booksbytheglass's Reviews (904)

I fear I’m straying more away from romcoms and more towards contemporary or emo romance as the days go on 👀 cue depressing sad music that I’m getting older

romcoms are usually great palate cleansers for me, as they’re fun and sometimes cringey but don’t require a ton of emotions! and while this accomplished that, I was hoping for more!

it started off on a very intriguing foot with the reader wanting to know more about margot’s ailing sister and margot’s mysterious hater who exposes her private documents online, including ones that detail how much she despises happy endings & fluff 😳 the mystery and emo elements hooked me in, but unfortunately, that’s where it ended for me…

I just… didn’t really care about the romance? forrest and margot went through every trope in the book together, and I still didn’t see the “obvious” chemistry between them oops 🫠 it wasn’t anything new or unique to me, and I found myself getting bored with the redundancy 

it was giving read it and weep for adults 🫨

thank you atria books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!

rating: 2 stars
wine pairing: finger lakes riesling 

this was a lot to wrap my head around - mostly the classism conversation surrounding the main characters and the miscommunication littering the entire plot 😭 but paige toon’s writing style is so beautiful I couldn’t help but become entranced!

ash and ellie meet while abroad in portugal and immediately fall head over heels with each other in just a few days - and while insta love usually isn’t my jam, their story was so beautiful … until the entire truth comes out seven years later 👀 and wow, how can you know everything about a person but have no idea what their last name is and who their family is??

in their bones, ellie and ash felt like two halves of the same person, but in reality, it felt like a prince and pauper story… ash being the heir to a wealthy family shouldn’t have been as big of a deal as it was, but ash and ellie refused to have a decent conversation with each other about it 🙄 

if they sat down and explained each other’s emotions and views for the future, the conflict and flight response would have been null and void. and while I can understand how hurt they both were at the end of the book, it drove me nuts that they chose to not speak and push each other away instead of talking out their feelings!!!!! what a concept!!!!

why must love interests always assume the worst I swear 🥴🥴🥴

a huge thank you to putnam and penguin random house for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! 

rating: 3 stars
wine pairing: portugal albariño 

there’s something about solving a cold case that always gets me going - and I’m usually super invested in sleuthing along with the MCs!! and this one, combining two cold cases in one, was so addicting!

ashley flowers knows how to write mysteries so well, but more importantly, she knows how to write human stories and well-fleshed-out characters. the desperation that jenna and nic felt as they raced against the clock to discover new clues about their missing sisters was so well written!!! 

I thought I pegged the whodunnit from the beginning, and was validated for a bit when it started to look to go in that direction - but I never would have suspected the ending!! I gasped so loud when I got to the finale!

what didn’t quite work for me was the way the story wrapped up itself. when the initial shock wore off, I found myself questioning the decisions of jenna and nic and how they handled the conclusion very differently than their characters in the beginning. it does drive home the emotion of desperation, but at the same time, jenna and nic were two sides of the same coin and it felt a little too abrupt and neat for the tragedy of the book… 

a huge thank you to bantam and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! may’s gonna be a good month!

rating: 3.5 stars
wine pairing: finger lakes cabernet franc

I fear I don’t have words for how much this book broke me and got me fully immersed back into the life of panem 😭 I adore young haymitch as much as older haymitch - and boy did this hit the spot!

from the synopsis and few details received about haymitch’s games in the first hunger games, I knew it was going to be trauma-filled, but hot dang suzanne collins really outdid herself! this is her most emotional, bloodiest, most political chapter yet!!!!

there were so many lovely callbacks to the original series as well as snow’s book, and I love that collins took the time to connect the dots - it truly felt like an avengers assemble moment 

and while that was a highlight for me, I also adored all of the newer faces that brought new meanings into haymitch’s past. maysilee is 100% a new fan favorite for me - we have to stan using snarky comebacks and dark humor to disguise trauma and pain 😗✌🏼

the concept of the games themselves was the backdrop of the story, but it was truly a character heavy plot and story that was just beautiful and heartbreaking to watch 🫶🏼 

rating: 5 stars 
wine pairing: plum wine

I absolutely loved everything about molly’s gran’s story and disliked everything about molly’s 👀 but I feel like I was just bored by the predictable quirks of present day…

while I adore molly, juan, and the whole crew at the hotel, the antics were the same old same old and I felt the entire situation involving the faberge egg and the appraisal crew was way too monotonous 😭 what worked super well for me was the background of finally finding out who gran was!

I’m always so invested in women’s rights period pieces, and this read exactly like that! a young woman who knows she’s worth more in the world than just a prize mare, and she truly goes through it! I wish this was written more as a prequel story rather than diary entries at times though…

overall, a very solid conclusion (hopefully this story is going out for far too long 👀) to the molly the maid series! thank you netgalley and the publisher for an advanced gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 3 stars
wine pairing: loire valley chenin blanc 

excellent on the dark academia, predictable on the rest… not my favorite of megan miranda’s but still super bingeable! 

megan miranda always writes spooky neighborhood or campus thrillers, and I loved how this plot drew the reader in closer and closer to wyatt university! not knowing what happened years ago, beckett and her now college-aged daughter delilah return to campus, only to discover that less has changed than they expected 🧐

I loved the slow burn reveal of what truly happened in the past, what happened to the fire, and how the night of the howling unfolded. I just wished it tied more into the present day mystery than what actually happened. 

the pacing was very well done, even if the twists and mysteries were a little predictable for my taste (but I again chalk that up to reading too many thrillers in my life) 🥲🥲🥲 beckett’s character from past to present almost seemed like different people at time as well

thank you netgalley and simon & schuseter for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! 

rating: 3.5 stars
wine pairing: sonoma coast chardonnay

someone tell me why I put off reading this installment in the series for SO LONG! I knew beau would have my heart from start to finish - and wow bailey did too 😭 the tension, the growth, the communication, it’s all there folks!!!!

beau is going through it after returning from active duty, and bailey is going through it period as the black sheep of the town… and I loved them together and separate!! they were so good to each other!! bailey was a refreshing breath of fresh air (even when she was faking it until she was making it) 🥹

and their “situationship” was SO well written! I’m a sucker for fake dating / marriage of convenience tropes, and this one totally lived up to the hype! the slow burn paid off beautifully no notes 🤌🏼

I wanted more interactions with the rest of the eaton clan, though, as I was eating up every second with them all together!! the way that they just accepted bailey no question was true to their character 🙂‍↕️ even when bailey constantly called them out on their privilege 

I’m beyond sad this series is over but cannot wait to start the rose hill one (praying for crossovers)!

rating: 5 stars
wine pairing: loire valley cabernet franc

this one was wild & very off the wall, which normally I appreciate the creativity, but this just didn’t make any sense half the time 🫠

one of my pet peeves in mystery books is when the author tries to force connections that don’t make sense 🥴 and boy was the main character reaching… from purposefully stalking a patient on a wild goose chase, to putting herself in harms way just to figure out what the cult is, and of course, figuring that everyone is there to help her instead of you know unaliving her 🤡

while I appreciate how fast paced this story was, the underlying spiritual story was… a bit much for me. I love a good cult plot line, but this went a bit further and tried to tie reincarnation into it all. and while it sounds like a promising premise, it relied on the reader suspending disbelief and making connections to the characters that weren’t really there…

and can we talk about how despite all odds (and science), these idiotic characters were able to survive? even when they should have died in a literal collapsed cave with no food or safe water? 

thank you to netgalley and atria for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! 

rating: 2 stars
wine pairing: white burgundy blend 

DNF @ 25% - I really wanted to like this one, especially after a lot of glowing reviews surrounding the mystery of it. however, mom/young kid drama is not for me… I really had a hard time getting through this, from how the world has no tolerance for women and yet expect them to be mothers. having two kids who act out and don’t listen is actually my nightmare, and I enjoy reading to escape drama and reality (especially as I work with kids daily). the writing style also was too telling rather than showing for me. 

this is my first book from the eddie flynn series, and it certainly won’t be my last! the way that eddie is such a fun and likable character while also proving his worth in the courtroom with tricky cases 🙂‍↕️ we have to stan

in this case, eddie is representing sofia, one of two sisters accused of unaliving their father, while newcomer brooks is representing alexandra, the other daughter. and the back and forth between the two of them was SO well done!! 

what didn’t quite work for me was the in between chapters titled “she” - describing one of the sisters in their attempt to get away with murder. from the beginning, the red herrings and ultimate conclusion seemed fairly obvious to me, and I was a bit disappointed in how it all played out…

but the pacing of the book was so fast that I flew through it in a single day! I got so attached to both eddie and brooks’ teams - and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series!

thank you to atria books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! 

rating: 3.5 stars
wine pairing: barbara d’asti red blend