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opalmars's reviews
310 reviews
Hearing Red by Nicole Maser
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
The atrocious AI cover is jail-worthy. The story is… fine. This was definitely… a book… that I read. 🫥
I really enjoy apocalyptic stories, and I ESPECIALLY love ROMANCES in apocalyptic stories, so I thought I’d absolutely adore this book! I was hooked, at first, but around halfway through I started losing interest, and by the 70% mark I was so bored that I wanted to DNF. I pushed through, though. I definitely don’t think this is a bad book! It’s just that I personally never managed to connect with the characters or care about their romance. 😢
Maddie and Saff were good characters on their own, and I liked their connection, but I just never felt their *love*. They started catching feelings and having sweet moments and I just… didn’t care. The most jarring moment for me was when it became apparent that Maddie cared more about Saff (who she’d known for like 3 weeks) than her OWN FAMILY (who she got separated from, which is a HUGE deal because they’re literally in the apocalypse + Maddie is blind and would be all alone if Saff hadn’t decided to take her in!). It’s literally a MIRACLE that Maddie even managed to find her family again, and yet she’s willing to separate from them AGAIN just to be with Saff?! Girl be for real. 🥴
When Maddie admitted that she basically started liking Saff after they’d known each other for like 3 days I was like…… yeah. 🙄🥱 Okay. Why not. 🫤 The 3rd act breakup was unnecessary and silly, but I cared so little about their romance (or the story in general) that I didn’t even mind. I just wanted to get this over with lmao. Overall, the romance gave me nothing.
The writing was fine. There were some typos, but this is self-published, so I’ll let those slide (though the 2 instances where the author used “there’s” instead of “theirs” lowkey made me want to throw my phone). However, unironically using any variation of the godforsaken “She released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding” (let alone TWO!) is actually jail-worthy. The term “soaking wet folds” was also something I wish I could unread.
I really enjoy apocalyptic stories, and I ESPECIALLY love ROMANCES in apocalyptic stories, so I thought I’d absolutely adore this book! I was hooked, at first, but around halfway through I started losing interest, and by the 70% mark I was so bored that I wanted to DNF. I pushed through, though. I definitely don’t think this is a bad book! It’s just that I personally never managed to connect with the characters or care about their romance. 😢
Maddie and Saff were good characters on their own, and I liked their connection, but I just never felt their *love*. They started catching feelings and having sweet moments and I just… didn’t care. The most jarring moment for me was when it became apparent that Maddie cared more about Saff (who she’d known for like 3 weeks) than her OWN FAMILY (who she got separated from, which is a HUGE deal because they’re literally in the apocalypse + Maddie is blind and would be all alone if Saff hadn’t decided to take her in!). It’s literally a MIRACLE that Maddie even managed to find her family again, and yet she’s willing to separate from them AGAIN just to be with Saff?! Girl be for real. 🥴
When Maddie admitted that she basically started liking Saff after they’d known each other for like 3 days I was like…… yeah. 🙄🥱 Okay. Why not. 🫤 The 3rd act breakup was unnecessary and silly, but I cared so little about their romance (or the story in general) that I didn’t even mind. I just wanted to get this over with lmao. Overall, the romance gave me nothing.
The writing was fine. There were some typos, but this is self-published, so I’ll let those slide (though the 2 instances where the author used “there’s” instead of “theirs” lowkey made me want to throw my phone). However, unironically using any variation of the godforsaken “She released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding” (let alone TWO!) is actually jail-worthy. The term “soaking wet folds” was also something I wish I could unread.
Here Goes Nothing by Emma K. Ohland
I also really liked Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly relationship and how it developed throughout the book. It felt very realistic and while they both messed up, I understood where they both came from, with their flawed choices.
Beatrice and Bennie’s romance was really sweet! 🥹 I do wish it could’ve been developed a bit more – I would’ve liked to see more moments between them to fully establish their feelings for each other. But, other than that, I really liked them. Bennie was soooo cute! I love how she gave Beatrice the friendship bracelet she’d wanted to give her 8 years prior, and how she invited Beatrice over to build a Billy bookshelf because Bea’s favourite moment the whole year was their little Ikea date, and how she promposed while they were building the shelf because she knew Beatrice wouldn’t like a public promposal. 🥺🤧😭 And Bennie was sooo understanding and supportive of Beatrice when it came to her asexuality + her struggle with the future. They were just so cute, and I wish we could’ve seen more of them!
I do wish the book had been a bit longer (to better establish Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly bond at the very start of the book, to develop Bennie and Beatrice’s crushes a bit better, and to expand upon other things – like Beatrice’s relationship with her father). Bea’s story isn’t all wrapped up neatly – she still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her future, her father is still a bum, and Bennie is still going away to college next year. However, sometimes that’s just how life is, so I guess this story had a great ending, given that Beatrice was so lost in life. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I’d definitely recommend it!!! 🥰🥰🥰
fast-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 ate this one upppppp!!!! I don’t know anything about the original Shakespeare play, so I can only speak of this as a story on its own. It was really intriguing and fast paced, and made me want to stay up all night to finish it!
The story starts off with our MC Beatrice being pulled into a new friend group because her sister (and only friend) is now hanging out with her new boyfriend and his besties. Beatrice isn’t happy with this arrangement because 1) she feels like a 5th wheel, and 2) a girl she doesn’t really like (Bennie) is part of that group.
She starts hanging out with these people more often and one day overhears them talking about the fact that Bennie has a crush on Beatrice. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this at first, because I personally prefer to see crushes develop instead of getting a pre-established crush. HOWEVER!!!!!!! The way this played out was soooo interesting! It was just really compelling to see Beatrice freaking out about this revelation and not knowing what to do in front of Bennie, and also starting to think about her own sexuality because of the prospect of being with a girl.
AND THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There’s a SICKKKK revelation that truly shocked me!The fact that the group was just setting Beatrice and Bennie up by making them believe the other had a crush on them was SOOOOO SICK AND TWISTED!!!!!!!! 😱 I was SHOCKED!! And I felt soooo bad for Beatrice! She was finally understanding herself and her sexuality better, so finding out it was all based on a deception and her own sister was manipulating her HURT!
The rest of the story develops really naturally after this reveal, and I enjoyed where things went – with Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly bond, with Beatrice’s self-discovery journey, and with Beatrice and Bennie’s romance.
Now for the characters: Beatrice was a really relatable MC, to me. She was just so lost in life and didn’t know what she wanted to do in the future; she had no friends and always felt like a 5th wheel; and she was asexual!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m SO EXCITED to see more asexual representation, ESPECIALLY when there’s still romance in the story!!! 🥹🥹🥹 I think Beatrice’s struggle with her sexuality was really well portrayed! Some of my favourite lines that made me feel very #seen:
The story starts off with our MC Beatrice being pulled into a new friend group because her sister (and only friend) is now hanging out with her new boyfriend and his besties. Beatrice isn’t happy with this arrangement because 1) she feels like a 5th wheel, and 2) a girl she doesn’t really like (Bennie) is part of that group.
She starts hanging out with these people more often and one day overhears them talking about the fact that Bennie has a crush on Beatrice. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this at first, because I personally prefer to see crushes develop instead of getting a pre-established crush. HOWEVER!!!!!!! The way this played out was soooo interesting! It was just really compelling to see Beatrice freaking out about this revelation and not knowing what to do in front of Bennie, and also starting to think about her own sexuality because of the prospect of being with a girl.
AND THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There’s a SICKKKK revelation that truly shocked me!
The rest of the story develops really naturally after this reveal, and I enjoyed where things went – with Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly bond, with Beatrice’s self-discovery journey, and with Beatrice and Bennie’s romance.
Now for the characters: Beatrice was a really relatable MC, to me. She was just so lost in life and didn’t know what she wanted to do in the future; she had no friends and always felt like a 5th wheel; and she was asexual!!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m SO EXCITED to see more asexual representation, ESPECIALLY when there’s still romance in the story!!! 🥹🥹🥹 I think Beatrice’s struggle with her sexuality was really well portrayed! Some of my favourite lines that made me feel very #seen:
➤ “I couldn’t tell if my heart was trying to tell me that I liked Bennie. Or just that there was an excitement in being liked.”
➤ “I didn’t have a celebrity to claim as my queer awakening. I wasn’t even sure I was fully awake yet.”
➤ “Everyone around me was either already having sex or constantly talking about it, and I felt like that was ludicrous behavior. Like the whole universe was hypersexual and I was normal. I mean, I liked romance in movies and books, but I always saw it as separate from my reality—something that happened in those spaces, but not to me.”
I also really liked Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly relationship and how it developed throughout the book. It felt very realistic and while they both messed up, I understood where they both came from, with their flawed choices.
Beatrice and Bennie’s romance was really sweet! 🥹 I do wish it could’ve been developed a bit more – I would’ve liked to see more moments between them to fully establish their feelings for each other. But, other than that, I really liked them. Bennie was soooo cute! I love how she gave Beatrice the friendship bracelet she’d wanted to give her 8 years prior, and how she invited Beatrice over to build a Billy bookshelf because Bea’s favourite moment the whole year was their little Ikea date, and how she promposed while they were building the shelf because she knew Beatrice wouldn’t like a public promposal. 🥺🤧😭 And Bennie was sooo understanding and supportive of Beatrice when it came to her asexuality + her struggle with the future. They were just so cute, and I wish we could’ve seen more of them!
I do wish the book had been a bit longer (to better establish Beatrice and Hero’s sisterly bond at the very start of the book, to develop Bennie and Beatrice’s crushes a bit better, and to expand upon other things – like Beatrice’s relationship with her father). Bea’s story isn’t all wrapped up neatly
Midnights With You by Clare Osongco
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
DNF @ 9% because of the insta-love and the pathetic MC.
The book begins and the MC takes a photo of a stranger she spoke to for 20 seconds. Bizarre, right off the bat.
She randomly finds this guy the following day and does the following: “I (…) tug my shorts down slightly so it’s more obvious I’m wearing a crop top”…… That has to be the most ridiculously pathetic thing I’ve ever seen someone do. 😭 All this so a STRANGER will…… what?? Notice your bellybutton?? Bitch STAND UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭
The dude (who at this point she spoke to for a total of 1 minute in her entire lifetime) is making her feel “pins-and-needles” in her chest, and when their fingers accidentally brush it “sends a little jolt” down her spine………… 🤡🤡🤡 Yup. It’s insta-love………………
When she gets home, she can’t stop thinking about this random boy: “Jay’s laugh rings in my ears. I’m trying not to think about his eyes in the golden afternoon light. Or his hands, the way they do that nervous flexing thing. Or his mouth when it curled into a smirk.”. Mind you, she doesn’t even know him, at this point…
I looked through the ebook and they kiss at around 40%, and she says she’s “wanted this for so long”, which, yeah, I could tell, because she’s literally catching feelings from the moment they first talk…… 🙃
Aff… Anyways. I was really excited to read this book, but I am sooooooooooo sick and tired of insta-love!!!!!!! So I just refuse to set myself up for another mediocre read. I’m not gonna waste more time on a book that most definitely wont go above 3 stars. If you don’t mind looking past the insta-love, maybe you’ll enjoy this. I, however, am already annoyed, and I only read like 30 pages, so goodbye forever.
The book begins and the MC takes a photo of a stranger she spoke to for 20 seconds. Bizarre, right off the bat.
She randomly finds this guy the following day and does the following: “I (…) tug my shorts down slightly so it’s more obvious I’m wearing a crop top”…… That has to be the most ridiculously pathetic thing I’ve ever seen someone do. 😭 All this so a STRANGER will…… what?? Notice your bellybutton?? Bitch STAND UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭
The dude (who at this point she spoke to for a total of 1 minute in her entire lifetime) is making her feel “pins-and-needles” in her chest, and when their fingers accidentally brush it “sends a little jolt” down her spine………… 🤡🤡🤡 Yup. It’s insta-love………………
When she gets home, she can’t stop thinking about this random boy: “Jay’s laugh rings in my ears. I’m trying not to think about his eyes in the golden afternoon light. Or his hands, the way they do that nervous flexing thing. Or his mouth when it curled into a smirk.”. Mind you, she doesn’t even know him, at this point…
I looked through the ebook and they kiss at around 40%, and she says she’s “wanted this for so long”, which, yeah, I could tell, because she’s literally catching feelings from the moment they first talk…… 🙃
Aff… Anyways. I was really excited to read this book, but I am sooooooooooo sick and tired of insta-love!!!!!!! So I just refuse to set myself up for another mediocre read. I’m not gonna waste more time on a book that most definitely wont go above 3 stars. If you don’t mind looking past the insta-love, maybe you’ll enjoy this. I, however, am already annoyed, and I only read like 30 pages, so goodbye forever.
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
yet another sapphic book I did not care about… will I ever find a wlw book I love? I’m starting to lose hope…
I was suuuuper excited to read “The Jasmine Throne”. I literally waited for the 3rd book to come out so I could binge the entire series. I was CERTAIN I’d like it! Well……… I didn’t even like it enough to read book 2, let alone the whole trilogy. 🫠
The plot was… something. I couldn’t really tell you much about the story, because honestly it mostly felt like we were just doing whatever. It didn’t feel like there was an overarching goal or main plot thread to follow, which made the story a little difficult to get into. Like, if I don’t know what the characters are trying to achieve, why would I care? This book felt like a reeeeally long introduction to what could be a great story. But, I’m sorry. A 530+ page long introduction is just… Boring. To me, this book read more like a setup for book 2 instead of a story in itself.
At every turn it seemed like the story was about to get interesting, that something BIG was finally gonna happen. But nope. The characters just kept doing little side quests here and there. I still didn’t know what the plot of the book was supposed to be because there was no main plot to follow, and even now, having finished the book, I couldn’t summarize the story for you, because, like,,,,,,, what story????? The only reason I got through this book so quickly is because I listened to the audiobook (which was really good!). But even then, I have to say that the last 20% I listened at 2,5x speed and lowkey dozed off… 🫣 Irrelevant side characters were dying, the stakes were (supposedly) high, things were finally happening… but I just felt zero urgency. I was BORED and at that point I didn’t care about what happened.
The characters were cool and I did enjoy them individually, but I would’ve liked to follow them doing something interesting instead of just meandering with no overarching goal. 🫤 I also didn’t care at all about the relationships. Priya’s relationship with that little boy Rukh was just boring to me. And I sure as hell didn’t care about her bff Sima, who was barely in the book. The romance was also really lackluster, in my opinion. They just started crushing on each other for no reason and I never felt any of the tension or the butterflies. Fucking whatever. 🙄🙄🙄
I did enjoy the world and the magic system. It’s a shame this book was just a boring introduction to a grand story, instead of being an actual story itself, because I’d love to read more about this world.
The writing was mostly alright, though I did have a couple of issues. Firstly, it sometimes was hard to understand when we were in a flashback. I don’t think the author always did a good job differentiating the timelines. Secondly, it was sometimes hard to visualize some of the characters. Like, Prem, Santosh, Rao, Ashok, Vikram and Aditya were just names on the page, to me. Either their appearances weren’t described that well, or they were only mentioned once in passing and I somehow managed to skip or forget about all of their descriptions. Whatever. It’s not like I really cared, tbh.
I was suuuuper excited to read “The Jasmine Throne”. I literally waited for the 3rd book to come out so I could binge the entire series. I was CERTAIN I’d like it! Well……… I didn’t even like it enough to read book 2, let alone the whole trilogy. 🫠
The plot was… something. I couldn’t really tell you much about the story, because honestly it mostly felt like we were just doing whatever. It didn’t feel like there was an overarching goal or main plot thread to follow, which made the story a little difficult to get into. Like, if I don’t know what the characters are trying to achieve, why would I care? This book felt like a reeeeally long introduction to what could be a great story. But, I’m sorry. A 530+ page long introduction is just… Boring. To me, this book read more like a setup for book 2 instead of a story in itself.
At every turn it seemed like the story was about to get interesting, that something BIG was finally gonna happen. But nope. The characters just kept doing little side quests here and there. I still didn’t know what the plot of the book was supposed to be because there was no main plot to follow, and even now, having finished the book, I couldn’t summarize the story for you, because, like,,,,,,, what story????? The only reason I got through this book so quickly is because I listened to the audiobook (which was really good!). But even then, I have to say that the last 20% I listened at 2,5x speed and lowkey dozed off… 🫣 Irrelevant side characters were dying, the stakes were (supposedly) high, things were finally happening… but I just felt zero urgency. I was BORED and at that point I didn’t care about what happened.
The characters were cool and I did enjoy them individually, but I would’ve liked to follow them doing something interesting instead of just meandering with no overarching goal. 🫤 I also didn’t care at all about the relationships. Priya’s relationship with that little boy Rukh was just boring to me. And I sure as hell didn’t care about her bff Sima, who was barely in the book. The romance was also really lackluster, in my opinion. They just started crushing on each other for no reason and I never felt any of the tension or the butterflies. Fucking whatever. 🙄🙄🙄
I did enjoy the world and the magic system. It’s a shame this book was just a boring introduction to a grand story, instead of being an actual story itself, because I’d love to read more about this world.
The writing was mostly alright, though I did have a couple of issues. Firstly, it sometimes was hard to understand when we were in a flashback. I don’t think the author always did a good job differentiating the timelines. Secondly, it was sometimes hard to visualize some of the characters. Like, Prem, Santosh, Rao, Ashok, Vikram and Aditya were just names on the page, to me. Either their appearances weren’t described that well, or they were only mentioned once in passing and I somehow managed to skip or forget about all of their descriptions. Whatever. It’s not like I really cared, tbh.
Fortunate Misfortune by Miah Onsha
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I’M FINALLY FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 😭🙏😭🙏😭🙏😭🙏😭🙏😭🙏. Listen!!! This book wasn’t terrible or offensive or anything. I don’t even think it was *bad*. BUUUUUT for some reason it took me *3 WEEKS* to get through!!! That is CRIMINAL!!! I can’t even fully point out why this happened; all I can say is that I was never fully invested in this book, and it never managed to make me care about the characters or story that much 🤕.
This is a “rivals to lovers” story, but Kenneth and Mallory’s reasons to become rivals were just plain dumb. Basically, he instantly found her cute and wanted to make her laugh, and proceeded to compare her colourful outfit to rainbow vomit, which she obviously didn’t appreciate. They then started doing little competitions and keeping score of who won what game. It was honestly not that engaging. Also, their “rivalry” never felt intense enough for random waitresses and bartenders to know them as enemies, but whatever.
I think the biggest reason the romance didn’t work for me was the fact that we never really saw much development. This is described as a slow burn, and, yeah, they only get together at like 60%, but Kenneth literally admits he liked Mallory from the moment they met, and throughout the whole book he’s obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED with her! And, listen: I enjoy a pathetically-in-love man as much as everyone else, but like… He was *insanely* down bad, but we never saw a concrete reason as to WHY his feelings were so intense. This was insta-love on his side, but it was *off-page insta-love*, because he already liked her before the book even began, and it seems like he only fell for her because she had a contagious laugh and he became fucking hellbent on being the reason she was happy. 😐
They are forced to work together on a group project and start spending more time together, and (supposedly) become friends. In my opinion, they got too close, too quickly. Like, Kenneth gives her a super intense speech thanking her for hanging out at a lake with him, they intertwine their fingers, she gets super happy when he smiles at her, they start hugging (he literally says at some point “I wanted nothing more than to hug you”), he pulls her into his lap and she cuddles him, they sleep next to each other… Just like, suuuper intense for people who were supposedly rivals for YEARS and have only been friends for like, 1 week or something. I just never really believed their friendship – it often felt too forced. 😐😐😐
Another thing: a LOT of lines in this book feel like they were written specifically for the tiktok girlies to swoon over. There’s just such an abundance of them, and his feelings seem too intense for the relationship we’ve seen. This makes me believe that the reason he’s so weirdly head-over-heels was specifically BECAUSE the author wanted those swoon-worthy lines, but unfortunately she never managed to make them make sense. 😕 Like, she was excited to get those tab-worthy quotes without doing the work to make them feel warranted, given Kenneth and Mallory’s relationship.
So. Yeah. They accept that they like each other at 50%, and then kind of drop their friends because they’re now mega close with each other somehow. They admit their feelings at 60%, and the rest of the book is just them being together. Not bad, but not really a slow-burn either (especially given the fact that Kenneth was obsessed with Mallory for years before the book starts). Deceptive marketing, in my opinion.
I did enjoy their relationship, though. I mean, their crush, friendship and romance never felt fully developed to me, because I couldn’t understand their reasons to feel so deeply for each other, but I did appreciate how much they cared about one another. They were sweet, they apologized for their wrongdoings, they communicated, they cared about each other… Overall a very sweet and healthy relationship!
The sex scenes were a bit much for me (especially with lines like “I unwrap her body like the gift it is” and “her perfect pussy” lol. The criiiinge 🥴), but that might just be because I’m too asexual for this 😵💫😵💫😵💫. Them having unprotected sex stressed me out, even though she was on birth control 😭. I do appreciate that he was a virgin and she was the more knowledgeable one when it came to sex; at least it’s different from what we usually see in these straight adult romances. This virgin ass dude being able to make her cum from penetration was funny, though lmaooo.
I enjoyed the MCs, individually. Kenneth has the very typical “It’s not MY dream, dad! It’s YOURS!” plotline, which I didn’t care about, but whatever. While I didn’t love or understand his intense obsession with Mallory, I did appreciate that at least he was kind and caring, instead of being one of those cocky and mean LIs. Mallory was also a cool character. I especially liked to learn about diabetes through her. It’s the type of thing we never see much representation for.
With that said, I honestly didn’t care about the SCs at all. I appreciate the healthy friendships, but I just didn’t care about them. Also, whenever the author tried to make the “quartet” thing happen with those random football girls, it just seemed silly to me. 😅 I also didn’t care about the MCs’ relationships with their parents. Just… whatever.
The writing wasn’t always great. Some conversations didn’t flow very well. And the passage of time was REEEALLY unclear. Like, the book starts in what I’m assuming is the Summer (they’re at a pool party), and not long after it’s snowing????? I’m guessing several months passed between chapters without mention. 🤨 Afterwards, it’s Valentine’s Day, and the following chapter it’s March, with no mention of a month passing. 🤨 Later, he fingers her and then asks her to be his girlfriend. The chapter ends. New chapter begins and she’s at his door because he’s sick. 🤨 It all just felt so disjointed, at times! And not only did this make the book feel very clunky, but it also made me question the plot. Like, you’re telling me they’ve been partners for a group project for MONTHS and only met up TWICE to talk about said project? Doesn’t make much sense…
There was also too much “telling instead of showing”. Soooo many times the characters would just *mention* things that had happened and we never got to actually *see*, and like…… why did so much stuff happen off-page? 😕 If we actually got to see these little moments between the characters, perhaps it would’ve been easier to *feel* their romance.
Overall, this was just…… a book. 😐 Definitely not terrible, but not great either. For some reason, it took me 3 weeks to finish, but I never really wanted to DNF it (I did want it to be over, though, but that might be because I’d been reading it for what felt like a lifetime lol). Whatever. You might enjoy it more than I did. Idk.
This is a “rivals to lovers” story, but Kenneth and Mallory’s reasons to become rivals were just plain dumb. Basically, he instantly found her cute and wanted to make her laugh, and proceeded to compare her colourful outfit to rainbow vomit, which she obviously didn’t appreciate. They then started doing little competitions and keeping score of who won what game. It was honestly not that engaging. Also, their “rivalry” never felt intense enough for random waitresses and bartenders to know them as enemies, but whatever.
I think the biggest reason the romance didn’t work for me was the fact that we never really saw much development. This is described as a slow burn, and, yeah, they only get together at like 60%, but Kenneth literally admits he liked Mallory from the moment they met, and throughout the whole book he’s obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED with her! And, listen: I enjoy a pathetically-in-love man as much as everyone else, but like… He was *insanely* down bad, but we never saw a concrete reason as to WHY his feelings were so intense. This was insta-love on his side, but it was *off-page insta-love*, because he already liked her before the book even began, and it seems like he only fell for her because she had a contagious laugh and he became fucking hellbent on being the reason she was happy. 😐
They are forced to work together on a group project and start spending more time together, and (supposedly) become friends. In my opinion, they got too close, too quickly. Like, Kenneth gives her a super intense speech thanking her for hanging out at a lake with him, they intertwine their fingers, she gets super happy when he smiles at her, they start hugging (he literally says at some point “I wanted nothing more than to hug you”), he pulls her into his lap and she cuddles him, they sleep next to each other… Just like, suuuper intense for people who were supposedly rivals for YEARS and have only been friends for like, 1 week or something. I just never really believed their friendship – it often felt too forced. 😐😐😐
Another thing: a LOT of lines in this book feel like they were written specifically for the tiktok girlies to swoon over. There’s just such an abundance of them, and his feelings seem too intense for the relationship we’ve seen. This makes me believe that the reason he’s so weirdly head-over-heels was specifically BECAUSE the author wanted those swoon-worthy lines, but unfortunately she never managed to make them make sense. 😕 Like, she was excited to get those tab-worthy quotes without doing the work to make them feel warranted, given Kenneth and Mallory’s relationship.
So. Yeah. They accept that they like each other at 50%, and then kind of drop their friends because they’re now mega close with each other somehow. They admit their feelings at 60%, and the rest of the book is just them being together. Not bad, but not really a slow-burn either (especially given the fact that Kenneth was obsessed with Mallory for years before the book starts). Deceptive marketing, in my opinion.
I did enjoy their relationship, though. I mean, their crush, friendship and romance never felt fully developed to me, because I couldn’t understand their reasons to feel so deeply for each other, but I did appreciate how much they cared about one another. They were sweet, they apologized for their wrongdoings, they communicated, they cared about each other… Overall a very sweet and healthy relationship!
The sex scenes were a bit much for me (especially with lines like “I unwrap her body like the gift it is” and “her perfect pussy” lol. The criiiinge 🥴), but that might just be because I’m too asexual for this 😵💫😵💫😵💫. Them having unprotected sex stressed me out, even though she was on birth control 😭. I do appreciate that he was a virgin and she was the more knowledgeable one when it came to sex; at least it’s different from what we usually see in these straight adult romances. This virgin ass dude being able to make her cum from penetration was funny, though lmaooo.
I enjoyed the MCs, individually. Kenneth has the very typical “It’s not MY dream, dad! It’s YOURS!” plotline, which I didn’t care about, but whatever. While I didn’t love or understand his intense obsession with Mallory, I did appreciate that at least he was kind and caring, instead of being one of those cocky and mean LIs. Mallory was also a cool character. I especially liked to learn about diabetes through her. It’s the type of thing we never see much representation for.
With that said, I honestly didn’t care about the SCs at all. I appreciate the healthy friendships, but I just didn’t care about them. Also, whenever the author tried to make the “quartet” thing happen with those random football girls, it just seemed silly to me. 😅 I also didn’t care about the MCs’ relationships with their parents. Just… whatever.
The writing wasn’t always great. Some conversations didn’t flow very well. And the passage of time was REEEALLY unclear. Like, the book starts in what I’m assuming is the Summer (they’re at a pool party), and not long after it’s snowing????? I’m guessing several months passed between chapters without mention. 🤨 Afterwards, it’s Valentine’s Day, and the following chapter it’s March, with no mention of a month passing. 🤨 Later, he fingers her and then asks her to be his girlfriend. The chapter ends. New chapter begins and she’s at his door because he’s sick. 🤨 It all just felt so disjointed, at times! And not only did this make the book feel very clunky, but it also made me question the plot. Like, you’re telling me they’ve been partners for a group project for MONTHS and only met up TWICE to talk about said project? Doesn’t make much sense…
There was also too much “telling instead of showing”. Soooo many times the characters would just *mention* things that had happened and we never got to actually *see*, and like…… why did so much stuff happen off-page? 😕 If we actually got to see these little moments between the characters, perhaps it would’ve been easier to *feel* their romance.
Overall, this was just…… a book. 😐 Definitely not terrible, but not great either. For some reason, it took me 3 weeks to finish, but I never really wanted to DNF it (I did want it to be over, though, but that might be because I’d been reading it for what felt like a lifetime lol). Whatever. You might enjoy it more than I did. Idk.
The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
they found each other in every universe……
While this book isn’t as mysterious, scary, grand and gut-punching as book 1, I still really enjoyed it! I liked seeing the stories from the different timelines converging, and I loved seeing that glimpse of Earth (something that left me really curious ever since book 1).
My favourite section was for sure OG Ambrose and Kodiak’s story (although I have to say that that use of the title at the end of this section was absolutely DIABOLICAL).
Definitely a great sequel. I wish we got to see more of these characters, though! I want to see Yarrow getting better, and Owl exploring Minerva!!! 🥺
While this book isn’t as mysterious, scary, grand and gut-punching as book 1, I still really enjoyed it! I liked seeing the stories from the different timelines converging, and I loved seeing that glimpse of Earth (something that left me really curious ever since book 1).
My favourite section was for sure OG Ambrose and Kodiak’s story (although I have to say that that use of the title at the end of this section was absolutely DIABOLICAL).
Definitely a great sequel. I wish we got to see more of these characters, though! I want to see Yarrow getting better, and Owl exploring Minerva!!! 🥺
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
what a waste of 2 beautiful covers…
Well. This book was boring as shit. I literally couldn’t get into this goddamn book. It was so slow-paced and tedious that I had to give up and DNF at page 153 / 41%. 🫥
The book starts off with an insane amount of exposition. The story kept getting interrupted so we could learn about some random folk tale, which made sense since Lorelei was a folklorist. However, since the plot literally wasn’t moving, these constant interruptions to the very few bits of plot we were actually getting just felt *annoying*. Like, what do you MEEEEAN nothing’s been happening for 30 pages and once something FINALLY starts happening you decide to interrupt it to tell me about some random tale about an old peasant? I don’t care! Just get to the plot already! I’m BEGGING!!! 😫😫😫
Instead of feeling like an interesting way to expand on this world, these folk tales felt like bloating, and became really annoying because there’d be MULTIPLE unnecessary folk tales and just a teeny tiny fraction of plot. It should be the other way around, babe. 🫤 Also, a better way to make the reader understand this world would’ve been a map. This book desperately needed a map.
Let’s talk about the plot (or lack thereof). This is supposed to be a murder mystery. It takes 70 pages for the murder to actually happen, and that first chunk of the book was insanely boring, but whatever. I hoped that at least once we got into the murder mystery the book would actually start to get interesting…….. Yeah…. No…. 🤡🤡🤡
Pretty much nothing, and I mean NOTHING happens in regards to the murder mystery. There is no sleuthing, no investigating, there’s barely even any FEAR from the MC, which is ridiculous, given the fact that THERE’S A MURDERER AMONG YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! Slight spoilers, but on page 107 someone tries to kill Lorelei, and she STILL doesn’t care about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤡💀🤡💀🤡💀 I thought this would make her finally start doing SOMETHING in regards to the murder, but nope! On page 117 she finds a button in her room (possibly the killer’s?!); all she does is ask 1 person if it’s theirs, they say it isn’t, and she never thinks about it again. 🤦🏻♀️
I read 150+ pages of this goddamn book, and Lorelei NEVER cared about the fact that there is a murderer in her group (that already killed someone, and that literally tried to kill HER). She isn’t scared, she doesn’t investigate, she doesn’t spy on anyone, there’s no sleuthing, no urgency, no stakes. There is NOTHING. Pretty much nothing happens for 150+ pages. It’s insane! And how do you expect me to care about this murder mystery when the next victim herself doesn’t seem to give a shit? 🤡 Absolutely dreadful.
This author has managed to write 2 terrible “murder mysteries” (this one and “Down Comes the Night”), and at this point I am BEGGING her to never attempt it ever again.
Now let’s talk about the relationships. I found the relationships really weird. Ziegler was supposed to be Lorelei’s mentor. She’s known Lorelei for a really long time and literally changed her life, giving Lorelei an opportunity to get a much better life. However, when Ziegler is murdered, Lorelei barely even cares…??? Not only does she not care at all about finding the killer, she also doesn’t seem affected by finding her mentor’s body. She’s barely even sad, and she rarely thinks about this great loss she just suffered.
At some point she says “I am still in mourning”, and I thought *FINALLY*! Lorelei is FINALLY gonna show some emotion about Ziegler’s death! But nope! She continues her sentence, and she actually means “I am still in mourning about our equipment.” (because they’d lost their equipment earlier)…………………………….. I’m sorry, but what the fuck? It’s been like, 1 day since you found this person who supposedly means so much to you MURDERED, and yet you don’t even THINK about her??? What is this?? I genuinely don’t understand it! Is it supposed to show that Lorelei is a sociopath? That she literally doesn’t care about the death of her close ones? I’m genuinely asking…
Lorelei and Sylvia’s relationship was also quite strange. From the very beginning Lorelei is clearly attracted to Sylvia (mentioning “an emotion she preferred not to name” when she looked at her, feeling flustered when they talk, wanting to touch her hair, looking at Sylvia’s lips, etc.). I personally would rather see this attraction develop, rather than have a previously established crush already, but whatever.
What I really didn’t get about Lorelei and Sylvia’s relationship was their hatred for each other. It just didn’t make any sense to me. 😐 Even when it was explained, it made no sense. Lorelei hates Sylvia because she’s smart and cheerful… or something???? It was genuinely so ridiculous I couldn’t even keep track. And I never understood why Sylvia hated Lorelei. Maybe it’s because Lorelei was always rude to Sylvia for no reason, though.
At some point Lorelei really angered Sylvia and refused to do what she *begged*, yet the scene ended with Lorelei saying Sylvia is the only person she can trust… Why??? I genuinely don’t get it 😭. Why was Lorelei being so mean to her only ally, then? It just felt so confusing… Their relationship was just really poorly established, and straight up nonsensical at points.
The main relationships just felt so bizarre. Ziegler was Lorelei’s mentor for YEARS and literally changed her life for the better, yet Lorelei doesn’t feel a thing when she dies. Lorelei hates Sylvia for petty reasons and thinks the worst of her, yet she has a crush on her and says Sylvia is the only person she can trust… It just made no sense. 🫥🫥🫥 The relationships felt completely contradictory. The author should’ve tried to make these relationships make some semblance of sense.
I won’t even go into the side characters because they were mostly irrelevant. In a murder mystery you usually learn about the SCs (aka the suspects) when the MC is investigating, and therefore learning more about them. However, since there’s no investigating in this book, the SCs end up being just glorified decorations for the story. They’re just there. They dislike the MC (everyone does lol, and I kinda do too – it’s incredibly frustrating to follow a MC who doesn’t do anything), and that’s about it. What we learn about the SCs is completely irrelevant, since no one’s trying to find out who the murderer is. They were pointless.
Long story short, this book was incredibly dull, slow-paced and made very little sense, especially when it came to the MC’s emotions (or lack thereof) about the murder and her main relationships. Perhaps the book gets better in the 2nd half, but I won’t torture myself any longer. Shoutout to everyone who managed to get through this slog.
Well. This book was boring as shit. I literally couldn’t get into this goddamn book. It was so slow-paced and tedious that I had to give up and DNF at page 153 / 41%. 🫥
The book starts off with an insane amount of exposition. The story kept getting interrupted so we could learn about some random folk tale, which made sense since Lorelei was a folklorist. However, since the plot literally wasn’t moving, these constant interruptions to the very few bits of plot we were actually getting just felt *annoying*. Like, what do you MEEEEAN nothing’s been happening for 30 pages and once something FINALLY starts happening you decide to interrupt it to tell me about some random tale about an old peasant? I don’t care! Just get to the plot already! I’m BEGGING!!! 😫😫😫
Instead of feeling like an interesting way to expand on this world, these folk tales felt like bloating, and became really annoying because there’d be MULTIPLE unnecessary folk tales and just a teeny tiny fraction of plot. It should be the other way around, babe. 🫤 Also, a better way to make the reader understand this world would’ve been a map. This book desperately needed a map.
Let’s talk about the plot (or lack thereof). This is supposed to be a murder mystery. It takes 70 pages for the murder to actually happen, and that first chunk of the book was insanely boring, but whatever. I hoped that at least once we got into the murder mystery the book would actually start to get interesting…….. Yeah…. No…. 🤡🤡🤡
Pretty much nothing, and I mean NOTHING happens in regards to the murder mystery. There is no sleuthing, no investigating, there’s barely even any FEAR from the MC, which is ridiculous, given the fact that THERE’S A MURDERER AMONG YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! Slight spoilers, but on page 107 someone tries to kill Lorelei, and she STILL doesn’t care about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤡💀🤡💀🤡💀 I thought this would make her finally start doing SOMETHING in regards to the murder, but nope! On page 117 she finds a button in her room (possibly the killer’s?!); all she does is ask 1 person if it’s theirs, they say it isn’t, and she never thinks about it again. 🤦🏻♀️
I read 150+ pages of this goddamn book, and Lorelei NEVER cared about the fact that there is a murderer in her group (that already killed someone, and that literally tried to kill HER). She isn’t scared, she doesn’t investigate, she doesn’t spy on anyone, there’s no sleuthing, no urgency, no stakes. There is NOTHING. Pretty much nothing happens for 150+ pages. It’s insane! And how do you expect me to care about this murder mystery when the next victim herself doesn’t seem to give a shit? 🤡 Absolutely dreadful.
This author has managed to write 2 terrible “murder mysteries” (this one and “Down Comes the Night”), and at this point I am BEGGING her to never attempt it ever again.
Now let’s talk about the relationships. I found the relationships really weird. Ziegler was supposed to be Lorelei’s mentor. She’s known Lorelei for a really long time and literally changed her life, giving Lorelei an opportunity to get a much better life. However, when Ziegler is murdered, Lorelei barely even cares…??? Not only does she not care at all about finding the killer, she also doesn’t seem affected by finding her mentor’s body. She’s barely even sad, and she rarely thinks about this great loss she just suffered.
At some point she says “I am still in mourning”, and I thought *FINALLY*! Lorelei is FINALLY gonna show some emotion about Ziegler’s death! But nope! She continues her sentence, and she actually means “I am still in mourning about our equipment.” (because they’d lost their equipment earlier)…………………………….. I’m sorry, but what the fuck? It’s been like, 1 day since you found this person who supposedly means so much to you MURDERED, and yet you don’t even THINK about her??? What is this?? I genuinely don’t understand it! Is it supposed to show that Lorelei is a sociopath? That she literally doesn’t care about the death of her close ones? I’m genuinely asking…
Lorelei and Sylvia’s relationship was also quite strange. From the very beginning Lorelei is clearly attracted to Sylvia (mentioning “an emotion she preferred not to name” when she looked at her, feeling flustered when they talk, wanting to touch her hair, looking at Sylvia’s lips, etc.). I personally would rather see this attraction develop, rather than have a previously established crush already, but whatever.
What I really didn’t get about Lorelei and Sylvia’s relationship was their hatred for each other. It just didn’t make any sense to me. 😐 Even when it was explained, it made no sense. Lorelei hates Sylvia because she’s smart and cheerful… or something???? It was genuinely so ridiculous I couldn’t even keep track. And I never understood why Sylvia hated Lorelei. Maybe it’s because Lorelei was always rude to Sylvia for no reason, though.
At some point Lorelei really angered Sylvia and refused to do what she *begged*, yet the scene ended with Lorelei saying Sylvia is the only person she can trust… Why??? I genuinely don’t get it 😭. Why was Lorelei being so mean to her only ally, then? It just felt so confusing… Their relationship was just really poorly established, and straight up nonsensical at points.
The main relationships just felt so bizarre. Ziegler was Lorelei’s mentor for YEARS and literally changed her life for the better, yet Lorelei doesn’t feel a thing when she dies. Lorelei hates Sylvia for petty reasons and thinks the worst of her, yet she has a crush on her and says Sylvia is the only person she can trust… It just made no sense. 🫥🫥🫥 The relationships felt completely contradictory. The author should’ve tried to make these relationships make some semblance of sense.
I won’t even go into the side characters because they were mostly irrelevant. In a murder mystery you usually learn about the SCs (aka the suspects) when the MC is investigating, and therefore learning more about them. However, since there’s no investigating in this book, the SCs end up being just glorified decorations for the story. They’re just there. They dislike the MC (everyone does lol, and I kinda do too – it’s incredibly frustrating to follow a MC who doesn’t do anything), and that’s about it. What we learn about the SCs is completely irrelevant, since no one’s trying to find out who the murderer is. They were pointless.
Long story short, this book was incredibly dull, slow-paced and made very little sense, especially when it came to the MC’s emotions (or lack thereof) about the murder and her main relationships. Perhaps the book gets better in the 2nd half, but I won’t torture myself any longer. Shoutout to everyone who managed to get through this slog.
Stay with My Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book has everything I love, on paper: found family, a sweet and kind love interest, a slow-burn romance…! Unfortunately, though, the execution was reeeally lacking, in my opinion. I found this book profoundly boring, and I don't think the main premise (aka, the romance) was properly built up.
The book starts off with the MC (Liana) flirting with na aspiring musician (Thomas) for weeks. She ends up showing her dad (who's a famous music producer) Thomas's demo, which her dad loves. She then finds out that not only was Thomas using her to further his career, but "his" songs were actually stolen from someone else. Liana REFUSES to tell her dad that Thomas is a phony, because her dad is neglectful, and the first time he paid attention to her in years was when she found the ~incredible musician~ that is Thomas. Liana's plan, then, is to let her dad keep believing Thomas is amazing, while also helping the people Thomas stole music from (a band called Third Eye), who she also doesn't tell the truth to (because she literally has the power to expose Thomas as a thief, but refuses to do so lol). So, yeah, her ridiculous plan is to make Third Eye more famous, in hopes that her dad likes them more than Thomas, all while not revealing that Thomas doesn't write his own music. It's suuuuch a stupid plan. 🙄
This was the main conflict of the book, and it was incredibly frustrating. First of all, it's very predictable; you can quickly tell Thomas is using Liana to reach her dad, and when his plan is revealed, it becomes obvious that the 3rd act conflict is going to be Third Eye finding out that she had the power to expose Thomas's deception, but didn't.
Liana is aware that her lies won't end well, and she gets called out on page for it, but it's still annoying to see this stupid conflict drag on until the last 15% of the book. You know from the *very start* of the story how things will play out, so the whole book is just buildup to something that you know exactly how it's gonna end. It was sooooo repetitive, and the payoff wasn't even satisfying.Liana just throws herself a pity party, wondering “What was I supposed to do?” (uhhhh maybe tell your dad that Thomas stole other people’s music? It's not YOUR fault that HE lied to you!). Third Eye aren't even mad at her for not exposing Thomas for stealing their songs (even though that's what they should be mad about); they're only angry that she lied to them (about who she is and her reasons to want to help them). And they literally get over it immediately lol. 🙄🙄🙄 All that buildup for like 2 pages of anger from the victims of Thomas's theft + Liana's refusal to expose Thomas's theft. Such a stupid conflict for the whole book to be centered around.
Let's now talk about the romance. I didn't care about it AT ALL. 🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥 The LI is one of the members of Third Eye, Sky Moon (yes, that is his actual name. I wish I was joking 🥴🥴🥴). As Liana helps Third Eye become more famous (her ~genius~ plan, remember?) she bonds with the members of the band. However, I feel like she bonded much more with the other members than with Sky Moon. The platonic relationships she had with the other boys felt more developed and real than the romance with Sky, which was really lackluster in comparison.
Liana and Sky barely even talk. It was over halfway through the book that they started ~kind of~ bonding. And, listen: I LOVE slow-burns! That is literally the only way I can enjoy a romance! But if I don't actually SEE the characters getting closer, then the romance won't be enjoyable! Like, yes, Liana and Sky only get together at the end, but also, they barely interact throughout the whole book, so it doesn't even feel like a slow-burn; it just feels like an underdeveloped romance that only started being (poorly) developed in the last half of the book. 😕😕😕 I appreciate a slow-burn, but that doesn’t mean there should be NO relationship development in the 1st half of the book.
Liana often mentions that Sky is really hot and really nice/protective of his band mates. She knows him sooooo well, despite barely talking to him. They then realize they both have dead mothers, and that's about it. I don't really understand why either of them liked the other. 😐 There was no reason for them to be in love. There was barely even a reason for them to be friends, especially when you compare their friendship to Liana's with the other band boys, which were actually kind of developed. The romance just gave me NOTHING.
I also didn't find Sky to be that compelling of a LI. Once again, I LOVE him on paper: sweet, kind, understanding… Literally all I want in a male LI! However, Sky’s whole personality is being a martyr — being too nice, doing everything he could for his band mates, not accepting their help, thinking he should suffer so the other boys could thrive… 🙄 Other than that, all I know was that he writes music and has a dead mum. He was booooriiiinggggg. 🥱 Maybe it's because we never saw much of him (since he and Liana didn't talk much outside of the topics I already mentioned). Idk. I just didn't care about him, and I cared even less about his and Liana's romance.
This book also has a problem with telling instead of showing :
➤ Liana's relationship with Thomas (I wish we'd seen a bit more of their fling, because it lasted a while and it didn't feel like it).
➤ Liana going to her internship (she goes twice a week for months, but we only see her there like, once).
➤ She does a presentation for a bunch of importante people at the music label her dad works at, and her dad is finally paying attention to her, and yet we never see this happen.
➤ Lots of moments between her and the band are just mentioned instead of shown, which sucks, because their friendship is supposedly a big point of the story. The author reeeeally wants the reader to believe they're a ~found family~, and the characters are always saying they're "family", but it never felt that deep, to me. 😐
➤ As I already mentioned, Liana knows Sky super well even though they barely interact on page. I guess their relationship developed off-page.
➤ She and Sky go on a late night drive once, and a while later it's just mentioned that they actually kept doing that and it had become a ritual of theirs. We, the readers, didn't even know they kept doing it that often lol.
➤ Liana randomly mentions she found out a while back that some of the band members are bi. Off-page, of course.
➤ Liana worked as a social media manager for the band, and it's mentioned that she doubled their followers on instagram, got them a lot of YT subs, got their twitter hashtag to be used regularly, and managed to get one of their shows to be packed (we never even knew they were doing shows, btw. This comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again).
All of these things happened off-page, and were only mentioned in the story a while after they happened. I don't know why the author didn't just show at least some of these moments, especially the ones that would help solidify the relationships.
Another thing: I get that this book was about music, but there were waaaayy too many music references. Each chapter was titled after a song, but if you didn't know that specific song, it would literally mean nothing to you. I think this would've worked better if the author used a line from said song at the start of the chapter, like an opening quote (something that a lot of other books do as well). That way, we could actually understand the importance of each song for each chapter.
There were also MULTIPLE playlists in the middle of the book. Like, the author straight up just dropped a list of 10-15 songs in the middle of the book – this happened at least 7 times, which is 6 times too many for a full playlist drop. That, in addition to the 60+ songs mentioned at the start of the 60+ chapters + all the other songs mentioned casually throughout the book, made this kind of annoying to read. If you actually wanted to fully understand the book, you'd literally have to spend hours (maybe days) going through all the songs mentioned here. It was super unnecessary, and would've been exhausting to keep up with (obviously, I didn't even try lol. Ain't nobody got time for that).
What I liked: Liana's personal issues (grieving her mother's death and dealing with her father's neglect) and the focus on mental health and therapy. I also liked the representation. Overall, not na offensive book by any means; just a boring waste of potential.
The book starts off with the MC (Liana) flirting with na aspiring musician (Thomas) for weeks. She ends up showing her dad (who's a famous music producer) Thomas's demo, which her dad loves. She then finds out that not only was Thomas using her to further his career, but "his" songs were actually stolen from someone else. Liana REFUSES to tell her dad that Thomas is a phony, because her dad is neglectful, and the first time he paid attention to her in years was when she found the ~incredible musician~ that is Thomas. Liana's plan, then, is to let her dad keep believing Thomas is amazing, while also helping the people Thomas stole music from (a band called Third Eye), who she also doesn't tell the truth to (because she literally has the power to expose Thomas as a thief, but refuses to do so lol). So, yeah, her ridiculous plan is to make Third Eye more famous, in hopes that her dad likes them more than Thomas, all while not revealing that Thomas doesn't write his own music. It's suuuuch a stupid plan. 🙄
This was the main conflict of the book, and it was incredibly frustrating. First of all, it's very predictable; you can quickly tell Thomas is using Liana to reach her dad, and when his plan is revealed, it becomes obvious that the 3rd act conflict is going to be Third Eye finding out that she had the power to expose Thomas's deception, but didn't.
Liana is aware that her lies won't end well, and she gets called out on page for it, but it's still annoying to see this stupid conflict drag on until the last 15% of the book. You know from the *very start* of the story how things will play out, so the whole book is just buildup to something that you know exactly how it's gonna end. It was sooooo repetitive, and the payoff wasn't even satisfying.
Let's now talk about the romance. I didn't care about it AT ALL. 🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥 The LI is one of the members of Third Eye, Sky Moon (yes, that is his actual name. I wish I was joking 🥴🥴🥴). As Liana helps Third Eye become more famous (her ~genius~ plan, remember?) she bonds with the members of the band. However, I feel like she bonded much more with the other members than with Sky Moon. The platonic relationships she had with the other boys felt more developed and real than the romance with Sky, which was really lackluster in comparison.
Liana and Sky barely even talk. It was over halfway through the book that they started ~kind of~ bonding. And, listen: I LOVE slow-burns! That is literally the only way I can enjoy a romance! But if I don't actually SEE the characters getting closer, then the romance won't be enjoyable! Like, yes, Liana and Sky only get together at the end, but also, they barely interact throughout the whole book, so it doesn't even feel like a slow-burn; it just feels like an underdeveloped romance that only started being (poorly) developed in the last half of the book. 😕😕😕 I appreciate a slow-burn, but that doesn’t mean there should be NO relationship development in the 1st half of the book.
Liana often mentions that Sky is really hot and really nice/protective of his band mates. She knows him sooooo well, despite barely talking to him. They then realize they both have dead mothers, and that's about it. I don't really understand why either of them liked the other. 😐 There was no reason for them to be in love. There was barely even a reason for them to be friends, especially when you compare their friendship to Liana's with the other band boys, which were actually kind of developed. The romance just gave me NOTHING.
I also didn't find Sky to be that compelling of a LI. Once again, I LOVE him on paper: sweet, kind, understanding… Literally all I want in a male LI! However, Sky’s whole personality is being a martyr — being too nice, doing everything he could for his band mates, not accepting their help, thinking he should suffer so the other boys could thrive… 🙄 Other than that, all I know was that he writes music and has a dead mum. He was booooriiiinggggg. 🥱 Maybe it's because we never saw much of him (since he and Liana didn't talk much outside of the topics I already mentioned). Idk. I just didn't care about him, and I cared even less about his and Liana's romance.
This book also has a problem with telling instead of showing :
➤ Liana's relationship with Thomas (I wish we'd seen a bit more of their fling, because it lasted a while and it didn't feel like it).
➤ Liana going to her internship (she goes twice a week for months, but we only see her there like, once).
➤ She does a presentation for a bunch of importante people at the music label her dad works at, and her dad is finally paying attention to her, and yet we never see this happen.
➤ Lots of moments between her and the band are just mentioned instead of shown, which sucks, because their friendship is supposedly a big point of the story. The author reeeeally wants the reader to believe they're a ~found family~, and the characters are always saying they're "family", but it never felt that deep, to me. 😐
➤ As I already mentioned, Liana knows Sky super well even though they barely interact on page. I guess their relationship developed off-page.
➤ She and Sky go on a late night drive once, and a while later it's just mentioned that they actually kept doing that and it had become a ritual of theirs. We, the readers, didn't even know they kept doing it that often lol.
➤ Liana randomly mentions she found out a while back that some of the band members are bi. Off-page, of course.
➤ Liana worked as a social media manager for the band, and it's mentioned that she doubled their followers on instagram, got them a lot of YT subs, got their twitter hashtag to be used regularly, and managed to get one of their shows to be packed (we never even knew they were doing shows, btw. This comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again).
All of these things happened off-page, and were only mentioned in the story a while after they happened. I don't know why the author didn't just show at least some of these moments, especially the ones that would help solidify the relationships.
Another thing: I get that this book was about music, but there were waaaayy too many music references. Each chapter was titled after a song, but if you didn't know that specific song, it would literally mean nothing to you. I think this would've worked better if the author used a line from said song at the start of the chapter, like an opening quote (something that a lot of other books do as well). That way, we could actually understand the importance of each song for each chapter.
There were also MULTIPLE playlists in the middle of the book. Like, the author straight up just dropped a list of 10-15 songs in the middle of the book – this happened at least 7 times, which is 6 times too many for a full playlist drop. That, in addition to the 60+ songs mentioned at the start of the 60+ chapters + all the other songs mentioned casually throughout the book, made this kind of annoying to read. If you actually wanted to fully understand the book, you'd literally have to spend hours (maybe days) going through all the songs mentioned here. It was super unnecessary, and would've been exhausting to keep up with (obviously, I didn't even try lol. Ain't nobody got time for that).
What I liked: Liana's personal issues (grieving her mother's death and dealing with her father's neglect) and the focus on mental health and therapy. I also liked the representation. Overall, not na offensive book by any means; just a boring waste of potential.