eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

After months of pining for each other, two boys snuggle for 50 pages.
That's it.

Can you feel the storm brewing... ?

This is an enjoyable book with interesting characters. Well, Theo was interesting anyway (and Dave). Chris, for me, evolved very quickly and smoothly, and maybe a little too easily?
The whole development in their relationship was the same imo? I thought we'd get more questioning, more hesitation, more gradual development.
I and needless to say, the Blurb on Goodreads tells you exactly what happens for more than half of the book...

Even through all that I was enjoying this story.
Sadly a comment at the end made me bring down the rating ( completely not acknowledging the fact that you can be in love with someone without necessarily having sexual attraction to them ) ...

I really should NOT be reading issues one at a time... I SHOULD BE WAITING FOR VOLUMES TO COME OUT! Because... nothing happened in this one. (I just can't help myseeeeeeeelf)
But as a whole, within the volume, it is going to be important. Just...

GIVE. ME. MORE.

It's boiling... Everything... is... boiling...

Same as always : NEED. MORE.

4.5 /5
Okay short version?:
Gaaaaaaah!!! I wasn't liking it at first, mostly because it was marketed as a new Six of Crows and I couldn't unsee the negative differences. But once I managed to set my skepticism aside, I found myself enjoying it a lot. I fell in love with the characters and the story ended up being as exhilarating as I hoped.

Long version:

I had two main problems at the beginning, but they quickly got kicked under the table:
Firstly, everyone was going on about how this was just like Six of Crows. Anyone who knows me knows I am mad about those books so I will have a huuuuge amount of skepticism when something is even compared to it. No, your book is NOT going to be the new Six of Crows! Leave it!
Buuuut as it went along new thing were added to the world building and to the plot which meant that I really could distinguish it from SoC and finally see it as its own book... And that's when it started to excell.

Secondly, (and this is probably still attached to reason 1 and comparing these caracters to my all time favourite babies) I wasn't liking Enne...
I found her a little dumb and whiny(AT FIRST! at! first! hear me out..) and her decisions were eyeroll-worthy.
BUT! Oh hoho... I grew to really like her.
What is so great about Enne is that she feels so real. She's a 17 year old who has come to this new city by herself in order to look for her mum. She is alone and half grieving. She cries on a daily basis. She eats cookies. She puts make up on. She likes to be seen as graceful and charming but she also likes to be shown respect. I love her for being all those things at once.

As much as I grew to like Enne, there is no one in this world I love more than Levi Glaisyer.
My boy, you are no longer up for adoption, you are mine. I will protect you with my life, until my final breath and then I'll make sure you stay alive and well and happy for the rest of your days because you deserve the world.
That's all I have to say about my Levi, my heart.

The secondary characters have had a good introduction and I can't wait to find out more about them in the next book.
The relationships they all have with each other was so heartwarming but painful at the same time. GUH I LOVE THAT FEELING.

Honestly, I was sad when it ended. It left me wanting more, and hopefully we'll get it very soon with the second book.

Excuse me while I go cry in a corner over how perfect this whole story was...

I blame Jay Kristoff for making me swear at books before I throw them on the floor and scream into the abyss.

05/05/2018 update: THE GUY WHO GAVE US LOVE, SIMON IS NOW ADAPTING THIS AS A TV SHOW!?!?!!!! I cannot wait. We deserve this.

4.5/5 This was such an enjoyable read!

The characters were so loveable. From Monty, a little self centered and yet has the biggest heart, to Percy, sweet, adorable Percy, and of course Felicity, strong willed and fighting for her rights as a young woman in the 18th Century.
I loved them all. Even the secondary characters.

Even with really good characters and nice development within their reationships with each other, there was still, also, a well rounded plot. I thought the map at the beginning gave a little away but other than that, I enjoyed seeing where the trio were travelling to and what they got up to along the way. If I were to critique something I'd say it's a little a shame we didn't get to see more of the actual towns they were visiting, but they had to move fast and so did the writing.

Great themes were talked about. Themes that are relevant today, but even more so in the 18th Century. Young people finding their way in the adult world, from a privileged white boy's perspective, to a young girl's perspective, and a black adopted boy's perspective. There's also family relationships, romantic and sexual relationships, homosexuality, piracy, feminism and slavery.
All those themes are great to read about in a fiction novel but I also loved the author's note at the end. She talks about those themes in more detail and recommends other books to learn more about them. (I gave a bonus .5 for the author's note)

At the end of the day, the way I feel about every aspect is "It was really good".
This was probably my most anticipated book of the year. And even if it didn't reach my five-star-wowza-amazing-expectations, I still thouroughly enjoyed it and would gladly recommend it to anyone.

4 / 5 ~ I reaaaally enjoyed this book.
Alice Oseman has a way of writing characters that feel so real and relatable in so many different ways. This book is no exception. Excuse the poor quality of this review, there's not much to say other than plain truths:

- I loved how she dealt with fandom, the good, the bad, the misunderstood parts of it.
- The characters, once again, felt incredibly real. I loved some more than others, and often my favourites were secondary characters (Lester, my man...) but they all felt fleshed out enough to be interesting. If I didn't like a particular character (Angel...

Spoiler

I was taking Juliet's side every time, and couldn't quite get behind all of Angel's decisions.

), I'm still happy about the way they were written because it shows everyone has faults.
- The anxiety Jimmy is struggling with was touching and relatable although I was angry that he was clearly having a breakdown and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. I could say the same about Lester and his issues... I wanted to push the other characters to realise what was going on and DO SOMETHING!!
- The parts about online friendships could have been developed a bit more in my opinion, but what we got was still nice to read about. Online friendships ARE a thing. And they mean just as much as other friendships.
- Friendship being considered JUST AS IMPORTANT as romance!!!!! Yes! Thank you!!!!
BUT...
- I was left needing more to fully appreciate the ending.... Sometimes leaving a book with a "oh well, we dont know for sure what happens next" is important and interesting, but here, I just felt a little frustrated that I didn't know what decisions all the guys were going to take when I've been giving their issues my full attention for the past two days, non stop.

Anyway, great book about fandom, online friendships, celebrity, anxiety, alcoholism, family, and all types of love. I can't wait to see what else Alice Oseman is going to give us.