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stardustandrockets's reviews
374 reviews
Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert
3.0
I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I thought I would. Everything seemed super forced from the relationship to the writing. I'll probably still read the second one, but not any time soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual content
Minor: Chronic illness, Grief, Outing, Injury/Injury detail
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
5.0
I would honestly read anything John Green writes, but this book is fascinating. It weaves the history of tuberculosis with one young man's story of living and surviving the disease. I learned so much about history in general, how everything really is tuberculosis, and it's a disease of health inequality.
Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage
4.0
I enjoyed this one way more than Done and Dusted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
All I'll say is I'm glad it ended the way it did. Given how The Hunger Games ended (I was massively disappointed), I hope this either stays a standalone, or we get another book. Either way, I'm not at all mad at how this one ended.
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
medium-paced
5.0
I think this is my favorite Ali Hazelwood book yet. (Sorry Jack and Elsie. 🫣)
I really loved the exploration of how trauma (physical and emotional/mental) plays a big part in performing (in anything, not just sports). Scarlett is coming off a major injury that led to needing surgery and physical therapy. She's got a mental block. Talk therapy is mildly helping. We learn later on in the book the exact reason she has a block and it's thanks to Lukas talking Scarlett through it. We learn he lost his mom at a young age and went through something similar to Scarlett. Even if it wasn't a physical injury, grief is a powerful thing and it takes time to heal. I enjoyed seeing the parallels between Lukas and Scarlett.
That said, I don't think this was Ali's spiciest book. It was very on par with everything else she's written. Though, other than Lukas being yet another "big dick" love interest, it felt a bit less cookie-cutter than the rest of her books. But the sex scenes were very typical of Ali's writing regardless of kink exploration and power dynamics. Because aside from the exchange of checklists at the beginning of their relationship, all we really got was the power dynamics. Other stuff was lightly touched on/discussed, but not shown on the page. (Which is fine by me.)
The story was fleshed out and I felt it had more meat that some of the other STEMinist books. Don't get me started on Pen. I knew she was going to be a problem from the beginning. I'm glad things worked out and she came around, but damn. What she did wasn't right.
Overall this gets a 5 star rating from me. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to books and I think doing this on audio was absolutely the move. Lukas' voice actor was *chef's kiss* 🥰
I really loved the exploration of how trauma (physical and emotional/mental) plays a big part in performing (in anything, not just sports). Scarlett is coming off a major injury that led to needing surgery and physical therapy. She's got a mental block. Talk therapy is mildly helping. We learn later on in the book the exact reason she has a block and it's thanks to Lukas talking Scarlett through it. We learn he lost his mom at a young age and went through something similar to Scarlett. Even if it wasn't a physical injury, grief is a powerful thing and it takes time to heal. I enjoyed seeing the parallels between Lukas and Scarlett.
That said, I don't think this was Ali's spiciest book. It was very on par with everything else she's written. Though, other than Lukas being yet another "big dick" love interest, it felt a bit less cookie-cutter than the rest of her books. But the sex scenes were very typical of Ali's writing regardless of kink exploration and power dynamics. Because aside from the exchange of checklists at the beginning of their relationship, all we really got was the power dynamics. Other stuff was lightly touched on/discussed, but not shown on the page. (Which is fine by me.)
The story was fleshed out and I felt it had more meat that some of the other STEMinist books. Don't get me started on Pen. I knew she was going to be a problem from the beginning. I'm glad things worked out and she came around, but damn. What she did wasn't right.
Overall this gets a 5 star rating from me. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to books and I think doing this on audio was absolutely the move. Lukas' voice actor was *chef's kiss* 🥰
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol