booksoversecondbreakfast's Reviews (79)

The book hooked me from the beginning, reminding me a bit of The Devil Wears Prada at first (though this vibe doesn't last long) and then making me ponder the mystery as to why Evelyn, an elderly Marilyn Monroe-era movie star, reached out to Monique, an early-career journalist, to finally share her long-awaited tragic and drama-filled life story. The mystery becomes slightly predictable towards the end of the book but pulls itself together in a heartbreaking revelation.

I enjoyed how the author positions us alongside Monique in the story. Like Monique, we are solely in Evelyn's hands as she reveals her story to us. Throughout her narrative, Evelyn continuously reminds Monique that she will let her down. As a result, Evelyn also indirectly prepares us, as the reader, to not trust her and to see her as somewhat of an unreliable narrator. This setup allows us to see how Monique applies what she learns to her life, and I liked that this enables the author to communicate the points she's trying to make in the story by showing how Monique processes the story herself. This was a clever literary technique, and it helped keep my interest in the story.

I definitely shed some (bittersweet) tears at the end of this book, not just due to the mystery's tragic revelation but also because this just hits hard in its depictions of biphobia. It shows how people make false assumptions about an aspect of bi women's identities wears on us over time. As a bisexual woman married to a man, I really appreciated the representation in this book, but I was kind of disappointed with the ending. The story also felt a bit like it was a queer character written by a straight woman, and when I looked up the author, I was not surprised to find out my assumption validated. In that sense, the book disappointed me a bit, but it tugged at my heartstrings anyway.

Another thing I didn't enjoy about the story was how the author drew a comparison between being biracial and being bisexual. I definitely didn't think that was an appropriate comparison for her to make as a white woman. There is also the fact that Evelyn is a Latina woman, and beyond the first several chapters, this aspect of her identity is almost entirely ignored throughout the rest of the book, which felt like a significant oversight. Additionally, Evelyn's character is so openly manipulative, and Monique's character was so clueless at times that it frustrated me. Still, I enjoyed this book overall, but these negatives ultimately affected my rating.

I feel conflicted about this book, but I'm glad I read it. It captured my interest throughout the whole story and felt very entertaining. Evelyn's life felt mysterious and intriguing, and I enjoyed uncovering her story alongside Monique. I read this book as an ebook I borrowed from my local library and will probably not reread it, but I am glad I gave this book a read once, and I can see why it is so popular.

"There are a thousand metaphors and all of them are inadequate" (page 16).

A thousand metaphors is indeed my impression of this book so far. I want to give this book more of a shot, but it is all just going over my head. I don't think I'm smart enough for this book, and I definitely don't know enough of the references in this book to keep following what's going on.

So, I'm DNFing it. It's not a bad book so far, but maybe I should try again reading this ten years from now when I've built up my literary muscles.

So much for this book felt healing for me. It voiced so many of my concerns that I've had navigating friendship in adulthood. It helped me to see just how fluid and flexible friendships can be, and it encouraged me to be more open-minded about having friendships that don't look like the friend groups I see on television. I also really appreciate that the author addressed some of the complexities and added confusion that navigating friendships as a bisexual woman can come with. As a bi woman, I don't find many books that speak to friendship in that sort of way, so I was really grateful for this one.

On the flip side, I felt like the book really dragged on and felt like long-winded rambles at times (such as the story about Rosemary). I borrowed this book as an audiobook and might check it out again some day to reference it, but probably not. I'm still glad I read it, however. I think it's a good book for those needing some validation about friendships being hard. For anyone looking for a book full of instructions on friendships, however, this might not be what you're looking for, so keep that end mind when considering picking up this book.

Found it too boring. I was reading via an audiobook and it was really difficult to distinguish who was talking. Maybe I'll try again some day.

As an autistic woman, I felt so much frustration reading this book. While I found Molly to be a very likable character and a woman with whom I would most likely enjoy being friends, I felt that the author made Molly out to be too much of a caricature of an autistic woman. It is not directly said that Molly is autistic; still, she clearly aligns with all of the DSM characteristics of ASD, and she significantly reminds me of both myself when I was younger as well as my husband, who is also autistic.

The aspect of the book that bothered me the most was how Molly's autistic characteristics were presented as character flaws. The author put ableist words into Molly's mouth, peppering the text with negative comments about Molly, both from her own mouth and the mouths of others. Here are some examples:

"I felt horrible, like a complete fool." - Molly about herself, page 58
"Molly the Mutant. Roomba the Robot. The formality freak." - Molly listing nicknames her coworkers have given her, page 171
"But even as I say it, I realize I'm a fool." - Molly about herself, page 258

This large number of comments of this sort felt insulting to me as a member of her neurodivergent audience, especially considering that this was written by an author who has not revealed herself to be neurodivergent. The book was clearly written with a neurotypical audience in mind, seemingly at the expense of her neurodivergent audience. It made me wonder if she wrote Molly's character to express her own ableist opinions. I am all for autistic representation in books, and I'm not entirely against non-autistic people writing autistic characters, but I just don't think this was done right. Another reviewer (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8LyMDBA/) mentioned that this felt very 'othering,' and I must agree with her.

Sally Hepworth's The Good Sister is another book with an autistic main character, written by a neurotypical author but in a way that didn't perpetuate negative stereotypes. The Good Sister even has similar themes of an autistic person being taken advantage of by someone they trust, but it handles this theme in a way that seems much more respectful to the book's autistic audience.

Honestly, I do not understand why this book has so many positive reviews calling it a cozy book. Reading the first two-thirds of this book felt physically painful, and I considered DNFing it several times. I just felt an abundance of pain for Molly and all of the horrible things she went through, thinking both back to my own related experiences in my youth or thinking about how something like this could happen to my autistic loved ones. The book got better around the two-thirds mark because it started presenting Molly in less of a negative light, but it still contained themes reinforcing harmful stereotypes about ASD. For example, after only one day of having new friends, Molly thought, "I will recognize the expression instantly. I will know it means fear because I'm getting better at this—understanding the subtle cues, the body language that expresses emotional states." That's just not how neurodivergence works, and it was frustrating to read.

Despite this book's harmful qualities, it does have some good things going for it. For the most part, the kind characters are fairly loveable and well thought-out, the story is well-written, and the plot kept me wanting to see things turn out for Molly. As a lover of slow-paced, character-centered plots, I found this book to be paced wonderfully. The book's final third was highly engaging and interesting, and the twists differed a bit from my initial assumptions. I also appreciated that it had a well-resolved and satisfying ending.

Overall, I did not find this an enjoyable read, but I can see how it might be a pleasant read for people who don't notice all the ableism. I'm glad I only borrowed this book from the library because I don't anticipate rereading this, recommending this book to others, or reading the rest of this series by this author. There's a lot of disability activism that's left to be done to improve autistic representation in media. Still, unfortunately, I do not recommend this book to anyone seeking more authentic ASD representation.

If I had read this book back in middle or high school, this very likely would have been my favorite book. The story features a teenage Lipan Apache girl, Elatsoe, living in an alternate U.S. where magic and mythical creatures exist. Elatsoe is the type of heroine I loved looking up to as a teen. She is smart, innovative, and passionate and is an all-around loveable character from the very beginning.

This is an Indigenous Futurism book that feels like a cross between Nancy Drew, Ghostbusters, and Netflix's Wednesday. The thoroughness of world-building made it very obvious to me why this book has made it onto Time's list of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Every bit of lore revealed about this alternative U.S. society was interesting and believable when viewed with an imaginative lens. The magic system and the way it interweaves society as we know it feels plausible in the same way that the world's of Harry Potter did.

This book is incredibly heartwarming and interesting. It had a bit of a horror element to it, which I didn't expect, but it was done in a way that still didn't seem too intense. The plot and the lore hooked me from the very beginning and easily held my attention through the end.

My only critique of this is that there were some vampire parts that felt too cheesy for me, but I'm not letting it affect my rating because I have to remember that this was written for ages 12 through 18. Most of the book felt like it was good for teens and adults alike, but it was some of the vampire scenes towards the end that made it feel more middle-grades/YA.

All in all, this was a wonderful book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I read this as an audiobook I borrowed from my local library, but I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy for my personal collection because I anticipate reading this more throughout my lifetime and encouraging my friends and future kids to read it.

I enjoyed this! I don't think this would be as good of a read as a standalone short story, but I think it's great as a prequel short story for Legends & Lattes. It made me happy getting to learn a bit more about the backstory that set Viv onwards towards her cafe adventure. This added a bit more action to the story, revealed a bit more magic system lore and world-building details, and gave me more of a background on some of the characters.

I just loved this book so much!! It's definitely a cozy fantasy, so don't expect something fast-paced and thrilling, but it's just so sweet and full of so much well thought out lore and intrigue. 

It's a story of a retired mercenary & adventure orc, Viv, and her journey building a business and a community. There's a secondary plot that features a romance between Viv and one of the other characters, but it's not as central as the community-building plot of the book. I had hoped that there would be more romance to this book, because I really enjoyed it, but I can't penalize the book for not having as much of as I'd have preferred, especially because it was so tastefully written and the rest of the plot was so interesting otherwise.

All in all, this was totally a 5-star book! Especially for fantasy! The characters were all so interesting and loveable, the setting left me wanting to explore the world and visit Viv's coffee shop, and the magic system seemed well thought out and interesting. It was such a wonderful found-family story, which I'm a total sucker for, and I loved how this author made that work in such an interesting and well-written fantasy world. We totally need more books like these! I borrowed this book via ebook from the library, but I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy of this book for my library, because I expect to comfort-reread this several times throughout my lifetime.

In so many ways, I really loved this book. The story as a whole was very interesting. It had me clutching at the edge of my seat in fear for the characters I grew so attached to. I came to enjoy the magic and the families the story centers, as well as the land in which the story is set. It was all so whimsical and the plot was so thrilling.

At the same time, however, the plot was extremely predictable and almost felt like a YA read (but with a spicy seen added in), which was not what I was anticipating. The first few chapters could have used more editing, with the narration really throwing me off sometimes and ruining my reading flow. It got a bit better further into the book, however, but I was close to DNFing it a few chapters in.

The main character took some time for me to come to like, as she very much had a 'not-like-other-girls' mindset that felt pretty annoying. She has great character development as the story progresses, however, so that kind of redeemed her in my eyes.

I wish the magic system had been explored much more prior to the climax, as it felt kind of underdeveloped. I also wish the romance had more time to cook as well, as everything seemed to happen really suddenly when the romance finally did seem to come together. Also, I just wish we had more time to see what honey + ash magic is like in the post-climax setting. It all rushed so quickly at the end, and I ended wanting more, so I think the pacing wasn't quite right.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but it was kind of frustrating to me at times. It's a really great story, though, I just think there was room for improvement. I borrowed this book from the library, and don't think I'll read it again, but I might keep an eye out for this author's future work.