booktribe's Reviews (603)

I really enjoyed this! The writing was so engrossing at times, it definitely gave the gothic vibes🖤 I loved the main characters Jade! My girl was angry & petty, and I loved EVERY SECOND OF IT! The ending did feel a little all over the place in my opinion, but I thoroughly enjoyed this! Can’t wait to read more from this author!

I need a minute to gather my thoughts & write a full review, but this was A LOT! (In good ways & bad, but mostly good)

A few hours later: Okay I have my thoughts together now, let’s get into it.

The writing is what sucked me in and it kept me hooked throughout! I have so many quotes highlighted. The first half of this novel was VERY slow, I think it could’ve been much shorter, but because of the writing, I stuck with it and KNEW that the second half of the novel was going to be amazing. And I was right. The second half of this book… whew. It definitely came with the intrigue, it came with the action, it came with the horror, it came with everything. 

I feel like my thoughts are incoherent because I have so many thoughts and feelings about it.

I definitely thought that having god rape lucifer & have that be what pushed him over the edge was a choice… I’m not sure how I feel about that. It definitely comes with god being a controlling, wrathful, jealous god in this novel. But like rape?? I don’t know how to feel about that, it did make me very uncomfortable. But also I get how it fit into the story. That was just A LOT (it doesn’t happen on page, just alluded to)

Along with wishing the first half of this book was shorter, I did notice that sometimes it wasn’t clear whether characters were just thinking or actually speaking. That was something I had to get used to.

I don’t really know how to explain how this book made me feel, so to sum it all up: 4 stars!😂

Hope you enjoyed my incoherent review🥰😭😂

My FIRST 5 STAR READ OF THE YEAR🥳🥳🥳🥰🥰🥰

How am I supposed to wait on the sequel???!!!

I really love everything about this book, but mainly the characters! Omg I haven’t loved characters this much in a while! Teo, Xio, and Niya were just EVERYTHING! The world building was amazing. And that ending!!! Chileeeee. Where is the next book????

I ALWAYS enjoy a gothic vampire story and this one was no different! The writing was pretty and the novel was very quotable, I highlighted so many lines! And I enjoyed the main character, Léon. This book was closer to erotica than I expected. I knew it would have smut, but I didn’t know it would be so prominent. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, just not what I was expecting. And I did think the story could’ve moved a little faster. It took a while for the meat of the story to get started. But overall, I enjoyed this! And let me just say… We love bloody revenge over here😏

Thank you to the author for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: past sexual abuse, past forced prostitution, past abuse

When Latavia is forced to spend the Summer with her aunt in a creepy small town, she discovers that this town has secrets, and that something is living in the woods. Will Latavia make it out of this town alive?

This author’s previous novel, Bad Witch Burning is one of my favorite books of all time! And I have been waiting on Monstrous for so long! I loved the characters! Our main character Latavia was incredibly relatable and she really deserved better! And I also LOVED the monster that was living in the woods. He was such a sweetie pie when he wasn’t eating people! I also loved the puppies! One thing about Jessica Lewis, she’s gonna add lovable animals to her books and I love her for it! I also appreciated that this had mental health representation! 

I did expect this to be darker and more intense though. From the description I was expecting horror and it definitely feels more fantasy with some murderous elements. Also, the story picked up really quick in the beginning but it got slow after that. I think either more should’ve happened in the amount of pages it had OR it should’ve been a shorter book. And based on the way this book ended, I feel like this might become a series and I was expecting a standalone. It didn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, but a large part of the conflict wasn’t handled at the end and it was alluded to that that conflict would be handled later. I would definitely be interested in reading the next book if this becomes a series, but I still feel unsatisfied with the ending, especially if it really is a standalone.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot! There were some things I would’ve changed, but it was definitely enjoyable and I can’t wait to read even more of Jessica Lewis’ work!

Thank you Random House Children’s and NetGalley for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: parental abandonment, domestic abuse, child abuse, homophobia, fatphobia, suicidal thoughts 

After unexpectedly becoming a single dad,  Rowan uproots his life from bright Cape Town to move to a tight knit small town in South Africa where, with the help of his grandmother, he has a shot of giving his son the best life possible. But when he meets Delilah, a secret-former-heiress, she becomes determined to give him the support he needs by introducing him to a group of fellow single dads. 

This book definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. I want to say that I loved Delilah, and her brother, Matt! I really enjoyed both of them as characters. Delilah reminded me a lot of myself, but much more adorable! And I also enjoyed the single dads club aspect of the book too! That was fun & I enjoyed those characters as well.

However, my main complaint with this book is that I hated Rowan & I did not root for the romance. She liked him so much, but he didn’t like her for most of the novel. He only thought of her two ways: lust & “ooo she can help me out”. She was constantly doing sweet things for him and I felt like he used her, and she allowed that. He was just horny and a user. He was more concentrated on parenting and past trauma from his childhood, which is understandable, but why was this a romance if he wasn’t thinking about her romantically?? This would’ve been better if it was marketed as a contemporary about him and his parenting journey with a romantic subplot. He was also just incredibly selfish when it came to her and he had a very judgmental moment in regard to her that rubbed me the wrong way. Overall, she deserved so much better. This also wasn’t as lighthearted as I thought it’d be. It’s filled with thoughts of self loathing, again understandable, but definitely not the tone I was expecting.

Overall, I just really didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. But if there are books following other characters that I actually liked, I might check those out.

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: past parental neglect