emmreadsbooks's Reviews (1.28k)

This was a cute YA book with the added element of a scavenger hunt of sorts, one of the tropes that gets me invested almost every time. Docking a star just because Dash and Lily weren't believable as 16 year olds at all. What 16 year old is obsessed with the Oxford English Dictionary??

The comparisons I've seen of this book to The Ocean at the End of the Lane are not lost on me, but they're happily accurate. I delved into this book with a sense of wonder and a lack of complete comprehension as to what was going on in the story. As it progressed, I began to understand what was happening (as surreal as it may be) and it was truly beautiful. I haven't been stunned like this by a book for a fair while.

It’s The Princess Bride y’all, how could it not be 5 stars? I loved what William Goldman did in abridging Morgenstern’s original work - keeping all the good parts and cutting out the 200 pages about trees - and found the book to be just as enjoyable as the movie. With the chapter of Buttercup’s Baby at the end, I was near tears... unfortunately we’ll never be able to see the abridging for this by Goldman. But this is a perfect example of a perfect adaptation of a movie from a book, helped along by that Goldman wrote both the abridging and the screenplay.

Usually when I review a thriller I talk about twists and turns. This book was more like u-turns and skids, and just peeled out of the parking lot that is normal thrillers. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I thought Darby made decisions that made sense amongst all the terror, circumventing my usual critique. This was atmospheric and perfect for winter. Highly recommending to all thriller fans.

Overall a compelling murder mystery, though I didn't feel as though the build-up for the ending was substantial enough. But the cozy wintery vibes from this book were perfect for the season!

Wow!! This book was a rollercoaster. I loved Bernadette and Bee and following them on their larger than life adventures. The multimedia perspective here - the prose being communicated through a combination of emails, articles, etc - combined with the multi-POV narrative made it so much more immersive. One complaint is that there weren't real chapter markings, so it was hard to find a place to stop reading. Though admittedly, I didn't want to put it down so... win win?

When I heard this compared to Six of Crows, I was scared. I didn't think that it was going to be able to live up to that comparison and simultaneously carve out its own path. I was happily mistaken in both. The Gilded Wolves is a heist fantasy wrapped in political intrigue, but the similarity ends there. Here we have the introduction of Forging as a means of introducing magic, a dynamic duo of history and mathematics in puzzles included in text, and the haunted atmosphere of Paris bringing more realism to the novel. No one will be surprised that I loved Zofia, but I feel as though the characters will only continue to grow in the next book.

Big fan, big fan.

I often talk about slow burns.... This was the slowest. It's arguably a pure suspense novel, with some domestic elements thrown in there. And trust me, I was stressing about this book! Social media is becoming a universal constant, making this book hit closer to home as it feels like something could happen to anyone. Emmy was a toxic character, but I couldn't peel myself away from the book - it's the ressentiment!

Overall a solid suspense with a social media twist, perfect for anyone who just needs a little bit of stress added to their life.

Despite an uninspiring title, this was a pretty solid thriller! Much of the story is spent trying to figure out why the cousins' parents were disowned by Mildred, the cousins' grandmother, which is complicated further when they find that she won't speak to them. Told in a multi-POV format, plus timeskips back to when Allison was younger, it was a bouncy book. I actually enjoyed the ending, as it made sense with all things considered. I do hope that she doesn't attempt a sequel for this, because I don't think that there are any loose ends.