booktribe's Reviews (603)

Two people accidentally get promised the same dog at the animal shelter so they decide to co-parent the dog & they fall in love🥺

This was so adorable! Zeus is the sweetest lil baby! Janelle is everything! And Andre is definitely one of my new book husbands! My only complaint is that I wish it was longer! Cute, fluffy romances are always the best!

Rebekah Weatherspoon is definitely becoming one of my favorite authors of all time because this and Xeni are two of my favorite romances ever!

I read the first book in this series, What Moves the Dead, earlier this month and was so excited to receive an early copy of the sequel! But sadly I couldn’t finish it. I stopped reading at 55%.

I was over halfway done with the book and barely anything had happened. The writing is just so long winded and there are so many superfluous anecdotes, I can’t. I don’t need to know so many little stories about the main character that literally have nothing to do with the plot. The main character was thinking SO MUCH and for SO LONG, it became very tiresome. There were some anecdotes in the first book, but they didn’t take over the story. The story doesn’t even feel like horror or have a strong gothic atmosphere because all we’re getting is the main character’s random thoughts. The only reason I got as far as I did into the story is because it’s so short and I thought it’d get better faster, but it did not. This should have been a 30 page short story because most of the book is either irrelevant to the main story or super long descriptions of things that aren’t important.

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

It breaks my heart to say this, but I couldn’t finish this book😭 Sunny Disposition is one of my favorite books of all time and I also really enjoyed Team Players, so I just knew I was going to love this, but I didn’t🥺

First lemme say that I absolutely LOVED Sage! She was everything! But I didn’t like Noah. She’s the one that looks all sweet, but she’s consistently mean & rude to Sage. This is why I hardly ever enjoy enemies to lovers because there’s always a character who I hate because they’re the problem. I thought I’d enjoy rivals to lovers better because I assumed they would be equal with the rude & it might be more on the fun side, but no it’s just Noah who’s mean. I know her rudeness comes from insecurity, but that doesn’t make it any better. I don’t root for their relationship. Sage deserves better. The book didn’t feel fun at all. Sunny Disposition & Team Players both had emotional parts, but were pretty fun & lighthearted as well, this was not. Also, the scenes were just sooo long to me that the book was dragging. 

BUT I still love you Sage & I still love Deanna Grey. I’m still HIGHLY anticipating Safety Net, the 3rd book in the Mendell Hawks series, next year🤞🏽

An Education in Malice is a sapphic romance with gothic & dark academia vibes, sinister secrets, and vampires!

The writing in this book was so atmospheric and engrossing! Gothic books are literally my favorite type of books, and this had all the gothic vibes! I highlighted so many quotes because the writing was gorgeous! I usually don’t enjoy rivals to lovers, but THIS was rivals to lovers done right! There’s a valid reason that they’re rivals, and they throw jabs at each other rather than there just being  one bully. (Well honestly, Carmilla is the aggressor, but Laura be getting with her!) Those are the things that stood out to me most in this novel!

When I first started this book I was OBSESSED! But then I got bored… I wish there had been more depth to the story. The synopsis made it seem like so many sinister & mysterious things were going to happen, but really this was a romance with a very small amount of a sinister subplot. There was a villain in this story, but the villain was rarely seen, only mentioned several times. Not seeing the villain made me very disconnected from them and not scared at all. The sense of urgency that we should’ve felt to defeat the villain wasn’t there because there was no connection to them. I don’t think the book was boring, but I got bored because I wasn’t expecting SOLELY romance. I knew romance was a big part of the novel, but I thought there was more. I definitely expected there to be some horror, mystery, or thriller elements since it’s dark academia and about vampires.

Overall I loved the writing & atmospheric tone in this one, but it’s not exactly as it was advertised. I’d definitely recommend this to someone who loves gothic romance, just don’t expect horror or thriller vibes!

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Redhook Books and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

So, this book wasn’t what I was expecting. The synopsis is way more ominous than the book is. I went into the book assuming there would be a curse on the town and vengeful spirits. There are spirits, but they aren’t the focus of the novel. I’d say the book is like 50% family story, 40% romance, and 10% ghosts. Which is not a bad thing at all and it was definitely a good book, I just wish it had been advertised correctly.

This novel was an emotional one full of abandonment, grief, love, and so much more. The family dynamic was very interesting. The family had lots of depth and conflicting feelings of love and immense hurt & betrayal. And I loved Kat, the love interest. She was such a fun and kind person, and honestly, she deserved better than the main character Jericka. I really disliked Jericka’s character. She was selfish, inconsiderate, and just straight up mean at times. I did enjoy a lot of the side characters though!

I definitely would’ve enjoyed this more if I knew that I was getting into more of a coming of age type of story rather than a ghost story. So if you’re looking for an emotional read with complex family dynamics and first love (with a few ghosts & a southern gothic feel) you’ll enjoy this one! 

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: parental abandonment, cancer, domestic and child abuse, death, racism, hate crimes

All That Consumes Us is a gothic, dark academia novel with nightmares, secret societies, and malevolent spirits!

I always love gothic novels AND dark academia novels, so this book was right up my alley! The atmosphere was intriguing, the mysterious aspects of the book kept me guessing (though I am happy to say I figured it out!), and I absolutely loved the academic discussions that took place in the novel!

But I did have some complaints as well. For one, it was too long. It could’ve been 50-100 pages shorter. I don’t think that there were a lot of unnecessary scenes, but I do think that the author is too descriptive. A lot of scenes could’ve been shorter. Being over-descriptive made the book drag at times. Another complaint of mine is that the main character kept saying certain things like they were a revelation, but they were quite obvious to the reader. I found myself saying “duhh” to her a lot😬 And my last complaint is that I wish that the main character’s dark thoughts had been explored beyond a certain point. In the beginning of the book, there was a lot of emphasis placed on dark and jealous thoughts had by the main character, but the dark depths of her personality weren’t explored as much as I think they could’ve been. 

But overall, I did enjoy this book and it is a great read for anyone who, like me, loves dark academia and gothic vibes!

I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you HarperTeen and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

Trigger Warning: parental abandonment 

I’m OBSESSED!!!! This is the most adorable thing I’ve ever read🥰 I love the characters so much and they must be protected at all costs🥺

It was so slow and I was so bored. Although I was interested in the mystery, I couldn’t read anymore, so I looked up spoilers for how it ended lol. (A lot of the reveals were what I thought)