MINI REVIEWS: July & August

Once again, coming in two months late with my mini review post!

Anyways, I read a lot in these months and as always did not write full reviews for, um, most of them. Literally only three of the books I read during these months got full reviews. Yikes.

Even in this post I am not going to talk about all the books I read because I don’t want to. That sounds blunt, but there are 28 and I am a busy person. Plus some of my comments on these books are just like “I enjoyed it” or “it was a fun time”.

Books that got full reviews:
BOOK REVIEW: Tell Me How You Really Feel
BOOK REVIEW: Well Met
BOOK OF THE MONTH REVIEW: A Darker Shade of Magic

and a review for Frankly in Love is coming!

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Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center:
I really enjoyed this one. I have seen some negative reviews which bring up some good points, but I flew through this one so quickly. Bree has a full review for this one here. 5/5 stars

Call it What You Want by Brigid Kemmerer
As someone who reads as much YA contemporary as I do, this was nothing new. That does not mean I did not enjoy it or it’s a bad book. I read this in one sitting and it made me cry. Kemmerer writes this narrative beautifully and authentically. I love the trope of two damaged souls finding each other at the same time. There is not much about the plot that is unique, but the writing elevates this into being a really solid YA contemporary.

Maegan’s character was a bit flat for me, but I did enjoy her relationship with her sister and seeing that grow. Rob was an interesting character and my heart hurt for him. I did like his character arc more than Maegan’s. I did like seeing them together, but their romance faded to the background (which can be good or bad depending on preference).

My favorite part was the librarian and the VERY DETAILED An Ember in the Ashes reference. We love when modern YA actually shoutouts other modern YA.

Overall, this is a very good book and if I had not seen the tropes before I probably would have been able to rate it 5 stars. 4/5 stars

*Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
Look I love this series and this book is amazing. This was a reread and I had just read this one at the end of 2018. I can’t wait for the next book and we don’t even have a release date *cries*. I love Robin and Cormoran. I love the wedding scene. I love the hospital scene. I just loved this one. I literally listened to this audiobook in like a literally over a weekend and it is a 650+ page book. 5/5 stars always

The Love Solution by Ashley Croft
I was not a fan of this one. It started promisingly enough, but by 40% it was only okay and then my 70% I was over it. I think if the author had chosen one sister (cough Molly) to focus on then it could have been a better story. I felt both plot lines were rushed and the relationships were both slowly cultivated and then rushed. All the sex scenes are fade to black, which depending on preference can be a pro or a con. A lot of things bothered me including, Niall, The ethically of the ‘Love Bug’ like…the author tries to have that discussion, but that doesn’t excuse it being a plot device, and a few of the jokes seem a *tad* problematic and are not challenged. 2/5 stars

*Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

House of Salt & Sorrows by Erin Craig
I am so bad at reviewing fantasy because most of them feel the same to me. I liked this one, did I ever want to pick it up? No. But, when I did read it I enjoyed it. I just never felt compelled to read it and I am not sure if that is because of the book or because of my weird reading mood.

I like character based stories and I just did not really care about the characters. Plus, I did not care about the romance at allll. This one is getting some hype, so maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace when I read it. 3.5/5 stars

*Thanks to the Get Underlinded booth at Yallwest for the ARC!*

No Judgements by Meg Cabot
Honestly I think most of the reason I liked this so much was because I love Meg’s humor and her writing. There isn’t anything that makes this STAND OUT, but I had so much fun with it. Plus, LOTS OF PETS.  I also would just like to thank  @K_Squared113 on Twitter for passing on this ARC to me. Honestly it was such a moment of kindness that I truly, truly appreciate. 4/5 stars

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves
-autism spectrum disorder rep

I have mixed feelings on this one. I fell in love with it so quickly and saw a lot of myself in Annika. I loved the first two-thirds, but the ending was not my fave. I do really love the cover.

*MINOR SPOILERS*: The two main issues I had with this were: first they emphasize Annika’s beauty a bit too much. In a way that makes me think that her life would be different if she wasn’t so pretty. This might be petty, but it honestly felt like it was mentioned TOO many times. I also, did not like that 9/11 is used as a plot device. There could have been many ways to end this that did not require 9/11. We did not to see Annika have to go through that to prove stuff (hella vague, but trying to keep spoilers vague) 3.5/5 stars

She’s the Worst by Lauren Spieller
First of all, idk where all the positive review for this book came from. I literally did not like anything about this book. The 1.5 stars is solely because I like the idea of exploring messy sister relationships and exploring LA.

This entire book could have been solved if the family talked to each other. Like if they sat down and had a mediated conversation, there would be no plot. I wish they had talked in the first 10 pages and I did not have to suffer through this. The parents are such bad parents that it does not even seem like they are real parents. It feels like they woke up one day and suddenly had teenage daughters. They don’t pay their daughter who literally is at their beck and call and they legit ignore the other one and are extremely dismissive of her passion. Both sisters are THE WORST and think they are suffering while the other “has it easy”. Again, if they talked everything would become clear. Literally they just complain about the other the WHOLE book, until the last couple of chapters. This isn’t even like a slow change, they legit are mad and saying the same things over and over for the entire book until then.

Overall, I might have been too old to read this, but it still was a struggle getting through this. All of my notes for this book are just me struggling to finish the book. 1.5/5 stars

*Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
I loved this book. I thought it was going to just focus on the romance (nothing wrong with that), but this book is so much more. We focus on politics, history, family, what it means to be Cuban, and love. I thought the author does a great job balancing all the topics and it does not feel overly romance or politics heavy. It also has a dual timeline following the main character and her grandmother.

I did not realize how little I knew about Cuba and it’s history until I read this.

This book is truly special and I can’t wait to read book two (It’s about Beatriz and I can’t wait) 4.5/5 stars 

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren
Despite CLO being a romance powerhouse duo, their books are hit or miss for me. I have LOVED some and some… just are not for me. Twice in a Blue Moon falls somewhere in the middle. The book is split into two parts with the beginning being 14 years before present day. This split made the novel feel like two books and both parts left me a bit unsatisfied. The romance was fine…but I would have much rather seen the story focus on Tate and her family. The movie set was a fun setting for the story and I enjoyed Nick and Tate’s friendship. Also, what was that ending? There were like three plot lines that did not get wrapped up.

Overall, it was a little bit lackluster, but I enjoyed it well enough. 3/5 stars

*Thanks to NetGalley & the Publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

Maybe This Time by Kasie West
I think I am done with Kasie’s books after this one. I loved the concept, but not the execution. Kasie West’s books always seem to be lacking something to make me  ~invested~ in the story. It was a fine YA contemporary and I liked the year long format, but I just wish there had been more, but of what, I am not sure. 3/5 stars

The Best Thing by Mariana Zapata
I’m torn with this rating because I wish I could have binged this book. But, due to life and needing to sleep that didn’t happen. I am between a 3.5 and a 4 star rating. I loved Lenny and her family and Jonah was the cutest soft boy. Also, the burn seems extra slow in this one? MZ’s humor and writing is some of my favorite and I did enjoy this a lot. I also loved the Twilight references.

*MINOR SPOILERS*:
I saw all those tweets of people crying and uh didn’t expect MYSELF to also cry. But, it happened oof. 3.5-4/5 stars

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Honestly this is only a 3/10 on the Maggie Steifvater scale of weirdness. The fact that I actually knew what was happening in one of her novels is an accomplishment. Overall, I could not connect to the characters and the story as much as I would have liked to. I did enjoy my time reading this, but never felt the urge to actually pick it up.

This was written in 2009 and you can tell, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it feel a little flat. (Also, to be fair if this wasn’t a Stiefvater book, I 100% would not have picked this up) 3/5 stars

A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn
Tbh I don’t have much to say about this one except this series is so good and I want more people to read it. This one wasn’t my favorite of the series, but I loved the plot and seeing the characters interact. Veronica and Stoker are the best. I really want to reread this series already because I don’t remember specifics from the books. 4.5/5 stars.

 

 

 

I like how I set out NOT to talk about a lot of books and still ended up mentioning most of the books. The ones I did not mention were nonfictions, some that will be mentioned in future posts, and a self published book I really did not like.

xoxo, Tree