charliauthor's Reviews (531)

I really enjoyed this one.
Even while taking a peek behind the curtain of Gen Z teens and wealth and influencers that is totally not my day to day, i found myself really invested in Zara and Karim and how they would navigate their respective worlds in order to be together. 

I’m actually giving this book a 3.75. The reason it doesn’t get the full four marks to me was that it was left entirely too unfinished.
What was going to happen between Zara and Imran?
What was going to happen between Zara and Karim?
What was going to happen about Felicity, Chloe, Sanjay and Abeo’s secrets and most importantly who was Mr. Ex?
I can accept that leaving Mr X in mystery adds to the excitement of the book, but for actual major plot points to not be concluded, didn’t make enough sense.

Zara in and of herself, i really liked. Despite her upbringing and her strict family values and negative home environment she was still able to be a strong ethnic woman despite all the trials against her. I loved how the author touched on some serious issues in these communities about woman and girls and how society treats them over men.
Having such a strong point about abortion in the story was also great to be included in this context but by not wrapping things up all the way, it felt quite transient by the end. What did we go through and mention all of that for it not to make a point of it, if not to grow?
I dont think how that was shown was good enough especially after the quite violent show down with Zara’s family. 

Despite liking Zara though, i was really confused about she and Imran’s relationship and how she kept being “tempted” by him when Karim was right there!? Call me shallow but if the choices are a wealthy influencer, over an East London road man, i know who im picking ffs 😒 i dunno, the whole encounter just pissed me off. 

I liked/enjoyed the supporting characters but almost felt like they needed their own books for us to really get to know them as much aa Karim. I liked the writing style, it was easy to digest and i lapped it up because it felt authentically London ( the bits i know anyway lol)

A really good teen drama that seemingly displays Asian cultures in a realistic way with true commentary on gender injustices, racism, sexism and the pressures of social media. 

Sadie is back and this time she is very very dark! Not sure why the change but i dig it lol

I love that all of Sadie’s book connect so this was the perfect reason for me to go back and read her London Ruthless series which id not done yet. 

Lauren is a strong and capable lawyer but the pull here for me was Sebastian who was such a bad ass mature daddy lol his style of sex was fab and i love how into it Lauren was. Coupled with how wholesome and cute the family dynamic was at the end, made it all come together really nicely. 

Not enough going on and i wasnt excited to read it. Funny in bits and inclusive but just not fun considering its an adventure book

I enjoyed this as much as HJS other works but this was dragged out in many ways that just made it get annoying near the end.
Hattie and Rob are serial daters while Hattie hides her pain through baseless sexual encounters before she meets Rob who shows her that she is loveable and can give great love in return.
What annoyed me was the stop/start of their relationship, which while made sense for the plot just got annoying because hattie was being so silly about it. Hehas show you how much he cares about you more than once, there was no need for all this back and forth - youre, a smart woman, act like one!
Its a slow burn for sure, which was great until it wasnt. You cant have these characters say they are mindblowing at all things sex, then the actual sex not be that up to par. It was hot, dont get me wrong but I did expect more.
I like HJS writing and shes has created really cute characters that i always enjoy, i just wanted this enemies to lovers to be more heated/passionate.

This was great!
Very funny, very relatable and very hot! I love HJS's work on Quinn and her other short story but this was a great introduction to longer works from her. The fact she chose to delve into the world of book boyfriends, was hilarious and made for a really fun read and some spicy scenes. The way the writer encorporated how the real world feels about romance and turned that on its head, made it even better. Luke, while a bit too cookie cutter for me was a solid book boyfriend and was just giving all the feels with the sweetness and emotions. I liked the widower aspect which was handled really well and loved the friendship dynamic with megan and hattie. they were so supportive of Kara after her horrific breakup and it was great that it showed positive female friendships and support.

Terrible. Just terrible in all the worst ways. There was no real plot to speak of, the characters were one dimensional and the writing was terrible. It was just such a farce of what dark romance should be and there was nothing remotely sexy about the stalker/posessive element which just cant seem to be done right yet (fully send good recs if you have any) It was just ridiculous and non sensical. The F in this FMMM (i think thats right, meaning the men all do each other as well) just didnt add much to it but contention which isnt fun. Its meant to be a pleasing set up for everyone, beneficial all round but this just created drama between an already good thing so why was she even there!?
Silly silly book.

Original, creative and inventive, a 3.5 because i was so engrossed but it tripped a bit at the end. 

Wannabe actress Delilah gets caught up in a murder conspiracy about the stars of a  cult tv show. Along the way she gets caught up with the son of one of the stars of the show building a little teen romance as they try to work out whodunnit. 

What made this book so entertaining was the very real connection to the Internet and the obsessive nature of fandoms. I found myself laughing at some of the insane comments and blog posts inserted into the book, simply because I had seen so many of them online and knew that people could be this outrageous and this ridiculous.

It spoke a lot about social media culture, fandoms, and the price of fame, which is a very important point to make in a climate where teenagers are so exposed to the negatives of social media. I enjoyed the snippets that allowed for Delilah to understand the toxicity of an online presence and how a lot of that was built into the reasoning for the murder. 

It tripped at the end for me simply because it felt wrapped up a little too easily. When the killer eventually does their monologue, explaining why they did it, didn’t make sense that they would confess to a teenager so randomly. 

Other than that, it was fairly enjoyable. 

DNF at 23% because it got very repetitive and i wasnt connecting with either of the two girls. One was moody and antagonistic and one was moody and impulsive and constantly reading that was a drain on my sanity. I wanted to know about the love story at the story but it was taking too long to get there