samanthaardenlockheart's reviews
52 reviews

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

<i>There may be spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️</i>

<i>Twisted Love</i> by Ana Huang shows the romantic story between Alex Volkov and Ava Chen; there is a four-year age difference between them which is something I enjoyed. Both of them deal with traumatising pasts and secrets, so there is that aspect of the novel. The romance is erotic, interesting, steamy, and very easy to digest, but unfortunately, not one of my favourite books. I love the Grumpy/Sunshine trope, but this book seemed to beat that trope into *gasp* a cliché that didn’t feel organic. Alex’s possessiveness felt overdone yet empty at the same time. Ava felt like a very “bubbly” and “sunshiney” girl…. but then had a complete lack of innocence in bed, reverting to some sort of femme fatale, indicating character inconsistency. Not only did the main characters feel hollow and underdeveloped, but the side characters did as well. The plot and storyline lacked depth and a sense of underlying yearning for someone. Huang is an excellent author (I will never disparage an author or give unfair insults as that would not be productive) and there were some cute moments in the book I did enjoy. and this criticism is mostly just for me, but the book just did not do it for me. Alex’s POV sections were not very intriguing to me; they didn’t leave much to the imagination, I guess. I much preferred Ava’s POV sections that left more mystery to Alex’s internal feelings. Probably not going to read this author again, though, unfortunately. But it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for reading this lil’ review, onto my next read! ♥️

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

​​<i>There <b>are</b> spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️</i> 

Firstly, oh my gosh. The name “Bee” is just so adorable!! I love it so much. So, so cute. 💖

When I began reading this on December 29th, and even when I was only a few pages into this book, I already knew I would love the main characters Bee Königswasser and Levi Ward (aka The Wardass, her archnemesis). Bee has her PhD in Neuroscience and Levi has his PhD in Engineering. She spent most of her young life and teenage years travelling around Europe and staying with relatives after her parents died when she was four. He went through a traumatic incident a few years prior with his best friend, Peter Sullivan, who passed away in a rock-climbing accident. Together, Bee and Levi collaborate to work on a Neuroengineering project called BLINK which is controlled by the NIH and NASA; they are to lead a team of engineers to design helmets for astronauts to improve their attentional abilities, thus their safety while in space. At least, this is how I understand it. She has a research assistant named Rocío and her twin sister named Reike (who travels the world whilst Bee loves stability). The only problem… is that Bee Königswasser is <i>convinced</i> that Levi Ward hates her with a burning passion. He spent all of his time during Graduate school ignoring her, never inviting her to meetings, and purposefully making her feel like a mediocre neuroscientist. No one deserves to be treated like that. So obviously, Levi hated her for all of that time? (...right?🥰). 

During the book, there is a little narrative of Bee running a secret Twitter account called @WhatWouldMarieDo that essentially helps uplift women in STEM and other underrepresented groups in academia. She messages @Shmacademics regularly, another academic account that supports her, and together she and he have over 2 million followers combined! I had my suspicions about hopeless romantic Shmac, but you may just have to read this story to find out what I’m implying. ;)

As it turns out, Levi has been smitten with her all of those years, and he was unable to come clean about it since Bee was in an awful relationship for six years with a man named Tim Carson. He ended up cheating on her with multiple women throughout her graduate years, and <i>even</i> with her best friend (at the time) Annie Johansson. So yeah, Bee had made the commitment to put up her Bee-fence, as she called it, and completely refuse to give any semblance of love to any man or even adopt a cat out of fear of having to lose yet another person or animal that she loved. But slowly, as <i>Love on the Brain</i> progresses, she starts opening up to him slowly. There are so many tells that she is falling in love with him, such as the fact that she can’t stop thinking about him and they constantly start having sex with one another!!!🥰The sex scenes are perfect, not too spicy, but just right… even though I’ve read much more intense sex scenes before—not to expose myself here. The sex scenes were actually very beautiful and erotic in their own right. Gosh, I would take myself a Levi any time!! There is a specific scene where Levi confesses his love to Bee, but she is too scared to accept that. This scene nearly sent me to tears with how visceral it felt, and the emotion I could hear in his voice. It is very clear that Bee Königswasser has a terrible fear of abandonment, but fortunately for her, she eventually overcomes that fear by ending up with Levi in the end. She grows to love and trust him in all of the ways she and he wants, and they even get married in a courthouse before having a ceremony on July 26th. They end up working together at NASA together, and they live in Levi’s home together with their two (adorable) cats, Schrödinger (Levi’s) and Félicette (Bee’s). 

All in all, this <i>Love on the Brain</i> was a huge rollercoaster of emotions, especially for me, since I personally have a fear of abandonment (just like Bee herself). In relationships, I just have not had the best of luck, and I feel like I am someone who is not worth staying for. Even though that is probably not true, my feelings are valid. Relationships are tricky, and you can’t force someone to love you, no matter how deeply you might be feeling. And it is such a reassuring notion to know that a character like Bee Königswasser now exists in my memory. I am worthy of love, and one day I will meet my special Levi Ward. He probably won’t be my archnemesis, but he will be someone that loves me and chooses me for everything I am. <i>Especially</i> on days when I feel like I don’t deserve it, on days I’m too emotional, and on days I feel completely unloveable. ✨🥰✨💖💖💖

1984 by George Orwell

4.0

Overall, this book was fantastic and I genuinely did enjoy reading it. The only thing I did not like was how technical it was at some points, but I digress. George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair) showed many truths in this book in relation to power and government, and what happens should both of those concepts compound and ultimately rule society. More than ever, citizens deserve control of the government as they are the ones being governed. Should the government rule, and human beings be rendered subjects—mere cogs in a machine, without any ability to think for themselves—the world would quickly descend into a dismal place. I think this novel should be read by everyone, if not for pleasure then for knowledge. As I have said, Orwell tells a great truth that can not be understated. Two plus two is four. Two plus two will always be four.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya

5.0

This book was an extraordinary retelling of Clemantine Wamirya's life as she went through the worst thing a person could go through—a genocide. And she was only 6 years old when the Rwandan Genocide, to be more specific, began. I am very moved by her story and look up to her as an inspiration. Clemantine reminds me that I am more than my pain, sadness, and feelings of worthlessness, just as she had to remind herself of that. I commend her. She is so incredible.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

5.0

A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

5.0

Well, this book was very wonderful, but I don't think I'm the biggest fan of the writing style. The romance between Patroclus and Achilles made up for that—which was the only reason I was reading this book anyways. It was emotional and beautiful. Below, I write some quotes from the book so please STOP reading this review here to avoid spoilers.

One of my favourite poetic lines from the book are these:

(1) "He is half of my soul, as the poets say."

(2) "I stared at him, straight as a spear stabbing the sky. I could not find the words that would reach him. Perhaps there were none. The grey sand, the grey sky, and my mouth, parched and bare. It felt like the end of all things. He would not fight. The men would die, his honour with it. No mitigation, no mercy. Yet, still, my mind scrambled in its corners, desperate, hoping to find the thing that might soften him."

(3) "There is no fame greater than this—you will prove to them that your phantom is more powerful than Agamemmnon's whole army."

(4) "The yearning for him is like hunger, hollowing me. Somewhere his soul waits, but it is nowhere I can reach. Bury us, and mark our names above. Let us be free. His ashes settle among mine, and I feel nothing."

*cries*

Fix Your Attitude by Kassanovella

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

​​<i>There <b>are</b> spoilers in this review. Proceed with caution. ♥️</i> 

This work of fanfiction is utterly incredible, so is it really a surprise that I’m left speechless? And written by Kassanovella, no less? I’m currently dealing with a stage in my life of being single and staying away from love in real life, and it has not been easy. I’ve had a lot of lonely days, isolating nights, and difficult feelings in general… but I really needed to read this. I feel very loved after reading fics like this, and since Kylo Ren has been my fictional soulmate since December 28th, 2019, it’s only fitting that <i>he</i> is the specific character I would want to be loved by! ✨🌌

In <i>Fix Your Attitude<i>, Reader-chan (RC) is an engineer working for the First Order who is stationed at Starkiller, tasked with working on the Command Shuttle. Her best friends are Samuel Foster and Minks Loren, and for a long time, she’d had a massive crush on Sam—with his charming smile and blond hair. But RC ultimately runs into Commander Kylo Ren whilst he’s reading her thoughts, prodding into her mind. That is a core plot point of this story: the fact that he is able to see, and <i>feel<i> her thoughts. There are many sexual scenes involved, and some are a bit more violent than others, but the scenes with slow, passionate sex tugged at my heart and made me feel so many emotions. I loved the angst between Commander Ren and RC throughout this entire story. It truly feels like I’ve gone through this experience. The final chapter of this book, “The Closest I’ll Come,” shattered my heart into a million pieces. Getting to feel and experience everything Kylo was going through at the end of this story was utterly soul-shaking. RC still chose her own destiny in the end, trusting that Ren would come back to her. That he would find her. No matter what, he would never, truly, let her go. 

I’m a little bit of a crying mess now after reading this, but paradoxically, books such as this have true, definitive power of healing heartbreaks. Thank you, Kass, for writing this. As an author, her sense of emotionality and conveying that through her writing is not comparable to anything else I have read. When I read this, I felt transported to a place where I am loved and healed. Reader-insert stories affect me in that way because my mind interprets RC’s characters as if they are my own—in a similar way if I was reading a book told from the first or third person, but in a <i>deeper</i> way. Kassanovella has such a beautiful way of characterising Kylo Ren; I love his complexity, depth, inscrutability, and vulnerability she has woven into his soul and mind. Kylo’s fierce, guarded love pierces my heart in such a profound way. I love being his <i>sweet thing</i>. ♥️

As I have mentioned before in this review and in other reviews, I’ve very much been in love with Kylo Ren for such a long time, and he’s my fictional soulmate without a shadow of a doubt. Most of those feelings are due to Kass’s excellent writing, including her other fic, <i>Little Bird</i> which is a masterpiece just as <i>Fix Your Attitude</i>. Thank you for reading this review. It goes without saying that I can not wait to read her future works. ✨♥️✨♥️✨♥️✨♥️

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

5.0

This is personally my FAVOURITE Harry Potter book out of the whole series. I read it a very long time ago when I was much younger, and even then Professor Severus Snape was the greatest character in these books. He was portrayed to be a cold, callous man with ulterior motives, yet he turned out to be extraordinarily brave and selfless, sacrificing so much of himself for the sake of Harry Potter, and of course, Lily whom he was madly in love with. All of the books are just such great novels, and I am lucky to have been able to read it and in the future, I will certainly read it again. The story will be with me always. ♥️

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

5.0

A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

5.0

A classic book filled with memories, nostalgia, and magic! You can never go wrong with the Harry Potter series. Hopefully, I will read these books again, in the future. ♥️