30something_reads's Reviews (820)

(reading for #TheDiverseBaseline 2024 reading challenge) “a book of poetry”: 

In this collection, Sealey redacts/erases transcripts of the official Ferguson Report in order to engage more fully with its contents and create a body of poetry. The visuals are stunning and the messages are haunting. Beautifully done!

What a powerful visual to have the full Ferguson Report on page and see the author pull the words directly from the source.

 "My Blueprint,"

"My Heart's Own Blood,"

“I love you. I love you. I love you. I’ll write it in the waves. In skies. In my heart. You’ll never see, but you will know. I’ll be all the poets, I’ll kill them all and take each one’s place in turn, and every time love’s written in all the strands it will be to you.”

Somehow, this felt like a perfect read after The Six Deaths of the Saint and honestly, one of the most romantic stories I've experienced in a long time.

The prose was lovely and lyrical. The worldbuilding was fascinating. As the prophets say: a stunning gut-punch to my soul. 

My fault! I set it down when I got caught up in audiobooks and it's been too long and now i need to start over but I WILL

Green but for a Season- 🥲 ouch, okay? 💔

The Summer Palace- the epilogue that needed to be included in King's Rising.

The Adventures of Charls, the Venetian Cloth Merchant- a ROMP that had me smiling the whole time- that ending?? 😂

Pet- I didn't know I'd actually be invested in Ancel/Berenger but, gaddamnit, I am. I want more! I need a happy conclusion for them. I know we can infer it but I need tangible proof that they are cute and happy. 

 I MEAN- 😭❤️❤️

I love them, your honor.

I also had to go buy the short story collection because I NEED an epilogue so bad. 

 Are you fucking KIDDING me right now?? 😩❤️ ❤️

My heart cannot handle the tension and the longing and that ending?? Good thing I have the 3rd book and nothing to do. 

3⭐ maybe?

There were components of this that I really enjoyed- Lauren and Asa as characters, their backstory and motivations.  I liked their workplace rivalry. I liked the opposites attract vibes, the friend group, the storylines outside of the workplace. Overall, I wanted to like this a lot more. 

But I don't know, I feel like the story meandered A LOT. The pacing was really inconsistent. There were a lot of moments where, if I hadn't been on a Libby timeline with the audiobook, I probably would have just set it down and never picked it back up.

 “Krampus? You broke into my shop to get dicked down by evil Santa?”
“He’s fucking hot, ok?”

No need to explain yourself, Daphne girl. We know.

Kimberly Lemming is just so fucking funny every single time and I loved the reappearance of my favorite Covid-inspired baker and demon. (From Two Scoops Of Hellfire - it's 34 pages, go read it.) 

I liked this enough to potentially pick up the second book (especially since it is Neve's story and she was one of the more interesting characters in this book.)

I'm still not 100% sure why this didn't totally work for me. I enjoyed a lot of the elements individually but it felt a bit muddled when it was all put together. 

Going to think on this one a bit longer.

Did I randomly pick this up at 10pm last night to feel out the vibes, stay up until 1am reading, and then wake up to finish it this morning?

Yes.

And now I have to go get the other ones because I am invested.