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amandasbrews's Reviews (454)
Relatable, fun, exciting, cute, delightful, validating, sweet
Seoulmates is exactly as comforting as I thought it would be when I opened it up and read Susan Lee’s author note. I read nearly the entire thing in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. Susan Lee builds such a sweet romance and a main character that truly speaks to my heart. I’m so honored and validated to have a character like Hannah in the world. The story itself hits all the right beats that I hope for in a romance and I can’t recommend it enough.
Quick Summary: Life is going all according to plan for Hannah Cho until her boyfriend Nate breaks up with her at a party. In her crumbling life, the last person she wants to see if her ex-best friend, Jacob Kim. But at the worst time possible, Jacob’s coming back to town. And because their moms are best friends, they are all staying in the same house. When blackmail, a bucket list, and two meddling mothers come into play, it seems Hannah and Jacob are in for a K-drama worthy summer
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
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Seoulmates is exactly as comforting as I thought it would be when I opened it up and read Susan Lee’s author note. I read nearly the entire thing in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. Susan Lee builds such a sweet romance and a main character that truly speaks to my heart. I’m so honored and validated to have a character like Hannah in the world. The story itself hits all the right beats that I hope for in a romance and I can’t recommend it enough.
Quick Summary: Life is going all according to plan for Hannah Cho until her boyfriend Nate breaks up with her at a party. In her crumbling life, the last person she wants to see if her ex-best friend, Jacob Kim. But at the worst time possible, Jacob’s coming back to town. And because their moms are best friends, they are all staying in the same house. When blackmail, a bucket list, and two meddling mothers come into play, it seems Hannah and Jacob are in for a K-drama worthy summer
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
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I'm just going to pretend that weird stalking part didn't happen
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Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Facebook
Sweet, fun, light, funny, relatable, real, honest, cute
Circling Back to You is one of my most anticipated romances of the year, especially after I read The Donut Trap (you can read my review here!) and loved it last year. Julie Tieu is a wonderful writer of light, fun, and sweet contemporaries, and Circling Back to You is just as delightful as her debut. Circling Back to You hits the nail on the head with this office romance. It tackles challenges that workplace friendships and romances are bound to have, maintains the so many comforting romance tropes, and adds in a wonderful family dynamic for both characters which gives everyone so much depth. I found myself not only rooting for the romance, which happens quite a bit in romances but also for each character individually. An absolute delight of a book!
Quick Summary: Cadence and Matt are best friends in the office. When work sends them on a business trip to their hometown, Matt asks Cadence to pretend to be his girlfriend for a family gathering. Given the opportunity to see each other in a new setting, they both start to change their perspectives on what their friendship really is. But just as they finally start to see their relationship for what it really is, promotions and new opportunities begin to arise that would tear them apart. Matt and Cadence must work together to get through these challenges together… or not.
Circling Back to You does a wonderful job of connecting the characters’ families into the romance. Too many romances are too isolated from the rest of the world but Tieu makes Cadence and Matt’s world so relatable and well-rounded. The way that the family dynamics affect the characters and their relationships ties so perfectly into the characters’ personalities, it gives the reader a perfect opportunity to get to know the characters. No family is perfect but our families help shape who we become, so it is a joy to read about Cadence and Matt’s families.
My favorite part of Circling Back to You is how both Matt and Cadence are both working to improve their lives from the beginning. They are both looking to further their careers, which eventually presents challenges to their friendship and romance, but it made the characters so much more relatable. Both of them are at the start of their careers and they are still working on climbing but Tieu is able to illustrate beautifully how much climbing the ladder can affect our personal lives. It is relatable, difficult, and important to read characters growing through this. So many people go through this stage in their life, or maybe they are still in it, and they might feel less alone by reading characters who also struggle with how much they are willing to let work affect their personal lives.
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Circling Back to You is one of my most anticipated romances of the year, especially after I read The Donut Trap (you can read my review here!) and loved it last year. Julie Tieu is a wonderful writer of light, fun, and sweet contemporaries, and Circling Back to You is just as delightful as her debut. Circling Back to You hits the nail on the head with this office romance. It tackles challenges that workplace friendships and romances are bound to have, maintains the so many comforting romance tropes, and adds in a wonderful family dynamic for both characters which gives everyone so much depth. I found myself not only rooting for the romance, which happens quite a bit in romances but also for each character individually. An absolute delight of a book!
Quick Summary: Cadence and Matt are best friends in the office. When work sends them on a business trip to their hometown, Matt asks Cadence to pretend to be his girlfriend for a family gathering. Given the opportunity to see each other in a new setting, they both start to change their perspectives on what their friendship really is. But just as they finally start to see their relationship for what it really is, promotions and new opportunities begin to arise that would tear them apart. Matt and Cadence must work together to get through these challenges together… or not.
Circling Back to You does a wonderful job of connecting the characters’ families into the romance. Too many romances are too isolated from the rest of the world but Tieu makes Cadence and Matt’s world so relatable and well-rounded. The way that the family dynamics affect the characters and their relationships ties so perfectly into the characters’ personalities, it gives the reader a perfect opportunity to get to know the characters. No family is perfect but our families help shape who we become, so it is a joy to read about Cadence and Matt’s families.
My favorite part of Circling Back to You is how both Matt and Cadence are both working to improve their lives from the beginning. They are both looking to further their careers, which eventually presents challenges to their friendship and romance, but it made the characters so much more relatable. Both of them are at the start of their careers and they are still working on climbing but Tieu is able to illustrate beautifully how much climbing the ladder can affect our personal lives. It is relatable, difficult, and important to read characters growing through this. So many people go through this stage in their life, or maybe they are still in it, and they might feel less alone by reading characters who also struggle with how much they are willing to let work affect their personal lives.
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Riveting, encompassing, dark, fast-paced, worrisome, mysterious, creepy
Burn Down, Rise Up was a complete surprise to me. I don’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting a high-stakes, action-packed, paranormal thriller… Cosmic horror? This book is so many things and they are all put together so well. The history of the Bronx tied in with a cosmic horror-esque mysterious game with a worrisome mystery somehow balanced each other out in this truly exciting contemporary thriller. I can’t wait to read more from Vincent Tirado because this book really blew it out of the water. I was at the edge of my seat the entire time.
Quick Summary: The Bronx has been plagued by mysterious disappearances for over a year. No one can explain them but the residents of the Bronx aren’t surprised because they know that they only search for the white kids anyway. When Raquel’s crush Charlize’s cousin goes missing, Raquel starts to pay attention. Raquel and Charlize team up to investigate but soon discover that they are in way over their head and find themselves mixed up with a terrifying urban legend called the Echo Game.
Burn Down, Rise Up shines in its writing. The worlds that the characters go to during the Echo Game are remarkably easy to picture without being too densely detailed in the writing. Tirado strikes the perfect balance of building the world just enough to let the reader fill in the blanks. This is an especially important skill when writing settings that are similar to parallel worlds like the Echo Game. The sharp writing and world-building kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the entire novel.
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
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Burn Down, Rise Up was a complete surprise to me. I don’t know what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting a high-stakes, action-packed, paranormal thriller… Cosmic horror? This book is so many things and they are all put together so well. The history of the Bronx tied in with a cosmic horror-esque mysterious game with a worrisome mystery somehow balanced each other out in this truly exciting contemporary thriller. I can’t wait to read more from Vincent Tirado because this book really blew it out of the water. I was at the edge of my seat the entire time.
Quick Summary: The Bronx has been plagued by mysterious disappearances for over a year. No one can explain them but the residents of the Bronx aren’t surprised because they know that they only search for the white kids anyway. When Raquel’s crush Charlize’s cousin goes missing, Raquel starts to pay attention. Raquel and Charlize team up to investigate but soon discover that they are in way over their head and find themselves mixed up with a terrifying urban legend called the Echo Game.
Burn Down, Rise Up shines in its writing. The worlds that the characters go to during the Echo Game are remarkably easy to picture without being too densely detailed in the writing. Tirado strikes the perfect balance of building the world just enough to let the reader fill in the blanks. This is an especially important skill when writing settings that are similar to parallel worlds like the Echo Game. The sharp writing and world-building kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the entire novel.
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
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Smart, fun, sweet, profound, delightful, lovely, strong
The Last Gifts of the Universe is a lovely and well-rounded science fiction novel. Rory August has a delightful way of balancing the darkness of a mysterious phenomenon destroying all life in the universe, a soft love story, the very human feeling of loss, and the hope to save us all. It is exciting, dark, and light all at once, making it such a wonderful cozy read. Speculative fiction is strongest when it is used to enhance universal human emotions or experiences. The Last Gifts of the Universe manages to make deep space, multiple worlds, and alien species feel like home.
Quick Summary: The universe is dying. When the Home planets achieve the technology to explore the stars, they find nothing but bones and ashes of a dead universe. The people of Home don’t know what happened, but they do know that they must be the last ones left and whatever came for the other civilizations is coming for them. Scout is an Archivist sent on a mission to find answers. To find salvation. Tasked with scouring dead planets for the last gifts: technology, information, cultural rituals; Scout miraculously finds a surviving message from someone who witnessed the world-eating entity. This could be what Scout needs to save everyone.
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Facebook
The Last Gifts of the Universe is a lovely and well-rounded science fiction novel. Rory August has a delightful way of balancing the darkness of a mysterious phenomenon destroying all life in the universe, a soft love story, the very human feeling of loss, and the hope to save us all. It is exciting, dark, and light all at once, making it such a wonderful cozy read. Speculative fiction is strongest when it is used to enhance universal human emotions or experiences. The Last Gifts of the Universe manages to make deep space, multiple worlds, and alien species feel like home.
Quick Summary: The universe is dying. When the Home planets achieve the technology to explore the stars, they find nothing but bones and ashes of a dead universe. The people of Home don’t know what happened, but they do know that they must be the last ones left and whatever came for the other civilizations is coming for them. Scout is an Archivist sent on a mission to find answers. To find salvation. Tasked with scouring dead planets for the last gifts: technology, information, cultural rituals; Scout miraculously finds a surviving message from someone who witnessed the world-eating entity. This could be what Scout needs to save everyone.
Full review on my blog Bookish Brews
Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Facebook
why yes i did read this entire book in one day, while at work
Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Facebook
Bookish Brews | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Facebook
