sarahkorn's reviews
148 reviews

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

How could Harry Styles smut be so good?

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

challenging emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

TJR is a master. While this is not my favorite of her books, somehow she still was able to make me give two shits about tennis. Great characters, great pacing, and great dialogue. No one does it like her!

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Incredible slow burn historical fiction. I loved learning more about the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary and the printing industry at the time.

I was not prepared for the last 100 pages or so, once they got to WW1, to competely destroy me...definitely not light reading but beautiful nonetheless.

A Trip of One's Own by Kate Wills

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

Nice quick, light read -- perfect for a flight! I loved reading about the intrepid female travelers alongside the author's own story. The COVID ending was poignant but made it a little less evergreen and I likely won't read it again.

Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti
Did not finish book. Stopped at 52%.

I was so excited for this book and tried to push through but I was so bored and uninterested I DNF-ed around 200 pages in. I really couldn't connect or sympathize with Advika at all. She went along with this marriage to an older guy she didn't really even seem to be into (the book jacket made it seem like a whirlwind romance...where was it?!), presumably for a career bump, but then when she got it she squandered it. The only time she wasn't fully apathetic was when she was berating her parents and friend (but not also enemy?) Olive for not being entirely focused on her and her issues. I think she was supposed to be read as dynamic and human, while flawed, but if she gets a redemption arc it comes too late because I felt like she was both bitter and robotic so I checked out. I was hoping for a glitzy, whirlwind story a la Evelyn Hugo, but it sadly missed the mark for me.

Happy Place by Emily Henry

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

4.5

I am generally fairly mid when it comes to Emily Henry (sweet, but not particularly resonant) and after hearing mixed reviews of Happy Place, I was on the fence.  It did take some time to really connect with the characters and look past their overly saccharine, youthful way of relating to each other, but by halfway through, I was hooked.

What I loved most was not the romance (TBH there are much better second chance romances, like Seven Days in June) but the themes of friendship, of growth, of doing the shit that makes you happy and at peace -- your Happy Place, if you will -- really got me. The B plots are what gave this book a 4.5⭐ ranking.

Spare by Prince Harry

slow-paced

3.75

I genuinely enjoyed the juicy gossip, though while it's clear Harry and his family have gone through a lot of terrible things, it's still hard to have much sympathy for a prince. The Oprah interview, and the Netflix series, and now a surely bestselling book...at a certain point it feels like an overly desperate quest for public vindication and a money grab. I don't regret reading it, but my feelings are overall complicated.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.0

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

3.75

This book did not fully live up to the hype for me. I appreciated an older, divorced heroine and complicated family dynamics. The celebrity romance element was sweet but under developed in my opinion. Leo could have been the movie's camera guy and the storyline could have still worked. Nora's character was easier to connect with, I am glad she got her HEA but I also wish she had more of a redemption arc separate from Leo. At a point I was kind of waiting for either her to realize that she's worthy on her own or for them to reconcile, but it took a while to pick a lane and once it did it wrapped everything up a little hastily in my opinion.