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chronicallybookish's Reviews (1.53k)
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
TW: homophobia, bullying, rumors, slut shaming, child abuse.
Thank you so much to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All of the opinions discussed her our my own, honest thoughts.
This book was so cute! If you’re looking for a sapphic contemporary—look no further.
Closeted bisexual pageant queen, Ruby, and out and proud lesbian, Morgan, have undeniable chemistry—but Ruby isn’t ready to come out, and Morgan doesn’t want another closet relationship.
There was a whole lot of angst, which isn’t my favorite, but if that’s something you like, you’ll love this book! I absolutely adored Ruby’s character. I was rooting for her from the start. Morgan bothered me a bit. I expected Ruby to be the self centered one (I guess I was working off of pageant queen stereotypes)but in the end, it was Morgan.
Was it my favorite? No. I found the plot lacking and a bit too angsty, but it might be right up your alley, so I definitely recommend checking it out if it seems like something you’d like.
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
TW: homophobia, bullying, rumors, slut shaming, child abuse.
Thank you so much to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All of the opinions discussed her our my own, honest thoughts.
This book was so cute! If you’re looking for a sapphic contemporary—look no further.
Closeted bisexual pageant queen, Ruby, and out and proud lesbian, Morgan, have undeniable chemistry—but Ruby isn’t ready to come out, and Morgan doesn’t want another closet relationship.
There was a whole lot of angst, which isn’t my favorite, but if that’s something you like, you’ll love this book! I absolutely adored Ruby’s character. I was rooting for her from the start. Morgan bothered me a bit. I expected Ruby to be the self centered one (I guess I was working off of pageant queen stereotypes)but in the end, it was Morgan.
Was it my favorite? No. I found the plot lacking and a bit too angsty, but it might be right up your alley, so I definitely recommend checking it out if it seems like something you’d like.
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14/15+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Thank you Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this novel! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Do you like enemies/rivals to lovers? How about fake dating? No? Maybe the one bed trope is more your style—this book has ALL OF THAT. I wasn’t a fan of Cameron Lund’s debut novel, so I was very apprehensive going into this one—but I really enjoyed it! I liked Penny a lot, and I absolutely adored Kai. I might be biased because he reminded me of my own boyfriend a little, but that’s fine. I also really liked Sarah. She was great and I wanted to kick Penny for not fully realizing that sooner. I think that Olivia and Jordan’s characters were really flat and one-dimensional, which was disappointing, but the other characters were so well written it made up for that to me. The plot was fun enough and easy to follow, but it was lacking at times. There were places it dragged. I did really enjoy the sort of split timeline thing that showed the “before everything blew up” versus the present day. I was not expecting the twist at the end, but I wasn’t a fan of it. It felt unnecessary. The whole “happily ever after—oh wait, everything just imploded” trope is one of my least favorite things about YA contemporaries.
However, the book did use like, all my favorite tropes as well, so that little mishap is forgiven. I definitely recommend checking this book out!
Age Rating: 14/15+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Thank you Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this novel! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Do you like enemies/rivals to lovers? How about fake dating? No? Maybe the one bed trope is more your style—this book has ALL OF THAT. I wasn’t a fan of Cameron Lund’s debut novel, so I was very apprehensive going into this one—but I really enjoyed it! I liked Penny a lot, and I absolutely adored Kai. I might be biased because he reminded me of my own boyfriend a little, but that’s fine. I also really liked Sarah. She was great and I wanted to kick Penny for not fully realizing that sooner. I think that Olivia and Jordan’s characters were really flat and one-dimensional, which was disappointing, but the other characters were so well written it made up for that to me. The plot was fun enough and easy to follow, but it was lacking at times. There were places it dragged. I did really enjoy the sort of split timeline thing that showed the “before everything blew up” versus the present day. I was not expecting the twist at the end, but I wasn’t a fan of it. It felt unnecessary. The whole “happily ever after—oh wait, everything just imploded” trope is one of my least favorite things about YA contemporaries.
However, the book did use like, all my favorite tropes as well, so that little mishap is forgiven. I definitely recommend checking this book out!
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 2 stars
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Setting: 2.5/5
Writing: 2/5
This book… was… so… boring. According to Goodreads, it’s only 250 pages. I’m shocked, because it felt so long.
There was so much potential in the premise and in the characters, but everything fell short. The plot slogged, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I felt like I should have liked the characters, but I couldn’t get myself to connect with any of them. They felt emotionless. I liked Fisher, I guess, and I was rooting for him, but I still didn’t care about him or connect with him nearly as much as I wanted to.
If I hadn’t gotten this book as an ARC, I’d have DNFed it a couple pages in. It was just so dense. The book is split into 4 or 5 parts, and each part is preceded with a 5+ page info dump of history of the character/galactic politics/etc. and they were not presented in an interesting way. Using back story before each chapter or part is something I tend to really enjoy, if it’s done right. This was pure info dump, and it was painful to get through. Not to mention, everything in those info dumps was explained well enough within the body of the story as needed, so they were completely unnecessary in the long run.
There was also this huge plot hole that just bothered the hell out of me the whole time—why didn’t Ned just sleep around. Like, they spend all this time stressed because if he dies, the whole station dies with him. He’s a man. It would not be that hard to get a bunch of girls pregnant and guarantee the safety of your people. Like, I get population control, but they never talked about being concerned with that. They let people immigrate in. Just close your borders, dont let other citizens procreate until you have a solid two male heirs to protect yourselves. Humans are incredibly easy to kill. Why was there no back ups?
The point is, I did not enjoy this book. It sounded like it was going to be interesting, but the plot was extremely slow and lacking, the characters’ personalities and growth were nonexistent, and it just wasn’t worth it.
Age Rating: 13+
Overall: 2 stars
Characters: 2/5
Plot: 2/5
Setting: 2.5/5
Writing: 2/5
This book… was… so… boring. According to Goodreads, it’s only 250 pages. I’m shocked, because it felt so long.
There was so much potential in the premise and in the characters, but everything fell short. The plot slogged, and I had to force myself to finish the book. I felt like I should have liked the characters, but I couldn’t get myself to connect with any of them. They felt emotionless. I liked Fisher, I guess, and I was rooting for him, but I still didn’t care about him or connect with him nearly as much as I wanted to.
If I hadn’t gotten this book as an ARC, I’d have DNFed it a couple pages in. It was just so dense. The book is split into 4 or 5 parts, and each part is preceded with a 5+ page info dump of history of the character/galactic politics/etc. and they were not presented in an interesting way. Using back story before each chapter or part is something I tend to really enjoy, if it’s done right. This was pure info dump, and it was painful to get through. Not to mention, everything in those info dumps was explained well enough within the body of the story as needed, so they were completely unnecessary in the long run.
There was also this huge plot hole that just bothered the hell out of me the whole time—why didn’t Ned just sleep around. Like, they spend all this time stressed because if he dies, the whole station dies with him. He’s a man. It would not be that hard to get a bunch of girls pregnant and guarantee the safety of your people. Like, I get population control, but they never talked about being concerned with that. They let people immigrate in. Just close your borders, dont let other citizens procreate until you have a solid two male heirs to protect yourselves. Humans are incredibly easy to kill. Why was there no back ups?
The point is, I did not enjoy this book. It sounded like it was going to be interesting, but the plot was extremely slow and lacking, the characters’ personalities and growth were nonexistent, and it just wasn’t worth it.
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 15/16+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Chronic Illness Rep: 5/5
TW: drinking, drugs, over dose, grief, trauma, mentions of parent loss, brief mentions of bipolar disorder, mentions of chronic illness
Thank you so much Entangled Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All opinions are my honest thoughts and feelings.
Sick Kids in Love, Hannah Moskowitz’s first book with Entangled Teen, is my favorite book of all time. I have never felt so strongly for a book in my life—and that’s saying something. I actually screamed when I heard back from Entangled that I was approved for the ARC. So, suffice to say, I had high expectations for The Love Song of Ivy K Harlowe.
I found this book hard to get into at first. That might have something to do with the fact that I was expecting YA, and this book fell more into the NA category. A lot of the first half of this book revolved around clubbing, and that’s not something I have any interest in. I found the characters interesting, I liked them all, but I didn’t think Andie and Ivy would be good together, so I got pretty sick of the plot during that first half since it was just Andie pining over Ivy and their group going clubbing. When the book hit about the halfway mark, and Andie started to have some realizations, I finally started to feel more invested.
And then the incident happened. That, for me, was where the book really turned around. Hannah Moskowitz is an incredible writer, and what she does best, is chronic illness and disability rep, and abut 70% of the way through the book, she dives into that. And she does it just as well as she did in Sick Kids in Love. It was an incredibly hard hitting twist of events, and the following chapters had me on the verge of tears many times. In this book, we see chronic illness from the POV of the one who cares for the disabled person, and Hannah Moskowitz writes that just as well as she did Isobel in SKiL.
I’d love to see more of Ivy and Dot in the future!
In the end, I am still obsessed with Hannah Moskowitz and you need to check this book out.
Age Rating: 15/16+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5
Chronic Illness Rep: 5/5
TW: drinking, drugs, over dose, grief, trauma, mentions of parent loss, brief mentions of bipolar disorder, mentions of chronic illness
Thank you so much Entangled Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All opinions are my honest thoughts and feelings.
Sick Kids in Love, Hannah Moskowitz’s first book with Entangled Teen, is my favorite book of all time. I have never felt so strongly for a book in my life—and that’s saying something. I actually screamed when I heard back from Entangled that I was approved for the ARC. So, suffice to say, I had high expectations for The Love Song of Ivy K Harlowe.
I found this book hard to get into at first. That might have something to do with the fact that I was expecting YA, and this book fell more into the NA category. A lot of the first half of this book revolved around clubbing, and that’s not something I have any interest in. I found the characters interesting, I liked them all, but I didn’t think Andie and Ivy would be good together, so I got pretty sick of the plot during that first half since it was just Andie pining over Ivy and their group going clubbing. When the book hit about the halfway mark, and Andie started to have some realizations, I finally started to feel more invested.
And then the incident happened. That, for me, was where the book really turned around. Hannah Moskowitz is an incredible writer, and what she does best, is chronic illness and disability rep, and abut 70% of the way through the book, she dives into that. And she does it just as well as she did in Sick Kids in Love. It was an incredibly hard hitting twist of events, and the following chapters had me on the verge of tears many times. In this book, we see chronic illness from the POV of the one who cares for the disabled person, and Hannah Moskowitz writes that just as well as she did Isobel in SKiL.
I’d love to see more of Ivy and Dot in the future!
In the end, I am still obsessed with Hannah Moskowitz and you need to check this book out.
4.5 stars
~
OMGGGGGG!!!!! A book about mental health! That has a positive outlook on antidepressants but also talks about the negatives! Has a Catholic character without disrespecting my religion! AND there’s no sex?????? THIS IS AN AMAZING FREAKING BOOK
~
OMGGGGGG!!!!! A book about mental health! That has a positive outlook on antidepressants but also talks about the negatives! Has a Catholic character without disrespecting my religion! AND there’s no sex?????? THIS IS AN AMAZING FREAKING BOOK
4 stars
~
A book about quidditch? That calls JKR out on all her BS? COUNT ME IN!
This book was everything I hoped! A bit too much self-absorbed teen angsty-ness for my taste, and I would have loved to see a little more of the blooming romance and had that storyline a bit more developed, but still—so good.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Ellen, she was a little too self-absorbed and the way she addressed activism and progressivism often felt self-righteous to me. However, she was a really well developed, strong character. Honestly, every character in this book was so well written and well rounded.
There was this one chapter (maybe two) where Ellen and Karey kept calling other characters out for ableism… but the things they were calling out weren’t ableist. It kind of felt like the mentions were thrown in there to make up for the lack of disabled characters or like the author was going “oh look how progressive I am”. It felt shallow and for show because it literally wasn’t ableism—and that’s coming from a disabled person.
But! I honestly can’t get over those characters! Even the characters I hated were so freaking impressively written. As a writer, I aspire to be that good at writing characters. The plot and pacing was also really well done and I was absorbed from page one. It was such a well crafted book and Anna Meriano has serious talent and skill.
The only things I didn’t like were those awkward comments about ableism and things like the angst and lack of romance which are personal taste.
I 100% recommend this to any Potterhead who loves the wizarding world but is… so done with the fool who wrote Harry Potter
~
A book about quidditch? That calls JKR out on all her BS? COUNT ME IN!
This book was everything I hoped! A bit too much self-absorbed teen angsty-ness for my taste, and I would have loved to see a little more of the blooming romance and had that storyline a bit more developed, but still—so good.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Ellen, she was a little too self-absorbed and the way she addressed activism and progressivism often felt self-righteous to me. However, she was a really well developed, strong character. Honestly, every character in this book was so well written and well rounded.
There was this one chapter (maybe two) where Ellen and Karey kept calling other characters out for ableism… but the things they were calling out weren’t ableist. It kind of felt like the mentions were thrown in there to make up for the lack of disabled characters or like the author was going “oh look how progressive I am”. It felt shallow and for show because it literally wasn’t ableism—and that’s coming from a disabled person.
But! I honestly can’t get over those characters! Even the characters I hated were so freaking impressively written. As a writer, I aspire to be that good at writing characters. The plot and pacing was also really well done and I was absorbed from page one. It was such a well crafted book and Anna Meriano has serious talent and skill.
The only things I didn’t like were those awkward comments about ableism and things like the angst and lack of romance which are personal taste.
I 100% recommend this to any Potterhead who loves the wizarding world but is… so done with the fool who wrote Harry Potter
Quick Stats
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters:4.5/5
Plot:5/5
Setting:5/5
Writing:4/5
This review might not make a ton of sense if you haven’t read my review of A River of Royal Blood, so feel free to do so here.
Once again, Amanda Joy drew me head first into a lush, magical world. The world-building remains my favorite part of the duology, and I genuinely have nothing negative to say on that point. It’s beautiful and perfect to escape into (because who doesn’t use reading as a form of escapism?).
We got a lot more characterization in this book, which was great! I loved watching Eva, Aketo, and even Isa grow as characters. Especially Isa. She felt very underdeveloped in the first book, but she really gets her time to shine in the A Queen of Gilded Horns and I am here for it! We learn a lot about her personality, her motivations, and just why she is who she is, which was something I felt was lacking in ARoRB. I liked the split POV, although I kept getting confused for a minute when it switched back to Eva, because it went from third person to first person. Not in a bad way, just like, wait, what just happened I thought this book was in third person? But I stopped getting so jarred about halfway through the book.
Then we get back to Falun. Falun was my least favorite character in the first book, simply because he has no point. He felt as if he was only there for tokenized LGBTQ+ rep. He had no point. I was really hoping he would have more of a point in this book. He didn’t. He actually had less of a point. A few more bi characters were present in this book—still a bit tokenized, but at least less blatantly—so what little purpose he served in the first book, ceased to exist in this one. He was there, but only ever mentioned in passing. I still maintain that the series would have been stronger if his character simply didn’t exist.
The plot twist (I guess you can call it that?) at the end did surprise me. It made sense, kind of. All the clues were there, but there was no real explanation given, so it fell hollow. The entire ending wrapped up too quickly. A lot of things needed some explaining. They just happened with little to no solid reason behind it other than that’s what needed to happen to achieve a happy ending.
However, the plot and writing were otherwise very good. I didn’t have any issues with awkwardness in the writing and dialogue like I did in the first book. Everything flowed smoothly up until the ending. The plot kept me hooked from the start and I think that how good it was throughout made the lackluster ending all the more jarring.
Despite its faults, it was a solid conclusion to a great—and grossly underrated!—fantasy duology.
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters:4.5/5
Plot:5/5
Setting:5/5
Writing:4/5
This review might not make a ton of sense if you haven’t read my review of A River of Royal Blood, so feel free to do so here.
Once again, Amanda Joy drew me head first into a lush, magical world. The world-building remains my favorite part of the duology, and I genuinely have nothing negative to say on that point. It’s beautiful and perfect to escape into (because who doesn’t use reading as a form of escapism?).
We got a lot more characterization in this book, which was great! I loved watching Eva, Aketo, and even Isa grow as characters. Especially Isa. She felt very underdeveloped in the first book, but she really gets her time to shine in the A Queen of Gilded Horns and I am here for it! We learn a lot about her personality, her motivations, and just why she is who she is, which was something I felt was lacking in ARoRB. I liked the split POV, although I kept getting confused for a minute when it switched back to Eva, because it went from third person to first person. Not in a bad way, just like, wait, what just happened I thought this book was in third person? But I stopped getting so jarred about halfway through the book.
Then we get back to Falun. Falun was my least favorite character in the first book, simply because he has no point. He felt as if he was only there for tokenized LGBTQ+ rep. He had no point. I was really hoping he would have more of a point in this book. He didn’t. He actually had less of a point. A few more bi characters were present in this book—still a bit tokenized, but at least less blatantly—so what little purpose he served in the first book, ceased to exist in this one. He was there, but only ever mentioned in passing. I still maintain that the series would have been stronger if his character simply didn’t exist.
The plot twist (I guess you can call it that?) at the end did surprise me. It made sense, kind of. All the clues were there, but there was no real explanation given, so it fell hollow. The entire ending wrapped up too quickly. A lot of things needed some explaining. They just happened with little to no solid reason behind it other than that’s what needed to happen to achieve a happy ending.
However, the plot and writing were otherwise very good. I didn’t have any issues with awkwardness in the writing and dialogue like I did in the first book. Everything flowed smoothly up until the ending. The plot kept me hooked from the start and I think that how good it was throughout made the lackluster ending all the more jarring.
Despite its faults, it was a solid conclusion to a great—and grossly underrated!—fantasy duology.
Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing:4/5
TW: racism, suspense, bullying, homophobia, forced outing, death, PTSD
First of all—can we talk about that cover???? I’m obsessed! It’s absolutely stunning.
As for the actual book—I… wow. I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but I’m so glad I grabbed this one. It was so good! Twisty, private school mysteries are definitely my favorite genre of thriller, and this one did not disappoint. It was a lot heavier than I expected, because it felt more real in a lot of ways. This isn’t a typical murder mystery set in a prep school. The things it dealt with—racism, homophobia, cyberbullying, etc—are things that happen all the time in real life. Yes, they were embellished because it’s a thriller, but it still felt a lot more real than the average prep school thriller, and that made it a lot harder-hitting.
There were definitely some things in the story that I felt weren’t adequately covered. Like Devon’s dad. That felt out of place with the story. It was really interesting, but it was such a serious topic, and something that just felt like it needed to be explored, talked about, thought about more. It felt like it just got a throw away chapter randomly, and I think that it deserved more, but I also feel like, within this book, that issue couldn’t have been done justice because everything else was so big and chaotic. Similarly, Chi’s sexuality felt oddly thrown in there, and I feel like it could have used a little more exploring and internal thoughts directed towards it.
Some little side plots and subplots like that felt like they didn’t get closure. The book just felt like it ended too soon. I would have liked a few more chapters to sort everything out.
However, I still think it was a really well written, hard hitting, and immersive debut and I can’t wait to read more from Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé!
Age Rating: 14+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing:4/5
TW: racism, suspense, bullying, homophobia, forced outing, death, PTSD
First of all—can we talk about that cover???? I’m obsessed! It’s absolutely stunning.
As for the actual book—I… wow. I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but I’m so glad I grabbed this one. It was so good! Twisty, private school mysteries are definitely my favorite genre of thriller, and this one did not disappoint. It was a lot heavier than I expected, because it felt more real in a lot of ways. This isn’t a typical murder mystery set in a prep school. The things it dealt with—racism, homophobia, cyberbullying, etc—are things that happen all the time in real life. Yes, they were embellished because it’s a thriller, but it still felt a lot more real than the average prep school thriller, and that made it a lot harder-hitting.
There were definitely some things in the story that I felt weren’t adequately covered. Like Devon’s dad. That felt out of place with the story. It was really interesting, but it was such a serious topic, and something that just felt like it needed to be explored, talked about, thought about more. It felt like it just got a throw away chapter randomly, and I think that it deserved more, but I also feel like, within this book, that issue couldn’t have been done justice because everything else was so big and chaotic. Similarly, Chi’s sexuality felt oddly thrown in there, and I feel like it could have used a little more exploring and internal thoughts directed towards it.
Some little side plots and subplots like that felt like they didn’t get closure. The book just felt like it ended too soon. I would have liked a few more chapters to sort everything out.
However, I still think it was a really well written, hard hitting, and immersive debut and I can’t wait to read more from Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé!