bookish_ghost_girl's Reviews (155)

Outside of World War II and school, Japanese history is something that I don't know much about. The book was an impulse purchase and I'm glad that I got it because I enjoyed learning about a piece of history that I hadn't know about before. When I finished reading the book, it made me want to do more research into the Satsuma rebellion and learn a little bit more about Japan and it's history.

I enjoyed the novel that this goes with so I got a little excited when I discovered this the other day. Reading it made me want to pull out the novel again to re-read it.

The Cold War is something that isn't something that I really grew up hearing much about outside of history books in school. I enjoyed getting a peak into what it was like to live in Germany during that time period. 

Since I am always looking for new books to read and trying out genres that I don't venture into that often, I decided to give this book a try. Though when I think of dystopian novels, my first thought is The Hunger Games or Divergent. Despite jumping between two different years, although one of them was written as letters, the story fell a bit flat for me as far as talking about wanting to change the climate to try and reverse/stop what is happening. It felt like the characters were trying to escape their surroundings and find freedom in something else and not really getting there. That was the impression that I was getting while reading. Overall it was an interesting book and probably not something that I will read again.

When it comes to incorporating history and fiction, I liked how the book was basically split in half with how the story was told. With the first half following the history of the Romanov's, while also incorporating magic elements that added a nice touch to it. Then the second half became a what if situation. Though all of the elements worked well together, there were times that the story felt a little slow and flat.

Sometimes a change of scenery can give you a new perspective on life as well as space for healing and finding second changes. That is what happens in the story as we follow main character Ginny to Italy with five strangers who quickly become friends. By the time I finished reading this cute story, it felt like I was friends with all of the characters. I enjoyed how we are shown that it is okay to move on from the past and into the present moment. The story also gives us a good reminder on how friendship is important in life.

I am down for a good rom-com, frenemies, and taking care of our mental health,whether it's real life or in story. While reading the book, it felt like the majority of the book focused more on the romance and comedy with everything else being a moment here and there to change things up a little. Though I did appreciate how the focus did seem to sift a bit more to focusing on the mental health of the main characters during the later half of the book. Other then that it was an alright book overall. 

Whiplash, all kinds of whiplash. That is what it felt like while reading this book. During all of that is a story of politics that is like the current state of the world. By the end I had to re-read a couple spots and wanted more by the time I finished the book.

As much as I loved the characters and the chemistry that they had, the miscommunication was making me want to inch up a wall and bang my head into it. Once they actually got it out in the open, it got better. The ending was very satisfying and is something that I would want to read again.

When it comes to thrillers, this one felt a little flat. While it was an interesting read, the ending felt a bit anticlimactic, especially when I read the reason behind why two of the characters ended up dead. It felt like there had to be a reason why someone died so a random story was thrown together and used as the reason why.