aftereliza's Reviews (946)

Not bad, a bit of sexy time, some weird philosophical, abstract chapters that I didn't enjoy. I didn't enjoy reading about her many sexual partners because casual sex, while it maybe some people's cus of tea, isn't mine, so that was off-putting. Only read it because I had to for school.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - Plant Trees, Sow Seeds, Save The Bees by Nicola Bradbear

This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and Ebury Publishing, Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A pocket sized anthology of everything you would need to know about bees! I picked this book up because of the sunny weather we've had recently and to find out what it is we can do to help our fuzzy little friends. I found this as a very informative anthology, describing in clear, engaging and humorous language the difference between bees and wasps, and what to do with our yard to help bees do their job.

Bradbear has done a great job of being informative without making the content seem dull. The delicate black and white water colour illustrations of the bees lived up the descriptions and they're beautiful to look at! They're the kind of thing you'd want to hang in your cottagecore house, maybe in the kitchen by a bright open window. I think this is the perfect gift for any precocious animal lover, a lovely gift for your mom or grandmother on Mother's day which is coming up, and anyone who likes spending their weekends in the garden. I'm sure dads and hubbys alike would love to hear that they need to mow the lawn less!

This review has been made possible thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Chartwell Books for providing me with an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.
Really useful guide to Astrology, different star signs, their traits, compatibilities and so on. I thought the author had taken a lot of care to prepare the texts and the illustrations to ensure it was really clear. This is definitely a book I would get for friends of mine who love astrology, younger family members who are looking to get into astrology or any aunts who read the weekly horoscope religiously.

This review has been made possible thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Chartwell Books for providing me with an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I applied to review this because I’ve always been fascinated by tarot and predicting the future, but I’ve never understood how to start and go about it. I found this guide so incredibly clear, with explanatory descriptions and lovely illustrations. It finally gave me a chance to crack out the tarot set I bought on a whim and look through the meaning on the different cards in different spreads.

I would recommend this to anyone who is starting out, interesting in finding the answer for themselves and getting more familiar with different cards, messages and how to decipher answers to questions from the spreads. I would gladly gift this to friends who are interested in tarot ands astrology amongst other witchy things!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - Enough Already by Mary Hargreaves

This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and Trapeze for providing me with an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Briony, a twenty-something working in tech, living with her boyfriend and going out partying with her friends. Except Briony worries about everything, whether she’s done something to upset someone, whether they hate her because of something she said, whether she’s doomed at work because she can’t do public speaking. Following a panic attack at work, she seeks help at a group therapy session and meets Sarah and Jordan, who have issues of their own.

I thought the story moved at a relatively good pace, the characters were interesting and they all had their own quirks and pasts that you had to uncover. While I understand it was par the course for Briony’s thoughts to be repetitive and spiral off into doomsday scenarios, it felt a little bit tired to me. The book as a whole gave off very Eleanor Oliphant vibes, but in my opinion it wasn’t as well refined. I think the biggest issue Briony had was overthinking and catastrophising too much, as she could have avoided causing problems for herself at work and relationship issues with her boyfriend because she got in her own head too much.

There are some surprises and twists along the way that I wasn’t expecting and all in all, it’s a very positive book, some of the characters are so lovely I wish I could know them in real life and it definitely is worth a read if you’re ever worried about overthinking things.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - One Ordinary Day at a Time

This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is a story about child prodigy Simon, his tough relationship with a relentless father and his search for excellence, and single mom Jodie, trying to keep a roof over her head, raise Zak and get into Cambridge on an English Lit programme. Their stories collide when Jodie applies to work at the fast-food joint Simon works at and they become inseparable while Simon trains Jodie on getting into Cambridge and Jodie teaches Simon better people skills.

I thought this book was interesting, I loved the dialogue between characters and how they interacted. There were many twists and turns, surprises along the way that made the characters that much more intriguing and made me unable to put the book down. The way Simon acted reminded me of a more logical, scientific, and logical-minded male version of Eleanor Oliphant but the character was more refined while also being a little rougher around the edges at the same time. The descriptions of some more graphic scenes were visceral and it almost felt like it was happening in real life. It was so well written and extremely well edited, you could tell a lot of love and care went into producing this book.

I recommend this book to anyone who struggled with family, who indulges in a little bit of schadenfreude and who wants to know a little bit more about building their own mind palace. Also, have you seen that cover?? That's more than enough motivation to go right down to your nearest indie bookshop and picking up a copy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - Reclaim Joy by Emine Rushton

This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and @Quartoknows for providing me with an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This journal is a year-long guide to improving your life and progressively entering more mindful acts into your daily life. It’s got lovely illustrations and easy to follow guides for each day, if you’re feeling ambitious, you could even try a couple, or repeating some of them every day to create a mindful routine.

I thought the journal was really well thought out and genuine. It could help many people who’ve maybe lost touch with their more mindful side and reconnect with it a little bit more. This seems like the perfect gift to give someone who’s getting more interested in mindfulness, yoga, meditation etc or especially someone who’s just finished university and needs a chance to take a breather!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review - The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

This review has been made possible thanks to @NetGalley and @vintagebooks for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I went into the memoir knowing very little about Kamala Harris and her professional and personal lives prior to her taking up her role as Vice President. However, she does an incredibly thorough job of explaining her upbringing, the communities she grew up in, her parents’ backgrounds and all of her work history to show how she’s come a very long way, from the DA’s office to now and how those experiences have influenced how she supports the people and stands for justice now at every opportunity.

I was particularly fascinated with her work prior to her senator role, where she campaigned for changes to be made to improve lives of the people within her and impoverished communities across California and the rest of the US. She ties local or even individual issues into a host of larger, systemic issues that need to be resolved at a higher level, which is the kind of change she aims to do. She relates it back to the diverse and integral members of her community and how they worked to make changes in the 70s and 80s and she now sees this as an opportunity to make change herself.

The writing was very clear, she painted a very detailed picture of the cases she worked with and took you through other linked aspects that contributed to it, and then Harris demonstrated how and what steps she took in order to resolve problems for her constituents. I felt the responsibility she bears every day, trying to make the world a better place for her family and her community and now the whole American public. She references her immigrant mother’s role in her upbringing and how it relates to the struggles experienced by immigrants in the US today. This has been a very powerful and eye-opening book to issues I was aware of in passing but I never knew the individual roles that were taken to resolve issues.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in politics, biographies, or teenagers wondering whether their voice will be heard and whether they can make a difference, regardless of which background they hail from. Everyone has a voice and a chance to implement change.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ REVIEW Ariadne by Jennifer Saint - out on the 29th of April in the UK!

This is the first review I’m writing of a book before it’s been published, so I’m very excited to share this with all of you! A big thanks goes to Headline Books and NetGalley! Review is also up on my website, NetGalley and Instagram.

Ariadne is a retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. From the very beginning, Saint’s writing is captivating and has an air of magic around it. She describes the backstory of some famous Greek myths relevant to the story, firmly centring it on the stories of women, who are normally sidelined or misrepresented in tales, such as Medusa. The book starts with the creation of the Minotaur, a vengeful act of violence against Pasiphae for her husband’s actions and focuses on the title character’s experience with this overbearing and dangerous presence in her life as a constant threat.

As the story moves on, Ariadne has to make a dangerous choice of helping the Prince of Athens betray her family and slay the monster, which means she would never be able to live in Crete again, or to let him be sacrificed, along with 13 others to sate the monster’s hunger and her father’s bloodthirsty desire to rule over Athens. What I loved was how this book intertwined not one or two but dozens of Greek myths in one story. While it’s always been a subject I’ve been interested in, I’ve not had a chance to read that far into it and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about more Greek myths about the forgotten women of history and their stories. Their stories were heartbreaking but I rooted for them all and when they suffered, I felt their pain. Saint has done an incredible job empathising with these women and highlighting their stories and how they came to be. I think this books is going to be a cornerstone for readers interested in modern retelling of Greek myths and it will sit on the same shelves as Song of Achilles, Circe and The Silence of the Girls. I cannot recommend this book enough!