Take a photo of a barcode or cover
opalmars's reviews
313 reviews
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Maysilee had to die because Snow knew she’d be too powerful if kept alive.
also, this book HURT even though I already knew everything that was going to happen. and that scene at the end where they talk about Katniss and Peeta’s memorial book (a scene that always makes me tear in in Mockingjay)?!?! fuckin’ OUCH!
also, this book HURT even though I already knew everything that was going to happen. and that scene at the end where they talk about Katniss and Peeta’s memorial book (a scene that always makes me tear in in Mockingjay)?!?! fuckin’ OUCH!
The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
This wasn’t that bad, but also not that good. Just… fine. The concept is really interesting, but I feel like it didn’t reach its full potential. Looking back, not much happened in this book. I could summarize all the main events in like, 2 sentences (Luna goes to her dead sister Solina’s boarding school pretending to be her, realizes her boyfriend was an abusive cheater and learns that Solina wasn’t as good as she thought. Solina’s roommate Claudia bought drugs from a dude who wanted Solina gone so he could get the scholarship Solina was going to win, so he blackmails Claudia and threatens to expose her drug purchase if she doesn’t get rid of Solina, so Claudia kills her. ).
That story is definitely interesting (although you have to suspend your disbelief bc how did no one notice Solina wasn’t herself lol?). But the fact that I could tell you everything that happened in just a few words means that there wasn’t much to this mystery. I was expecting more: more players on the board, more suspects, more motives, more red herrings, more sleuthing, more clues to follow… All Luna did was look through people’s phones to find out they had alibis on Solina’s death date, and look at Solina’s therapist’s folder. There wasn’t a lot of investigation, idk…
I didn’t guess who the killer was, but I will say that, when it was revealed, I was PISSED. Not at who it was, but at Luna’s reaction. Like, I’m sorry, but this person killed your sister andyou lowkey just… let her get away with it????? What the fuck?!!! I genuinely don’t understand why she felt bad for Claudia.
“I wish I hated her more. I wish I didn’t understand the threat of losing everything you’ve worked for. Or the fear of failure, knowing someone gave up everything just for you to succeed.” ❓❓❓❓❓❓ EXCUSE ME?? Being scared of getting expelled from this one high school on your last semester does NOT excuse MURDERING A GIRL!!!!!!!! What the fuck??? 😭😭 Luna is better than me, because I would’ve had this bitch’s head on a PIKE.
Even though the plot was lackluster, I still think the pacing was alright, and the writing was good. I especially liked Luna’s backstory. I think her struggles and the way she dealt with grief were quite interesting. I liked the ending with Luna and Tiffany, and the way Izzy’s story was wrapped up was alright, I guess.
The romance was shit, though. 💀 There was literally no reason for the characters to like each other. It was lowkey insta-love. Thankfully, the romance wasn’t a big part of the book.
That story is definitely interesting (although you have to suspend your disbelief bc how did no one notice Solina wasn’t herself lol?). But the fact that I could tell you everything that happened in just a few words means that there wasn’t much to this mystery. I was expecting more: more players on the board, more suspects, more motives, more red herrings, more sleuthing, more clues to follow… All Luna did was look through people’s phones to find out they had alibis on Solina’s death date, and look at Solina’s therapist’s folder. There wasn’t a lot of investigation, idk…
I didn’t guess who the killer was, but I will say that, when it was revealed, I was PISSED. Not at who it was, but at Luna’s reaction. Like, I’m sorry, but this person killed your sister and
“I wish I hated her more. I wish I didn’t understand the threat of losing everything you’ve worked for. Or the fear of failure, knowing someone gave up everything just for you to succeed.” ❓❓❓❓❓❓ EXCUSE ME?? Being scared of getting expelled from this one high school on your last semester does NOT excuse MURDERING A GIRL!!!!!!!! What the fuck??? 😭😭 Luna is better than me, because I would’ve had this bitch’s head on a PIKE.
Even though the plot was lackluster, I still think the pacing was alright, and the writing was good. I especially liked Luna’s backstory. I think her struggles and the way she dealt with grief were quite interesting. I liked the ending with Luna and Tiffany, and the way Izzy’s story was wrapped up was alright, I guess.
The romance was shit, though. 💀 There was literally no reason for the characters to like each other. It was lowkey insta-love. Thankfully, the romance wasn’t a big part of the book.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
dark
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
If I had to describe how I feel about this book with just 1 word it would be: indifferent 😐
I think everything about this book is very interesting and it genuinely had the potential to become a new favourite, but unfortunately something about the story just didn’t click with me. I reeeeally enjoyed the setup: poor girl studying hard to go to the most prestigious military academy in the empire and then going to war is genuinely a cool story (on paper lol). But I just didn’t care about most of what happened throughout.
I think my biggest problem is that I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. The SCs from the academy had the potential to be very interesting, but I don’t think we spent enough time with them for me to become attached to any of them. We just had the 2 bullies (Nezha and Venka) and the 1 decent character in the book (Kitay), and, honestly, if any of them died, I wouldn’t bat an eye. Jiang, the Lore Master, felt mostly like a plot device, and he worked great as such!!! But I just didn’t care about him *as a person*.
In the 2nd half of the book, when Rin joins the Cike assassins, she meets a whole new cast of characters, and they were all extremely forgettable, imo. The only one who was kind of developed was Altan, who Rin already knew from Sinegard, but I thought it was kind of strange that Rin said she loved him. Like, what?? Where did all that come from?? I understand looking up to him and such, but I didn’t understand *love*. Maybe it was just supposed to show Rin’s infatuation with the dude, though. Idk. I just didn’t care about their connection because, once again, I couldn’t bring myself to care much about any of the SCs. 🫤
I also didn’t care about the villains. At the academy there were the bullies and the classist teachers, which like, whatever. Then there was the Emperess, who we barely knew anything about. The enemies were just faceless people from the enemy empire. And I get that that’s how things are in war: the opponents don’t hate every citizen of Nikan individually, of course! It IS realistic to have faceless nameless antagonists! But it just made it hard for me to care about the enemies, you know? 😐 Overall, I just didn’t care about any of the side characters.
I do think Rin was an interesting MC! Her anger and desire for revenge were well built-up, and I enjoyed the progression of her character. With that said, if she died, I wouldn’t really care 😅.
Regarding the writing: this was quite an easy read; very approachable and easy to understand. With that said, the fact that y’all let RFK get away with publishing the line “Rin let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding” in an ADULT fantasy book published in 2019 is lowkey criminal. That is a 2008 fanfic line written by a 12 y/o, I’m sorryyyyyyyy. 😩😩😩
The audiobook was GREAT!!! Genuinely, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed this book as much if it wasn’t for the incredible audiobook!
Other random things:
✘ Her 1st period being bloody enough to soak everything was just silly lmaoo
✘ The graphic contents weren’t as bad as I thought. Everyone talks about how graphic this book is (which is why I put it off for so many years) but it genuinely wasn’t that violent. If you know about the war crimes committed in eastern Asia in the last century, then this won’t be that difficult to stomach. We mostly just hear about it from other characters, so it’s not even a 1st person POV, for most of it. Though maybe I was just hyper mega prepared, since I’ve been considering reading this book and looking through its TWs for years.
✘ I considered continuing the series, since the audiobooks are easy to get through, and I didn’t dislike this book. However, this was such a disappointment that I don’t think I want to keep going… 😕 I really thought I would LOVE this series, since everyone talks about it so highly! I’m so bummed I didn’t love this that I don’t even want to think about it anymore. Nobody talk to me. I need to mourn. I’m just really really sad rn. 😔😔😔
I think everything about this book is very interesting and it genuinely had the potential to become a new favourite, but unfortunately something about the story just didn’t click with me. I reeeeally enjoyed the setup: poor girl studying hard to go to the most prestigious military academy in the empire and then going to war is genuinely a cool story (on paper lol). But I just didn’t care about most of what happened throughout.
I think my biggest problem is that I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. The SCs from the academy had the potential to be very interesting, but I don’t think we spent enough time with them for me to become attached to any of them. We just had the 2 bullies (Nezha and Venka) and the 1 decent character in the book (Kitay), and, honestly, if any of them died, I wouldn’t bat an eye. Jiang, the Lore Master, felt mostly like a plot device, and he worked great as such!!! But I just didn’t care about him *as a person*.
In the 2nd half of the book, when Rin joins the Cike assassins, she meets a whole new cast of characters, and they were all extremely forgettable, imo. The only one who was kind of developed was Altan, who Rin already knew from Sinegard, but I thought it was kind of strange that Rin said she loved him. Like, what?? Where did all that come from?? I understand looking up to him and such, but I didn’t understand *love*. Maybe it was just supposed to show Rin’s infatuation with the dude, though. Idk. I just didn’t care about their connection because, once again, I couldn’t bring myself to care much about any of the SCs. 🫤
I also didn’t care about the villains. At the academy there were the bullies and the classist teachers, which like, whatever. Then there was the Emperess, who we barely knew anything about. The enemies were just faceless people from the enemy empire. And I get that that’s how things are in war: the opponents don’t hate every citizen of Nikan individually, of course! It IS realistic to have faceless nameless antagonists! But it just made it hard for me to care about the enemies, you know? 😐 Overall, I just didn’t care about any of the side characters.
I do think Rin was an interesting MC! Her anger and desire for revenge were well built-up, and I enjoyed the progression of her character. With that said, if she died, I wouldn’t really care 😅.
Regarding the writing: this was quite an easy read; very approachable and easy to understand. With that said, the fact that y’all let RFK get away with publishing the line “Rin let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding” in an ADULT fantasy book published in 2019 is lowkey criminal. That is a 2008 fanfic line written by a 12 y/o, I’m sorryyyyyyyy. 😩😩😩
The audiobook was GREAT!!! Genuinely, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed this book as much if it wasn’t for the incredible audiobook!
Other random things:
✘ Her 1st period being bloody enough to soak everything was just silly lmaoo
✘ The graphic contents weren’t as bad as I thought. Everyone talks about how graphic this book is (which is why I put it off for so many years) but it genuinely wasn’t that violent. If you know about the war crimes committed in eastern Asia in the last century, then this won’t be that difficult to stomach. We mostly just hear about it from other characters, so it’s not even a 1st person POV, for most of it. Though maybe I was just hyper mega prepared, since I’ve been considering reading this book and looking through its TWs for years.
✘ I considered continuing the series, since the audiobooks are easy to get through, and I didn’t dislike this book. However, this was such a disappointment that I don’t think I want to keep going… 😕 I really thought I would LOVE this series, since everyone talks about it so highly! I’m so bummed I didn’t love this that I don’t even want to think about it anymore. Nobody talk to me. I need to mourn. I’m just really really sad rn. 😔😔😔
Most Valuable Player by Amanda Woody
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I already know this is going to be one of my favourite books of 2025! 🙂↕️ I literally had to force myself to put it down, otherwise I wouldn’t sleep 😅. I was sad when it ended bc I wanted this book to go on foreverrrrrrr!
We are following 2 MCs, Mason and Cameron, both of whom have had difficult lives, which made them put on façades and withdraw from their peers. This story explores both of their struggles in a very raw and vulnerable way, which was difficult to read at times, but it was also a very realistic portrayal of these problems (definitely check out the TWs)! I really liked seeing Mason and Cameron growing to overcome these issues, and being there for each other through these difficult moments.
Individually, the characters were great! Cameron is a really funny character (Amanda Woody always manages to write funny MCs. It’s not often I highlight funny one-liners in books, but with this author, it’s a staple!). Mason was a more introverted character, but still quite sassy, so their banter was just >>>>>>. Both MCs were really well-developed.
Their romance was really sweet!! 🥺🤧😭 I looooved seeing Mason and Cameron growing closer and trusting each other more and more, to the point where they finally felt comfortable being themselves! They were so kind and understanding of each other’s boundaries, and their romance gave this story such a hopeful undertone; while there were difficult moments in the story, I knew these characters would always have each other to lean on. I just adoooored them!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I don’t really give quarter-stars, but if I did, this would be a 4,25 *. I feel like, if I read it again, I’d bump it up to 4,5 *. I just really enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait to have a physical copy! 🫂
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!
We are following 2 MCs, Mason and Cameron, both of whom have had difficult lives, which made them put on façades and withdraw from their peers. This story explores both of their struggles in a very raw and vulnerable way, which was difficult to read at times, but it was also a very realistic portrayal of these problems (definitely check out the TWs)! I really liked seeing Mason and Cameron growing to overcome these issues, and being there for each other through these difficult moments.
Individually, the characters were great! Cameron is a really funny character (Amanda Woody always manages to write funny MCs. It’s not often I highlight funny one-liners in books, but with this author, it’s a staple!). Mason was a more introverted character, but still quite sassy, so their banter was just >>>>>>. Both MCs were really well-developed.
Their romance was really sweet!! 🥺🤧😭 I looooved seeing Mason and Cameron growing closer and trusting each other more and more, to the point where they finally felt comfortable being themselves! They were so kind and understanding of each other’s boundaries, and their romance gave this story such a hopeful undertone; while there were difficult moments in the story, I knew these characters would always have each other to lean on. I just adoooored them!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I don’t really give quarter-stars, but if I did, this would be a 4,25 *. I feel like, if I read it again, I’d bump it up to 4,5 *. I just really enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait to have a physical copy! 🫂
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence
Moderate: Stalking
Minor: Biphobia, Sexual violence
Earth to Alis by Lex Carlow
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book follows Alis’ struggles with his mental health. It was a hard read, at times, but it seemed like a very realistic and honest portrayal of depression. There was a very good exploration of Alis’ feelings when it came to his self-harm, his abusive family, the bullying he suffered and his ex-bestie Jordan; I also really liked seeing Alis grow and heal, slowly, through his new friendships.
This is definitely not a bad book, at all, and I’d still recommend it! For some reason, however, it just never managed to fully grab my attention. 😕 I genuinely can’t pinpoint what happened here, but I was disengaged and extremely bored the whole way through, and I never wanted to pick this book up. It took me 10 days to finish such a simple book. I can’t even explain why I was so uninterested in this story, but alas.
I also didn’t really care about the romance. The book takes place in a week and Alis and Craig never really spoke to each other before, so they go from basically strangers to friends to lovers in just a couple of days, which wasn’t very believable to me. They show interest in each other really early on in the book. I feel like they weren’t even friends and they were already into each other, just based on looks (which like, is how attraction usually works, sure, but *I* personally find it boring to read about. I prefer it when characters fall for the other’s personality first. Just a personal thing, which unfortunately made me not care about their romance).
With that said, Craig was really sweet and understanding of Alis’ problems, which I really appreciated. I also LOOOOOVE to see a fat LI! We rarely see different types of bodies in romances, especially with the male characters, so I really liked this representation.
So, overall, this is a very well-done book that tackles important topics in a sensitive yet raw way, and I’d definitely recommend it (though check out the TWs!). Unfortunately, though, it just didn’t work for me. 😢
This is definitely not a bad book, at all, and I’d still recommend it! For some reason, however, it just never managed to fully grab my attention. 😕 I genuinely can’t pinpoint what happened here, but I was disengaged and extremely bored the whole way through, and I never wanted to pick this book up. It took me 10 days to finish such a simple book. I can’t even explain why I was so uninterested in this story, but alas.
I also didn’t really care about the romance. The book takes place in a week and Alis and Craig never really spoke to each other before, so they go from basically strangers to friends to lovers in just a couple of days, which wasn’t very believable to me. They show interest in each other really early on in the book. I feel like they weren’t even friends and they were already into each other, just based on looks (which like, is how attraction usually works, sure, but *I* personally find it boring to read about. I prefer it when characters fall for the other’s personality first. Just a personal thing, which unfortunately made me not care about their romance).
With that said, Craig was really sweet and understanding of Alis’ problems, which I really appreciated. I also LOOOOOVE to see a fat LI! We rarely see different types of bodies in romances, especially with the male characters, so I really liked this representation.
So, overall, this is a very well-done book that tackles important topics in a sensitive yet raw way, and I’d definitely recommend it (though check out the TWs!). Unfortunately, though, it just didn’t work for me. 😢
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship
Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury
Build a Girlfriend by Elba Luz
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is kind of a mess, and not in a fun way, more like a “we lost the plot” way. 😕😕😕
At first this book was supposed to be about Amelia dating her exes to find out what she lacked as a girlfriend. However, we never actually get to see this happen. Other than 2 dates, all of the dates happened OFF-PAGE, and we’d only get to hear about them in 1 paragraph at the beginning of some chapters. Literally just *1 paragraph* where they’d quickly mention the dates and that’s it. Just *telling* instead of *showing* the literal premise of the book! What the hell?! 😐😐😐
This whole thing became so confusing that I didn’t even fully understand if those were dates she was CURRENTLY going on, or if she was looking back and analyzing old dates from past years (which would make sense since the dates were never even *mentioned* outside of those paragraphs at the start of chapters). It was just a mess!
Later, one of her exes (Leon) shows back up, and Amelia IMMEDIATELY makes it clear that she still likes him, even though they haven’t seen each other in 2 years + he literally broke up with her and ghosted her. She supposedly “hates” him, yet she still has feelings for him, which like, I get it, because she did like him at one point. However, it’s kind of pathetic to see her clearly still in love with the dude who broke her heart several years ago. 🥴 Additionally, her girlfriend Perri breaks up with her at the start of the book, yet Amelia never even thinks about her! Yet she’s obsessed with Leon…… 😑 Okay.
Leon literally dumped and ghosted her YEARS ago, and when he shows up again he keeps messing with her, + he never apologizes for hurting her. And then he asks to be her friend again?????? The audacity of men…… 🤡 She accepts it with the intention of making him fall for her so she can break his heart, just like he’d done to her. This became the whole plot of the book, since the dating-the-exes thing was discarded by the author after a grand total of 2 dates. However, this was also not very well done…… 🫥
Amelia quickly falls in love with Leon again (they almost kiss at 44% 🙄), even though he never even apologized for hurting her 2 years prior. I never understood why they liked each other. Second-chance relationships are hard to sell, and this author didn’t manage to make this romance believable. Their relationship in the present is solely based on their past relationship, but we didn’t see enough of them in the past for me to care about their romance… 😕 At some point Leon mentions that his favourite memories are the ones with her, and I was sitting there thinking “Damn. Wouldn’t it’ve been nice to see more of those, so I could at least TRY to understand why y’all got together in the first place, let alone why you fell for each other AGAIN?!” 🫤
Leon pissed me off throughout the whole book, because he simply refused to apologize for hurting Amelia, or to, at the very least, explain himself. It was infuriating, especially since Amelia constantly acknowledged that she deserved an apology, yet she was still in love with him????? 🤡 Maybe I’m just built different, but if a man treats me poorly and then refuses to apologize I am NOT going to be swooning over him! 🤷🏻
At the end of the book, a bunch of characters turn out to be evil lmao.Arno, the nice boy Amelia had a thing with, literally becomes a caricature of a bad guy. 🙄 It’s revealed that Amelia’s aunts lowkey manipulated Leon into breaking up with Amelia; MULTIPLE GROWN ASS ADULTS doing everything they can to break up these teenagers’ relationship because they genuinely believe they are “cursed” is fucking idiotic. 🤡
Leon then finds out about Amelia’s plan to hurt him back and asks why she didn’t just tell him she was still angry about him breaking her heart……… Bro. Because you literally treated her like garbage and she wanted to do the same to you, especially since you never apologized! Like…??? 🤡🤡🤡
Sure, it turns out her aunts manipulated him into going away and breaking up so I guess he’s forgiven. HOWEVER, I hate that he kept grilling her! Her actions were all because of what he’d done, so the way he was expecting apologies as if she’s evil, when in actuality she was having a VERY NORMAL reaction to being hurt, is totally absurd! And HE only apologizes AFTER she does? Ughhhhhhh.
Everyone lowkey sucks in this book. I just wish Amelia would cut them all off and find happiness on the other side of the world. 😭💀
Speaking of Amelia: I didn’t really like to be in her head 🥴. The fact that she was so obsessed with her ex who hurt her without apologizing already makes her annoying. She was also clumsy to the point where it became fucking absurd; she was always tripping, falling, dropping things, getting dirty or soaked. It became a caricature! At some point she doesn’t want Leon to get on a train so she EATS his ticket????? What the actual fuck?? The physical comedy simply never landed. It was just unfunny. Leon was also constantly rescuing her, + helping her as if she is a child (putting on her shoes, buckling her in…). Amelia is PATHETIC and INCOMPETENT!!!
There were also some typos and continuity mistakes, but I guess that’s the least egregious thing in this book lmao. It is proof that it wasn’t properly edited, though. Perhaps if someone had paid more attention to this book during editing they would’ve noticed that the author literally lost the plot, lmaoooo. 💀💀💀
At first this book was supposed to be about Amelia dating her exes to find out what she lacked as a girlfriend. However, we never actually get to see this happen. Other than 2 dates, all of the dates happened OFF-PAGE, and we’d only get to hear about them in 1 paragraph at the beginning of some chapters. Literally just *1 paragraph* where they’d quickly mention the dates and that’s it. Just *telling* instead of *showing* the literal premise of the book! What the hell?! 😐😐😐
This whole thing became so confusing that I didn’t even fully understand if those were dates she was CURRENTLY going on, or if she was looking back and analyzing old dates from past years (which would make sense since the dates were never even *mentioned* outside of those paragraphs at the start of chapters). It was just a mess!
Later, one of her exes (Leon) shows back up, and Amelia IMMEDIATELY makes it clear that she still likes him, even though they haven’t seen each other in 2 years + he literally broke up with her and ghosted her. She supposedly “hates” him, yet she still has feelings for him, which like, I get it, because she did like him at one point. However, it’s kind of pathetic to see her clearly still in love with the dude who broke her heart several years ago. 🥴 Additionally, her girlfriend Perri breaks up with her at the start of the book, yet Amelia never even thinks about her! Yet she’s obsessed with Leon…… 😑 Okay.
Leon literally dumped and ghosted her YEARS ago, and when he shows up again he keeps messing with her, + he never apologizes for hurting her. And then he asks to be her friend again?????? The audacity of men…… 🤡 She accepts it with the intention of making him fall for her so she can break his heart, just like he’d done to her. This became the whole plot of the book, since the dating-the-exes thing was discarded by the author after a grand total of 2 dates. However, this was also not very well done…… 🫥
Amelia quickly falls in love with Leon again (they almost kiss at 44% 🙄), even though he never even apologized for hurting her 2 years prior. I never understood why they liked each other. Second-chance relationships are hard to sell, and this author didn’t manage to make this romance believable. Their relationship in the present is solely based on their past relationship, but we didn’t see enough of them in the past for me to care about their romance… 😕 At some point Leon mentions that his favourite memories are the ones with her, and I was sitting there thinking “Damn. Wouldn’t it’ve been nice to see more of those, so I could at least TRY to understand why y’all got together in the first place, let alone why you fell for each other AGAIN?!” 🫤
Leon pissed me off throughout the whole book, because he simply refused to apologize for hurting Amelia, or to, at the very least, explain himself. It was infuriating, especially since Amelia constantly acknowledged that she deserved an apology, yet she was still in love with him????? 🤡 Maybe I’m just built different, but if a man treats me poorly and then refuses to apologize I am NOT going to be swooning over him! 🤷🏻
At the end of the book, a bunch of characters turn out to be evil lmao.
Leon then finds out about Amelia’s plan to hurt him back and asks why she didn’t just tell him she was still angry about him breaking her heart……… Bro. Because you literally treated her like garbage and she wanted to do the same to you, especially since you never apologized! Like…??? 🤡🤡🤡
Sure, it turns out her aunts manipulated him into going away and breaking up so I guess he’s forgiven. HOWEVER, I hate that he kept grilling her! Her actions were all because of what he’d done, so the way he was expecting apologies as if she’s evil, when in actuality she was having a VERY NORMAL reaction to being hurt, is totally absurd! And HE only apologizes AFTER she does? Ughhhhhhh.
Everyone lowkey sucks in this book. I just wish Amelia would cut them all off and find happiness on the other side of the world. 😭💀
Speaking of Amelia: I didn’t really like to be in her head 🥴. The fact that she was so obsessed with her ex who hurt her without apologizing already makes her annoying. She was also clumsy to the point where it became fucking absurd; she was always tripping, falling, dropping things, getting dirty or soaked. It became a caricature! At some point she doesn’t want Leon to get on a train so she EATS his ticket????? What the actual fuck?? The physical comedy simply never landed. It was just unfunny. Leon was also constantly rescuing her, + helping her as if she is a child (putting on her shoes, buckling her in…). Amelia is PATHETIC and INCOMPETENT!!!
There were also some typos and continuity mistakes, but I guess that’s the least egregious thing in this book lmao. It is proof that it wasn’t properly edited, though. Perhaps if someone had paid more attention to this book during editing they would’ve noticed that the author literally lost the plot, lmaoooo. 💀💀💀
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
➤ I had a really hard time getting into this book. It took me over a week just to read the first 30% of the book. I then switched to the audiobook, even though I didn’t like the narrator, just so I could finish this damn thing.
➤ The plot was interesting *on paper*: a murder mystery in a sci-fi setting? Sign me up! However, the plot moved soooooo slowly! Literally NOTHING happened for most of the book, and even when the story started moving it was still not that interesting. I just found this book painfully uninteresting. 😕
➤ The climax of the story was BORING as hell lmao.Mahit found out the Teixcalaanli emperor wanted to invade Lsel (where she’s from), and Yskandr (the previous ambassador)’s death was ~very convenient~ (if he died he couldn’t keep the peace between Teixcalaan and Lsel). She warned Lsel about Teixcalaan’s invasion plans. People at Lsel tell her about some other invaders and Mahit just tells the Teixcalaanli emperor like “Yeah dude, you should fight these other invaders instead of annexing my station!” and that’s it. 😐😐😐😐😐😐😐 So dull, so obvious, so easy, so anticlimactic… Why did I read all this for???
➤ The writing was a little confusing. There were A LOT of “asides” in the middle of sentences (in between em dashes), but these were so long that it became difficult to remember how the original sentence even started, because at that point we had had 4 lines of unrelated and UNNECESSARY stuff in between those em dashes lol.
➤ The world was interesting and rich. I especially liked the focus of the nuances of languages, ways to address people, customs, traditions and gestures. With that said, it kind of feels like a waste to have this expansive and interesting world and do so little with it. This book takes place in one city (that we barely see) during like 1 week. It could honestly take place anywhere. The setting was mostly irrelevant, tbh.
➤ The plot was interesting *on paper*: a murder mystery in a sci-fi setting? Sign me up! However, the plot moved soooooo slowly! Literally NOTHING happened for most of the book, and even when the story started moving it was still not that interesting. I just found this book painfully uninteresting. 😕
➤ The climax of the story was BORING as hell lmao.
➤ The writing was a little confusing. There were A LOT of “asides” in the middle of sentences (in between em dashes), but these were so long that it became difficult to remember how the original sentence even started, because at that point we had had 4 lines of unrelated and UNNECESSARY stuff in between those em dashes lol.
➤ The world was interesting and rich. I especially liked the focus of the nuances of languages, ways to address people, customs, traditions and gestures. With that said, it kind of feels like a waste to have this expansive and interesting world and do so little with it. This book takes place in one city (that we barely see) during like 1 week. It could honestly take place anywhere. The setting was mostly irrelevant, tbh.
➤ Mahit was a bad MC. She is literally in danger of being murdered but honestly she doesn’t seem to care that much. 🙄 She is supposed to be knowledgeable on the Teixcalaanli Empire (since she’s literally an ambassador) yet doesn’t even know how the emperor gets heirs. The author sometimes made her dumb just for the sake of getting that information conveniently told to the reader. 🙄 Like, this bitch literally tells Teixcalaan about Lsel’s very secret technological advancements on HER FIRST DAY THERE!!!! 🙄 It takes her 70% of the book to think about putting Yskandr’s imago in her brain, so she could access his memories (which was literally my first thought, from chapter 1 lol)… 🙄🙄🙄 <b>Mahit is STUPID, and it makes NO SENSE that she’d be chosen to be an ambassador between 2 warring nations.</b> Byeeee.
All Hail the Underdogs by E.L. Massey
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is why you don’t give authors 2nd chances. 🙁 I didn’t hate “Like Real People Do” (if I did, I wouldn’t have touched any of her work ever again lol). I thought her 1st book had potential, and I liked some things about it, but unfortunately the *telling instead of showing* and the *underdeveloped relationships* made that book underwhelming. And this book has the exact same problems.
My first issue with the book (and the reason I wanted to quickly DNF) was the instant hate + instant attraction. The moment Damien and Rome meet for the 1st time they instantly find each other hot and both think “Oh no”, and it left me wondering… why? Why are both of you already worried about the other? Or are you worried you might fall in love? 🤨 Either way, thinking that *the moment* you meet someone is strange to me.
Rome immediately says that Damien is “irritatingly well-groomed” (okay… forced hatred despite the attraction, sure…), and Damien thinks about how he wants to TOUCH Rome! A STRANGER!!!! 🤨🤨🤨 (Side note: Damien spends A LOT of the book thinking about how much he wants to touch Rome, even BEFORE they become friends. He has some weird obsession with touching this boy, literally from the moment they meet. It’s WEIRD!).
Their “rivalry” was absurd. They instantly hate each other, and it’s all just super forced. Like, sure, they both ended up showing reasons for the other to hate them (like Rome being dismissive of his white privilege and being standoffish and cold, and Damien going through Rome’s phone without permission and ignoring the fact that Rome is not rich). HOWEVER!!!!!!! They both start disliking each other BEFORE they have justifiable reasons to (especially Rome)! I just… didn’t get it. I genuinely feel like they were “rivals” just so this could be advertised as an enemies-to-lovers. There was no reason for them to be immediately antagonistic. Their rivalry just wasn’t properly developed.
Speaking of not being properly developed: a lot of this story happened off-page. 🫠🫠🫠 This was also a problem for me in E.L. Massey’s 1st book. This author has never heard of “show, don’t tell”. All she does is tell, and she rarely shows anything. We don’t get to experience the things that are happening, because the author just keeps making their moments happen off-page, only mentioning them as if they’re irrelevant little things, and like…… They’re NOT! These moments are IMPORTANT! They’re RELEVANT! If you don’t show Damien and Rome’s relationship develop, how can we believe that they went from (forced) enemies to friends to lovers?????
I had hope that the author had grown from her 1st book, but it’s clear that’s not the case. Weeks go by, and we only see like 3 moments between them. 🙃 MONTHS pass and we barely see any of what happened during that time. 🙃 We’re told Rome is an incredible hockey player, and that he and Damien have an insanely good chemistry when they play together, but we never get to see that. 🙃 They realize their rivalry might be unfounded and start noticing nice things about each other (and by that I mean that we get paragraphs and paragraphs LISTING these things instead of, you know, getting to SEE them notice these things about each other?). 🙃 All of this just in the first 11% of the book, by the way. The rest of the book is similar, though. Just soooo much telling instead of showing… it was infuriating, and it made it hard for me to care about their relationship.
At 16% Rome mentions that he enjoyed Damien touching him “a little bit too much”… And, as I already mentioned, Damien was wanting to touch Rome from the moment they met… Ughhhhhhhhhhh. It was not surprising that this was lowkey insta-lovey, since they were instantly attracted to each other, but it was still disappointing to see them be so into each other only 16% in. We need to abolish this type of stuff fr. Give me slow burns or give me NOTHING.
At some point I just accepted that they were both super into each other and went along with it. There were still a lot of little moments that were furthering their relationship happening off-page, which certainly didn’t help, but whatever. They started sleeping next to each other for some reason, which also felt unwarranted, but sure. They kissed for the 1st time and Rome immediately wanted sex… okay. Overall, I just didn’t care at all about their relationship.
However, I did find them cute, once they got together! This author is really good at writing wholesome relationships, and sweet moments that make you feel warm and fuzzy and give you butterflies. Damien and Rome had a fun bickering dynamic, but they also really cared about each other, talked through their feelings and were really sweet overall.
Still, though, I couldn’t fully jive with their relationship. Not only did I find their instant attraction too… *instant*, but I also thought their relationship moved waaaay too quickly! Like, what do you MEAN y’all 17-18 y/o high schoolers are thinking aboutADOPTING A CHILD TOGETHER after dating only for like **3 MONTHS**????? 😨😨😨 And then 5 months in you’re joking about marriage??? 😶😶😶 The whole situation was A LOT and there’s definitely nuance here, and I totally understand Rome’s position. But I just feel like Rome and Damien being soooooo ready for all that after only dating for a couple of months, especially as TEENAGERS, was a bit much. If the characters were older, a life decision like that would be more understandable (though I still think their relationship was too new for all that lmao). But as HIGH SCHOOLERS?????? Insanity 😭.
Regarding the characters: I thought they were fine. I don’t have much to say about them, individually, though I think they both had interesting stories. I will say that, once again, a lot of things happen off-page that make it harder to care about them. Like, we never see them doing anything for school, or practice hockey. We don’t see Damien’s poetry recitals. We don’t see Rome bonding with the rest of the team, even though the author for sure wanted this to be a “found family”. In the end, both Rome and Damien win very important prizes (literally making history) in their respective fields despite being 19-20, and I was like 🙄. Whateverrrr. At that point I was so detached from this story that I didn’t care anymore.
The writing wasn’t terrible. There were minimal typos/continuity errors, but I don’t mind that in a self-published book. My biggest problem was for sure the *telling instead of showing*. I just don’t think that’s a great way to write a story, personally.
I’m clearly in the minority, though. I read a 2nd book by this author because there were things I really liked about her 1st book, so, if you’re not bothered by the same things I’m bothered by, you might really enjoy this author! I wish I did, too, because I genuinely love the wholesomeness of her romances. Alas…
My first issue with the book (and the reason I wanted to quickly DNF) was the instant hate + instant attraction. The moment Damien and Rome meet for the 1st time they instantly find each other hot and both think “Oh no”, and it left me wondering… why? Why are both of you already worried about the other? Or are you worried you might fall in love? 🤨 Either way, thinking that *the moment* you meet someone is strange to me.
Rome immediately says that Damien is “irritatingly well-groomed” (okay… forced hatred despite the attraction, sure…), and Damien thinks about how he wants to TOUCH Rome! A STRANGER!!!! 🤨🤨🤨 (Side note: Damien spends A LOT of the book thinking about how much he wants to touch Rome, even BEFORE they become friends. He has some weird obsession with touching this boy, literally from the moment they meet. It’s WEIRD!).
Their “rivalry” was absurd. They instantly hate each other, and it’s all just super forced. Like, sure, they both ended up showing reasons for the other to hate them (like Rome being dismissive of his white privilege and being standoffish and cold, and Damien going through Rome’s phone without permission and ignoring the fact that Rome is not rich). HOWEVER!!!!!!! They both start disliking each other BEFORE they have justifiable reasons to (especially Rome)! I just… didn’t get it. I genuinely feel like they were “rivals” just so this could be advertised as an enemies-to-lovers. There was no reason for them to be immediately antagonistic. Their rivalry just wasn’t properly developed.
Speaking of not being properly developed: a lot of this story happened off-page. 🫠🫠🫠 This was also a problem for me in E.L. Massey’s 1st book. This author has never heard of “show, don’t tell”. All she does is tell, and she rarely shows anything. We don’t get to experience the things that are happening, because the author just keeps making their moments happen off-page, only mentioning them as if they’re irrelevant little things, and like…… They’re NOT! These moments are IMPORTANT! They’re RELEVANT! If you don’t show Damien and Rome’s relationship develop, how can we believe that they went from (forced) enemies to friends to lovers?????
I had hope that the author had grown from her 1st book, but it’s clear that’s not the case. Weeks go by, and we only see like 3 moments between them. 🙃 MONTHS pass and we barely see any of what happened during that time. 🙃 We’re told Rome is an incredible hockey player, and that he and Damien have an insanely good chemistry when they play together, but we never get to see that. 🙃 They realize their rivalry might be unfounded and start noticing nice things about each other (and by that I mean that we get paragraphs and paragraphs LISTING these things instead of, you know, getting to SEE them notice these things about each other?). 🙃 All of this just in the first 11% of the book, by the way. The rest of the book is similar, though. Just soooo much telling instead of showing… it was infuriating, and it made it hard for me to care about their relationship.
At 16% Rome mentions that he enjoyed Damien touching him “a little bit too much”… And, as I already mentioned, Damien was wanting to touch Rome from the moment they met… Ughhhhhhhhhhh. It was not surprising that this was lowkey insta-lovey, since they were instantly attracted to each other, but it was still disappointing to see them be so into each other only 16% in. We need to abolish this type of stuff fr. Give me slow burns or give me NOTHING.
At some point I just accepted that they were both super into each other and went along with it. There were still a lot of little moments that were furthering their relationship happening off-page, which certainly didn’t help, but whatever. They started sleeping next to each other for some reason, which also felt unwarranted, but sure. They kissed for the 1st time and Rome immediately wanted sex… okay. Overall, I just didn’t care at all about their relationship.
However, I did find them cute, once they got together! This author is really good at writing wholesome relationships, and sweet moments that make you feel warm and fuzzy and give you butterflies. Damien and Rome had a fun bickering dynamic, but they also really cared about each other, talked through their feelings and were really sweet overall.
Still, though, I couldn’t fully jive with their relationship. Not only did I find their instant attraction too… *instant*, but I also thought their relationship moved waaaay too quickly! Like, what do you MEAN y’all 17-18 y/o high schoolers are thinking about
Regarding the characters: I thought they were fine. I don’t have much to say about them, individually, though I think they both had interesting stories. I will say that, once again, a lot of things happen off-page that make it harder to care about them. Like, we never see them doing anything for school, or practice hockey. We don’t see Damien’s poetry recitals. We don’t see Rome bonding with the rest of the team, even though the author for sure wanted this to be a “found family”. In the end, both Rome and Damien win very important prizes (literally making history) in their respective fields despite being 19-20, and I was like 🙄. Whateverrrr. At that point I was so detached from this story that I didn’t care anymore.
The writing wasn’t terrible. There were minimal typos/continuity errors, but I don’t mind that in a self-published book. My biggest problem was for sure the *telling instead of showing*. I just don’t think that’s a great way to write a story, personally.
I’m clearly in the minority, though. I read a 2nd book by this author because there were things I really liked about her 1st book, so, if you’re not bothered by the same things I’m bothered by, you might really enjoy this author! I wish I did, too, because I genuinely love the wholesomeness of her romances. Alas…
Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
royalty belongs to the gays 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️ exactlyyyyyyy
In this book we’re following Rose (the princess of a small country) and Danni (an immigrant who got accepted into the prestigious boarding school Rose attends). There, Rose and Danni strike a friendship and (shocker) fall for each other.
I’ll start by saying I really enjoyed the characters! Sophie Gonzales is great at creating characters, so I’m not surprised I really enjoyed both MCs’ POVs.
Danni was a fish out of water, being in a new country, a new school, and a completely different type of environment (she’d never attended a boarding school + being surrounded by millionaire VIPs is a lot lol). She accommodated pretty quickly, though. Additionally, Danni was also dealing with her stage fright, and, later in the storywhen she gets outed she falls back on the whole ~people are mocking and being fake-nice to me~ mentality, since she’d been bullied at her previous school. Through it all, Danni managed to be pretty mature for her age, which I enjoyed.
Rose is very self-assured, witty and sarcastic, and I really liked following her. She’s still dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, though, particularly the fact that she’s expected to stay in the closet forever, marry a man and birth children, which she (a lesbian) obviously doesn’t want. However, the most compelling conflict in Rose’s life, in my opinion, has to do with her relationship with her ex-friend Molly. We can see early on that Rose is very clearly suppressing her feelings so she doesn’t have to deal with the grief and trauma she went through, which dampens her friendship with Molly.
I reeeeally liked slowly uncovering what went on between them that made Molly start disliking Rose, and I thought the whole thing was SO WELL DONE!!! 👏🏻Molly being hurt because Rose acted like she didn’t care at all about what happened and just brushed it off whenever Molly even tried to bring it up, so Molly couldn’t even count on her best friend for comfort made so much sense. And Rose, on the other hand, brushing it all off because she was shutting down and suppressing her feelings, not necessarily because she didn’t *care*, which was also so understandable. And I really liked that they talked through everything that happened and explained their feelings. I just really liked this conflict and its resolution. Probably my favourite aspect of this whole book!
And I overall REALLY liked Molly! She was so interesting and mature, and I absolutely LOVE that she was an integral part of the story, and was important for both Danni and Rose. One of the best uses of side characters I’ve seen! I enjoyed the other SCs as well! Eleanor was a nice supporting character, and I appreciate that she was friends with both MCs; Alfie was also an interesting character, and I liked that he had thought-out justifications for his actions (even if they were flawed). I do wish we’d seen more of Danni’s mum and her bestie from her country, though.
Overall, the characters were really well-written. They were well-rounded and three-dimensional, and I liked their inter- and intra-personal arcs.
Now for the ✨ romance ✨. Rose is a very sarcastic character and she starts lowkey messing with Danni from the get go. I was afraid this would feel very one-sided, but, fortunately, Danni is also quite witty, and teases Rose right back. I’m really glad they were on the same level when it came to this type of banter! It made them feel very much like equals, which is exactly what I want when we have sarcastic characters like Rose. When I started reeeeally liking their back-and-forths was when they became friends, though! Their text messages were so fun!! Loved their banter! 🤭🤭🤭
I will say that I wish their romance had been a bit more of a slow-burn, though. I just didn’t fully *feel* their romance, tbh. I still liked them, but I wanted to LOVE them, and I didn’t. ☹️☹️☹️ I really liked the crush confession, but I didn’t care about their 1st kiss. I enjoyed their moments together, but I thought their “I love you”s came too soon. The realest moment of the book for me was when Molly said “Your life is bigger than Danni, and hers is bigger than you.”, because, YEAH, it just kinda felt like they were all in for each other (they literally thought about how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together lol), but since *I* didn’t feel it, it just felt a bit to sudden (even though months had passed). Idk. I just felt a little detached from their romance, for some reason. 😞
I am glad, though, that Danni and Rose actually communicated with each other! I’m sick and tired of miscommunication that gets dragged out just for the sake of conflict, and this book didn’t have that!When Danni broke up with Rose halfway through she explained herself really well (and in a way that I fully agreed with, btw!! Danni was extremely mature!). Rose started trying to make Danni jealous by holding Alfie’s hand and stuff, which felt a little vindictive, but I guess it made sense for her character, in that moment.
I thought Danni’s justification for getting back together with Rose was quite absurd, though. 🙄 She was so smart about the breakup and had *very valid* reasons for it, so seeing her later say that breaking up months or years in the future can’t hurt more than breaking up after dating for only like, 2 weeks, was just…… 🫤🫤🫤 Girl. Let’s be serious. 2 weeks vs maybe YEARS? One will hurt MUCH MORE than the other. Be so for real right now. 🙄
Another thing I didn’t love was Harriet’s inclusion in the story. When Harriet’s drunk she misreads the signs and thinks Danni wants to kiss her, so she kisses Danni. Now, I’m not saying that was right – I’m the #1 defender of asking for consent for even the smaller acts! However, it kind of felt like people were being too hard on Harriet??? I totally understand Danni not wanting to be friends with Harriet anymore! Rose, though… She was soooo quick to threaten Harriet, meanwhile Alfie did pretty much the same thing (not while drunk) and she didn’t even think about it? Maybe it’s because that happened to her, and not to her gf, though. I’m not trying to defend Harriet. It’s just that the double standard left me a little 😵💫 up until Rose finally called Alfie out for doing the same thing she hated Harriet for (except Alfie hadn’t been wasted).
I’m happy that the 3rd act conflict wasn’t a stupid breakup due to miscommunication. Instead, it was Danni getting outed and expelled for drinking + Rose deciding she didn’t want to stay in the closet forever and would rather give up her future as queen. These conflicts made sense for their characters and I like how they were resolved.
Regarding the writing: it flowed well and was easy to read. There were some instances of telling instead of showing, but, overall, I thought the book was good, in terms of writing. There were a couple of typos and a continuity mistake (Danni’s bff goes from Hayley to Rachel lol), but I’m sure those will be corrected in the final version. Also, I think it’d be better if the epilogue was “X years later” instead of “2026”, because this reeeally dates the book.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable book! Sophie Gonzales is incapable of writing a bad book, methinks. 🙂↕️ Also, THANK YOU for that mention of Zach from “If This Gets Out”. 🤭
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!
In this book we’re following Rose (the princess of a small country) and Danni (an immigrant who got accepted into the prestigious boarding school Rose attends). There, Rose and Danni strike a friendship and (shocker) fall for each other.
I’ll start by saying I really enjoyed the characters! Sophie Gonzales is great at creating characters, so I’m not surprised I really enjoyed both MCs’ POVs.
Danni was a fish out of water, being in a new country, a new school, and a completely different type of environment (she’d never attended a boarding school + being surrounded by millionaire VIPs is a lot lol). She accommodated pretty quickly, though. Additionally, Danni was also dealing with her stage fright, and, later in the story
Rose is very self-assured, witty and sarcastic, and I really liked following her. She’s still dealing with some pretty heavy stuff, though, particularly the fact that she’s expected to stay in the closet forever, marry a man and birth children, which she (a lesbian) obviously doesn’t want. However, the most compelling conflict in Rose’s life, in my opinion, has to do with her relationship with her ex-friend Molly. We can see early on that Rose is very clearly suppressing her feelings so she doesn’t have to deal with the grief and trauma she went through, which dampens her friendship with Molly.
I reeeeally liked slowly uncovering what went on between them that made Molly start disliking Rose, and I thought the whole thing was SO WELL DONE!!! 👏🏻
And I overall REALLY liked Molly! She was so interesting and mature, and I absolutely LOVE that she was an integral part of the story, and was important for both Danni and Rose. One of the best uses of side characters I’ve seen! I enjoyed the other SCs as well! Eleanor was a nice supporting character, and I appreciate that she was friends with both MCs; Alfie was also an interesting character, and I liked that he had thought-out justifications for his actions (even if they were flawed). I do wish we’d seen more of Danni’s mum and her bestie from her country, though.
Overall, the characters were really well-written. They were well-rounded and three-dimensional, and I liked their inter- and intra-personal arcs.
Now for the ✨ romance ✨. Rose is a very sarcastic character and she starts lowkey messing with Danni from the get go. I was afraid this would feel very one-sided, but, fortunately, Danni is also quite witty, and teases Rose right back. I’m really glad they were on the same level when it came to this type of banter! It made them feel very much like equals, which is exactly what I want when we have sarcastic characters like Rose. When I started reeeeally liking their back-and-forths was when they became friends, though! Their text messages were so fun!! Loved their banter! 🤭🤭🤭
I will say that I wish their romance had been a bit more of a slow-burn, though. I just didn’t fully *feel* their romance, tbh. I still liked them, but I wanted to LOVE them, and I didn’t. ☹️☹️☹️ I really liked the crush confession, but I didn’t care about their 1st kiss. I enjoyed their moments together, but I thought their “I love you”s came too soon. The realest moment of the book for me was when Molly said “Your life is bigger than Danni, and hers is bigger than you.”, because, YEAH, it just kinda felt like they were all in for each other (they literally thought about how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together lol), but since *I* didn’t feel it, it just felt a bit to sudden (even though months had passed). Idk. I just felt a little detached from their romance, for some reason. 😞
I am glad, though, that Danni and Rose actually communicated with each other! I’m sick and tired of miscommunication that gets dragged out just for the sake of conflict, and this book didn’t have that!
I thought Danni’s justification for getting back together with Rose was quite absurd, though. 🙄 She was so smart about the breakup and had *very valid* reasons for it, so seeing her later say that breaking up months or years in the future can’t hurt more than breaking up after dating for only like, 2 weeks, was just…… 🫤🫤🫤 Girl. Let’s be serious. 2 weeks vs maybe YEARS? One will hurt MUCH MORE than the other. Be so for real right now. 🙄
Another thing I didn’t love was Harriet’s inclusion in the story. When Harriet’s drunk she misreads the signs and thinks Danni wants to kiss her, so she kisses Danni. Now, I’m not saying that was right – I’m the #1 defender of asking for consent for even the smaller acts! However, it kind of felt like people were being too hard on Harriet??? I totally understand Danni not wanting to be friends with Harriet anymore! Rose, though… She was soooo quick to threaten Harriet, meanwhile Alfie did pretty much the same thing (not while drunk) and she didn’t even think about it? Maybe it’s because that happened to her, and not to her gf, though. I’m not trying to defend Harriet. It’s just that the double standard left me a little 😵💫 up until Rose finally called Alfie out for doing the same thing she hated Harriet for (except Alfie hadn’t been wasted).
I’m happy that the 3rd act conflict wasn’t a stupid breakup due to miscommunication. Instead, it was Danni getting outed and expelled for drinking + Rose deciding she didn’t want to stay in the closet forever and would rather give up her future as queen. These conflicts made sense for their characters and I like how they were resolved.
Regarding the writing: it flowed well and was easy to read. There were some instances of telling instead of showing, but, overall, I thought the book was good, in terms of writing. There were a couple of typos and a continuity mistake (Danni’s bff goes from Hayley to Rachel lol), but I’m sure those will be corrected in the final version. Also, I think it’d be better if the epilogue was “X years later” instead of “2026”, because this reeeally dates the book.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable book! Sophie Gonzales is incapable of writing a bad book, methinks. 🙂↕️ Also, THANK YOU for that mention of Zach from “If This Gets Out”. 🤭
Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Outing
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia
Minor: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't A Guy At All, Vol. 3 by Sumiko Arai
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
just as ~meh~ as the previous books: disjointed, confusing and not really making me feel much about the MCs’ relationship, but with a great art style, so there’s that.