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opalmars's reviews
310 reviews
Breaking The Rules by Nick Alamance
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was a cute book! John was a great MC, and I especially loved the trans rep here. Probably my favourite I've read! I really enjoyed getting the inside view on trans issues and John's internal struggles with self-acceptance and worries about how others may perceive him.
Hayden is the type of person who I'd absolutely hate in real life (he's always breaking rules, and he disregards other people in the process, which is something I just can't deal with), but his personality really worked for me in the book. Despite being irresponsible and careless, Hayden is still sweet and kind, which I appreciate. His confident attitude also never really crossed the line into cockiness, which made him charming, which I much prefer over arrogance.
I really enjoyed Hayden and John's dynamic. It definitely felt like they were well-matched in terms of personality, and I love that they genuinely cared and were there for each other. I like that they became friends first. Their romance was sweet and I really enjoyed the way they openly spoke about their feelings and attraction to each other.
I didn't really like the 3rd act conflict. You could see it coming from a mile away, and it felt really stupid and irresponsible. + the back and forth at the end with John trying to clear Hayden's name, then Hayden clearing John's, etc etc was tiiiiiring. I just wish that last part of the book was cleaner, but whatever.
There were a couple of typos, but since this is self-published, I don't really mind. The writing overall was good and flowed very well. This is a very easy-to-read book, and I would definitely recommend it. I would really LOVE to read more books by this author!!!! I'm lowkey begging!!!! Please write more!!!!!!!
Hayden is the type of person who I'd absolutely hate in real life (he's always breaking rules, and he disregards other people in the process, which is something I just can't deal with), but his personality really worked for me in the book. Despite being irresponsible and careless, Hayden is still sweet and kind, which I appreciate. His confident attitude also never really crossed the line into cockiness, which made him charming, which I much prefer over arrogance.
I really enjoyed Hayden and John's dynamic. It definitely felt like they were well-matched in terms of personality, and I love that they genuinely cared and were there for each other. I like that they became friends first. Their romance was sweet and I really enjoyed the way they openly spoke about their feelings and attraction to each other.
I didn't really like the 3rd act conflict. You could see it coming from a mile away, and it felt really stupid and irresponsible. + the back and forth at the end with John trying to clear Hayden's name, then Hayden clearing John's, etc etc was tiiiiiring. I just wish that last part of the book was cleaner, but whatever.
There were a couple of typos, but since this is self-published, I don't really mind. The writing overall was good and flowed very well. This is a very easy-to-read book, and I would definitely recommend it. I would really LOVE to read more books by this author!!!! I'm lowkey begging!!!! Please write more!!!!!!!
All About You by Shaina Veronica
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
me this whole book:
✨ THIS WAS SOOOO CUTE !!!!!!!!!!! ✨
In "All About You" we're following Jaslene, who's obsessed with romance books and dreams of having her own perfect love story. When she has a dreamy meet-cute with a lovely guy, she thinks it's finally her turn to experience a book-worthy romance. Except one thing is in her way: her family, who has spent YEARS convinced that Jaslene should date Marlon (a family friend who she doesn't like AT ALL). Marlon's previous relationship seems to have ended in part due to Jaslene and Marlon's families' insistence that they should date each other, so they concoct a plan: they'll pretend to date for a while so that their families see they gave that relationship a "real shot", and then they'll break up, so their families will feel too bad for setting them up for failure and will finally leave them alone.
Just like all fake-dating stories, this is a bit silly, but, honestly??? It worked for me. Yeah, yeah, it's cheesy and predictable, and *I* personally would've just told these grown ass adults to fuck off and stop meddling with children's romantic lives + I would never date the guy they spent 18 years trying to set me up with just because I'm petty like that and fuck all of y'all!!!!! BUUUUUTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!! This fake-dating thing was just cute as hell and really worked in this story. 🤭🤭🤭
Jaslene and Marlon were just reeeeally fun together! I liked seeing their bond grow, and them realizing that they actually had a LOT in common! Seeing their friendship grow was so nice, but I especially appreciated that they still teased each other like they used to before they became friends (though obviously their mocking remarks became less insulting, and more jokey-jokey).
Their fake-dates were so cute, and Marlon is just soooooooooo sweet!!!!!!! 🤧💗🤧💗🤧💗 Literally the definition of perfect book boyfriend — caring, nice and understanding. I just wish we'd seen more of Jaslene doing similar things for Marlon. HE DESERVES ITTTT. 💕
Overall, I just really liked their relationship, and I appreciate the slow-burn (exactly as god intended all romances to be like 🙂↕️🤌🏻).
Now for the characters: Jaslene was such a fun MC! She's a very big fangirl and, as I mentioned, dreeeeams of having her own perfect love story. Her love for romance makes her a bit delusional (which she admits herself), but it is also very contagious! This book just made me want to read and watch rom-coms lol. Her insecurities and doubts were also very realistic and well-integrated into the story, which I appreciated. Jaslene just felt like a very well-rounded, real character. I really enjoyed her relationship with her family, too! She was really close with her parents and genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, which is something contemporary books often forget about. Jaslene's relationship with her sister Ria was also super fun!! I loved themmmm!!! I wanna be their bff!! LEMME JOIN YAAAAA. 😩😩😩
As I already mentioned, Marlon is an amazing love interest and literally the perfect book boyfriend. One can only dream that such a man exists in real life. 😮💨 Since this book is in Jaslene's POV we didn't get to see much of Marlon's personal life, which I wish wasn't the case. This is not a gripe against the book! I don't necessarily think dual POV would make this story better. I just personally want to see more of Marlon bc I really liked him lol. 😅 I especially wanted to see him sharing his art and maybe pursuing that...? 👀 One can only hope miss Shaina Veronica gives me a short story about their lives in the future, and Marlon ends up becoming an artist. 🤞🏻
One thing I didn't necessarily love about the book was the fact that we didn't see much of all aspects of Jaslene's life. I don't really know if this could've been done differently, though, unless the book was longer (which would probably make it *too* long). But like, she had her film school + assignments, her university friends, her high school bestie, and then at some point she kind of befriends Marlon's basketball friends' girlfriends (though they're only in 1 scene). Idk. I just wish some of these SCs (especially her friends) were in the story a bit more. Though, once again, I understand that those aspects were mostly irrelevant to the story being told, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
This book also has a lot of pop culture references, which could be a turn-off to some people. While I usually don't love those in books, I personally didn't mind them here, because they just emphasized Jaslene's personality and felt very realistic — she loves books and is a hopeless romantic, so of course she'll compare her love life to her favourite novels. She loves kpop, so she talks about her favourite music to Marlon when they're together. There were a lot of refs, but I thought they were fine.
Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book! It is a bit silly, but it's also VERY self-aware and often "calls out" all of its clichés. If you enjoy rom-coms, DEFINITELY pick this book up! I think you'll really enjoy it + you get to support a self-published author! Win win! 🥰💫💕
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!
✨ THIS WAS SOOOO CUTE !!!!!!!!!!! ✨
In "All About You" we're following Jaslene, who's obsessed with romance books and dreams of having her own perfect love story. When she has a dreamy meet-cute with a lovely guy, she thinks it's finally her turn to experience a book-worthy romance. Except one thing is in her way: her family, who has spent YEARS convinced that Jaslene should date Marlon (a family friend who she doesn't like AT ALL). Marlon's previous relationship seems to have ended in part due to Jaslene and Marlon's families' insistence that they should date each other, so they concoct a plan: they'll pretend to date for a while so that their families see they gave that relationship a "real shot", and then they'll break up, so their families will feel too bad for setting them up for failure and will finally leave them alone.
Just like all fake-dating stories, this is a bit silly, but, honestly??? It worked for me. Yeah, yeah, it's cheesy and predictable, and *I* personally would've just told these grown ass adults to fuck off and stop meddling with children's romantic lives + I would never date the guy they spent 18 years trying to set me up with just because I'm petty like that and fuck all of y'all!!!!! BUUUUUTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!! This fake-dating thing was just cute as hell and really worked in this story. 🤭🤭🤭
Jaslene and Marlon were just reeeeally fun together! I liked seeing their bond grow, and them realizing that they actually had a LOT in common! Seeing their friendship grow was so nice, but I especially appreciated that they still teased each other like they used to before they became friends (though obviously their mocking remarks became less insulting, and more jokey-jokey).
Their fake-dates were so cute, and Marlon is just soooooooooo sweet!!!!!!! 🤧💗🤧💗🤧💗 Literally the definition of perfect book boyfriend — caring, nice and understanding. I just wish we'd seen more of Jaslene doing similar things for Marlon. HE DESERVES ITTTT. 💕
Overall, I just really liked their relationship, and I appreciate the slow-burn (exactly as god intended all romances to be like 🙂↕️🤌🏻).
Now for the characters: Jaslene was such a fun MC! She's a very big fangirl and, as I mentioned, dreeeeams of having her own perfect love story. Her love for romance makes her a bit delusional (which she admits herself), but it is also very contagious! This book just made me want to read and watch rom-coms lol. Her insecurities and doubts were also very realistic and well-integrated into the story, which I appreciated. Jaslene just felt like a very well-rounded, real character. I really enjoyed her relationship with her family, too! She was really close with her parents and genuinely enjoyed spending time with them, which is something contemporary books often forget about. Jaslene's relationship with her sister Ria was also super fun!! I loved themmmm!!! I wanna be their bff!! LEMME JOIN YAAAAA. 😩😩😩
As I already mentioned, Marlon is an amazing love interest and literally the perfect book boyfriend. One can only dream that such a man exists in real life. 😮💨 Since this book is in Jaslene's POV we didn't get to see much of Marlon's personal life, which I wish wasn't the case. This is not a gripe against the book! I don't necessarily think dual POV would make this story better. I just personally want to see more of Marlon bc I really liked him lol. 😅 I especially wanted to see him sharing his art and maybe pursuing that...? 👀 One can only hope miss Shaina Veronica gives me a short story about their lives in the future, and Marlon ends up becoming an artist. 🤞🏻
One thing I didn't necessarily love about the book was the fact that we didn't see much of all aspects of Jaslene's life. I don't really know if this could've been done differently, though, unless the book was longer (which would probably make it *too* long). But like, she had her film school + assignments, her university friends, her high school bestie, and then at some point she kind of befriends Marlon's basketball friends' girlfriends (though they're only in 1 scene). Idk. I just wish some of these SCs (especially her friends) were in the story a bit more. Though, once again, I understand that those aspects were mostly irrelevant to the story being told, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
This book also has a lot of pop culture references, which could be a turn-off to some people. While I usually don't love those in books, I personally didn't mind them here, because they just emphasized Jaslene's personality and felt very realistic — she loves books and is a hopeless romantic, so of course she'll compare her love life to her favourite novels. She loves kpop, so she talks about her favourite music to Marlon when they're together. There were a lot of refs, but I thought they were fine.
Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book! It is a bit silly, but it's also VERY self-aware and often "calls out" all of its clichés. If you enjoy rom-coms, DEFINITELY pick this book up! I think you'll really enjoy it + you get to support a self-published author! Win win! 🥰💫💕
Thanks to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book!
Second Chance Books by Carina Gaskell
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.5
(beware: LONG review 💀) – I hate to be the person that gives a pretty unknown self-published book a low rating, but alas… I just did not enjoy this. 🙁 On paper, this book has everything I should love, but unfortunately the execution just didn’t work for me.
ESTRANGED CHILDHOOD FRIENDS:
Nell and Tom were friends for a couple of months as children. Now, 7 years later, they meet again and pick things up as if they weren’t estranged for almost a decade. I’m sorry. I don’t care how close you were as kids; you are basically *STRANGERS* at this point! Even if they’d been best friends for a decade in the past (which they weren’t! They literally only knew each other for a pretty short period of time), it’d still be weird to act as if no time had passed. But Nell and Tom immediately started acting as if they were still super close:
➤ Clamping their hands over each other’s mouths to shut the other up (Nell literally did this on their 1st conversation, like???? That is so strange??? Also, she says her skin “burned” where it touched his lips, because of course it did… 🙄)
➤ Tom immediately gives his phone and password to Nell and trusts her to text the girl he likes (mind you, they met 5 MINUTES prior!!!! There’s no way in hell you’re trusting this person with your phone like that! 😭🤚🏻)
➤ Nell gets *JEALOUS* that there’s a girl in Tom’s life… Mind you, she started talking to him just minutes earlier, and before that they were friends as kids for only a couple of months and never spoke to each other again for almost a decade… Jealousy in this instance is INSANE, I’m sorry 🥴.
It was just so JARRING to see these 2 people act as if they hadn’t been estranged for nearly a decade! And the author just didn’t do a good job developing their friendship throughout the rest of the book. She just assumed that, if they were friends as kids for a couple of months, we didn’t need to see them reconnect. Relying on their past friendship to carry to present day just didn’t work at all.
PRACTICE DATES:
The moment they meet, Nell decides to help Tom get the girl he likes (Paulina). I don’t know why this happens. Nell likes romance books, sure, but it is never established that she’s particularly good at setting people up or carrying conversations. She literally says “I’m just not good (…) with people. (…) If I’m any good with either of you, that’s by chance, not out of an inherent skill or social savvy.”………… 😑😑😑 It was honestly annoying how the book kept trying to convince me their little arrangement made sense, and how Tom kept reiterating that he trusts Nell’s judgment and expertise, when it’s literally established she has NONE.
So… Yeah. There is no reason for Nell to help Tom with his love life, but they decide she’s the perfect person for the job. Sure. If you say so, I guess… 😐👍🏻 As for Tom’s side of the deal, he’s supposed to… tell Nell… how he feels about Paulina… to help Nell write a book for her university project… or something???? It’s honestly just ridiculous, and even the characters have trouble making it sound serious: “I help you prepare for your dates with Paulina, you share your... boyish insights on romance.” 🥴🥴🥴 Yeah, alright girl. 🤣 She literally forgets about this project and barely ever mentions it throughout the book, which I’m honestly not mad about, because this sounds kinda dumb.
Moving on to their “love lessons”. The first thing Nell does is take Tom’s phone to text Paulina it was nice to see her, and Tom literally says Nell is “really good at this”… 😐 They then have a “practice conversation” where all they do is say “How are you?” / “Good and you?” and ask what the other person is doing for work, and then Nell tells Tom: “You see how it’s just a back-and-forth, right? Like ping-pong.”… 😐😐 When Nell tells him to ask Paulina to meet up, he says “I would have never thought to do what you told me to.”… 😐😐😐❓❓❓❓❓❓❓
I’m sorry, but is Tom a child? Is he a robot? An alien? I understand being socially awkward and anxious (I am, too!), but come on… This man literally needed help to have the most *basic* conversations ever, and then acted as if Nell had just done something otherworldly by telling him to ask his crush “How are you? How’s work?”… 🙄 During their first “love lessons”, Tom was written as if he was an alien learning how to talk to humans for the first time. It was weird.
Their other love lessons were never show on page! 🤪🤪🤪 I like the idea of practice dates, but these were literally just telling instead of showing — we just breezed through MULTIPLE of their “love lessons” without actually seeing them. We were told in a couple of paragraphs that they did a LOT of activities together (watch a bunch of movies, analyze romcoms, share playlists, study notes about kdramas and Ghibli movies, etc.), but we never saw them, which SUCKS because 1) it’d be fun to see, and 2) it would help develop their romance, which definitely needed development…
ROMANCE:
This is supposed to be a friends-to-lovers story, but the author 100% relied on their past friendship (which only lasted a handful of months, almost a decade ago, and was BARELY even shown on page). In the present, they’re basically strangers, and yet the author doesn’t waste much time rebuilding their friendship, and instead chooses to jump straight into the romance, which means their romance has no foundations.
The moment they meet Nell is immediately feeling warm, thinking “God, he’s so hot when he talks philosophically at me” (cringe, btw), wondering what it’d be like to kiss him... Tom is quick to start tucking her hair behind her ear, petting her head, thinking he’d do anything to keep her smiling… All of this in the 1st 4 days after they meet, by the way. 🙄
There was literally no basis for their romance, other than the fact that Nell had a crush on him when they were kids (which, btw, is kind of pathetic, because they only knew each other for just a couple of months, and it’s been 7 years since she last heard from him… What the fuck do you mean your feelings didn’t falter after almost A DECADE? 🥴🥴🥴). At some point Nell literally admits her love for him is just based on her past crush: “A love which I’m certain is just my twelve-year-old self being nostalgic.”, and yet the author didn’t think of… idk… DEVELOPING IT IN THE *PRESENT*????????? 🙄
Anyways. This thing draaaaaaaaags for absolutely NO reason. Everyone around them keeps insisting they should date, and acting shocked when they learn they’re not together, and it just got repetitive and boring. 🥱
Nell’s reason to drag this romance was the following: she kept insisting she could never ever EVER be happy, because both her mum and her sister had problems in their love lives. I understand having little hope when it comes to your love life (girl, SAME), but pleeeease. Nell’s self-pitying monologues became repetitive, and self-sabotaging herself at the end for no reason other than “mum and sis had bad love lives, so I guess I need to have a bad love life too! 🤪” was just STUPID. Just stop being dramatic and go…
Tom’s reasons to drag the romance were a bit more… slimy. At the start of the book he wants to date Paulina, and Nell helps him. He quickly realizes he doesn’t like Paulina, and likes Nell, but, for some reason, he doesn’t break it off with Paulina???? It was honestly kinda horrible how he kept stringing poor Paulina along, knowing damn well he liked someone else. And the book still painted him as a great guy??? Hmmmm idk about that…
CHARACTERS:
Nell was a little annoying. Her self-pitying antics about how she couldn’t have a happily ever after just because some people in her family also didn’t have one made me roll my eyes, at a certain point. 🥱 Her constantly comparing herself to Paulina was also very infuriating. Yes, she acknowledged that her envy of Paulina was bad and not very #feminist of her (which I appreciate!), but it didn’t make her statements and comparisons to Paulina any less *2012 INLOG*, if you know what I mean. 😬
Nell’s POV was also bogged down by long monologues that were completely unnecessary to the story and sometimes disrupted scenes or conversations. Even though I agreed with what she was saying, I really didn’t need a Feminism 101 aside about why romance as a genre should be respected, and how people invalidate things women enjoy, and how boys are praised for sleeping around while girls are shamed, and how girls are expected to be physically attractive, but can’t be aware of it, otherwise they’re arrogant, etc etc etc. These interruptions just felt clunky.
Tom was… strange. At first, as I already mentioned, he was written as incapable and unaware of how speak to other human beings. He then became slimy for stringing Paulina along while knowing full well he liked Nell. 😬 Overall, however, Tom was just written as a Perfet Book Boyfriend™. Think of any cute line you’ve ever read in a fanfiction or romance book, and Tom has said something similar:
➤ “I’m struck by this inexplicable feeling—like I want to squish her cheeks and go to war for her at the same time.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “Someone out there will see you and he’ll become the luckiest guy on Earth.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ He unnecessarily drives 2 hours every day to take her home after work when she could just take the bus… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “She’s the last thing I think of when I go to bed, and the first when I wake up in the morning.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ He is always noticing little things about Nell (something Nell conveniently thought was a trait of a great romantic partner) and he’s “overcome by fondness for her” just by looking at her … Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “I love when you talk books to me.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “She’s the last thing I think of when I go to bed, and the first when I wake up in the morning.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “Her smile lights up her face; I’m seized by a desire to do anything to keep it there.”; “Every time she laughs it’s like the sun turns up a little brighter, and all I can think about is wanting to kiss her, to taste her laughter, sweet like honey in my mouth.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
There are SO MANY of these! And I’m not saying they’re bad! I’m just saying that, since Tom and Nell’s romance wasn’t very well developed, these felt unwarranted. Also, there were soooo many of these lines that this genuinely started feeling like a parody. 🥴 Like, “let’s just pick some generic popular swoon-worthy lines that will look good on a tiktok”! I just couldn’t take them seriously anymore. 🥴
PLOT:
The main plot line (other than Tom and Nell’s “love lessons” that we never really get to see) is about them making a documentary for the book club at the bookstore they work at. This felt a little stale because they’d interview someone, the interviewed would say something #deep about how much the book club means to them, and Nell would feel guilty she’s secretly working to close the bookstore. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, they only interviewed a handful of people.
Nell’s job at the real estate agency felt kind of ridiculous, and I didn’t care about it. Her job at the bookstore was also bizarre, because the owner literally insisted that this random ass girl needed to work there, agreed to give her a lot of money just because, and literally decided to let her inherit half of his stuff when he dies…???? He’s known this girl for like, 2 weeks… be for real 😭.
The 3rd act conflict is something you could see since the 7% mark of the book, so it was anticlimactic (and also made the romance drag for even LONGER, which was infuriating).
The ending was sweet and lowkey made me kind of emotional for this bookstore I didn’t care at all about for the entire book lol, so there’s that.
ESTRANGED CHILDHOOD FRIENDS:
Nell and Tom were friends for a couple of months as children. Now, 7 years later, they meet again and pick things up as if they weren’t estranged for almost a decade. I’m sorry. I don’t care how close you were as kids; you are basically *STRANGERS* at this point! Even if they’d been best friends for a decade in the past (which they weren’t! They literally only knew each other for a pretty short period of time), it’d still be weird to act as if no time had passed. But Nell and Tom immediately started acting as if they were still super close:
➤ Clamping their hands over each other’s mouths to shut the other up (Nell literally did this on their 1st conversation, like???? That is so strange??? Also, she says her skin “burned” where it touched his lips, because of course it did… 🙄)
➤ Tom immediately gives his phone and password to Nell and trusts her to text the girl he likes (mind you, they met 5 MINUTES prior!!!! There’s no way in hell you’re trusting this person with your phone like that! 😭🤚🏻)
➤ Nell gets *JEALOUS* that there’s a girl in Tom’s life… Mind you, she started talking to him just minutes earlier, and before that they were friends as kids for only a couple of months and never spoke to each other again for almost a decade… Jealousy in this instance is INSANE, I’m sorry 🥴.
It was just so JARRING to see these 2 people act as if they hadn’t been estranged for nearly a decade! And the author just didn’t do a good job developing their friendship throughout the rest of the book. She just assumed that, if they were friends as kids for a couple of months, we didn’t need to see them reconnect. Relying on their past friendship to carry to present day just didn’t work at all.
PRACTICE DATES:
The moment they meet, Nell decides to help Tom get the girl he likes (Paulina). I don’t know why this happens. Nell likes romance books, sure, but it is never established that she’s particularly good at setting people up or carrying conversations. She literally says “I’m just not good (…) with people. (…) If I’m any good with either of you, that’s by chance, not out of an inherent skill or social savvy.”………… 😑😑😑 It was honestly annoying how the book kept trying to convince me their little arrangement made sense, and how Tom kept reiterating that he trusts Nell’s judgment and expertise, when it’s literally established she has NONE.
So… Yeah. There is no reason for Nell to help Tom with his love life, but they decide she’s the perfect person for the job. Sure. If you say so, I guess… 😐👍🏻 As for Tom’s side of the deal, he’s supposed to… tell Nell… how he feels about Paulina… to help Nell write a book for her university project… or something???? It’s honestly just ridiculous, and even the characters have trouble making it sound serious: “I help you prepare for your dates with Paulina, you share your... boyish insights on romance.” 🥴🥴🥴 Yeah, alright girl. 🤣 She literally forgets about this project and barely ever mentions it throughout the book, which I’m honestly not mad about, because this sounds kinda dumb.
Moving on to their “love lessons”. The first thing Nell does is take Tom’s phone to text Paulina it was nice to see her, and Tom literally says Nell is “really good at this”… 😐 They then have a “practice conversation” where all they do is say “How are you?” / “Good and you?” and ask what the other person is doing for work, and then Nell tells Tom: “You see how it’s just a back-and-forth, right? Like ping-pong.”… 😐😐 When Nell tells him to ask Paulina to meet up, he says “I would have never thought to do what you told me to.”… 😐😐😐❓❓❓❓❓❓❓
I’m sorry, but is Tom a child? Is he a robot? An alien? I understand being socially awkward and anxious (I am, too!), but come on… This man literally needed help to have the most *basic* conversations ever, and then acted as if Nell had just done something otherworldly by telling him to ask his crush “How are you? How’s work?”… 🙄 During their first “love lessons”, Tom was written as if he was an alien learning how to talk to humans for the first time. It was weird.
Their other love lessons were never show on page! 🤪🤪🤪 I like the idea of practice dates, but these were literally just telling instead of showing — we just breezed through MULTIPLE of their “love lessons” without actually seeing them. We were told in a couple of paragraphs that they did a LOT of activities together (watch a bunch of movies, analyze romcoms, share playlists, study notes about kdramas and Ghibli movies, etc.), but we never saw them, which SUCKS because 1) it’d be fun to see, and 2) it would help develop their romance, which definitely needed development…
ROMANCE:
This is supposed to be a friends-to-lovers story, but the author 100% relied on their past friendship (which only lasted a handful of months, almost a decade ago, and was BARELY even shown on page). In the present, they’re basically strangers, and yet the author doesn’t waste much time rebuilding their friendship, and instead chooses to jump straight into the romance, which means their romance has no foundations.
The moment they meet Nell is immediately feeling warm, thinking “God, he’s so hot when he talks philosophically at me” (cringe, btw), wondering what it’d be like to kiss him... Tom is quick to start tucking her hair behind her ear, petting her head, thinking he’d do anything to keep her smiling… All of this in the 1st 4 days after they meet, by the way. 🙄
There was literally no basis for their romance, other than the fact that Nell had a crush on him when they were kids (which, btw, is kind of pathetic, because they only knew each other for just a couple of months, and it’s been 7 years since she last heard from him… What the fuck do you mean your feelings didn’t falter after almost A DECADE? 🥴🥴🥴). At some point Nell literally admits her love for him is just based on her past crush: “A love which I’m certain is just my twelve-year-old self being nostalgic.”, and yet the author didn’t think of… idk… DEVELOPING IT IN THE *PRESENT*????????? 🙄
Anyways. This thing draaaaaaaaags for absolutely NO reason. Everyone around them keeps insisting they should date, and acting shocked when they learn they’re not together, and it just got repetitive and boring. 🥱
Nell’s reason to drag this romance was the following: she kept insisting she could never ever EVER be happy, because both her mum and her sister had problems in their love lives. I understand having little hope when it comes to your love life (girl, SAME), but pleeeease. Nell’s self-pitying monologues became repetitive, and self-sabotaging herself at the end for no reason other than “mum and sis had bad love lives, so I guess I need to have a bad love life too! 🤪” was just STUPID. Just stop being dramatic and go…
Tom’s reasons to drag the romance were a bit more… slimy. At the start of the book he wants to date Paulina, and Nell helps him. He quickly realizes he doesn’t like Paulina, and likes Nell, but, for some reason, he doesn’t break it off with Paulina???? It was honestly kinda horrible how he kept stringing poor Paulina along, knowing damn well he liked someone else. And the book still painted him as a great guy??? Hmmmm idk about that…
CHARACTERS:
Nell was a little annoying. Her self-pitying antics about how she couldn’t have a happily ever after just because some people in her family also didn’t have one made me roll my eyes, at a certain point. 🥱 Her constantly comparing herself to Paulina was also very infuriating. Yes, she acknowledged that her envy of Paulina was bad and not very #feminist of her (which I appreciate!), but it didn’t make her statements and comparisons to Paulina any less *2012 INLOG*, if you know what I mean. 😬
Nell’s POV was also bogged down by long monologues that were completely unnecessary to the story and sometimes disrupted scenes or conversations. Even though I agreed with what she was saying, I really didn’t need a Feminism 101 aside about why romance as a genre should be respected, and how people invalidate things women enjoy, and how boys are praised for sleeping around while girls are shamed, and how girls are expected to be physically attractive, but can’t be aware of it, otherwise they’re arrogant, etc etc etc. These interruptions just felt clunky.
Tom was… strange. At first, as I already mentioned, he was written as incapable and unaware of how speak to other human beings. He then became slimy for stringing Paulina along while knowing full well he liked Nell. 😬 Overall, however, Tom was just written as a Perfet Book Boyfriend™. Think of any cute line you’ve ever read in a fanfiction or romance book, and Tom has said something similar:
➤ “I’m struck by this inexplicable feeling—like I want to squish her cheeks and go to war for her at the same time.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “Someone out there will see you and he’ll become the luckiest guy on Earth.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ He unnecessarily drives 2 hours every day to take her home after work when she could just take the bus… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “She’s the last thing I think of when I go to bed, and the first when I wake up in the morning.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ He is always noticing little things about Nell (something Nell conveniently thought was a trait of a great romantic partner) and he’s “overcome by fondness for her” just by looking at her … Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “I love when you talk books to me.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “She’s the last thing I think of when I go to bed, and the first when I wake up in the morning.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
➤ “Her smile lights up her face; I’m seized by a desire to do anything to keep it there.”; “Every time she laughs it’s like the sun turns up a little brighter, and all I can think about is wanting to kiss her, to taste her laughter, sweet like honey in my mouth.”… Perfet Book Boyfriend™.
There are SO MANY of these! And I’m not saying they’re bad! I’m just saying that, since Tom and Nell’s romance wasn’t very well developed, these felt unwarranted. Also, there were soooo many of these lines that this genuinely started feeling like a parody. 🥴 Like, “let’s just pick some generic popular swoon-worthy lines that will look good on a tiktok”! I just couldn’t take them seriously anymore. 🥴
PLOT:
The main plot line (other than Tom and Nell’s “love lessons” that we never really get to see) is about them making a documentary for the book club at the bookstore they work at. This felt a little stale because they’d interview someone, the interviewed would say something #deep about how much the book club means to them, and Nell would feel guilty she’s secretly working to close the bookstore. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, they only interviewed a handful of people.
Nell’s job at the real estate agency felt kind of ridiculous, and I didn’t care about it. Her job at the bookstore was also bizarre, because the owner literally insisted that this random ass girl needed to work there, agreed to give her a lot of money just because, and literally decided to let her inherit half of his stuff when he dies…???? He’s known this girl for like, 2 weeks… be for real 😭.
The 3rd act conflict is something you could see since the 7% mark of the book, so it was anticlimactic (and also made the romance drag for even LONGER, which was infuriating).
The ending was sweet and lowkey made me kind of emotional for this bookstore I didn’t care at all about for the entire book lol, so there’s that.
Finally Fitz by Marisa Kanter
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a sweet book!
I enjoyed Fitz as a MC. Her impostor syndrome and her struggles with her self-worth felt very real. The way she reacted to things made sense, given her situation (though I still wanted to shake her whenever she didn’t finish her assignments. The amount of second-hand embarrassment I felt for her, omgggggg 😵💫. Her creative block and burnout still made sense, though!). The only thing I didn’t love was the lowkey boomer message of her story lol. Like, I get it – she’s addicted to her phone and is constantly taking pictures instead of ~living in the moment~ or whatever. But… Idk. It just felt a little “phone bad, book good” at times. Not often, though! Her arc is mostly about introspection and burnout, and she DOES end up happily going back to her social media career, which I enjoyed!
Levi was lovelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sick and tired of rude and cocky LIs. Give me sweet LIs, please!!! And that’s EXACTLY what this book gave me! Levi was great – caring, mature, understanding, just overall a sweetheart!I was honestly shocked during their 3rd act breakup, when Levi acts suuuuper out of character! Like, THAT’S NOT MY BOY??!?!?!?!? He later explains he was afraid of his feelings, so he purposefully tried to hurt her, but still. He did own up to his mistakes, though, which I appreciate!
Fitz and Levi’s romance was really sweet! Estranged childhood friends to lovers!! So cute!! I really liked seeing them reconnect and bond over things they used to love in the past, but also learn more about who each of them is in the present! The progression of their relationship felt very realistic, and I appreciate the slow burn! 😋
I also think the fake-dating was really fun! The book is very self-aware and calls out its own premise multiple times, which I appreciate. I also think the way the fake dating arc evolved made sense, despite the slightly eyeroll-y miscommunication (it’s nothing bad, though! Everything actually felt very realistic and not annoying!).
I do think the pop culture references were a bit much. I get that this is a book about a social media influencer, so some references are understandable. However, the author went a little crazy with the pop culture references, here. I didn’t need all of these shows, musicals, actors and locations to be mentioned all the time. I didn’t need the 30+ references to singers/bands (yes, 30+. I counted them. Multiple of them were Taylor Swift references, too. Can authors please stop mentioning that woman in books? It’s getting TIRING!!!!!! 😫). Anyways. This is just a nitpick, but yeah. I definitely noticed the incessant references.
But, overall, this was a really cute book, with a healthy relationship, a nice individual arc for the MC, and fast pace. I’d definitely recommend it, if it seems like something you’d enjoy!
I enjoyed Fitz as a MC. Her impostor syndrome and her struggles with her self-worth felt very real. The way she reacted to things made sense, given her situation (though I still wanted to shake her whenever she didn’t finish her assignments. The amount of second-hand embarrassment I felt for her, omgggggg 😵💫. Her creative block and burnout still made sense, though!). The only thing I didn’t love was the lowkey boomer message of her story lol. Like, I get it – she’s addicted to her phone and is constantly taking pictures instead of ~living in the moment~ or whatever. But… Idk. It just felt a little “phone bad, book good” at times. Not often, though! Her arc is mostly about introspection and burnout, and she DOES end up happily going back to her social media career, which I enjoyed!
Levi was lovelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sick and tired of rude and cocky LIs. Give me sweet LIs, please!!! And that’s EXACTLY what this book gave me! Levi was great – caring, mature, understanding, just overall a sweetheart!
Fitz and Levi’s romance was really sweet! Estranged childhood friends to lovers!! So cute!! I really liked seeing them reconnect and bond over things they used to love in the past, but also learn more about who each of them is in the present! The progression of their relationship felt very realistic, and I appreciate the slow burn! 😋
I also think the fake-dating was really fun! The book is very self-aware and calls out its own premise multiple times, which I appreciate. I also think the way the fake dating arc evolved made sense, despite the slightly eyeroll-y miscommunication (it’s nothing bad, though! Everything actually felt very realistic and not annoying!).
I do think the pop culture references were a bit much. I get that this is a book about a social media influencer, so some references are understandable. However, the author went a little crazy with the pop culture references, here. I didn’t need all of these shows, musicals, actors and locations to be mentioned all the time. I didn’t need the 30+ references to singers/bands (yes, 30+. I counted them. Multiple of them were Taylor Swift references, too. Can authors please stop mentioning that woman in books? It’s getting TIRING!!!!!! 😫). Anyways. This is just a nitpick, but yeah. I definitely noticed the incessant references.
But, overall, this was a really cute book, with a healthy relationship, a nice individual arc for the MC, and fast pace. I’d definitely recommend it, if it seems like something you’d enjoy!
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
alexa play “jealousy, jealousy” by olivia rodrigo
This book follows Jenna Chen, a girl who, no matter how hard she tries, never manages to get what she wants, particularly when it comes to her studies. When she fails to get into Harvard, she wishes she could become her cousin Jessica, who is a top student and easily got into Harvard. When her wish comes true, Jenna is scared at first, but then starts realizing that she actually enjoys being Jessica, even if it means the real Jessica (as well as Jenna’s body) is gone.
It was interesting to see Jenna *loving* being Jessica. Having a beautiful body, a giant house, lots of money, constantly being praised by her friends, teachers and classmates, getting awards and accolades… The author did a really good job showing how intoxicating it was for Jenna to finally get everything she ever dreamed of, and it made sense why she didn’t want to go back to her old life.
I especially liked the way things wrapped up!I liked that Jenna learned that Jessica’s life wasn’t that easy, and that Jessica herself was exhausted of all the pressure she was under, and the expectations people had of her. Seeing Jenna struggle with wishing for her life back, because, deep down, she doesn’t want it, was reeeeally intriguing, especially because she already experienced how hard it actually is to constantly get really high grades like Jessica did. The fact that, even then, Jenna still preferred to be Jessica, gave her a lot of depth. I also like that people were slowly forgetting who Jenna was, and that she learned to finally appreciate her life. And I LOVE that Jessica had ALSO wished to not be herself anymore, because of how tired she was of her life, which means that Jenna becoming Jessica had basically been BOTH of their wishes! I just thought that was all so interesting and well-done, and I’m glad that Jessica still had some depth, despite not really being in the book. Overall, I think that Jenna’s internal struggles with her self-worth are the best part of this book, which is great, because this is the *main* point of the story.
The secondary storyline is the romantic one, which, unfortunately, didn’t really work for me. 😕 I REALLY liked the LI, Aaron – he is intelligent, attentive and extremely thoughtful, and his actions are always really well explained and make sense with his story. Overall, Aaron is a great LI and a really well-rounded character (that I actually would’ve liked to see more of).
The main problem with the romance is that most its development happened off-page, before the book even began. Jenna and Aaron had been friends for a while, and Jenna had a crush on him. At the start of the book, we find out that Aaron had left for some sort of school program right after he and Jenna had a falling out, so there’s a lot of tension when they reunite at the start of the story. It’s clear that Jenna still likes Aaron even though she’s also angry about their falling out.
Throughout the book we get 1 or 2 flashbacks to their friendship, but, mostly, we just get quick mentions of things they did with/for each other. We never actually SEE them fall in love; we’re just TOLD she fell for Aaron. We never really SEE them bond; we’re simply TOLD they had some nice moments together (all of which could just be attributed to friendship, btw).
It’s already hard to make the reader believe in a romance when the characters already like each other, because you have to do a good job establishing a romance that was fully developed before the story even began. If you don’t even bother to write out a lot of flashbacks, and just keep telling the reader that the characters had nice moments in 1 simple paragraph here or there, it becomes really hard to fully believe in the romance… 😐 The culmination of all of this was Aaron’s love speech, which mentioned so many things he likes about Jenna, 99% of which happened off-page before the book even began, which means we never saw or heard about most of them, so the entire speech felt hollow and unearned, which is a shame, because it was really cute! 😢
Don’t get me wrong, Jenna and Aaron are sweet, and their moments in the past seem really nice and show how much they care for each other! However, their relationship was based on telling, instead of showing, which made it hard for me to believe in their romance.
Another thing I didn’t love about their romance was the fact that their falling out was nonsensical. Basically,Jenna tried to kiss Aaron, and he turned his head away, so she got angry at him and said “From now on, I hate you, Aaron. I seriously—I hate you so much.”…………????????????????? 🤨 I’m sorry, but getting mad at your best friend just because he didn’t reciprocate your feelings?????? That is fucking ridiculous. I get that she was hurt, but Jenna literally started acting like those dudes who get angry at their female friends when they friendzone them.
Aaron’s reasons for rejecting Jenna (despite liking her too) were actually really good – he really clocked her by saying that she likes to WANT things more than she likes HAVING them, and he simply didn’t want to be one of those things she quickly lost interest in. I REALLY like that explanation, because it shows that Aaron pays attention to Jenna’s actions and knows her well, and also shows him standing up for himself and calling Jenna out on her bullshit. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 While I did like Aaron’s side of this conflict, Jenna’s was absurd. It was soooo uncomfortable to see Jenna constantly be angry at Aaron for no reason; she was literally acting like those terrible « Nice Guys™ », and it was just icky to me. 😬😬😬
There are a couple of other things that didn’t work for me:
➤ Jenna didn’t think about her parents that often and barely even visited them when she was Jessica (even though, in the end, she talks about how much she misses them).
➤ Her friendship with Leela was literally never established. She mentions they were friends, but we barely even see that, and, in the end, she doesn’t even mention missing her friendship with Leela, yet when she goes back to being Jenna, she goes and hugs Leela…. This friendship should’ve been established, and I wish it had been a bigger point in Jenna’s life.
➤ Overall, there was a bit too much telling instead of showing: with Jenna and Aaron’s romance, with Jenna and Leela’s supposed friendship (that was barely even mentioned, tbh), with Jenna’s life (at the end of the book she goes on and on for paragraphs talking about the things she misses, most of which we never saw. I wish the author had taken a bit longer to establish her life before the change, so we had seen some of those things). 🙁
➤ The adoration everyone has for Jessica felt very cartoonish. People literally walk around constantly talking about how great and gorgeous and perfect she is, and telling her how they wish they were like her. It became ridiculous. 🙄
➤ The author is advertising this as dark academia, but I don’t really see that, tbh. Yes, it is about a girl who wants to have good grades and be the best in her class, but *dark academia*??? Idk…
Despite these issues, I overall still enjoyed the book, and I’d definitely recommend it!
Thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!
This book follows Jenna Chen, a girl who, no matter how hard she tries, never manages to get what she wants, particularly when it comes to her studies. When she fails to get into Harvard, she wishes she could become her cousin Jessica, who is a top student and easily got into Harvard. When her wish comes true, Jenna is scared at first, but then starts realizing that she actually enjoys being Jessica, even if it means the real Jessica (as well as Jenna’s body) is gone.
It was interesting to see Jenna *loving* being Jessica. Having a beautiful body, a giant house, lots of money, constantly being praised by her friends, teachers and classmates, getting awards and accolades… The author did a really good job showing how intoxicating it was for Jenna to finally get everything she ever dreamed of, and it made sense why she didn’t want to go back to her old life.
I especially liked the way things wrapped up!
The secondary storyline is the romantic one, which, unfortunately, didn’t really work for me. 😕 I REALLY liked the LI, Aaron – he is intelligent, attentive and extremely thoughtful, and his actions are always really well explained and make sense with his story. Overall, Aaron is a great LI and a really well-rounded character (that I actually would’ve liked to see more of).
The main problem with the romance is that most its development happened off-page, before the book even began. Jenna and Aaron had been friends for a while, and Jenna had a crush on him. At the start of the book, we find out that Aaron had left for some sort of school program right after he and Jenna had a falling out, so there’s a lot of tension when they reunite at the start of the story. It’s clear that Jenna still likes Aaron even though she’s also angry about their falling out.
Throughout the book we get 1 or 2 flashbacks to their friendship, but, mostly, we just get quick mentions of things they did with/for each other. We never actually SEE them fall in love; we’re just TOLD she fell for Aaron. We never really SEE them bond; we’re simply TOLD they had some nice moments together (all of which could just be attributed to friendship, btw).
It’s already hard to make the reader believe in a romance when the characters already like each other, because you have to do a good job establishing a romance that was fully developed before the story even began. If you don’t even bother to write out a lot of flashbacks, and just keep telling the reader that the characters had nice moments in 1 simple paragraph here or there, it becomes really hard to fully believe in the romance… 😐 The culmination of all of this was Aaron’s love speech, which mentioned so many things he likes about Jenna, 99% of which happened off-page before the book even began, which means we never saw or heard about most of them, so the entire speech felt hollow and unearned, which is a shame, because it was really cute! 😢
Don’t get me wrong, Jenna and Aaron are sweet, and their moments in the past seem really nice and show how much they care for each other! However, their relationship was based on telling, instead of showing, which made it hard for me to believe in their romance.
Another thing I didn’t love about their romance was the fact that their falling out was nonsensical. Basically,
Aaron’s reasons for rejecting Jenna (despite liking her too) were actually really good – he really clocked her by saying that she likes to WANT things more than she likes HAVING them, and he simply didn’t want to be one of those things she quickly lost interest in. I REALLY like that explanation, because it shows that Aaron pays attention to Jenna’s actions and knows her well, and also shows him standing up for himself and calling Jenna out on her bullshit. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
There are a couple of other things that didn’t work for me:
➤ Jenna didn’t think about her parents that often and barely even visited them when she was Jessica (even though, in the end, she talks about how much she misses them).
➤ Her friendship with Leela was literally never established. She mentions they were friends, but we barely even see that, and, in the end, she doesn’t even mention missing her friendship with Leela, yet when she goes back to being Jenna, she goes and hugs Leela…. This friendship should’ve been established, and I wish it had been a bigger point in Jenna’s life.
➤ Overall, there was a bit too much telling instead of showing: with Jenna and Aaron’s romance, with Jenna and Leela’s supposed friendship (that was barely even mentioned, tbh), with Jenna’s life (at the end of the book she goes on and on for paragraphs talking about the things she misses, most of which we never saw. I wish the author had taken a bit longer to establish her life before the change, so we had seen some of those things). 🙁
➤ The adoration everyone has for Jessica felt very cartoonish. People literally walk around constantly talking about how great and gorgeous and perfect she is, and telling her how they wish they were like her. It became ridiculous. 🙄
➤ The author is advertising this as dark academia, but I don’t really see that, tbh. Yes, it is about a girl who wants to have good grades and be the best in her class, but *dark academia*??? Idk…
Despite these issues, I overall still enjoyed the book, and I’d definitely recommend it!
Thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!
I'll Be Waiting For You by Mariko Turk
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
This book was… fine. I don’t have many thoughts about it. For some reason, I just never fully connected with the characters, and the story never really grabbed my attention.
Natalie was a good MC. She seemed well rounded and flawed in a believable way. Seeing her deal with the grief of losing her best friend was definitely interesting.
I really liked Leander as a LI! He was smart and attentive, and his Truth Hurts articles seemed really interesting and well thought-out. I honestly would’ve liked to learn more about him.
I unfortunately didn’t like the romance. Natalie already knew of Leander before the book began, and, just like everyone at their school, she didn’t like him at all (because of his Truth Hurts articles). However, on their 1st interaction on page, Natalie immediately starts thinking about how he’s attractive. Even though she supposedly doesn’t like Leander, every single time Natalie sees him, she mentions how attractive he is, she keeps staring at him, etc etc. 🙄🙄🙄 The first time they have a positive-ish interaction, she’s already feeling “a bubbly rush of heat” on her body, simply because he laughed ONCE. 25% through and she had already accepted that she was attracted to that dude (who she ACTIVELY DISLIKED). 😑
I am so TIRED of authors not developing their romances properly!!! @ authors I SWEAR it’s better to *actually* develop your romances!!! God please free me from insta love, I’m begginggggg 😫😭. This romance would already be a bit of a hard sell, because a “rival-acquaintances to partners to friends to lovers” done in only 1 WEEK seems… too quick; I feel like it’d be hard to actually make this work in such a short period of time. But the author didn’t even TRY. 🫠 Which is a shame, because Natalie and Leander actually seemed cute together! I like the way they talked about their issues, and how they complemented each other, and worried about each other…! Overall, the characters seemed to fit well together, but I wish we’d seen more of their bond and friendship development, instead of the borderline insta-love.
The plot was… whatever. 😕 Natalie’s reasons for wanting to audition for Ghost Chasers (despite not believing in ghosts) were explained (and questioned) throughout the story, which I appreciated. Leander’s desire to expose Madame Althea (and mediums as a whole) made a lot of sense, too, and I was 100% on his side – I HATE people who take advantage of vulnerable people’s grief by selling lies. So Leander and Natalie’s partnership made sense. However, I just never fully invested in the story, you know? I was on their side (especially Leander’s), but I couldn’t bring myself to *care*. 🙁
I did like the way things wrapped up in the end! Leander’s mum explaining to him the reasons why she speaks to Madame Althea made a lot of sense. Once again, I really liked Leander and his story. Natalie coming to terms with the fact that she might not be over Imogen’s death was really interesting, and her arc was nicely woven into the story – from not believing in ghosts, to believing Madame Althea can actually speak to the dead and is communicating with Imogen, to her realizing that’s just all bullshit and Imogen is truly gone, but then accepting that the memories and impact Imogen left behind will always be there… 🥺🤧 I was actually a little emotional at the end, when Natalie thought: “I wonder if she really had been planning to stand up to her parents. Maybe she was finally going to insist that she wasn’t going to piano camp. I like thinking that she spent her last night knowing she was going to stand up for herself. It’s hard to believe, but it’s possible. And right now, that’s enough to make me smile.”. I actually almost TEARED UP when Natalie said “I believe Imogen climbed up Agnes Tree even though it scared her. I believe I can find a way to heal from Imogen’s death, to be honest about how much I’ll miss her for the rest of my life, even though that scares me. I believe I can do all the awesome, important, world-changing things I didn’t think I could.”. It was just so beautiful, and such a nice way to show someone dealing with grief. 🥺🥺🥺
Overall, while this book didn’t fully work for me, I’d still recommend it, if it seems like something you’d enjoy. I genuinely don’t think it’s bad; it just wasn’t for me.
Natalie was a good MC. She seemed well rounded and flawed in a believable way. Seeing her deal with the grief of losing her best friend was definitely interesting.
I really liked Leander as a LI! He was smart and attentive, and his Truth Hurts articles seemed really interesting and well thought-out. I honestly would’ve liked to learn more about him.
I unfortunately didn’t like the romance. Natalie already knew of Leander before the book began, and, just like everyone at their school, she didn’t like him at all (because of his Truth Hurts articles). However, on their 1st interaction on page, Natalie immediately starts thinking about how he’s attractive. Even though she supposedly doesn’t like Leander, every single time Natalie sees him, she mentions how attractive he is, she keeps staring at him, etc etc. 🙄🙄🙄 The first time they have a positive-ish interaction, she’s already feeling “a bubbly rush of heat” on her body, simply because he laughed ONCE. 25% through and she had already accepted that she was attracted to that dude (who she ACTIVELY DISLIKED). 😑
I am so TIRED of authors not developing their romances properly!!! @ authors I SWEAR it’s better to *actually* develop your romances!!! God please free me from insta love, I’m begginggggg 😫😭. This romance would already be a bit of a hard sell, because a “rival-acquaintances to partners to friends to lovers” done in only 1 WEEK seems… too quick; I feel like it’d be hard to actually make this work in such a short period of time. But the author didn’t even TRY. 🫠 Which is a shame, because Natalie and Leander actually seemed cute together! I like the way they talked about their issues, and how they complemented each other, and worried about each other…! Overall, the characters seemed to fit well together, but I wish we’d seen more of their bond and friendship development, instead of the borderline insta-love.
The plot was… whatever. 😕 Natalie’s reasons for wanting to audition for Ghost Chasers (despite not believing in ghosts) were explained (and questioned) throughout the story, which I appreciated. Leander’s desire to expose Madame Althea (and mediums as a whole) made a lot of sense, too, and I was 100% on his side – I HATE people who take advantage of vulnerable people’s grief by selling lies. So Leander and Natalie’s partnership made sense. However, I just never fully invested in the story, you know? I was on their side (especially Leander’s), but I couldn’t bring myself to *care*. 🙁
I did like the way things wrapped up in the end! Leander’s mum explaining to him the reasons why she speaks to Madame Althea made a lot of sense. Once again, I really liked Leander and his story. Natalie coming to terms with the fact that she might not be over Imogen’s death was really interesting, and her arc was nicely woven into the story – from not believing in ghosts, to believing Madame Althea can actually speak to the dead and is communicating with Imogen, to her realizing that’s just all bullshit and Imogen is truly gone, but then accepting that the memories and impact Imogen left behind will always be there… 🥺🤧 I was actually a little emotional at the end, when Natalie thought: “I wonder if she really had been planning to stand up to her parents. Maybe she was finally going to insist that she wasn’t going to piano camp. I like thinking that she spent her last night knowing she was going to stand up for herself. It’s hard to believe, but it’s possible. And right now, that’s enough to make me smile.”. I actually almost TEARED UP when Natalie said “I believe Imogen climbed up Agnes Tree even though it scared her. I believe I can find a way to heal from Imogen’s death, to be honest about how much I’ll miss her for the rest of my life, even though that scares me. I believe I can do all the awesome, important, world-changing things I didn’t think I could.”. It was just so beautiful, and such a nice way to show someone dealing with grief. 🥺🥺🥺
Overall, while this book didn’t fully work for me, I’d still recommend it, if it seems like something you’d enjoy. I genuinely don’t think it’s bad; it just wasn’t for me.
Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
A great finale to a great series!
This book takes place 8 years after our MCs escaped from the city of Tevanne, and is focused on the war between the MCs and their new “country” (Giva) against the entity that calls itself Tevanne.
I thought that the way they run Giva was super intriguing! The concept of twinning (aka putting scrived plates in multiple people so they can share feelings, thoughts, visions, etc.) is extremely interesting, and seeing a whole society where everyone is twinned was suuuper cool! I also like that twinning, while being a big advantage for Giva (they can easily communicate from far away, which helps in the fight against Tevanne), is also a huge weakness (because if a Givan gets captured, they can unwillingly share a lot of information that should be secret). As a solution to this problem, Givans have “purge sticks” that can irreversibly remove all scrivings from a person, isolating them from those connections forever. This made the story have higher stakes. Additionally, I also enjoyed the concept of “cadences” – many twinned people with similar temperament who had grown so close together that they aligned into a singular identity. Overall, “twinning” was one of the most interesting aspects of this book.
Tevanne as a villain was quite strange, especially since it is an entity, and not really a person. It wants to *turn off the world/reality* as a way to basically purge everyone and restart all over, and it intends to do this by accessing a chamber at the center of the world. Tevanne has Crasedes imprisoned because he has already *called and opened the door into the backstages of reality and passed through it once*, so Tevanne wants to know how he did that. It’s all a bit confusing and not very literal, which makes the MCs' goals in this book a little more unclear and less tangible than in the previous ones.
However, even though things were a little more confusing, it was still clear that the main goal was stopping Tevanne, and, while this book is about a war, the author still managed to include smaller “heists” in this story. Having these smaller “heists” actually made this story easier to understand – we understand that right now they’re trying to save this one country and help their people escape before Tevanne arrives; and now their mission is to break Crasedes free from Tevanne’s territory; etc. I liked these small heists; they kept the story interesting, the pace faster, and they were well integrated into the story, since they all ended up connecting with the main goal (stopping Tevanne).
I enjoyed learning about Clef’s past in this book.Learning about his old home city, his dead daughter, his wife, and his relationship with his son Crasedes was all very touching.
The ending was quite emotional – the reveal that Tevanne/Valeria was Clef’s wife and learning what happened to her was very interesting, and I appreciate that Clef tried to make amends. I liked the part where he said “There are people in this world who learned the lessons I never did, the lessons that our son has learned all too late – that you are right. There is no magic fix. That a better world can only be brought by what we give to one another, and nothing more” – that is basically the moral of this story, isn’t it? Clef disappearing with his family at the end was quite sad, but a nice ending for his story, overall.
Sancia sacrificing herself to close the door was very sad! Gregor coming back was nice, though we didn’t see much of him.
What really made me emotional, however, was Berenice’s ending. OH BOYYYYYY that was tragic! 😰😰😰 Berenice had to sever her connection to everyone else, which meant that she could no longer be a part of society. After the war, everyone started using scrived plates to communicate, so Berenice was pretty much isolated from everyone, except from Gregor, who stayed with her in her little house, alone. Except one day Gregor left, too, which like…. I get it, but also, it made me sad, because now Ber was ALONE ALONE!
Seeing society advance without Berenice was honestly quite scary – people stopped speaking out loud or writing things; they now only used telepathic communication. And, one day, they come to Berenice, remind her that she is basically their “mother” (since she helped develop the scrived plates they all use), and then pop into a door and disappear FOREVER???? Knowing damn well Ber can’t go with them????? Leaving her in an empty world, all alone???? BRO WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK????????? 😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨 I’m sorry but Berenice’s ending was HORRIFYING!!!!!!! I would rather kms than go through all that shit, dear lord!!!
The ending itself is quite hopeful, since it seems she manages to reunite with Sancia, but idk man….. that doesn’t erase all the years (decades???) of complete isolation Berenice went through! Also, because I never cared much about the romance, the ending wasn’t as impactful as it could’ve been, but I still enjoyed it.
Overall, I think this is a really good series, that is definitely very underrated! I’d love to see this trilogy get more attention; I genuinely think it deserved it!
This book takes place 8 years after our MCs escaped from the city of Tevanne, and is focused on the war between the MCs and their new “country” (Giva) against the entity that calls itself Tevanne.
I thought that the way they run Giva was super intriguing! The concept of twinning (aka putting scrived plates in multiple people so they can share feelings, thoughts, visions, etc.) is extremely interesting, and seeing a whole society where everyone is twinned was suuuper cool! I also like that twinning, while being a big advantage for Giva (they can easily communicate from far away, which helps in the fight against Tevanne), is also a huge weakness (because if a Givan gets captured, they can unwillingly share a lot of information that should be secret). As a solution to this problem, Givans have “purge sticks” that can irreversibly remove all scrivings from a person, isolating them from those connections forever. This made the story have higher stakes. Additionally, I also enjoyed the concept of “cadences” – many twinned people with similar temperament who had grown so close together that they aligned into a singular identity. Overall, “twinning” was one of the most interesting aspects of this book.
Tevanne as a villain was quite strange, especially since it is an entity, and not really a person. It wants to *turn off the world/reality* as a way to basically purge everyone and restart all over, and it intends to do this by accessing a chamber at the center of the world. Tevanne has Crasedes imprisoned because he has already *called and opened the door into the backstages of reality and passed through it once*, so Tevanne wants to know how he did that. It’s all a bit confusing and not very literal, which makes the MCs' goals in this book a little more unclear and less tangible than in the previous ones.
However, even though things were a little more confusing, it was still clear that the main goal was stopping Tevanne, and, while this book is about a war, the author still managed to include smaller “heists” in this story. Having these smaller “heists” actually made this story easier to understand – we understand that right now they’re trying to save this one country and help their people escape before Tevanne arrives; and now their mission is to break Crasedes free from Tevanne’s territory; etc. I liked these small heists; they kept the story interesting, the pace faster, and they were well integrated into the story, since they all ended up connecting with the main goal (stopping Tevanne).
I enjoyed learning about Clef’s past in this book.
The ending was quite emotional
Sancia sacrificing herself to close the door was very sad! Gregor coming back was nice, though we didn’t see much of him.
What really made me emotional, however, was Berenice’s ending. OH BOYYYYYY that was tragic! 😰😰😰 Berenice had to sever her connection to everyone else, which meant that she could no longer be a part of society. After the war, everyone started using scrived plates to communicate, so Berenice was pretty much isolated from everyone, except from Gregor, who stayed with her in her little house, alone. Except one day Gregor left, too, which like…. I get it, but also, it made me sad, because now Ber was ALONE ALONE!
Seeing society advance without Berenice was honestly quite scary – people stopped speaking out loud or writing things; they now only used telepathic communication. And, one day, they come to Berenice, remind her that she is basically their “mother” (since she helped develop the scrived plates they all use), and then pop into a door and disappear FOREVER???? Knowing damn well Ber can’t go with them????? Leaving her in an empty world, all alone???? BRO WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK????????? 😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨😨 I’m sorry but Berenice’s ending was HORRIFYING!!!!!!! I would rather kms than go through all that shit, dear lord!!!
The ending itself is quite hopeful, since it seems she manages to reunite with Sancia, but idk man….. that doesn’t erase all the years (decades???) of complete isolation Berenice went through! Also, because I never cared much about the romance, the ending wasn’t as impactful as it could’ve been, but I still enjoyed it.
Overall, I think this is a really good series, that is definitely very underrated! I’d love to see this trilogy get more attention; I genuinely think it deserved it!
Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Shorefall takes place 3 years after the first book. Foundryside became a consulting firm where they help other scrivers with their scrivings, in exchange for having those scrivings in the Foundryside library, which I thought was really interesting.
In this book, our MCs end up having to face Crasedes, a powerful hierophant resurrected by Gregor’s mother, who just wants justice for the world. Crasedes, however, is willing to do terrible things to end injustice, and basically intends to take away everyone’s free will, because “If they cannot make the right choice, then it’s better to just remove the choice entirely.”… Okay, Kira from Death Note. 🥴💀 I thought Crasedes was a really intriguing villain! His actions were well-explained, and his powers were SCARYYYY!!
On the other hand we have Valeria, the mysterious figure that kind of, lowkey possessed Sancia in book 1. Even though she wants to fight Crasedes, Valeria is also not trustworthy, which makes this book much more intense. Who can our MCs trust? Is either Valeria or Crasedes good, or are they both bad in their own ways, despite being on opposing sides? When should they turn their backs on Valeria? Should they keep allying with her until they can take down Crasedes, or will that be too late, and by then Valeria will be too powerful to take down, too? There are so many questions and mysteries with the antagonists, which gives this book a LOT of tension!
A LOT ends up happening in this book:Clef came back (yey!), but we found out he is Crasedes’ father???????; Gregor merged not only with Valeria, but also with the city of Tevanne, as to not let Crasedes win the fight; Gregor/Valeria/Tevanne straight up tried to destroy everything and kill everyone in the city lol; Orso sacrificed himself to help Sancia and Berenice escape with Polina; Clef says a war is basically about to begin… 😰😰😰 Just like Foundryside, Shorefall’s story has a complete arc, but it also sets up for book 3, which I enjoyed.
Also, this book, just like the first one, is very action packed, has a great magic system where everything is really well-explained and detailed, so it’s easy to understand, and the characters are great! My only negative point would be that I didn’t care for the romance; in book 1 it wasn’t very developed, and in book 2, since it’s been 3 years, Sancia and Berenice are already well into their relationship. The romance isn’t a big part of the story, though, so whatever, I guess.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I ate up the (incredible!!!!) audiobook in just a couple of days! Definitely recommend this series if you enjoy heists, action-packed stories and intelligent magic systems!
In this book, our MCs end up having to face Crasedes, a powerful hierophant resurrected by Gregor’s mother, who just wants justice for the world. Crasedes, however, is willing to do terrible things to end injustice, and basically intends to take away everyone’s free will, because “If they cannot make the right choice, then it’s better to just remove the choice entirely.”… Okay, Kira from Death Note. 🥴💀 I thought Crasedes was a really intriguing villain! His actions were well-explained, and his powers were SCARYYYY!!
On the other hand we have Valeria, the mysterious figure that kind of, lowkey possessed Sancia in book 1. Even though she wants to fight Crasedes, Valeria is also not trustworthy, which makes this book much more intense. Who can our MCs trust? Is either Valeria or Crasedes good, or are they both bad in their own ways, despite being on opposing sides? When should they turn their backs on Valeria? Should they keep allying with her until they can take down Crasedes, or will that be too late, and by then Valeria will be too powerful to take down, too? There are so many questions and mysteries with the antagonists, which gives this book a LOT of tension!
A LOT ends up happening in this book:
Also, this book, just like the first one, is very action packed, has a great magic system where everything is really well-explained and detailed, so it’s easy to understand, and the characters are great! My only negative point would be that I didn’t care for the romance; in book 1 it wasn’t very developed, and in book 2, since it’s been 3 years, Sancia and Berenice are already well into their relationship. The romance isn’t a big part of the story, though, so whatever, I guess.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I ate up the (incredible!!!!) audiobook in just a couple of days! Definitely recommend this series if you enjoy heists, action-packed stories and intelligent magic systems!
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Oh, this was FUN!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been a while since I’ve been this enthralled by a book series, especially a high fantasy one. Interesting magic system, great characters, a HEIST??!?!? What more could you ask for? 🤩🤩🤩
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).Finding out that Ofelia had scrived Gregor, and that Sancia was actually NOT the 1st scrived human, was WILD!!! 😨😨 😨 I really enjoyed seeing Gregor fight against her orders, and seeing his morality and empathy “win” in the end.
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!Tomas just wanted more power and money, which isn’t unheard of. Ofelia also testing on humans wasn’t entirely surprising, but hearing she did the same to her SON??? 😰 It made sense, though, given her backstory! And Estelle?! She was definitely a bit crazy, but honestly?? I could sympathize with her! All of these villains felt SO REALISTIC! Their actions, while reprehensible, made so much sense, and you could even sympathize with some of their motives! They were very well-developed!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Vomit, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, and War
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3,5 * — I’m gonna be the 1 person who didn’t really care about this book, huh?
I genuinely thought this was it. I thought I was FINALLY going to love a book, after MONTHS of just “okay” reads. But no. This was yet another book I don’t feel much about. 😔 I’m sooo fucking sad. I haven’t felt truly passionate about a book in MONTHS. I haven’t given anything above a 4 star in 2024. 🫠💔 I just want a book to make me feel SOMETHING positive. Anything! I’m tired of simply enjoying books. I want to LOVE something! So this book was disappointing not only because it didn’t live up to my expectations, but also because it’s YET ANOTHER book I don’t feel much about, after a streak of like, 50 books that don’t go above 4 stars. 😭
Aff. Let’s get into the actual review, shall we?
The writing here is quite challenging, and very confusing. While this book can be hard to get into, that actually wasn’t a problem to me, due to the fact that I read the first third of the book while listening to the audiobook (both at the same time). Reading with my eyes allowed me to pick up on all the highlighted passages (italics, “titles”, etc.) and to fully understand everything I was reading, while the audio helped me read much faster than I would on my own, which made it so I didn’t have to spend too long in the confusing first chunk of this book, so I didn’t even have time to get bored or too lost. Additionally, the narrator made different voices for all of the characters, which also helped me better understand the background characters’ “interruptions”. I really recommend doing this, at least for the first chunk of the book. I think it can really help you get into the story.
I ended up audiobooking the rest of the book, and, by that point, it was quite easy to understand everything just via audio (mind you, I never listen to audiobooks, bc I usually get lost lol, so this is really high praise). I really liked the narrator!
Now for the story itself: it was… fine. The plot is quite simple: just 2 guys travelling and encountering some challenges during their trip. What makes this story unique is that the narrative isn’t quite linear; the POVs are constantly changing without warning, the background characters are constantly interrupting the narrative with their thoughts, and the story about the 2 men is being told to a mysterious “you” character, which makes this a story-within-a-story. This is why this book is so difficult to understand, but it’s also why it is so unique, and I definitely think that deserves some merit!
While the story was good, it unfortunately never fully resonated with me. I couldn’t even tell you exactly why. I just know that I didn’t connect with the characters, and I felt absolutely nothing while reading this. I will remember this book solely because it was strange and unique. The characters and the plot didn’t leave any impression on me. It’s as simple as that.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Not many thoughts, because this book left me mostly indifferent, and that makes me unbelievably sad. I’m going to cry now. Goodbye.
I genuinely thought this was it. I thought I was FINALLY going to love a book, after MONTHS of just “okay” reads. But no. This was yet another book I don’t feel much about. 😔 I’m sooo fucking sad. I haven’t felt truly passionate about a book in MONTHS. I haven’t given anything above a 4 star in 2024. 🫠💔 I just want a book to make me feel SOMETHING positive. Anything! I’m tired of simply enjoying books. I want to LOVE something! So this book was disappointing not only because it didn’t live up to my expectations, but also because it’s YET ANOTHER book I don’t feel much about, after a streak of like, 50 books that don’t go above 4 stars. 😭
Aff. Let’s get into the actual review, shall we?
The writing here is quite challenging, and very confusing. While this book can be hard to get into, that actually wasn’t a problem to me, due to the fact that I read the first third of the book while listening to the audiobook (both at the same time). Reading with my eyes allowed me to pick up on all the highlighted passages (italics, “titles”, etc.) and to fully understand everything I was reading, while the audio helped me read much faster than I would on my own, which made it so I didn’t have to spend too long in the confusing first chunk of this book, so I didn’t even have time to get bored or too lost. Additionally, the narrator made different voices for all of the characters, which also helped me better understand the background characters’ “interruptions”. I really recommend doing this, at least for the first chunk of the book. I think it can really help you get into the story.
I ended up audiobooking the rest of the book, and, by that point, it was quite easy to understand everything just via audio (mind you, I never listen to audiobooks, bc I usually get lost lol, so this is really high praise). I really liked the narrator!
Now for the story itself: it was… fine. The plot is quite simple: just 2 guys travelling and encountering some challenges during their trip. What makes this story unique is that the narrative isn’t quite linear; the POVs are constantly changing without warning, the background characters are constantly interrupting the narrative with their thoughts, and the story about the 2 men is being told to a mysterious “you” character, which makes this a story-within-a-story. This is why this book is so difficult to understand, but it’s also why it is so unique, and I definitely think that deserves some merit!
While the story was good, it unfortunately never fully resonated with me. I couldn’t even tell you exactly why. I just know that I didn’t connect with the characters, and I felt absolutely nothing while reading this. I will remember this book solely because it was strange and unique. The characters and the plot didn’t leave any impression on me. It’s as simple as that.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Not many thoughts, because this book left me mostly indifferent, and that makes me unbelievably sad. I’m going to cry now. Goodbye.