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abinthebooks
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For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.
Might as well just call this Abi Moves On, because I don’t want to spend much more time thinking about this book…
What a disappointing read to start off 2023. Maggie Moves On started out very promising, with a strong and compelling heroine who was very focused and successful in her career. Maggie and her partner are home renovators and have an HGTV-like show on YouTube. They have come to a new small town in Idaho to tackle their biggest project yet, a crumbling mansion with major family history. It’s here Maggie meets our hero and her love interest, Silas, a at-first-glance pretty-boy landscaper. But what followed quickly dimmed all hope I had for the story, and very clearly lowered my rating from what could have been a 4.5 to a 2.25.
MY LIKES
• Maggie’s drive. I really liked Maggie & her focus on her career. Her partner, Dean, hated how driven she was, but it was something I loved about her character.
• Silas, our heroes family. They were probably the highlight of this story, and definitely added depth.
• The dog
That’s about it for the likes unfortunately.
MY DISLIKES
• The writing. This was horrific to listen to. It felt like millennial writing, (you know what I mean by that? Like Red, White and Royal Blue writing where you just get the ick from reading it, because you can just feel it’s written by a millennial?) with middle school aged smut scene writing. The smut was so vulgar in the way that it felt as though a child would write smut if that makes sense? The words and phrases “shaft”, “sex”, “wet tight heat” (I’m literally gagging as I type), “milking” (pls she’s not a cow), and “slide right home” were used, something I definitely wrote in smut on wattpad back in jr high.
• The hero. The hero at first seems to be this loveable golden retriever type of guy. He falls in love with Maggie at first sight, and he’s just so cute at their first meeting. He’s very flirty, and funny and just overall has a good vibe to him. He has very good banter with Maggie at first as well. But it’s like he has a complete personality switch. Silas becomes controlling and a complete alpha male asshole. He gets mad at Maggie for not telling him things when she’s not obligated to tell him anything? He gets angry at her because she tells him she doesn’t want a relationship when she made it explicitly clear from the beginning she doesn’t do strings. He was so irrational, and I hated his POV and his character with my whole being. Oh and he’s blond!! Red flags keep piling up.
• The writing of queer people. Silas, our hero, insists his stepbrother come out of the closer as gay when he’s clearly not ready. I thought this was fucking odd in itself, but everyone else that knew about this character being gay also did the same thing to him?? So is this Lucy Score’s like normal or…? Like what is going on bro.
• Too much going on. Speaking of what is going on, yeah what the hell was going on in this book. Every possible thing under the sun happened in this book, and could I tell you about it? No, no I can’t because I genuinely just tuned out for the last 25% of this book. But what I did retain of this book was for 1. How slow the plot moves and 2. How much was going on. A mystery plot, a romance, a bunch of side romances, past character traumas, a home renovation, a estranged family plot, found family plot, Silas family drama plot. Like I’m being frl, this all happened in this book and yet it moved so slow.
So yeah, this was such a disappointment, especially because Lucy Score was such an anticipated author for me to try. I do own another one of her books which I will give a go, but this was definitely not a hit for the first book of 2023.
➸ 2.25 stars
What a disappointing read to start off 2023. Maggie Moves On started out very promising, with a strong and compelling heroine who was very focused and successful in her career. Maggie and her partner are home renovators and have an HGTV-like show on YouTube. They have come to a new small town in Idaho to tackle their biggest project yet, a crumbling mansion with major family history. It’s here Maggie meets our hero and her love interest, Silas, a at-first-glance pretty-boy landscaper. But what followed quickly dimmed all hope I had for the story, and very clearly lowered my rating from what could have been a 4.5 to a 2.25.
MY LIKES
• Maggie’s drive. I really liked Maggie & her focus on her career. Her partner, Dean, hated how driven she was, but it was something I loved about her character.
• Silas, our heroes family. They were probably the highlight of this story, and definitely added depth.
• The dog
That’s about it for the likes unfortunately.
MY DISLIKES
• The writing. This was horrific to listen to. It felt like millennial writing, (you know what I mean by that? Like Red, White and Royal Blue writing where you just get the ick from reading it, because you can just feel it’s written by a millennial?) with middle school aged smut scene writing. The smut was so vulgar in the way that it felt as though a child would write smut if that makes sense? The words and phrases “shaft”, “sex”, “wet tight heat” (I’m literally gagging as I type), “milking” (pls she’s not a cow), and “slide right home” were used, something I definitely wrote in smut on wattpad back in jr high.
• The hero. The hero at first seems to be this loveable golden retriever type of guy. He falls in love with Maggie at first sight, and he’s just so cute at their first meeting. He’s very flirty, and funny and just overall has a good vibe to him. He has very good banter with Maggie at first as well. But it’s like he has a complete personality switch. Silas becomes controlling and a complete alpha male asshole. He gets mad at Maggie for not telling him things when she’s not obligated to tell him anything? He gets angry at her because she tells him she doesn’t want a relationship when she made it explicitly clear from the beginning she doesn’t do strings. He was so irrational, and I hated his POV and his character with my whole being. Oh and he’s blond!! Red flags keep piling up.
• The writing of queer people. Silas, our hero, insists his stepbrother come out of the closer as gay when he’s clearly not ready. I thought this was fucking odd in itself, but everyone else that knew about this character being gay also did the same thing to him?? So is this Lucy Score’s like normal or…? Like what is going on bro.
• Too much going on. Speaking of what is going on, yeah what the hell was going on in this book. Every possible thing under the sun happened in this book, and could I tell you about it? No, no I can’t because I genuinely just tuned out for the last 25% of this book. But what I did retain of this book was for 1. How slow the plot moves and 2. How much was going on. A mystery plot, a romance, a bunch of side romances, past character traumas, a home renovation, a estranged family plot, found family plot, Silas family drama plot. Like I’m being frl, this all happened in this book and yet it moved so slow.
So yeah, this was such a disappointment, especially because Lucy Score was such an anticipated author for me to try. I do own another one of her books which I will give a go, but this was definitely not a hit for the first book of 2023.
➸ 2.25 stars
I don’t know if I’m outgrowing this author, or if it was just the book, but I really didn’t like What Happened to Goodbye. The heroine was extremely annoying, and the hero had absolutely no substance or nuance. This story really felt like bare bones Sarah Dessen. None of her usual magic was in this book at all, especially in the romance.
Middle school me adored Sarah Dessen, but I wonder if I’m just getting too old to connect to or enjoy her works. Her stories are very formulaic, down to her plots always being a “hard-hitting lesson for the FMC”, a romance with a hero that “just gets” the heroine, complicated family relationships, and most-likely a healthy dose of family bonding at the end. This one hit the nail all times over, and the story wasn’t really that interesting anyways.
I’m afraid I just might be outgrowing this author because of how formulaic her works are (of the more likely reason: I’m getting old
Middle school me adored Sarah Dessen, but I wonder if I’m just getting too old to connect to or enjoy her works. Her stories are very formulaic, down to her plots always being a “hard-hitting lesson for the FMC”, a romance with a hero that “just gets” the heroine, complicated family relationships, and most-likely a healthy dose of family bonding at the end. This one hit the nail all times over, and the story wasn’t really that interesting anyways.
I’m afraid I just might be outgrowing this author because of how formulaic her works are (of the more likely reason: I’m getting old
Winterwidow is one of the best things to be crafted by the comic book gods.
This was fucking incredible. Laura Kinney is one of my favorite characters in the X-men movies (even if she only appears in Logan, I absolutely adored her). This was her origin story, told through letters by her mother. Like most Marvel movies do, Logan didn’t really show how bad Laura’s backstory was explicitly. It was so great to get a concrete backstory for Laura, even though it was pretty sad. The art style was so so good as well.
This is genuinely one of my favorite comics now, and I’m really excited to pick up where the ending of this left off. I’m curious to see if Laura and Logan will ever meet as well.
This is genuinely one of my favorite comics now, and I’m really excited to pick up where the ending of this left off. I’m curious to see if Laura and Logan will ever meet as well.
This series of comics was fantastic. This is a continuation of Laura’s origin story from X-23: Innocence Lost. This volume follows Captain America who’s captured Laura and makes her stand her case with Matt Murdock as her defender. This volume is also told in the past/present thing, which works for some incredible storytelling. The entire story was compelling, especially with Laura being such a intriguing character. I think I liked this even better than the first one.
Please read this if you ever read any Marvel comics. Especially if you want to get into Marvel comics and you don’t know where to start. I’d 100% recommend starting with this series
Please read this if you ever read any Marvel comics. Especially if you want to get into Marvel comics and you don’t know where to start. I’d 100% recommend starting with this series
Once again, I’m back on my Black Widow bullshit. Is anyone surprised? I don’t think we are.
This was a great addition to Natasha’s backstory with a sad, dark & gritty plot. Comic Natasha’s character is so addictive because of how much backstory she has. I love comic stories that focus primarily on Nat “confronting a part of her past”. It’s so interesting and highly entertaining.
Comic Natasha is written very in character here as well. She’s unapologetic and entirely ruthless. But one of the best parts about this was easily the Logan x Nat (father-daughter obviously) & Winterwidow content. I’m such a whore for Winterwidow y’all don’t even understand. We got crumbs in here and I was fighting for my life with that one panel (if u know, u know).Also I’m probably projecting but I just want the father-daughter dynamic that Logan & Nat have ):
Ok I’m done. This is literally so unhinged, I’m writing this at 12:30 in the morning
This was a great addition to Natasha’s backstory with a sad, dark & gritty plot. Comic Natasha’s character is so addictive because of how much backstory she has. I love comic stories that focus primarily on Nat “confronting a part of her past”. It’s so interesting and highly entertaining.
Comic Natasha is written very in character here as well. She’s unapologetic and entirely ruthless. But one of the best parts about this was easily the Logan x Nat (father-daughter obviously) & Winterwidow content. I’m such a whore for Winterwidow y’all don’t even understand. We got crumbs in here and I was fighting for my life with that one panel (if u know, u know).Also I’m probably projecting but I just want the father-daughter dynamic that Logan & Nat have ):
Ok I’m done. This is literally so unhinged, I’m writing this at 12:30 in the morning
Batman: Second Chances
Dave Cockrum, Chris Warner, Norm Breyfogle, Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Jo Duffy, Ross Andru, Max Allan Collins, Denys Cowan
*4.5
Unpopular opinion, but I absolutely love Jason Todd’s Robin. He’s so interesting to me, because of how polar opposite he is from both Bruce and Dick. Second Chances is a simple rundown of Jason heavy stories, including his first appearance, his origin, his basic morals, and some of his first missions. The stories collected in here were really good, and really gave me a nice overview of young Jason Todd.
Dick Grayson (Nightwing) also shows up in one of the last comics, and it’s probably the best comic in this entire trade. Dick’s conversation with Bruce about being replaced was very real, and one of the most interesting things in here. It was very powerful, and I’m so glad DC acknowledged that what Bruce did was such an asshole fucking thing to do. I will never not be mad at this.
Jason’s introduction was also a great comic, and everything in between was also really enjoyable. Obviously with trades that collect non-order comics, not everything is going to make sense or be amazing. But I still really enjoyed this regardless.
Unpopular opinion, but I absolutely love Jason Todd’s Robin. He’s so interesting to me, because of how polar opposite he is from both Bruce and Dick. Second Chances is a simple rundown of Jason heavy stories, including his first appearance, his origin, his basic morals, and some of his first missions. The stories collected in here were really good, and really gave me a nice overview of young Jason Todd.
Dick Grayson (Nightwing) also shows up in one of the last comics, and it’s probably the best comic in this entire trade. Dick’s conversation with Bruce about being replaced was very real, and one of the most interesting things in here. It was very powerful, and I’m so glad DC acknowledged that what Bruce did was such an asshole fucking thing to do. I will never not be mad at this.
Jason’s introduction was also a great comic, and everything in between was also really enjoyable. Obviously with trades that collect non-order comics, not everything is going to make sense or be amazing. But I still really enjoyed this regardless.
