shaylee_reads's reviews
207 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my all time favorite trilogy! I absolutely love this series and it will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Note: this book is VERY, VERY dark!! Please look at the content warnings because this book deals with a lot of triggers and trama.

Content Warnings

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Wayward son wasn't as good as carry on but none the less I did in enjoy it. I enjoyed being able to revist Simon and baz and just visiting the world again.
This book took me so long to finish but I did start to read this book when I was in a reading slump so it not all on the book. This book didn't seem to have a lot happing it and I did find it quite boring at times.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

One of my all time favorite rainbow Rowell books and one of my favorite books of all time.

The Awakening / The Struggle by L.J. Smith

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Read this book in middle school and I remember enjoying it. I do plan on rereading this series so I will write an actual review when I do.

Learn My Lesson by Katee Robert

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐⭐.75/5

Sadness:💧/5

Spice:🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

Tropes & Kinks: Polyamorous Relationship, BDSM Relationship, BDSM Elements (Pain play, domination and submission), and Miscommunication trope.

Learn My Lesson by Katee Robert is the second book in the Wicked Villain's series and it's a modern retelling of Hercules that asks the question what if Hades ran a BDSM club and what would it be like if Hades, Meg, and Hercules where in a polyamorous relationship.

Katee Robert is quickly making her way up the list as one of my all time favorite adult romance authors! I absolutely loved this book, it was on a whole different level then the first book Desperate Measures.

Learn My Lesson is a Hercules retelling that honestly makes so much sense and works so well with the story we already know. Katee Robert did an amazing job with this story and it was written and put together so well.

My favorite part of this book has to be the relationship between Hades and Meg. The relationship between these two was so well done and the angst their relationship brought to this book absolutely killed me in the best way possible. Hades and Meg just work so well together and I absolutely loved them! It was very obvious that both of them love each other deeply but their past had made it hard for them to come to each other with their problems and properly communicate. It absolutely melted my heart to see how much Hades loved Meg and how much he wanted to give her everything she wanted. I loved watching their relationship grow and them work on the struggles they were facing in their relationship. Honestly I would kill to read a book about how Hades and Meg's relationship started.

They way Katee Robert wrote the Polyamorous relationship was amazing and so well done. Hercules joining the relationship between Hades and Meg was developed very nicely and I loved watching Hades and Meg begin to fall for Hercules as the story went on. I loved the way Hercules fit into their relationship so well and helped Hades and Meg with some of the problems they had in their relationship. Hercules' soft, caring personality was a perfect mix with Hades and Meg's hard, sharp personality and he balanced them out perfectly.

I think this is a great book to show how polyamorous relationship work and how they develop for people who don't understand what a polyamorous relationship is and how it could possibly work in our monogamous world.

I loved the characters so much, especially Hades who was my favorite point of view to read from. I loved how Hades and Meg show a very hard front but in reality they are very caring and protective of their people. That was one of my favorite aspects of Meg's personality (besides all of her amazing sass) was how much she cared about the people working at the club.

We got a lot more character development and backstory in this book than we did in the last. We got a lot more backstory to the characters then we did with Jasmine and Jafar. This book was less of just sex and had a lot more scenes that told you more about the characters and their past and I really appreciated that. I felt like I knew the characters a lot more and was more invested in them and their relationships. I also felt that the relationships in this book were a lot more developed.

Not only did we get more character development in this book but we also learned more about the world and how carver city worked and we learned more about the different territories and the people who run them. We were also introduced to more of the future characters of later stories in this book such as Aurora, Malone (Maleficent), Gaston, and the beast.

The smut in this book is written just as amazing as you would expect from Katee Robert and the way she writes and shows the BDSM community I feel is so well done and quite accurate. Though honestly, I feel like alot of the sex scenes where quite tamer then I thought they would be, I mean come one Hades and Meg run a BDSM sex dungeon, I was expect a lot of rough, kinky sex scenes and don't get me wrong their defiently was a few scenes like that (there is a 20 page BDSM sex scene) but honestly it wasn't as rough as I expected it to be. You can definitely tell that Katee Robert has done quite a lot of research into the BDSM community and cares a lot about showing it properly.

I only have two small problems with this book, the first being it was kinda slow at the beginning and it took me a bit to get into the story and feel invested.

The main problem I had with this book, was also a problem I had with the first one, Desperate Measures and that is that the big problem is solved way too quickly and easily. The main problem they run into is solved in like a span of ten pages and I just wish it was a little bit more thought out and developed.

Overall, Learn My Lesson is a Hercules retelling that you never knew you needed and is perfect for the kinky Disney lovers out there. I can definitely see this being my favorite out of the entire Wicked Villain's series and I absolutely loved it. I can't wait to read Tink and Hooks book next.

Content Warnings

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness:💧💧💧/5

Note: Beware before reading this book that it is a very dark book and can be very hard to read at moments.
Might write a full review later.

Content Warnings

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

Ratings:

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Diversity:⭐⭐⭐⭐ /5

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness: 💧/5

Spice:🌶️ /5

The Simon Snow Trilogy has come to end and honestly I'm quite sad about it. Honestly I didn't really have that high of hopes for this book because of how disappointing Wayward Son was but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. This book took me about a day and a half to read, honestly I had expected it to take me a bit to get into the story but I was wrong it had hooked me from page one and I did not want to stop reading it.

Not only do we get to see more of the love story between Simon and Baz but we also get two more love stories in this book. Yep that's right both Penny and Agatha get a love interest in this book and I absolutely adored that. Actually one of my favorite aspects of this book was the love story between Penny and Shepard who I completely loved since the moment they interacted in Wayward Son.

All those people who kept saying Agatha was a lesbian must be so happy right now because they where in fact right. Honestly Agatha liking women makes so much sense to me because in the first book I never felt like she truly wanted to be with Simon and was just with him because everyone wanted her to be and I felt like her interest with Baz was just because she liked the chase and wanted him to want her. Because of this I absolutely loved that we got to see Agatha find someone that she can truly love.

There is one thing I have to say about Agatha's relationship was that I wish it was more developed. It felt very instalovie and I wish we had got to see their feelings for each other grow and a little bit more.

Speaking of Agatha, I absolutely despised Agatha in the other books. I thought she was mean, selfish, and only truly cared about herself but this book actually made me like her more. We got to see what it was like for her being Simon's girlfriend and the difficulties that came with it that we didn't get to see.

Now let's talk about the romance that we are all reading this book for… Simon and Baz. I went into this book convinced that either they were going to break up or one of them was gonna die and I'm so happy that did not happen. I loved seeing them start fresh with their relationship and work on their communication and heal together. Though I do have to say them breaking up for like 20 pages was kinda pointless, I get that it was supposed to bring up the fact that Simon didn't feel like he really gave their relationship a shot in the first place but I feel like their separation should have been longer and Simon should have taken the time to be by himself and work on himself and the mental problems he was going through. Ultimately I feel if she was going to have them break up it should have been for a longer time and have more of an impact on the story and the characters personal growth.

I did love seeing them rebuild their relationship with a more stable base and seeing them grow as people together. I also loved the fact that Simon went with Baz to hunt and was trying to show Baz that he doesn't have to hide that side of him because someone loves every aspect of him and wants to be a part of every part of his life. I loved how both of them helped each other come to terms with a part of themselves that they didn't like. Baz helped Simon except the fact that he no longer had magic and Simon helped Baz except that a part of him was a vampire but that doesn't make him a terrible person. I also loved the conversation about sex and exploring it that was in this book. I could really relate to Simon and his struggle with sexual intimacy due to trauma because I myself struggle with that and it was nice to see Simon deal with that and find a safe place to explore these desires that he feels with someone who truly cares about him.

Another aspect that I loved was the fact that we got to see Simon find his family. It broke my heart that Lucy mom thought that she was alive and got away from the mage when we knew the whole time that she wasn't and I was waiting this whole book waiting for her to realize that Simon is her grandson and when she did it made me so happy. I was so happy that not only had Simon found the family he so desperately longed for but that his grandmother had found a piece of her daughter again.

One of the weakest aspects of this book is the plot. This book is very much a romance and character driven book which normally isn't a problem for me because I'm someone who will absolutely love a book if it has amazing characters that I love and has alot of romance in it but Carry On I feel like did so well combining a very interesting and addicting plot with amazing characters and romance that I absolutely loved and I just feel like Any Way The Wind Blows was missing that.

One of my biggest problems with Wayward Son was that I felt like we lost the magical aspect that we saw in Carry On but I felt like we got some of that back in this book. This book definitely had a lot more of the magical elements that I loved from the first book.

All together I enjoyed this book way more than I did Wayward Son and I'm extremely sad to have to say goodbye to Simon and Baz but I really enjoyed my time reading their story.

Content Warnings

A Trick of the Light by Lois Metzger

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Ratings:

Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters: ⭐⭐/5

Diversity: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness: 💧/5

In May for mental health awareness month I was reading books that dealt with mental illness and I decided to pick up this one because it dealt with anorexia.

Disclaimer: It's been a while since I read this book so my review isn't going to be as extensive as I would like it to be.

I enjoyed this book, I liked the way it showed mental health but I do wish it was a little longer and went more in depth in his recovery from anorexia. I just felt like it went too fast and I wasn't really able to connect with the characters as much as I wish I could. Overall I really like the way it showed and talked about anorexia.

Content Warnings

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐/5

Diversity:⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness:💧💧/5

I decided to read this because I wanted a book to listen to while at work and I saw this audiobook was only 3 hours and after I read what this book is about I thought I would give it a shot. I ended up finishing it while at work and I really enjoyed it.

This book is a really well written book that deals with a wide range of important topics, one of the biggest one being what it's like dealing with mental and physical disabilities and how the world treats you. Some of the other topics being sexual assault, teenage pregnancy, abuse, the foster system, Abandonment, and adoption. I felt like this book dealt with these topic's beautifully and really showed you what it's like to have mental disabilities in our world today.

I really enjoyed how this book was written in a diary type of format and I honestly really enjoyed the writing.

All together I really enjoyed this book and I'm really glad I picked it up. It tells a really important story that I think everyone needs to hear and it is done beautifully.

Content Warnings

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Diversity:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐⭐.75/5

Sadness:💧💧💧💧💧/5

Sadly I didn't love this book as much as I loved the first one. Don't get me wrong this book was amazing but unlike the first one I did have some small problems with this book but we are going to start with the things that I loved.

First of all I loved that we got to learn more about characters that we didn't know much about from the first book such as Wylan and Jasper. At the end of the last book I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about them but by the end of this book, I had fallen so in love with Wylan and he became my second favorite male character in the whole book and I absolutely loved his relationship with Jasper.

As a midsize, dyslexic, ADHD, Queer, nonbinary person I found that I could relate to Nina, Wylan, and Jasper the most. I absolutely loved reading a story with characters who struggled with the same things I do and watching them get over these struggles. Even though it broke my heart seeing the way Wylans dad treated him because I understood what Wylan was going through and to have a parent not love you because of something you didn't choose hurts.

One of the greatest aspects of this book is the relationships. I loved watching the growth between Nina and Matthias, Inej and Kaz, and Jasper and Wylan.

The ending of this book KILLED me!! I couldn't breathe with how bad I was crying!!

Now let's talk about some of the problems I had with this book. Those problems where it took me awhile to get into this book all though that might have just been me because I know that I kinda pushed off reading this book because I didn't want the story to end and I also knew what happened to one of my favorite characters at the end so I didn't force myself to read it.

Another problem I had was with the ending, once I had finished the book it felt incomplete. I don't know how to explain it but the ending just left something to be desired. Though I did love what Kaz did for Inej in the end… honestly Kaz is such a simp for Inej. I also loved the ending between Wylan and Jesper

All together I really loved these books and the grishaverse has become one of my favorite book series and I love them deeply!

Content Warnings

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shaylee_reads's reviews 207 reviews

shaylee_reads's reviews
207 reviews