vinreads's reviews
82 reviews

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
The premise was interesting, and I was hooked at first, but the more I went on, and the longer it took to actually get to the plot, the more bored I was. It jumped around too much for my liking, and I just wasn't willing to wait over 100 pages to get to the "Studio Ghibli" vibes I was promised were found within this book. 
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I guess I expected more from what was hailed as Coriolanus' origin story. I thought I'd be getting his villain backstory, when instead it ended on an odd note that sort of assumed he'd just continue to rise to power. He didn't go through anything so horrific that would cause him to really change his ways that much. He was quite the pacifist, who sided with his friend almost up to the end, pretty much. He didn't much prefer violence and hated seeing the tributes being killed off, especially for nothing. He didn't agree with the war, nor with the hunger games themselves and was constantly defying authority. He was nothing like the man we know now, and I was sort of disappointed because I thought maybe at the very least his beloved Lucy Gray would die and that would sort of be his villain origin, but no. We didn't even get an inkling as to why he might've started down the path he ended up on, or who pushed him towards that path. The "villains" of the story weren't even that strong of villains. I expected a lot more villainy and honest to God sickening violence from the two people who were made out to be the bad guys in this. Sure, they had their hand in something terrible, but they were more passive villains than anything. I was informed that this book wasn't worth it and to just wait for the next book, and unfortunately, it turned out to be true. Not the best hunger games book I've read. 
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The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 1%.
Realized the chapter marker on Kindle read: 1 hour 13 minutes left in chapter. I've dnfed another book this month with hour long chapters and stated I don't do that. I need a place to pause, because my brain won't let me stop reading until I can find a good place to stop, and if chapters are 173 pages long, I'm not stopping til I finish all 173, and I can't veritably do that. I'm sure the book is amazing, I've heard great things, but it's just not for me, with the "chapter" lengths. 
The Truth About White Lies by Olivia A. Cole

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was brutal, but needed. A look at racism and white supremacy from the eyes of a white person who lies complicit in others' hate. I stayed up until 2:30 am reading this because I couldn't put it down. I think everyone deserves to read this at least once, to really sink into the thought of what white people say and do as microagressions and even delving into hate crimes and white nationalism, because there's an abundance of it, especially in this day and age. In this book, we get a look at racism through the eyes of a white person who isn't so naive to believe her boyfriend isn't a white supremacist. She knows that he's a bad person. She watches his sister throw microagressions at someone who should be her friend, and she does nothing to stop it. She's a bystander in many instances of racism, towards her friends, and towards people she's never met. She doesn't change, and that's the point. To say that a white person would be more willing to go along with racism than to stand up against it is a hard but needed truth. Most white people won't say anything, and it's sad, but true. This book is meant to make white people think about any times they may have witnessed racism and said nothing, or been complicit themselves in racism. It's an eye opener, one that a lot of the population, especially here in the US, needs. 
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Love and Other Flight Delays by Denise Williams

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was a sweet novella comp that reminded me of Ali Hazelwood's novellas, except I think I loved these more. Short, sweet, and to the point, except I'd only wished for more. Williams has a way of making you root for all the characters; the main characters, side characters, and background characters, without taking away from the main character's stories. All the novellas revolved around love found in an airport, and it was a cute unique idea I hadn't read about yet, which makes for an interesting read. Of course, authors can always come up with original ideas based off the same plot and tropes, but I like when I can dive into something I've never read about before, and this was definitely it. I mean c'mon, a dog grooming business in an airport? Originality at it's best. I only almost wish we had a full version of Jess and Jack's second chance romance, except I don't know all of Williams' works so it might already exist. 
Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I have mixed feelings about how this book handled the character development of the main character. It's clear that she's traumatized from all she's been through, but she constantly reverts back to her old self sabotaging ways, and it really seems like she doesn't learn from what she was taught in her session of therapy with Rylie. Obviously one session isn't enough to change someone entirely but it's like she didn't listen to any of what was said. I love books that handle character development well, so I'm really stuck at a crossroads here. I can't really say Eva went through a radical change, but she definitely did start to accept that Rylie had changed, and for the better. I can see why she'd have trust issues, especially being a naive young college student who thought she was in love with someone she'd known for a few months. To be hurt by a rejection and ghosting is valid, but to hold onto that resentment for six years is a little too much. This is one of the rare times where I'm in disagreeance with an FMC and actually think the MMC deserves better. Rylie definitely did, and he was for sure my favorite part of the book. I didn't hate this book, it was fun and romantic, but every part of it was good except for Eva. I would've liked to see a less bitchy FMC, but again, I can understand why she is that way. She went through a lot at the hands of her job and it's worth noting that women face a lot in their work industries and are expected to just put up with it because they're women and they're strong. She's right; she shouldn't have to be strong. Women should be allowed to be upset that they're being treated horribly. It's really a tough call for me on this one. I'd probably read it again, but I definitely didn't expect this from how hyped up it was. 
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When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This book reads like a classic, yet is written in 2024. Its beautiful prose and language is a bit slow to get through, but has left me wondering what I'm going to do now- how I'm going to just move on and read another book like I didn't just read the singlehanded most beautiful book in a very long time. The cast is diverse and nothing is as it seems at first glance. Characters you think you'll hate turn out to have the saddest back stories and things going on in their lives that really make you feel for them, and it's really truly hard to choose a favorite amongst them all. The villains are realistic and the book well thought out in terms of time period and setting. You can tell a great deal of thought and love and labor and care went into the making of this, and I fully expect to see this book on every major newspaper's best seller best of the year list, like Cat Sebastian's You Should Be So Lucky was so highly accoladed by the NYT and several other outlets last year. 

I fear that we are skipping backwards in terms of progression here in the US, and reading this book felt eerily similar to some of the things we might face regarding sexuality and gender in these coming years, and I think this book will be a really helpful read to anyone who feels lost or scared, to know that there is a piece of fiction that echoes present issues but retains the sentiment that there's nothing wrong with being the way you are. 
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 1%.
The chapters would take hours to get through. What kind of book has 560 pages but only 8 chapters? Immediately DNFd. Couldn't read Jandy Nelson because of the 70-100 page chapters so I'm not gonna fuck with this one. 
Stolen Chances by Clio Evans

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've been waiting for this for so long and it didn't disappoint! To be fair, Clio Evans books never disappoint me. I will admit that this isn't so much a standalone, and it would be better off read as a series, as you sort of miss vital details if you just jump right into the second one. They're of course explained, but the details of book two make much more sense if you read book one first. That's obviously my mistake, and as a result my reading experience was a bit diminished, which is nothing against the author herself. I loved the amount of suspense in mystery in this irregardless. It was done well, and didn't make me cringe like a lot of mystery suspense books do. I do think that this was more mystery forward with a romance subplot, but I didn't mind and I loved the relationship between Colt, Sammy, and Sarah. I need more polyamorous books in my life and this one was really amazing. 
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By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

There's a hidden history the government doesn't want you to know about the oppressed they pillaged, raped, and stole the rights, lives, and lands of. This book highlights several such instances that you will never find in history books, but deserves to see the light of day. I'm glad that this book is so highly requested; I got it on a skip the line loan at Libby, because of how long the line was otherwise. I feel incredibly privileged to have read a piece of such vulnerable history, about the taking of what was never ours, as white people, and the sacrification of the livelihoods of so many Native people, especially the Muscogee. This book makes you put your own life into perspective, and realize just how hard the Muscogee fought for their own rights to live and exist in land that was theirs during a time in which it was so freely and illegally taken, then given, then taken back from them by people who had no business doing so. The prologue starts out powerfully depicting Nagle's family tradition of spitting on Andrew Jackson's resting site, an action that sets the precedent for the rest of the book's tone and contents. It's a hard read for sure, but one that many people should read up on; people deserve to know the history of the lands we live on-- the true history, as told by someone who was passed down these stories from generation to generation, dating all the way back to the people who lived it. 
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