Heavy, heartbreaking, shocking, and earnest. I don't think I ever cried so hard at a book, ever. This was a beautiful love letter to Syria and it really captured the horrific, ugly, and evil beast that is war. Salama is one of the best characters I've had the pleasure of reading. She was resilient and hearty and courageous and I admire her deeply. This is a emotional read but you need to read it. 5 stars isn't high enough.

Is the plot in the room with us???
Ok but really, no plot. Not a spec. How are the characters flat and dull but also insufferable and annoying?? I somehow disliked this more than Icebreaker, which is wild, cause that one deserves jail time. I don't think this author is for me.

Sapphic? Witchy? Fake dating? I thought I was going to eat this up and at first I did...then it got bad. Bad might be a strong word. Definitely not good. Morgan went from being relatably awkward to downright cruel to Rory when everything with the love potion happened. Instead of communicating like an adult she did horrible things to make Rory hate her and really hurt Rory. Honestly, Morgan can eat worms.

There wasn't a moment where I didn't want to DNF but I for some reason I had to keep reading. The blurb sounded so good but this ended up being so boring. Not a single character is cool. Mark just sucks completely. No one falls in love, none of these characters really seem to connect, and honestly I think this could've stayed in the drafts.

This was okay it had it's cute and endearing moments but I just couldn't fully get into it. I had my annoyances with Bastian and Emma both and I despised Emma's mother and her treatment of her daughter. Bastian was just kind of dick ish imo and it felt like Emma *had* to go through with the marriage rather than it being genuine. I didn't buy into the romance at all. The good points were her friends and sister and that she finally got to stand up to her mom.

First time reading this author and I think their writing is incredibly lovely but...this fell a little short for me. I love Medusa and I was so excited to get into her retelling but for a book about Medusa...there was very little Medusa? I understand the author wanted to talk about the gods horrible decisions but why was there so much Athena in this Medusa story?? I don't think this did her story justice imo.

This was completely perfect. The illustrations, the beautiful themes of family and grief and bonds, the love for the forest was all perfect. Willow was sweet and relatable and Pilu was lovely. I loved how they both learned it was okay to have strong feelings as long as you don't let them win. I 100% cried to this story.

This was one of the more unique anthologies I've read. The inspiration to use folklore from around the world made this compelling and intriguing. I liked that the author kept the authenticity of each story but used elements of horror to make them even better. The writing was also atmospheric and captivating and I think this was a great debut.

I enjoyed this but I didn't love it like I hoped. The authors writing was so effortless and I liked Courtney immediately and found myself incredibly intrigued by her fairy garden shop. It was instantly cozy and the mystery was well fleshed out and fun to figure it out. I just...had a hard time with Courtney actually having a fairy friend. Something about the supernatural or mythical elements just don't work in cozies for me and I found the fairy friend to be really cringe. That being said, I'll happily continue the series. 3.5 stars for sure.