booksny's Reviews (332)

Loved the hilarious chaos! Also really impressed with how cliched tropes were used as essential parts of the story to move the plot in interesting directions

I appreciated the diversity of these five stories. They were mostly with sad/bittersweet endings to the courtship and written from the male romantic interests' limited POV. Different emotions were evoked in the course of reading them. I felt pity but also exasperation at Angela as the narrator was an incredibly passive romantic who did not try to actually truly know even the name, let alone the personality of the woman he was falling in love with. There was satisfaction at the Parson's Daughter - this was one of two stories to delve into the female lead's POV and I liked Patience's character. Anthony Garstin's Courtship felt promising but unfinished, like a prequel to a compelling story where we'd see how Anthony, Rosa and Anthony's mother navigate the complexities of their relationship with each other. A little grey glove had the most traditional happy ending out of all the stories, but felt the blandest. The woman beater evoked similar feelings of pity and exasperation for the protagonist as with Angela, not for any passivity but rather at how obviously he was putting rose-colored goggles over his romantic situation.

I like the premise but am finding the pace of the plot overly slow; the characters feel quite flat and so I'm struggling to stay invested in them

My favorite tamora pierce novel - keladry is a fantastic protagonist, and the life she has built is a harsh but hopeful one

I enjoyed the setting and the writing style, as they provided a lot of interesting and rich detail about the complexities of culture and politics in Alaska. I was disappointed the main character - Kate Shugak felt like a Mary Sue with no flaws. Her aloofness never posed a significant challenge to her image in the eyes of other 'good' characters, her dislike for fashion was easily overcome with a makeover, and her morally questionable actions felt like an unfair advantage to ensuring that she could easily Get Stuff Done in ways that other characters couldn't. Other female characters who were described as being conventionally attractive never seemed to get along with her, often in ways that implied that they were inferior to her. 

 

Impressively intricate political intrigue; I found it a bit unclear at times so had to turn to the explanations of other readers to understand the significance of certain details, but for the most part really enjoyed the plot and pacing 

Enjoyed this read! Found most of the characters well developed (except for Jake - somehow couldn't quite grasp what drove him to make certain decisions), the plot decently strong, the tone wholesome, and the art ABSOLUTELY gorgeous 

Some interesting movies and historical anecdotes (though some of the anecdotes were definitely disputed or mere rumors); overall found this a boring read with shallow advice

A lighthearted cheeky read I randomly picked up at an Airbnb. Got bored and skimmed through a lot of content describing stereotypically traditional gender roles, but appreciated some content which were equalizing and caring. Found the stories about Pierre Abelard, Nero etc quite interesting

Really cleverly and uniquely written - enjoyed the distinctive cast and the deconstruction of detecting methods in the main novel. Wasn't keen on the epilogues from Brand or Edwards; though the effort was good I liked the original ending the best.