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readingwithmuggy's reviews
313 reviews
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
4.0
This book is a combo of three things I love:
- women leads
-spies
-found family
Between this book & The Rose Code, Kate Quinn writes odes to the powerful & brilliant women behind the scenes of major historical events. With a dual pov, past/present timeline, and a budding romance, I enjoyed this so much. It did feel slow at the beginning & took me a minute to get started but once I pushed through, I read like 75% of the book in 2 days.
- women leads
-spies
-found family
Between this book & The Rose Code, Kate Quinn writes odes to the powerful & brilliant women behind the scenes of major historical events. With a dual pov, past/present timeline, and a budding romance, I enjoyed this so much. It did feel slow at the beginning & took me a minute to get started but once I pushed through, I read like 75% of the book in 2 days.
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
4.0
“That’s the thing I always love best about the human race: how we pick ourselves back up over and over and just keep on going.”
If you want a sweet firefighter romance that tackles hard topics with honesty and compassion, this is the book for you. Juggling a complicated relationship with her mom, her past, and the concept of love, I found myself rooting for Cassie at practically every turn. Yes this book is cheesy in places and some reactions are not the most realistic, but that’s why we read romance in the first place. This book is nuanced and full of hard things (pls read trigger warnings before jumping in) but boy did I gain insight on forgiveness, & on navigating trauma with true empathy. I will be bringing quotes from this book to my next therapy session mark my words.
If you want a sweet firefighter romance that tackles hard topics with honesty and compassion, this is the book for you. Juggling a complicated relationship with her mom, her past, and the concept of love, I found myself rooting for Cassie at practically every turn. Yes this book is cheesy in places and some reactions are not the most realistic, but that’s why we read romance in the first place. This book is nuanced and full of hard things (pls read trigger warnings before jumping in) but boy did I gain insight on forgiveness, & on navigating trauma with true empathy. I will be bringing quotes from this book to my next therapy session mark my words.
A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross
4.5
“She let them all go because he was her home, her shelter. Her endless fire, burning through the dark.”
4.5 rounded up. I don’t think I can emphasize enough the beautiful writing that this book holds. It was captivating & action packed story about love, abuse of power, and healing the wrongs of the past. I love love loved this duology. It deserves every bit of hype it gets!
4.5 rounded up. I don’t think I can emphasize enough the beautiful writing that this book holds. It was captivating & action packed story about love, abuse of power, and healing the wrongs of the past. I love love loved this duology. It deserves every bit of hype it gets!
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
4.5
“‘Our hands can steal, or they can give. They can harm, or they can comfort. They can wound and kill, or they can heal and save. Which will you choose for your hands, Torin?’… ‘This is the way it has always been done. The way I have been taught. And sometimes we must look inward and change ourselves,’ she said.
This book was so beautiful. The imagery and world building was unmatched. It felt very slow at the beginning but don’t let that stop you from experiencing the magic that is this story. I hope this story lives in my head forever.
This book was so beautiful. The imagery and world building was unmatched. It felt very slow at the beginning but don’t let that stop you from experiencing the magic that is this story. I hope this story lives in my head forever.
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
4.5
This book is a mix of Gossip Girl, Get Out, & Pretty Little Liars. It has a very good commentary on race, class, and privilege. I don’t want to say too much, other than it’s a wild ride. I literally feel like I zipped right through it. This is destined to get you out of a reading slump!!
I Am Bunny: How a Talking Dog Taught Me Everything I Need to Know about Being Human by Alexis Devine
As someone that quickly became intrigued and semi-obsessed with following Bunny’s journey on tiktok, when I saw this audiobook it only felt natural to tune in.
If you like:
-a good narrator voice (alexis I feel like this is your calling)
-science about speech and language in animals
- mental health (dogs & humans)
- finally knowing what dogs dream about
this audiobook is for you!
If you like:
-a good narrator voice (alexis I feel like this is your calling)
-science about speech and language in animals
- mental health (dogs & humans)
- finally knowing what dogs dream about
this audiobook is for you!
The Women by Kristin Hannah
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this ARC.
This is my 13th Kristin Hannah book and I continue to love her writing so much. She is so so good at writing beloved main characters. All throughout this book, our MC, Frankie, made bad decisions, but Kristin Hannah wrote her in a way that I was able to empathize with the deep pain behind them.
This book focuses on the Vietnam War:
-the complexity’s of the war
-the hatred veterans received when they came home
-PTSD, addiction, loss & other mental health issues
-the erasure of the role women played in the war.
-found family
I laughed and I cried. Such a beautifully written story.
This is my 13th Kristin Hannah book and I continue to love her writing so much. She is so so good at writing beloved main characters. All throughout this book, our MC, Frankie, made bad decisions, but Kristin Hannah wrote her in a way that I was able to empathize with the deep pain behind them.
This book focuses on the Vietnam War:
-the complexity’s of the war
-the hatred veterans received when they came home
-PTSD, addiction, loss & other mental health issues
-the erasure of the role women played in the war.
-found family
I laughed and I cried. Such a beautifully written story.
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
3.5
I enjoyed this Clue meets Great British Bake Off mystery novel. Wraps up nicely at the end! I read 75% of it in one day so it def kept my attention. Not the craziest thriller I’ve ever read though!
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
5.0
“Lord our God, hear my prayer, the prayer of my heart. Bless the largeness inside me, no matter how I fear it. Bless my reed pens and my inks. Bless the words I write. May they be beautiful in your sight. May they be visible to eyes not yet born. When I am dust, sing these words over my bones: she was a voice.”
“Why should we contain God any longer in our poor and narrow conceptions, which are so often no more than grandiose reflections of ourselves? Let us set him free.”
This may be the most beautiful book I’ve ever read. As women were erased in the Bible, this book brought the objectification & terror that women faced to life. Showing that Jesus himself would bless the voices of women and the largeness placed inside them by the spirit of God. Oh how I have felt wrapped up in the love of Jesus in the words of this book.
“Why should we contain God any longer in our poor and narrow conceptions, which are so often no more than grandiose reflections of ourselves? Let us set him free.”
This may be the most beautiful book I’ve ever read. As women were erased in the Bible, this book brought the objectification & terror that women faced to life. Showing that Jesus himself would bless the voices of women and the largeness placed inside them by the spirit of God. Oh how I have felt wrapped up in the love of Jesus in the words of this book.
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
3.0
This book had the potential to be great but was mid at best and felt relatively chaotic. There was a lot that I had forgotten and so that made the plot move for me. If you are into war planning and lots of people dying this is the book for you. The end pissed me off & made me cry so I guess it succeeded in eliciting emotion. I’m mad. I really tried to finish before midnight but it didn’t work out. So now it’s 1:40am 2024 and I guess this is my first completed book of the year.