How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I enjoyed this book. It's very down to earth, but the challenges the main character faces dHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I enjoyed this book. It's very down to earth, but the challenges the main character faces don't get wholly magically resolved. Even after the happy ending, she needs to face reality, which was refreshing for me in a book that's about changes, a new lease on life and finding that special person. It had some good themes about change and how hard to can be, and I found some things very relatable. It was a good read.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This was a very sweet short book. The author shares personal anecdotes about connecting witHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This was a very sweet short book. The author shares personal anecdotes about connecting with her deceased husband. If you believe in the supernatural, you will probably love this. Even if you don't, it's still very sweet. Anything can be said to have been imagined or not real, and maybe these stories could as well, but regardless of whether they're real or not - you can see the author's love for her husband in the pages. And it is a lovely, heartening story.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
This one was harder to get through than the others in the series so far (but, I mean, it IS book 5). It's much slower and honestly, kind of boring. AnThis one was harder to get through than the others in the series so far (but, I mean, it IS book 5). It's much slower and honestly, kind of boring. Another thing I didn't quite enjoy was how Anne never seems to do any wrong (anymore). She used to be such a lively, real character with flaws and funny hijinks - now she's just always right, correct, proper and well meaning. She's become flat and boring, maybe even a little preachey. Bummer....more
This book was so little about Anne and so much about everyone else it almost felt like a short story collection. It took me a while to warm to the epiThis book was so little about Anne and so much about everyone else it almost felt like a short story collection. It took me a while to warm to the epistolary format that most of the book takes, as less stuff happens than is talked about. But I feel like this might have been a better book than the previous one. Anne is turning too perfect and righteous in many ways, but considering the time period, this is fine. The stories are certainly very warm and sweet. In contrast to a lot of stuff written now, this may be somewhat saccharine, but I'd rather read this than another thing that is deep, but sad, or yet another night of doomscrolling. It makes for much better sleep and a happier evening....more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was so unexpected! I thought it would be a story that centers on Cecily being a pHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was so unexpected! I thought it would be a story that centers on Cecily being a performer, but it wasn't like that. Mostly, it's a book about (view spoiler)[being abandoned, adopted, losing a child and giving it away (hide spoiler)]. This theme was repeated several times, kind of a bit much even, but in the end it all comes together and makes sense, you can feel like that's what the author chose specifically for the story to have deeper meaning. And it's such a painful story in so many places, some of the things that happen are a bit shocking. I feel like a lot of this history of the early 20th century hasn't been told a lot, and that's why some of the things that happened completely floored me. I feel like this is an important story to tell for those reasons, so I'm giving it 4 stars. I would have maybe gone with 3 if not for the subject matter, because a lot of the book was setup setup setup, and some things didn't move till I was maybe 60% in. The story is told in alternating timelines, and sometimes one of the timelines is moving at a good pace, but the others seem to be lagging behind as if they're waiting for that one to be done getting to the main point. But aside from that, this was definitely a good book.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
TW: (not a spoiler, it's how the book begins, but I'll tag it anywayHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
TW: (not a spoiler, it's how the book begins, but I'll tag it anyway) (view spoiler)[this book contains descriptions of assault and rape, as well as the aftermath of such a trauma; there is also self-harm (hide spoiler)]
Do you know there are several types of good book? There's the exciting, thrilling kind, there's the happy or sad kind, there's the wrack-your-head mystery kind of good as well. Just this last month, I read an exciting and happy kind of good book, but it's actually been a while since I've read a slow-and-steady kind of good book, and this is just what this one was. It's a slow burn, but what you're getting is just the steady kind of good, you know you'll turn the page and it's just going to be good and keep giving. The author won't let you down. Such a good reading experience.
The book is about an inheritance trial, about proving who you are and belonging, but it's not just that. It's also a book about healing - and the theme resonates through many storylines. There's the main storyline - a widow raising her children, suddenly left without a partner, who was also their breadwinner. Then there's her mother, dealing with a recent trauma and having to reshape her framework due to that. Both women have to reevaluate their points of view, as well as their direction in life, and grow past what's been holding them down.
It's a wonderful book, I especially loved the (view spoiler)[semi-open ending. (hide spoiler)] It was very satisfying and showed great character growth. I think I'll be checking out this author's other books too.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Wow, I did not expect this one to hit me so hard. I thought it would be a light read, but iHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Wow, I did not expect this one to hit me so hard. I thought it would be a light read, but it turned out to be actually so strong and so good. It's a story about a man abandoned by his quite deadbeat father, a man who's suffering from anxiety and generally being unable to thrive in life after certain traumas of the recent past.
A lot of this hit close to home for me, although I can't say my dad has a single interesting bone in his entire body, or any advice to give, as opposed to Will's dad being a misunderstood rockstar. But a lot of what Will has gone through, I've known, and what I loved about this book is being seen - a lot of the trauma and anxieties that come with growing up this way seemed to me to be accurately and sensitively portrayed.
I truly didn't expect this book to move me so much, but by the end I could say I was going to give it 5 stars. It was a great read. Definitely recommended.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Can I give this one 6 stars out of 5? Or, like, 10? It was so good. I feel like it's one of my best CRH books I've read so far. Although I kind of tenCan I give this one 6 stars out of 5? Or, like, 10? It was so good. I feel like it's one of my best CRH books I've read so far. Although I kind of tend to say that about most of them, after I finish them.
I'm such a silly head though, that I first got this book as a review copy from NetGalley, and then promptly forgot that, saw it on Amazon and bought it. Why? Because I auto-buy anything I see on sale by Catherine Ryan Hyde, because her books are so great. And then I realized I have two copies for some reason. Facepalm. But now that I'm done with it, I'm happy I bought it. This book deserved to be paid for, even if I'm giving it a review too. It's just so good. CRH is like my absolute favorite author of all time.
This book somehow manages to touch on all the sore subjects of the past few years (covid, school shootings, how unsafe the world seems, all of us sort of anticipating the end of times, at least because of the climate if not other reasons). And it just put everything together so nicely. And that's just the background of the story, it's not the main story itself. The main story is about working through trauma and growing up before your time, healing, and many other things. Oh, just read it for yourself - there is nothing I could say thay could do it justice anyway.
There's another thing I love about her books though. That her characters are always the way I'd like to see people. The good brought out in them. Although they go through terrible things, the world CRH draws is not a meaninglessly violent one. There is always good in it, and more importantly, there are always good and responsible people in it. I don't know if the world truly is like that, I hope so, but.. it's good to at least experience it in a book every now and then.
A story becomes a lot less interesting when the main character is all too powerful, almost godlike, completely impossible to best or even approach, anA story becomes a lot less interesting when the main character is all too powerful, almost godlike, completely impossible to best or even approach, and the only moments she fails is when she makes an emotional or tactical mistake. And even those mostly work out for her. The story lost its drive for me because of this....more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
To me it seems there are two kinds of Alice Hoffman books - the ones you can connect with eHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
To me it seems there are two kinds of Alice Hoffman books - the ones you can connect with easily (all the recent Practical Magic sequels, Faithful) and those that seem to have a glass wall between you and the book (Practical Magic itself, also this one). Or maybe it's just me? But this one felt distanced from the reader, muted emotions, I just couldn't connect. So I got stuck and dropped it for a long time.
When I finally came back to finish it, I wasn't very invested. I did like the ending, but the story itself, I don't know. It felt as if it was there for the message, but not for the story or the telling of it. It's although the whole story was a dream, muted and unreachable, and just so distant. It was fine, and the message is certainly good, but I don't know. Just didn't do it for me.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I immediately got into this book and couldn't really stop reading. It's so very well writteHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I immediately got into this book and couldn't really stop reading. It's so very well written, very engrossing and just so moving. Primarily though, it's about how we, as a society, dehumanize those who have made mistakes and how we're not willing to see the difference between those who are sorry for their crime and those who are not. I also don't know how it works in other countries, but judging by this book and some others I've read in the past, it sure looks like in the US, the system is simply designed to keep a person in, once they so much as spend a day inside.
Despite that, this book made me genuinely happy - for the author, and the way things turned out for her. It's a sad story, but not a sad book - and it has a happy ending (I'm not spoiling, okay? The author clearly wrote it, so she's fine!)
There is no way you'll be reading this book and not rooting for Mama Love. I dare you. I fell in love with her within the very first pages.
Oh, and unrelated - but I just wanted to say, how funny it is to find out you've read quite a few of the books co-authored by a person and you never knew. Loved them as well. Hilarious.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This might be one of my favorite retellings now. It was very chill at first, and I thought How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This might be one of my favorite retellings now. It was very chill at first, and I thought it would go on like that, but in the second part of the book, things just went wild and I never expected it. Everything slotted into place so well that by the end I'd decided that I'm going to give it 5 stars after all, and not the 4 I'd planned previously. It's a lovely story.
This book was very engrossing, and very emotional. It definitely transported me into a court full of intrigue and secrets. The plot is actually more serious than just a Cinderella story - I definitely enjoyed that. It was a quick read as well, just a couple of evenings and I breezed through the story.
The story had quite a lot of strong and capable female characters as well, and I loved that. I also know that I spent half the book trying to decide whether this is YA or not, and I don't think it is. While the main character is 18, I also think it's a little bit of an afterthought, because nobody else is - everyone else is a lot older, with a lot more baggage. (There is also a very open steamy scene, although that's not always an obstacle to YA.) And while it does have that YA dynamic, it's still sort of like a good mix between a YA and adult novel, if you know what I mean? Things are unfolding slower and in a less provocative manner than YA will usually have it, but it still has that sense of adventure that you look for in a good YA book, and it's also a retelling of a fairytale, which is often a thing you'll find in YA. Interesting format, and I liked it.
Definitely worth a read!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I read the first book a couple of years ago, when it came out. Bummer for me, the recap on How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I read the first book a couple of years ago, when it came out. Bummer for me, the recap on what happened in it is like a sentence long and barely covers any of it, and I don't tend to reread books (only select favorites), so I had trouble figuring out the whys and hows of what's going on. I think the author meant the reader to read these books straight one after the other. I was still able to figure it out, but if you can, it's best to read these in sequence.
Aside from the lack of proper recapping, this book reads much better than the earlier one! It's not often that you rate the sequel better than the original - but I knew this story had something, and now I'm glad to find out I was right. The characters are also much better written, more defined in my opinion - at least from what I remember of the first book. The book left me with a lot of feelings, mostly wistful and sad (I remember the last one left me angry with the characters! ...more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Since my days of writing cohesive reviews are behind me, I've decided on a bullet-point forHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Since my days of writing cohesive reviews are behind me, I've decided on a bullet-point format. TL; DR: really good book! Stina Leicht is becoming an auto-read for me. See book = must read!
- all cast are women or non-binary characters, and the book is very diverse in other aspects as well - they're not all young either, there are a lot of 40-50 year olds kicking some real ass; mature women are often underrepresented in scifi, which I found very refreshing - there is a good amount of action (although the setup does take a while at first) - a lot of characters, but when you get used to it and remember who's who, you get attached to them and their distinct personalities and quirks - a cat on a spaceship! And he curses at everyone with his smart collar! If that's not spice on a story, I don't know what is - there are some very interesting alien life forms and concepts - artificial life forms, sentient AI and anything you might want to know about them - the world building is very deep when it comes to this topic - this is set in the same universe as Persephone Station! I was very excited about that, because I adore it when authors take the time and effort to build entire worlds of their own. - there is contagion involved, and in a post-covid world, you relate weirdly and the situations read a lot more tensely than I would imagine they would have some 5 years ago. In my opinion, this added strongly to the story - it's something very minor to a scifi plot, and you might not even notice it, but the people in this universe seem to ONLY eat vegetarian meals. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other book. It's very interesting as a stylistic choice, and I love what the author's is (probably) trying to say by doing this. - this is not story related, but it's hilarious how much I enjoyed it. In the acknowledgements, the author explains how a book is written and gets on your shelf. Really, a lot more authors should do this, cause before becoming a book blogger, honestly? I also never knew.
Pick this up! I definitely loved it.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This has a couple of good ideas and resources for getting out of isolation. However, the reHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This has a couple of good ideas and resources for getting out of isolation. However, the resources are only for the US - most of them don't work for outside of it, nor do they have equivalents. The ideas were good as well, but I felt like the book was being repetitive about them - it's like I kept getting the same info back again and again, although the author had seemingly already spoken about it, albeit from a slightly different angle. Everything was also a little bit choppy, there are many lists and many tests that don't really have any real scoring to them, or the answers to which are fairly obvious.
But I did like the main theme of the book, the fact that it's not really most of our faults for being lonely and that society often just makes us question ourselves as to why or how it's our fault, when in reality it can happen to almost anyone, and it seems is happening increasingly so to a lot of people due to how we currently structure how our society works. A lot of the narrative was focused on forgiving yourself for being stranded like that and trying to see past self-blaming - and getting out of the social anxiety rut. A lot of the methods the author talked about - like helping and thinking of how you could be useful to others yourself instead of how someone's judging you - are also things I've come across commonly in some philosophies, but are not things that are widely shared outside of mindfulness practices and such. So for someone who has not yet done a lot of soul-searching or therapy, this could indeed be a good resource.
However... As a quite lonely person myself with few friends, I find that this book hasn't really given me any new information on how to be less lonely. It was a book about how loneliness feels and how you shouldn't judge yourself, and that's all good, but what to do next? I don't feel like I even know how the author 'got over it'. The whole narrative makes you feel like she did, but when I think back... I'm not sure she told us about exactly how? So she made up with an older friend. So she met someone who invited her to one party. That's it? Happy ending? I feel like something is missing.
There are also these sort of 'success stories' at the end. They were definitely warm and nice to read, but also admittedly? Kind of boring. But I'm also unsure whether they furthered the cause of the book. No real takeaways for me. Some of them were also repetitive in the suggestions of what we should do. I get it, Meetup.com is everyone's preferred solution - but what if there are no groups where I am? And what if people at gyms would rather avert their eyes and run away, lest they have to say hello to someone else? (I really hope that's a regional issue and this isn't relevant in the US, for which this book was written.).
Anyway, at the end of it there are also some (regional) resources, like projects, some books, some websites, specifically for over 50s. Those looked good, but are not applicable to my situation, so I will not give any opinion on them.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
I loved this story. At first it took me a while to settle into it, like 15-20% of the auHow I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
I loved this story. At first it took me a while to settle into it, like 15-20% of the audiobook, but after that it just flew by, and I was surprised that I'm already at the ending. I can't wait for the next installments, as I've become pretty invested in the characters' lives and I just want them to be okay. Also, the sass of those vanguard machines is certainly not something I'll forget anytime soon. The book just had a specific vibe to it that I don't know if any other book I've read has ever had. While it's about heavy survival stuff, grief and just plain old scifi villains, it's also about music, art and rock stars, and therefore, wildly informal where other scifi books would be pretty formulaic. I loved that. I can best describe this story as very colorful, and I really enjoyed that. The audio is good as well, the range of voices the narrator did was really good, and it was nice to listen to in general.
I thank the publisher and libro.fm for giving me a free copy of the audiobook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was quite hard to get into, and I'm not sure what to make of it. In the end, a plHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was quite hard to get into, and I'm not sure what to make of it. In the end, a plot did exist, even if convoluted, and it did manage to draw me in, but at the same time, the book felt like a chore and I wished I could just find out what happens without slogging through the weird stuff that's in it for days on end.
It's all about grief, loss and anxiety and human relationships, but it's also just, I don't know, pretty pretentious. Like that super modernist play that everyone goes to just because of appearances, but only 3 people actually understand. A lot of the characters suffered from mental health issues as well, but I felt like the matters weren't treated with quite enough sensitivity.
Most of the characters are quite odd, aloof, and very hard to reconcile with images of real people. I couldn't figure out whether the author was trying to use magical realism or was that just what I'd call pretentiousness, because a lot of the characters were having some really odd problems with their lives. Everyone was complicated just for the sake of it, self-centered and so neck deep in their own significance, it got too much. I feel like maybe I could have vibed with this book in my early twenties when life felt like everything was about me and my problems, but now that I'm in my mid-thirties... I don't know. Not all things have to be this complicated.
It worthy to note that the book has A LOT of triggers too. Not sure I'll even list them all, but suicide, abortion/miscarriage, eating disorders - those are the few of the big ones. Family trouble, some addition trouble are less prominently mentioned, but still there. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. The book is not an easy read.
If this wasn't a review copy, I probably would have stopped reading. Hopefully, maybe this book is simply not for me and others will have liked it better. It wasn't badly written - it's just that the amount of weirdness in it is quite high, and it's not coupled with meaning I could find behind it all. If there's meaning, I can usually deal with the weirdness (and in certain cases, appreciate it all the more, even). But this was not the case.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
I loved the story, but oh my gosh was it poorly proofread. Or not at all. I'm talking three misspellings in a page sometimes. Considering this was a rI loved the story, but oh my gosh was it poorly proofread. Or not at all. I'm talking three misspellings in a page sometimes. Considering this was a re-release, I'm not even sure what to think. The wrong file uploaded to the Kindle edition or something? (I'm really starting to think it is, cause there's a sample at the end of my copy of a related book to come, and it starts with "change this to that" and stuff...)
But anyway, I loved the story well enough, and it has that peculiar tone that authors who don't normally write scifi put in their scifi books. That's good and it's refreshing, because they don't go for the typical tropes or settings in scifi. That said, this was a YA dystopia, and some things were fairly typical for one, some didn't even make sense and seemed to be there only to fit the theme of the evil dystopian society, to check a box. But even that said, it did not take away from the enjoyment. I devoured this in a day and a half and it was time well spent. I also kind of wish it had a sequel....more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
The Martins was a very quick, very engrossing read. I greatly enjoyed it. It's not your typHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
The Martins was a very quick, very engrossing read. I greatly enjoyed it. It's not your typical novel - the whole idea of it is that it breaks the fourth wall to begin with, and it stays that way. The story is told through an author's point of view - I'm not even sure if the author is fictional or the actual author of the book. But this author decides to get himself out of a creative rut by writing about the first person he will encounter on the street. It sort of works out that way, except with extra strings attached - he not only gets to write about that person, but their whole extended family as well.
The idea here is that the story of anyone at all can be interesting and dramatic, and carry meaning. The author ends up writing about the Martins - a typical French family, as 'Martin' is about the most common and typical surname, almost like Smith in English. But even these 'Smiths' have very real crises in their lives, and do some very wild things, when put on the spot. The author's intrusion into their lives becomes like a breaking point to a lot of them - and they suddenly end up doing 'make it or break it' decisions which change their lives quite a lot.
I ended up loving the Martins as characters. They were very interesting, and I do subscribe to the idea that just about anyone's life could become a movie, if you were to only pick the right time in their lives and remove the boring bits, such as brushing one's teeth or doing office work. Just ask your grandma to tell you about her youth adventures, and you'll know what I mean.
The Martins reads fast, is well written and will definitely deliver an unexpected, but engrossing and interesting plot. A very unique novel, and I know I would love to read more by the same author.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Evelina | AvalinahsBooks
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