Rereading The Hunger Games was an absolute blast. Even though I knew the twists and turns, the story pulled me in all over again—maybe even more than the first time. 

The pacing, the stakes, and the world-building feel more immersive than the movie, and it’s so much easier to get attached to the characters on the page. I enjoyed how much more emotion is captured between Katniss and Prim, Rue and the movie-missed interaction with the Avox and Madge! 

Revisiting this story reminded me why it became such a phenomenon in the first place. It’s gripping, emotional, and just as powerful the second time around. I am so excited to jump into the next book as I remember it being my favourite of the series! 

I enjoyed that even with the knowledge of Snow’s character from the original series built a very believable development balance of Snow’s tenderness and sense of self-preservation – particularly towards his family - as it twists and warps over the events of the book to truly cement his mindset into a self-serving and capitol centric belief system that we see reflected in the core series.

I feel that parts 1 and 2 of this book where incredibly gripping and created some brilliant scenes, though did feel the book started to drag out in part 3 as the intrigue of the plot itself lulled in the background during many of the events in my opinion.

I am undecided whether I think having Lucy Gray’s POV would of helped or not and Snow’s POV did become quite stagnated in part 3 of the book, but also liked the mystery of not knowing how she would react to certain events and this question mark it left at the end of the book.

Overall I think a nice addition for context though not exactly a heartbreaking dramatic character arc for Snow, I feel it captured what it needed to for a prequel though there are areas I wish had been fleshed out a bit more.

Similarly to my experience reading ‘happy place’, Emily has created loveable character and relationships with a generous helping of humour.

I did enjoy the nudge of humour specific to the cheesiness of tropes in books knowing this one falls directly into so many of them.

There did feel like a lot of repetition of certain phrasing and past events being reiterated without adding depth. Particularly around

Nora’s mums death and references to sparks and lightening whenever Nora and Charlie touched or looked at each other!

An easy read and certainly made me giggle but nothing overly memorable about the book that I see myself picking up in future but a good pallets cleanser from heavy reads. 

If I had to sum up this book in a few words it would be: predictable, boring and flat.

The only props I’ll give this book is I enjoyed the nod and slight tie in to Mackie’s other book “How to kill your family” … but otherwise it was a flop. 

I couldn’t find a single character POV I enjoyed as they all felt very much the same, self-serving and snobby. I’d argue the vast majority is just people complaining out the ‘hardships’ of being rich and bitching about their family with predictable secrets. 

I can’t say there was a single plot point that felt worth the wait or was surprising in anyway - except maybe the very end which was actually more disappointing than what I had hoped! 

This pseudo-reality of purgatory felt poorly executed and just a lazy way to add humour and narrate stories that would have been more interesting if told by a POV in the situation rather than just watching. 

Overall I feel this book tried too hard to be humorous and get the reader to hate these characters … that it completely forgot to build any character to root for or a plot to grip. 

As my first book by Leigh Bardugo, I definitely fell in love with her writing style and prose. 

The 16th century Spain setting was perfectly written.  Enchanting and incredibly atmospheric, the settings was brilliantly executed , though sadly for me the plot itself just didn’t quite hit the mark. I do feel a vast majority of the book is spent setting the atmosphere over progressing the plot itself which did slow down the book and weaken my reading experience. 

Whilst I enjoyed the heroine over course of the book, the romance interactions between her and the MMC felt superficial and I couldn’t get invested in it. Without this investment I felt the ending lacked the impact it aimed to delivery sadly. 

In places where the plot became more invested in the magic aspects I found myself hooked but do feel this was slightly more watered down than I would have hoped for. Personally, had this book focused more on the magic element and the trials and betrayal within that over the hidden religious aspects it could have been a stronger read. 

Overall not a bad read, just felt like this author fell in love with the setting and world building and didn’t deliver the same attention to the plot itself. 

There is a lot to love about this book; the characters, the plot and writing were incredibly well done and hard to fault. 

For me, the real strength of this book lays with the writing juxtaposition between the gaming aspects of the characters and relationships in contrast to the reality of their lives and bonds. I loved how the various games depicted the change in the characters needs - particularly the pioneer chapter. 

The characters themselves were never meant to be perfect but their imperfections made them feel very real and stirred a lot of emotions throughout the book

Marx death and Sam’s phantom limb pain broke my heart!

. Sam and Sadie’s bond continuously shifted in form but still felt very strong in any case. The history for these characters really made them come to life! 

My only critique is in some places the book did start to dry up and slow down and some sub-characters felt half baked (E.g Zoe, Ant and Simon). I wish they had padded out more and get a stronger story around the impact they had on the main characters. 

Overall a read that has a lot to love and provides a unique perspective to enjoy.  

Evidentially this book must be the classic marmite conundrum… you either love it or hate it, and sadly I fall into the latter. I had hoped to love this book as it had recieved such high praise. Had it not been one of my 25 books to read in 2025, I would honestly would have DNF’d.  

Whilst the food aspect of this book was well written , both rich and mouthwatering, sadly it completely watered down the plot and the pacing of the story itself as it was just so detailed. 

The plot for the first 50% of the book didn’t have enough for me to ‘sink my teeth into’ as it progressed slowly. Where I had hoped for a rich dark crime dive story … instead it was a more of a reflective piece of the misogyny and fat-phobia within Japanese culture. I absolutely tried to get on board with this reflective view but found the points to be drawn out and repetitive without adding any new depth to it. 

I feel had this book been condensed down significantly perhaps it would have been more impactful … sadly just not for me.

As my first legal-drama story, I found myself quickly engrossed in the story. Particularly with a gritty plot centred around the abuse of privilege and women at the mercy of powerful men. 

Sarah’s writing created a great air of suspense and intrigue with a clever plot and interesting characters. I was particularly incredibly engrossed in the court case cross examination as it created  an intense atmosphere and had me on tender hooks… I was actually holding my breath waiting for the final verdict! 

 

The writing style does move between POVs and timelines frequently, but after quickly working out the interconnection between characters it was relatively easy to follow. 

 

My only critique is that in places the storyline felt a bit too 'neat' for my preference and wish it had been a bit more dramatic. 

 

Definitely worth a read but please note the story is centred around the theme of rape in explicit detail and therefore may not be suitable for all readers. 

It’s been a little while since I’ve picked up a ‘cookie-cutter’ Rom-com book, and whilst it took a bit of time to embrace the cheesy dialogue … I found myself actually quite enjoying the book and smiling along with it.

The plot itself wasn’t anything special or groundbreaking and i’m not that keen on the miscommunication trope. That being said, in this case it was an ‘easy-to-accept’ approach as the miscommunication it’s could be quite understandable in the circumstance … even if a bit annoying and did feel a bit drawn out and diluted the plot in places.

I think the real highlight of this book was the characters themselves! I really enjoyed the way each relationship of friendship, family and lovers were written as they grow and changed over time… and in doing so how this was reflected in each characters own personal development - and visa versa.

For me this was a one day easy-read book which had moments which made me giggle and think fondly of my own friends and family … though nothing overly special about the book to warrant a higher rating in my opinion, still one I enjoyed. 

Sadly this book was a total flop for me, had it not been chosen as a buddy read I would have DNF’d.

My biggest gripe with this book is how the writing felt almost like reading a shopping list! Just a recount of events  without any emotional depth or  key development points attachment to them. Especially when getting to the end I genuinely feel like Frieda isn’t any different to before. 

Additionally the writing felt so disjointed, this sedated slow paced writing with random snippets of graphic sexual references was jarring and didn’t add anything to the book at all.

The premise of a school could have been pushed so much further. This book felt like it missed so many possible opportunities to create interesting hooks … -

Could Freida of fallen in love with a woman? Could the bad mothers rioted? Could she have stolen her robot baby? … all could of been so much more interesting.

Instead I feel like this book relied so heavily on a half baked concept with a lack of any intriguing plot points for me.

Overall a really disappointing read for me across the board.