vinreads's reviews
82 reviews

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

I won't lie, it wasn't incredibly clear that there was a plot that went with this. I therefore spent half the book just doing the puzzles and not reading the words get the solution because I figured it was useless drivel like "Oh no, you caught me" and not ensuing plot. But there was plot, and it was kinda cool and also the detectives are rivals AND GAY and I love a secret LGBT book, and I love even more a book I can write in and solve puzzles in. Some of them had literal errors such as the puzzle that said "members of this group are rivals with members of this group" but suggested that a member of group A had the weapon that was found in the location the person from group B was in, which would mean the person in group B had the weapon, but it was revealed in the actual solution that the person from group A had the weapon. There were a couple of puzzles like that where I was literally just reading the answers because I was so confused by the contradicting sentences that I literally could not solve it, but other than that, it was fun, and I didn't mind flipping back and forth to find my answers. I picked up Vol. 2 this year, thank god because I got a wild inclination to finish Vol 1. so now I have more puzzles to do. I take this book everywhere and do puzzles in the car as a passenger, at restaurants, on my downtime at work, waiting for the next act at a concert.. you name it. I'm glad there's multiple books too.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.

I enjoy books that are dual POV, wherein you can see the internal monologue of both of the MCs, and you can see they both like each other, but still haven't overcome that roadblock in their enemies to lovers relationship. But Jackson was rejected by Emily in college 10 years ago, and now, he's back in town because he... wanted to see if there was a chance they could be together? His internal monologue screamed man obsessed. He broke up with his fiance, or it was hinted at, anyways, 10% in, that he did so because he just couldn't get over his initial rejection from Emily, who, in her POV, seemed to give less of a rats ass about him. She thought he was attractive, but she mentions in her internal monologue how much fun it would be to kick him! Her internal monologue matches her external feelings, whilst his doesn't. He's chasing a girl who, at best, thinks he's a pretty face, and I refuse to throw myself into a book where she falls for the guy who couldn't take no for an answer.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book didn't exactly capture my attention, but it was fleeting enough for me to finish it, and like it. Would I read it again? Probably if I was really bored, but I wouldn't buy a copy of it. As far as V.E. Schwab books go, not my favorite and definitely over hyped. The ending was bittersweet and that's the most emotion I felt towards the characters in this book. I liked Henry, and I liked Addie as complicated as she was, but wasn't very fond of much anyone else. I think that ... given things, and how they ended, it was bittersweet because I ended up being sort of right. Addie was meant for Henry, but not him for her. For her to end up with the one person who could remember her wouldn't have felt right, but for her to be the only person who liked Henry for him, because he was truly what she wanted, was perfect. I suppose that makes it sad that things ended the way they did, because she truly wanted him, for once in her life she was slated to get the thing she waited 300 years for, and...

she couldn't even have him.

Definitely not a super remarkable book, but not a terrible one.

Content Warnings

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Go to review page

dark sad tense slow-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

Definitely a book out of my wheelhouse, but I promised myself I'd continue to read more diverse books this year, and this seemed perfect for that. The dystopian almost hunger games likeness of it all was what intrigued me. In reality, it was like Nerve mixed with The Hunger Games, but they were killing for their freedom from jail. It was a highly publicized event. No privacy when changing, showering, trading whispers in the dark. Anything that may have been interesting gossip to the masses was theirs to hear. Nana Kwame knows how to write a think piece. A dystopian about the way the government runs their prisons that reflects on modern prison society invokes a lot of thought as to how our inmates are treated. And the ones in this book are pitted against each other, for the price of their own freedom. But they never truly get freedom, do they? And it makes you think about what they put the characters through. The way they promise them freedom in 3 years of death match battles, and some never see the light of day anyways, despite being so close to their so called freedom. Instead, they just get more marks, more tallies. They came in for a 25 year sentence on one murder charge, and incur 50 more murders because of the inmates they kill. And the world watches like it's some new sport fad like football. They watch other inmates get killed for sport. It's gory, it's gruesome, but it's sad. Especially knowing most of these incarcerated inmates are BIPOC, and that that is rooted in reality. The footnotes are sometimes fictional, but they're also sometimes entirely factual, like when it's mentioned the ratio of Black inmates to white inmates. This book is definitely not for the faint of heat, and I disliked it for how it made me feel squirmy inside, which is not to say it was a bad book.

Content Warnings

The Atlas of Us by Kristin Dwyer

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I didn't actually think this book was going to tear me apart the way it did. It's different, when you know someone who has cancer. For me, it put into perspective what it was going to mean to me, how it would affect me, knowing that the person I know who has cancer, is going to die, and very well could die at any time. I wouldn't want that, of course, because I've gotten to know him and his family and I've seen him in various states and he's a very kind person. But this book... it really made me realize just how something as evil as cancer can take so much from you. I genuinely cried. A lot. This book is very raw and I think, even if you can't relate personally, you'll cry thinking about it. You'll be enraged, because oh how I've never been enraged for a fictional character before. There's a realness to it that makes you think the author has either been through this, knew someone who has, or just had really good sensitivity readers, because it's very emotional and tears at your heartstrings in a way that makes it an incredible book, as much as it hurts.

Content Warnings

A Minotaur Tale In Prose, Being a Monster Romance for Yuletide by Kass O'Shire

Go to review page

lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

A sweet little Christmas time novella. I enjoyed reading it as a sort of little filler book, especially after reading a particularly unpleasant one. It perfectly encapsulated the holiday spirit, and not only made me feel warm inside, but intrigued me as to the beginning of nymphs, where they come from, how they come to be, set within the world of these books.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Jesus Christ. At first I thought everyone was being dumb when they said the book was a bad representation of AIDS. All I was seeing was period typical Seraphobia, and then I got to the part where one character equated an incestuous relationship with homosexuality. I should've stopped when the FMC started saying she was in love with her uncle, but foolishly, I continued on. Their whole family dynamic was fucked up. And you're telling me that after falling in love with her uncle, she fell in love with his gay widow? His gay widow who stalked her, encouraged her to drive at the age of 14, gave her cigarettes and alcohol, and made many allusions to them being in a relationship together?

Her mother was fucked up, making her brother keep his lover in the basement so she wouldn't have to see him, her sister treated her like she and it was alluded to that she was not only suicidal but sleeping with her drama teacher, and her father was just there.

And in the end, there's an unnecessary death and a monologue about how much she loved (was in love with) her uncle and also her uncles widow.

Go get therapy girl!! In fact, send your whole damn family to therapy!!

I do not understand now this book is so highly accoladed.

Content Warnings

Sinner's Isle by Angela Montoya

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. My eyes are sore, from all the crying I did. This book was a swashbuckling, romantic, adventurous fantasy and a practically perfect YA. I was enraptured every moment of the book, and it ticked off so many of my boxes when it comes to what I look for in a book. I was stunned, hopeful, pensive, brooding, shocked, and elated all at different points. There were twists and turns I didn't see coming, and some I had hoped were true, and then absolutely giddy that they were. There were pirates, and magical women, sirens, and villains and villainesses galore. Even though the pace was relatively slow for a pirate fantasy romance, I enjoyed every bit of time spent reading it, and it didn't drag like I suspected it might in the first few pages. This will be one I think of often, and reread just as much.

Content Warnings

Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-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

1.0

Raiders of the Lost Heart was the first book I read in 2024, and really hyped me up for the other books I read in the months following. I stand by the belief that the first book you read in a year sets the tone for the rest of your bookish year to come. And if that's really true, I'm screwed.

I was so excited when I found this in my B&N early. I wasn't about to open my loud mouth and tell the workers they put the book out a week to early, no sir! I should've. I was skeptical in the first place when I heard Segura's sophomore book would have nothing to do with Corrie and Ford, whom I loved. A lot of people had negative feelings about them as well, due to Ford setting out to sabotage Corrie after all they'd been through together in school. Yes, I thought Ford's underhanded tactic of dating the daughter of the man who could get him places, the man who was going to offer Corrie big things until Ford came along and swooped in and took from her the lead in the expedition where Corrie was definitely more educated was shitty, but Ford changed throughout the book. He fell for Corrie over time, and felt guilty about what he did to her. He came clean, and Corrie was rightfully mad, but he showed that he was sorry, and he kinda had a reason for being the way he was. I'm sorry, but if my mother had cancer, I'd be doing whatever I could to pay her hospital bills too!

Rafael?? He fucked with Miriam's expedition because his daddy told him to. Wah wah, I'm a grown ass man who can't think for himself. I'm supposed to feel sorry for that man? And when he feels guilty about all this but then goes, welp, guess I have no choice but to continue fucking with her dig and put everyone in danger while we're at it! Fuck that noise, honestly.

There's a million things I could nitpick about this book, too. I don't care for insta-lust, the re-using the same villain for the second book was really unoriginal. The name Rafael calls her during sex? Get outta here. The fact that the epilogue in ROTLH teased Corrie and Ford's next adventure only for it to be about Miriam? Miriam, who spends the entire book asking what would Corrie Mejia do? (WWCMD?) and then proceeding to make the stupidest goddamn decisions, endangering her crew, and then crying when her crew decides to leave. The antagonists were ruthless to her, and I kinda think they were right. She can't do this shit. She was an assistant on many digs, but never a lead, and when she suddenly gets thrust into a solo lead position, she crumbles. She doesn't grow as a person, she lets Rafael walk all over her and turn her into even more of a bumbling fool, and I'm supposed to believe that that's a forgiveable offense and she's actually in love with him after two months of forced proximity? Nah, I'm good.

If anyone needs me I'll be crying into my special edition sprayed edges signed copy of ROTLH and wondering why we couldn't have just had a Corrie and Ford sequel.

Content Warnings

Next-Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

I just felt off about the writing. I wanted to see if others felt the same way, and saw a review that said, "You can tell this author is a millennial" and that's when I knew. It was so painfully millennial "humor" that I couldn't stand it.

More...

vinreads's reviews 82 reviews

vinreads's reviews
82 reviews