stateofgrace's reviews
274 reviews

To Sir Phillip, With Love: Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

3.75

I had really high expectations for this book because I liked Eloise so much. Eloise's personality was really able to shine in this book. It's very clear that she's stubborn, independent, scrappy, sarcastic, and outspoken. I liked how much agency Eloise had at the beginning of the novel. I liked that it was established that Eloise chose to be a spinster rather than marry a man she didn't love. Thus, it felt very in character that Eloise would take matters into her own hands and disappear in the middle of the night to live with Phillip. However, I did not like that her agency was taken away from her and she would all but forced by her brothers to marry Phillip. As a love interest, Phillip felt very middle-of-the-road to me. I liked that he was able to go toe-to-toe with Eloise, but I wish they had more chemistry together. 

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

3.5

Definitely not what I expected, and not in a good way. I loved Penelope — I loved her cleverness and her character growth to learn to be more outspoken. I hated Colin — his misogynistic attitude towards Penelope really turned me off of their romance. For most of the book Penelope was afraid of Colin and his reaction towards her being Lady Whistledown which really infuriated me. I wanted Colin to be proud of Penelope and her accomplishments. Overall, because the romance plotline fell so flat, I found it difficult to enjoy this book.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

4.0

Decent thriller with an atmospheric setting and a lot of unexpected twists and turns. While I haven't been a fan of Alex Michaelides' narrators in his past two books (I'm just not a fan of the whole psychologically damaged narrator trope), in this book, I found Elliot to be an interesting narrator. 

The setting — a secluded Greek island in the middle of a howling windstorm — was my favorite part of this book. The descriptions were very well written. 

The Messy Lives of Book People by Phaedra Patrick

3.25

The set-up was interesting but the mystery elements weren't enough to save the boring plot. The characters were difficult to relate to. I could tell that the author wanted Liv and Essie (and Georgia) to come across as charming and quirky, but I just wasn't charmed by any of the characters. Liv's relationship troubles is one of the strongest plot threads throughout the novel, but I hated the way that it was wrapped up. I never got the sense that Liv's husband or sons ever actually learned to respect her.

The writing itself wasn't great. There were a lot of grammatical errors and at least two occasions where the wrong character's name was used. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing, which makes me wonder how this book made it through the editing process. 

The Women by Kristin Hannah

5.0

One of my new favorites in the historical fiction genre! I'm not particularly educated about the Vietnam War and the author did a really good job at introducing me to the historical reality of the war. The characters were well developed and the plot was well crafted. I really liked that it focused on the experiences of women, both during the war and after the war. 

There were so many devastating moments throughout the book that really made me grapple with the reality of the Vietnam War. I felt so connected to the characters that I really empathized with everything that Frankie went through.

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

4.75

Despite an incredibly silly (and intriguing!) premise, I found the message to be very inspiring!

I liked Lauren’s character. I liked seeing how her perspective changed as she came to terms with the husbands. I found the plot to be a little slow at first (hence why this book took me three weeks to read) but once I got into it I was invested! I really liked Lauren's friendship with Bohai.

I really enjoyed the ending. I thought that it made a lot of sense to Lauren’s character arc that she didn’t get to know Sam.

XX by Angela Chadwick

4.0

The plot leaned more towards speculative fiction and literary fiction than science fiction and thriller. I was really interested in how the technology and science of the Ovum-to-Ovum innovation converged with the societal and political response to the new technology. Even though it was science fiction, it felt very realistic.

My favorite part of this book is Jules's character arc of coming to terms with her feelings about being a parent. The final twist —

the fact that the eggs were mislabelled, meaning that the baby might not actually be the biological child of Rosie and Jules

— did a really good job of resolving Jules's character arc. In particular, I loved this quote from the end of the book:  

“I see now that the merging of blood that once held the promise of an idyllic future was nothing but a happy fantasy. We will make this child ours through love. And sheer hard work.” 

This book really grapples with homophobia, so be warned that the amount of homophobia in this book is staggering. It isn't really resolved either — it's clear to the reader that this is something that Rosie and Jules will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

4.0

The premise was super interesting — a girl who was told the exact duration of every relationship before it even started. I liked the main characters: Daphne, Hugo, and Jake. Daphne had good chemistry with both Hugo and Jake which made it more exciting to find out which man she ended up with.

I thought that the beginning was a bit slow. I think that the author added too many flashbacks to Daphne's previous relationships — it was hard to keep the characters straight when we were introduced to like six ex-boyfriends. Plus, all of the ex-boyfriends were very one-note, which made them pretty uninteresting to read about.

The ending was the best part. Everything from Chapter Thirty-Three onward was perfect!

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

4.25

Thought-provoking social commentary written in a way that was enjoyable to read. The book grapples with race and class in an interesting way, allowing the main characters to be both right and wrong at different times within the book. This book leaves you with a lot to think about. 

The characters were all very well-written. Alix and Emira were both written with a lot of nuance, which made their actions feel very believable. There was an interesting juxtaposition between Emira’s lack of ambition versus Alix’s over-ambition. I enjoyed the bond between Emira and Briar. 

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

3.5

There was so much good buildup in the beginning and then the ending kind of let me down. I was expecting a much bigger twist at the ending, and while there was a final twist, it felt pretty unbelievable to me.

The fact that Hudson and Eve were in a friends-with-benefits relationship and it never came up during Eve's narration of their affair means that Eve must not have known that he was a student, despite the fact that he was the school's star quarterback.

Furthermore, that final twist completely undercut any message about how abuse is inherent within student/teacher relationships.

By presenting a positive student/teacher relationship between Hudson and Eve, the author is basically claiming that student/teacher relationships can be healthy as long as the student is mature enough.

The author did a very good job of keeping the character's voices very unique across different perspectives. Addie reads as a teenager while Eve and Nate read as adults, both in their own narration as well as in others' narration. 

Overall, while I found Part II to be disappointing, Part I was very compelling to read. The slow build of the relationship between Mr. Bennett and Addie had me on edge. The different manipulation tactics that he used on Addie were extremely unnerving to read.