328 reviews by:

alomie

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adventurous challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I found this book in the beginning very frustrating, I struggled to understand Sam and his decisions, I also felt like I wanted him to be a better person, and it wasn't until he finally makes a trip to Uganda and he opened up and started falling in love that I really warmed to him. 

This book taught me a little about the history of Uganda, which prior to picking this book up, I knew nothing about and I am interested to read further on the topic. 

I also found the letters his grandfather wrote to be extremely heartbreaking, they really described the feeling of not belonging even though you are working hard to be part of the community and to "intergrate". 

The writing was very beautiful too, a great book. 
emotional inspiring reflective sad

This was devestating and beautiful, my heart was filled and I was also constantly hungry whilst reading this. 

A love letter to her lovely mum and the food that ultimately tied them together. 

I found this to be overwhelming in parts, the loss of her mother to cancer was especially painful to read. 

Her experiences with Korean food, that had always been part of her relationship with her mother and how she starts to learn to cook the cuisine her mother never taught her how to make were particularly good, as I really got a feel of her healing. 

Overall an easy 5 stars for me. 

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was extremely predictable and very easy to read, however I found the main character very hard to get behind she was so useless and I found myself being very frustrated with her. 

There is also a regency fan fic every other chapter about the characters in this book and I found myself skipping over these as they were kind of terrible and annoying. 

Cheesy rom-com comes to mind, if you want something lighthearted then this will definitely work for you. 

This is enemies to lovers but, honestly didn't feel like the one to me, it was all a bit overblown and also it was too obvious for me, I literally knew how the book would end after chapter one, which for me was a bit disappointing. 
informative reflective sad medium-paced

Hard to rate this one, and I feel very torn about its existence.

Although the case if of public interest I do wonder about the morality of giving such air time to a serial killer. 

Brian Masters seems to have done his outside research in addition to the many letters and visits and "personal" relationship he had built with Dennis. 

I definitely think that it is interesting how much information and explanation Dennis gave to the police and the author but ultimately never really explains the main question you might have, which is why? 

Ultimately I would have liked more focus on the victims and less on that of a broken mind, but I understand the public at large are mostly interested in what drives a serial killer, and how we can avoid creating more. 

It's hard to tell where fantasy and reality are in the confessions and how much of it is cleaned up to save face, but I do think Dennis was being in the most part truthful. 

It's a bit dated in its language of the lbgtqia community and also I found some of the mental health aspect lacking, however at the time it was deemed that medically there was nothing wrong with Dennis' mind.

Hard to rate and hard to stomach, the descriptions of the murders I found to be very mentally draining and I found myself needing to take breaks from this one. 

The Girl in the Tree

Şebnem İşigüzel

DID NOT FINISH: 46%

Found this a bit of a incoherent mess, I wasn't going back to it and it was lots of run on sentences and half told anecdotes.
I just didn't "get" it. 
challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoyed this book overall as part of a duology, an almost apocalyptic world bought on by climate change, flowing into a world that is recovering and building on the first book, but this book was a major change in pace, and a change to multiple POV's. 

I found the start of the book slow, and the middle glacial and uncomfortable the end was good, this is where it really picked up for me but I think this was only because at least something vaguely positive was happening. 

It was bleak, and it was slow, and for me it was quite hard to wade through the book. It was pretty harsh to read and I was finding it hard to pick up. 

I am glad the characters got a happier ending. 

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lighthearted fast-paced

This is quite a weird little book about Junji Ito's cats Yon and Mu. They are cats, weird, funny and most importantly family. 

Its cute, a nice way to spend half an hour. 
emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Listened to this as an audio book and it was a very quick and easy read, I enjoyed the premise a lot, about how one choice leading to one event could so quickly split how the main character's life turns out. 

It was good that neither universe was portrayed as the bad one just a different path and both had their negatives and positives and both left room for more choices that could have led to different things. 

I do have critisims of this book which would be considered mild spoilers so I have given this a 3.5 I just didnt find all of Hannah's choices believable and I think that might be a difference in UK and US culture surrounding the issues contained in this book.

I also found her a bit flighty and frustrating at times. 

I enjoyed this book enough, but i dont think it's one to write home about, I can't see me returning to this one but I do enjoy the writing. 


challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I enjoyed this dystopian novel, and I don't usually but as I enjoyed it so much I am reading the 2nd book to know how the story ends. 

I really like diary entry first person books and I also enjoy dystopian novels, it seems like it really should be a great hit for me overall. 

I am finding the relationship with the main character Lauren and a man who is as old as her dad a bit gross, but i suppose when you're lonely surrounded by couples anything is better than nothing but it feels a little bit off to me. I'm not sure I'm good with it. 

The way she is leading a group of people to be peaceful and establish a community that helps each other but also where necessary she is strong and will protect against outsiders and threats is pretty interesting and I wonder how this will continue in the 2nd book where they have settled on the land. 

Lots of walking and lots of rough moments in this book not for the feint of heart. 

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dark emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book had some really beautiful moments, and I especially liked the chapter about the flea that travels across oceans and brings the plauge with it.

Otherwise the book was okay, I was bored and ready for it to be over by the end of the book, nothing particularly wrong with it but I could have just done with less of it, by the end I was rushing through. 



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