dapperreads's Reviews (1.29k)

Illustrated true crime. The genre I didn’t know I needed until now. 

I love this. It’s absolutely gorgeous to start. The cover, the illustrations - beautiful. The stories of our female poisoners in history is also fantastic. There are many that we’ve never heard of (or at least I hadn’t) and of course the famous ones we’ve all heard of (Aqua Tofana, anyone??). It’s informative and gorgeous. What more could someone want?

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

This is an emotional story of finding yourself when you’ve lost yourself to the darkness. What does that mean? I’m guessing for everyone it’s different, but for me that darkness was anxiety and depression. 

I had a feeling this story was going in the direction it did because the thoughts of the main character mirrored my own in a scary way for awhile. The main character, Kyla, wakes up in a world of her own creation, or so she thinks. She’s an author who has been asked to rewrite a large chunk of her book by publishers and she is resistant to doing that. She planned to Kill her Darlings and that’s what she’s going to do. The publisher disagrees that most of the main characters need to die at the end. She uses a lucid dream to join the world of Solera and then discovers she can’t wake up - but why?

There are some pretty severe triggers in this book and the biggest one is attempted suicide. I do not at all recommend this if that’s a trigger for you since it’s in here with enough detail to allow us to know exactly what happened. However, if you do your due diligence and find that the triggers in this book won’t bother you, I definitely recommend it. It’s a glimpse into the mind of someone with depression and it’s really good. 

I was so excited to get back to the Nightingale, as I absolutely adored my first trip there. This trip was enjoyable, but not to the same level. 

The difference this time is mainly how I didn’t feel as in depth into the story as I did in book one. I felt like I was there and part of it whereas this time it felt like I was an outsider looking in. While this is still an enjoyable way to read a book, I definitely didn’t get sucked in like I had expected to - and maybe that’s why as well, I expected it. 

I try not to go into books with expectations but I definitely did this time. I still enjoy it and still recommend. 

3.5⭐️ thanks NetGalley for the audiobook!

I feel like I’m maybe not the target audience for this but other than a few thought provoking bits, I didn’t find this interesting. I found myself wondering when we’d get to the point and then we’d end up vaguely referring to a recipe. 

I’m a get to the point kind of reader and this is not a get to the point kind of book. If you prefer books like this then I’d absolutely recommend it to you, but for me it was a miss. 

A fairytale retelling, but by Scarlett St Clair?! Yes. Please. 

I LOVE fairytale retellings. Adult, YA, children’s…doesn’t matter, I’m here for them all. Having enjoyed previous books from the author, I knew I’d be enjoying a spicy adult retelling and I was absolutely correct. I love it. 

Princes, beasts, breaking curses?? Sound familiar?? Well the way this unfolds is relatively predictable (it is a retelling after all) the journey to get there as well as the many different aspects of the characters makes it an entirely different story than any of the other retellings available for this story. 

The spice is definitely there, we’re headed for love to break curses of course, and that love comes in many forms in here. 

The audio was great too. The narrators knocked it out of the park telling us this story. It’s pretty short and it’s really enjoyable. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the copies of Tough Titties to enjoy!

I love this memoir in essays! We get the down and dirty facts about the authors journey to “adulthood” and it concludes with her finding herself as an adult who has chosen a child free lifestyle and I gotta say - get it, girl! I may be a parent, but I can see the appeal to going the other route and not becoming a parent and I love that for anyone choosing that route!

The title of this one really sucked me in. I mean, Tough Titties?! Who doesn’t want to read that?! I loved reading about the life of the author in the lighthearted manner in which this is written. She covers some tough topics and while the tone remains light, it’s still serious which I think is important for many topics. She manages to take the serious topics and make them a personable conversation. I appreciate that. 

I don’t rate memoirs because who the hell am I to tell you how awesome or shitty you are, but many review sites require one so it’s a 5 for me, especially since I enjoyed this thoroughly. 

This book has that feeling of “I’ve read this before” and I know which books it reminded me of immediately. That just tells me it fit into its niche quite well. 

I definitely enjoyed the inserts of the interviews surrounding the crime, which gave us a sort of dual timeline - watching the story unfold and the criminal investigation after the fact. 

This book is a bit wordy and too much for me at times. I did find myself wondering when it was going to get to the point. While the suspense was there, it wasn’t always enough to keep me interested. 

3.5⭐️

The idea behind this book is perfect. One man does his best to screw over several women and then it bites him in the ass - I mean, perfection. The execution wasn’t quite there for me though. 

I received both the ebook and audiobook through NetGalley. The narrator was great and really brought emotion into the story. I think it was relatively obvious where it was going before it got there, but it was a decent ride to the end. 

The biggest thing for me was it was longer than it needed to be. While I did like getting everyone’s full story, it wasn’t completely necessary here for the story to be told. The dual timeline wasn’t the easiest to keep up with at times, however I do think it was the best way to handle this story. 

Overall 3.5⭐️

This fantasy was absolutely fantastic! It’s so fast paced and jam packed with everything someone needs to hold their interest - mythology, romance, mystery…there was so much to it and I really enjoyed watching everything unravel into an amazing story!

The narrator for the audiobook was absolutely perfect. Between the tone and voices of the characters, there was no way I was putting this down. Much of that is thanks to the narrator as well as the story. It was a perfect pairing. 

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook and ebook!

I enjoyed the way this novella was told - it was almost conversational in nature and I love that in a book. 

We follow Luke as he figured out his life - from friendships to relationships to adulting…all of it. We hear about it from him, in a conversational tone that feels like the character is telling us the story. The main timeline is a year in his life but the epilogue gives a fast forward into what happened after as well. 

It’s short and sweet - a quick read at 79 pages. It’s the perfect length for a novella, it’s not wordy, but it gives a full story.