1.84k reviews by:

caseythereader

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Thank you St. Martins Press for the free copy of this book.

 - This book! THANK YOU FOR SHARING is exactly what I want in a romance novel: great banter, excellent tension, working to understand past traumas, and immense character growth.
- Every character in this book has such a big personality. I'd read a novel centering any of the side characters (but please please a book for Neen first!) I adored them all, even when they were being frustrating.
- On top of all that goodness, I've never read a novel featuring two mixed race Jewish adults before (plus Liyah is queer on top of that). I love that romance is a place where identity and and the tough conversations and experiences around it can be explored with nuance and care. 

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Thanks to Pride Book Tours for the free copy of this book.

 - BEING ACE is a joy to read. I had such fun tearing through this collection, which spans a variety of genres and of asexual and aromantic identities, often with other intersecting identities as well.
- No story in this book is a dud, which for me is a rarity in a short story collection. I was swept up in the world of each and every one. This book is proof that stories do not need to have romantic and/or sexual plot threads to be compelling.
- I'd happily read full length novels of a few of these stories, and I also discovered a few new-to-me authors, so this was a winner all around for me. 

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Rouge

Mona Awad

DID NOT FINISH: 29%

I can’t read the words “whitely” or “redly” or any of the other billion adverbs anymore. 
challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thanks to St. Martins Press for the free copy of this book.

 - FLY WITH ME has such a silly premise, and yet it's fairly serious for a romance novel. This book deals with everything from workplace sexism to end of life care for relative in a coma.
- As much as I loved the opposites-attract dynamic between Olive and Stella (and we know how much I love fake dating!), this book went around in circles, having the same conversation a few too many times for me. There was also a third act breakup a literal 20 pages from the end of the book, which felt totally unnecessary after all the previous back and forth. 

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adventurous funny lighthearted tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Thanks to Libro FM for the free copy of this book.

 - NIC BLAKE AND THE REMARKABLES is sooo fun. This is the best of what middle grade can be: funny, action packed, and sliding in some history lessons kids don’t get in school, too.
- I read this book via audio, and narrator Joniece Abbott-Pratt brought such life (and silliness) to these characters. It felt like I was right there in the action with Nic.
- This book also has what is honestly a fantastic twist for a kids book, turning the whole story on its head at the last minute. I already can’t wait for the next installment. 

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challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

Thanks to Avid Reader Press for the free copy of this book.

 - CREEP is a collection of essays that are part memoir, part historical exploration, all righteous rage.
- Gurba is a master at channeling her experiences into sentences that cut right to the heart of the problem and of the reader.
- This book is a tough read. But if you're up for it, it's a truly excellent excoriation of the many overlapping systems that make space for predators to thrive. 

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thanks to Hogarth Books for the free copy of this book.

 - With HAPPINESS FALLS, Angie Kim once again gives us a page turner, this one a legal drama, missing person case and possible murder mystery all wrapped up together.
- I was so intrigued by Mia as the narrator of this story. She's bratty and bitter and thinks she knows everything (at first, at least). Her unique voice and the frequent detours to tell us important backstory made the book feel like a friend was relaying the story to the reader personally.
- There are some aspects of the book I wish were different - the pacing slowed way down in the second half, the footnotes felt mostly extraneous, etc. - but overall I was invested in the mystery.
- A through line of Kim's work is to make clear that disabled people are people, not childlike burdens to be pitied, which is sadly often rare in novels, especially mysteries and thrillers. I will be interested to see what disabled and neurodivergent readers have to say about this book, since I am neither of those things and neither is Kim, though she is the parent of a disabled child. 

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