to escape the horrors of his childhood, it still engulfed him.

I finished this book after 2 months because I had to stop at some point and recalibrate. Yanagihara's book is a chef's kiss 🤌🏽 albeit very long; he narrated it in a manner worthy of every word written on this literary masterpiece.

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

That *ending* got me really confused.

This is okay-ish for me.

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Good palate cleanser.

I have been devouring Hanya Yanagihara's "A Little Life" for quite some time, and I admit, it is not a book you can finish in one sitting, so I opened McFadden's novel for a little break from the drama.

Sooooo, I am not surprised about that sickening twist at the finale because this is McFadden's work and I already prepared myself for it. Go read it if you have a day to spare.