I am SO far behind in posting reviews. I read a ton of books but I just didn’t post any reviews for a while because ~life~, you know how it is. So here are a bunch of reviews from books that I either just finished or I am finally getting around to posting.
Say No to the Dress by Keren David
Thank you to NetGalley and Barrington Stoke for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
Short version of my review: I was really looking forward to reading this book and it was cute, but not for me. I think because this was a book that was intentionally brief and aimed at a young demographic I needed to read it with a different mindset, and unfortunately I had a hard time staying in the appropriate mindset to read it. This is not the fault of the book/author/publisher, but because I kept being annoyed with the kids being kids, it made it hard for me to enjoy this book. While I really enjoy reading YA, I find myself reading YA where the main characters are 16+, and so I think reading a middle-grade book where the characters are 12-14 means I needed to put myself in their shoes a bit more, think how they would think, and remember how I would respond to situations at that age. I struggled with that and that unfortunately bled into my enjoyment of the book. This was a nice book about figuring out friendships, finding out how to be more true to yourself, and learning to love yourself when life is hard at a tough age. I definitely think kids at the appropriate age should read it, but alas, not my jam.
Love & Other Great Expectations by Becky Dean
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
My goodness this book is cute. It takes place in England, in all sorts of literary landmarks, with someone who goes from being very stubborn to slowly uncover the soft parts of who she can be after a life changing injury. The man she meets on this adventure is adorable (I can see why she becomes enthralled by his presence) and the literary challenges are ones that I now want to go one once I can finally make it over to the UK. This was a very clever, insightful, and deep book, all while being a light and relatively easy YA read. It hurt my heart at times, made me laugh out loud, and lived up to its title. I would definitely recommend this book.
Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
This is the third book in the Spoiler Alert series by Olivia Dade and while it was my least favorite of the three it was still SUPER cute. Olivia Dade is a phenomenal writer and the books in this series are both heart wrenching and heartwarming at the same time. The representation in this book (LGBTQIA+, fat, ethnicities, etc.) is fantastic, and each character is well developed. I like that each book in this series can be read as a standalone but it is nice to read them in order since it helps add to the understanding of the character connections. While I did start to get annoyed that Maria and Peter wouldn’t just talk to each other at times, it was, objectively, realistic – albeit annoying. It is a sweet series and I hope there are more books. If there aren’t, I very much look forward to the next book Olivia releases.
The Kiss Curse (The Ex Hex, #2) by Erin Sterling
Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
This is book two in The Ex Hex series, and it was just as fun as the first one. This book follows Gwyn (cousin to book 1’s heroine) and Wells (brother to book 1’s hero), as they start a fiery competition over magical control of the town of Graves Glen. There are sparks of passion between the two, while also diminishing magic through nefarious circumstances. There are witches in training, a cat that talks, and creepy almost sacrifices of witches. And did I mention passion sparks? Enemies to lovers, HEA, and all the magic. There is one more brother in this series, and I am very excited to see if there is going to be a book three. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
When Life Gives You Vampires by Gloria Duke
Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
This is the debut book by author Gloria Duke and it is a fun book. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t exactly what I was hoping it would be. It is the story of a plus-size woman who unbeknownst to her gets turned into a vampire (meaning she just wakes up and is a vamp and is like WHAAAAAT????, and then has to figure out what is going on), which is a super fun concept. For me however, the story felt a bit disjointed at times, and I was having a hard time tracking what was going on. This could be due to the nature of me reading an advanced copy – finished copies could have smoothed over some of the jumps, but I think it might be related to Gloria’s writing style. This is definitely not a bad thing, I know many people who greatly enjoy this type of writing, but it is just not always for me. The main character Lily also rubbed me the wrong way at times – she was incredibly stubborn, and then going back and forth with her feelings and thoughts without really thinking through much of what she was doing. Is this because she was 25? Maybe. But I did want to see a bit more character growth than I did. Again, my preference, not objectively wrong. I think this book had a lot of really great potential, it just didn’t end up being what I was hoping it would be.
Marlowe Banks, Redesigned by Jacqueline Firkins
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was so cute and it was different than a lot of other books I have read recently. It gave me Devil Wears Prada vibes in the best way. It was fun to read a book about the behind the scenes of a tv show from the perspective of tech, specifically costuming, as opposed to actors since that is usually what books are about. The interactions between Marlowe and Angus were fantastic, and the growth in their relationship was realistic and enjoyable. I think the representation of past trauma relating to putting yourself out there (work & relationships) was really well done and it was emotional & sweet, and handled with great care. I would happily read another book Jacqueline writes in this series, or just in general. This was a great read and I definitely recommend it.