dapperreads's Reviews (1.29k)

While I found a good portion of this quite interesting as it’s not a topic I knew anything about previously, the way it was shared was less than interesting for the majority of this book. It’s quite slow paced but I get the feeling it wasn’t supposed to be. More of it was boring than I was prepared for. I skimmed more of it than I wanted to - but I found a good portion of each chapter to feel pretty irrelevant to the topic and I just didn’t want to read it. 

I received both an eGalley through NetGalley and a physical ARC from Hachette Books and I thank them for it. Now that I’m introduced to this topic I’m intrigued and will be conducting further research into the MecDec because I am so curious about it! This book provides a good chunk of information on it, but as I said it was kind of a boring journey and I feel other sources would be more enjoyable (for me anyway).

I still recommend this as a jumping off point if you, like me, have never heard of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. 

Atalanta is the newest mythological retelling from Jennifer Saint and it’s not bad. Atalanta is one that I hadn’t known the backstory on before this and learning the backstory along with the retelling was incredibly interesting. 

I do think I would have enjoyed this particular retelling better as an ebook or physical book over the audiobook. Not to say the audio is bad, it isn’t, but something about it didn’t allow for me to easily keep up with the story as I realized I kept drifting off to other thoughts and I had to rewind. 

While I don’t rate memoirs, I do review them so let’s talk about it. 

In Sex Cult Nun, we hear from Faith Jones as she recounts being born and raised into the Children of God religious cult and I found it to be interesting. She didn’t tell it in the usual I escaped a cult type of way, but she told it as she remembered feeling at the time. From not understanding the abuse she experienced as she experienced them to realizing what she went through was messed up and very much not okay. She explores her relationship with God and how she can rectify what she was taught in the cult with what she knows now that she’s out. 

It’s interesting and difficult to listen to because of the way it’s written. She lets us know what happened and what she was taught and it makes the reader cringe and want to jump in and save her and the other children involved. The epilogue really allows us to see how she’s dealt with this trauma and how she’s made her experience work for her and push her forward rather than continue to hold her down. 

It’s odd to say a book like this is enjoyable, but if you’re interested in cult-ish books then I’d recommend this. Of course check the triggers because there are many in this one that surround children and sex. 

The rating is more for the audio than the book itself. With a single narrator I found it hard to remember what POV I was in after I stopped for a bit. This would cause confusion and affect how much I really enjoyed it. 

The world building was great. I enjoyed getting to know the inner workings of this world and get to know the characters and their struggles. I can definitely understand the length because so much is packed into these pages. 

As usual, I’m going to start with the negatives and move to the positives. 

I did not like the layout of this at all. At 300+ pages we are granted 3 chapters. Three. No thank you. Even flipping through the physical copy I’m not thrilled with this divide. They’re definitely closer to parts rather than chapters but either way, I’d preferred they layout to be different and it did affect the enjoyability for me. 

The first chapter is 4 hours long. Yes. Four of them. While I listen at what has been called “warp speed”, I felt every one of those 4 hours. It was slow and not overly interesting. However, the final two chapters made up for it. 

Were they as long? I honestly don’t know because I didn’t check (and returned it to the library prior to writing this) but regardless they didn’t feel long at all. The story picked up and turned into the romantic comedy that the title promised us. 

It is a pandemic story which I’m not 100% sold on yet. Some days my time having COVID is too raw for a story like this and other times it’s fine. This was fine for me. 

With all things considered, I’m going to give this 3.5⭐️. Once I got through that first chapter I really enjoyed it. But getting through it was ROUGH. 

Screenplays aren’t my favorite format but reading it with my son? Straight up 5⭐️ experience just like the others. 

This story had its moments. It took awhile to get to the point but there was a decent amount of action that it worked out. The multiple POVs were hard to follow at times, but at the same time it did add to the story to get those different POVs. Without them, I feel that it would have been less interesting and I also believe the story wouldn’t have been as well rounded. 

The adventure aspect was great, the characters weren’t the worst and overall it was a decent read. 

This book went by so fast! I absolutely love the “rich people” drama. This is told through several POVs (with just the one narrator ugh) and we find out ALLLLLL of the tea from every possible angle and it is spectacular. 

It starts with a kid finding a body and then we get a rewind until we find out exactly how that body ended up there. We learn all the drama of the different groups (really they’re cliques, it’s like adult high school) and how all this drama converges into an outcome of dead body. 

I really couldn’t put this down. I didn’t even want to once. I was sucked in to the drama and just wanted to listen to it. 

With the single narrator it was more difficult to remember who we were following at that moment, but it was doable and not too hard to follow. Thanks to NetGalley for the copy!

This romcom was fine. It’s a pretty basic storyline that I’ve read before and seen done in movies. Does that make it less enjoyable? No, it was still really good. 

We follow an online influencer (or content creator) that falls from grace and ends up leaving the buzz of NYC to help her uncle out with promotion for his camp. There, she meets a grumpy pants that doesn’t do social media and she is baffled. If follows the usual line so it’s pretty predictable but it’s still good. 

If you enjoy romcoms I think you’ll like this one. 

3.5⭐️

This was an interesting blend of a “detective” story and horror. While the detective in question is a scientific consultant for the police and not officially a detective, the vibes were the same. The horror aspect was there but not over the top to where it would turn off non-horror readers. 

The way this book unfolded was perfect. I really enjoyed the pacing and the storyline was solid. In the beginning it felt like it wasn’t cohesive, but once it got going everything clicked into place. 

I was granted access to the audiobook through NetGalley and dual narrators for the dual POV was great. I’m not sure I could have kept up with it otherwise since each POV got half of a chapter and it wasn’t always consistent with who started the chapter. The sound effects and transition music were also a nice touch.