dana_reads_travels's Reviews (2.39k)

Extremely underwhelmed. Here's my overview on why I did not like it.

- Every character is super cliche
- The trope of no communication is my absolute least favorite (will expand on below with hidden spoilers)
- None of them-- NONE-- were people I would want to be friends with
- The mental health issue in this book felt almost thrown in, and the explanation the character used felt very surface level
- Harriet and Wyn both suck. Yup I said it.

Now for the spoilers

Wyn and Harriet have absolutely NO business being together. NONE! Their whole relationship is based on sex and lust and fairy tales. I am not against character breaking up and getting back together-- I mean they were not broken up that long-- but based on why they broke up it made me ask myself Did they even talk to each other?

I mean for God's sake, they truly never had an honest conversation as a couple. Harriet NEVER seemed to care about what Wyn wanted. She could see he was slipping away and just pretended like nothing happened. And it was also super annoying that she went all the way through med school to decide she didn't like it. You put yourself in all that debt because you also never had a conversation with your parents about what you want to do in life. She made it sound like her childhood was a prison sentence. 

But shall we talk about Wynn? Wyn clearly was not happy in big cities and continued to not say anything. Never said a word about his wants and dreams. Continuously called himself dumb and downplayed himself. And I know his character has depression and self deprecating talk is a symptom. But it just felt very surface level. 

This one was fine. I loved Lang's debut novel, as did my whole book club. So I was excited for her sophomore book. Don't get me wrong. This book was enjoyable. The sisters' story was interesting. I thought the magic was intriguing. But I felt it was weird that they kept finding other ppl everywhere they went with these powers and then at the end it all just wrapped up so quickly. 

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley. 

Though I think the WW2 novel market is over saturated, what drew me to this one was the unique premise of librarians assisting, as well as, the setting of Lisbon. We are heading to Portugal this summer so I finally picked this one up.

I really enjoyed Miller's writing and liked the dual plots. Both women's stories were interesting and I loved how it all came together. I plan on reading more books by this author and I am sorry it took me so long to get to this galley!

Thank you to the publisher. 

MAJOR TW for infertility. 

This was a twisty thriller. Though you find out who the killer is a little earlier than most books it was perfect for the plot. I found this story to not really take its foot off the brakes. And though I hated all the main characters I feel like I it did not affect how I felt about the book. This story was an absolute page turner and the author's note at the end was quite emotional.

Thank you to the publisher for a Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this story of Maddie and how she began to really live her life in her mid-twenties. This book is sad, and I will admit I scanned a few portions when she talked about her dad. As someone who lost her father a few years ago, I find it hard to read about at times. 

But I liked reading about Maddie and how she began to navigate through the life she wanted to live. Not a perfect life, but learning to work with the hand that she has on the table. This book was extremely well written, and I look forward to future works by this author. 

Meh

So much grossness in this book. 

Just not in the mood at the moment!