A simultaneously wholesome and heartbreaking book. Follows a family reuniting in the face of the end of the world (featuring a cute cat). I was already in a teary mood reading this (in one sitting too) so I definitely found this very emotional as all the hypotheticals of what would happen if everyone could live their lives were repeatedly brought up. 

 A witchy book like you've never heard before. I don't know why I was so sceptical about this (knowing literally nothing about it) but I loved it through and through. The 90s references were on point and (most) of the girl group were fantastic (Helena is her own kind of disgusting but Dawson did such a good job in writing her to really make the reader understand her thought process and then hate her even more).

The end left me shocked and I can't wait to read the next one and find out what happened!! 

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an arc of this book! 

This book was described to me as "watching a train wreck, but in a good way" and I couldn't agree more. 

Experiencing the book through Juniper's perspective makes the reader automatically want to give her some sympathy and root for her in some way, but time and time again she proves this impossible. This goes beyond morally grey characters, to characters who are just entirely unlikeable but who you still love to follow and watch how everything plays out. 

I loved the discussions on the publishing industry and the ownership of work, and how meta and self-aware the book was at various points throughout. As Juniper's mental state deteriorates throughout the book - this girl really needs therapy - the choices she makes continue to get worse and worse, making the reader intensely uncomfortable whilst watching her make these awful choices and try to prove how she's experiencing discrimination and reverse racism. Kuang's writing was so effective throughout that not only do you build a real dislike for Juniper, but you also really do start to hope that things will go wrong for her. 

These characters are so intensely real, and while some of the things that happen seem far-fetched, Kuang manages to make it all believable and utterly wrong, keeping the reader on their toes throughout. An incredible read that I can't wait to speak to so many people about and shout about from the rooftops.

Incredibly well researched but it was very academic and dense - definitely not a book I could sit down with for a long time. My favourite part was the section on potatoes. 

A super fast paced short book investigating a double suicide. This was such a quick read and the whole journey to figuring out what happened was so interesting and I loved the use of all the timings of trains to really weave this together (based on a real train timetable too!) I even managed to figure out a couple of the puzzle pieces (kind of)!

 I absolutely adored this book and I was sure from almost the start that it was going to be an unquestionable 5 stars, but I started to get less sure about 80% of the way in when there was quite a big shift in the tone of the book. It definitely wasn't unprecedented and there were hints that it was coming but considering most of the book was a fairly light-toned romance it just took me by surprise slightly.

Having said that, it definitely didn't ruin the book, I just think more of the political and warfare could have been built into the book at an earlier stage. I thought the character development was great and I loved all the different friendships throughout but I especially loved Gwen and Art's enemies-to-friends arc. The romantic relationships between Art and Gabriel and Gwen and Bridget were also really well developed and I was rooting for the them to succeed and be happy the whole way through (as well as smiling giddly at the pages every time Gwen and Bridget kissed).

A book that I will definitely be recommending to a lot of people!! 

This book was *perfection*. It was a fake-dating romance between the Lady Alessandra Stathos and the Shadow King, Kallias and it was deadly. 

Alessandra was a fantastic character. She was ruthless and unforgiving and I loved how much confidence she had in herself as she left nothing to chance and was always scheming to get what she wanted. Kallias was also phenomenal in so many unexpected ways - the way the book was set out I really thought he was going to be slightly mysogynistic and cruel but he was just precious and damaged. The way he worshipped the ground Alessandra walked on!!! He was so besotted with her and every time I got worried something was going to go wrong he just surprised me in the best way and I loved it. 

I can see this being a book I will re-read multiple times and I'm already looking forward to the next time I read these pages.