Different and interesting - a dystopian and sort of magic-infused and poetic story of a girl and her family/friends operating into as the world goes underwater. I liked it and the uniqueness of it. 

So good, lovely and endearing, and had great depth. It wasn’t really what I expected but in a fantastic way. I loved Tristan and Isolde and their family, and the villains were so well done also. Great wrap up to the series.

While a murder mystery, this reads a little more like a women’s fiction or coming of age. It’s more methodical, more about the characters, but I didn’t feel it was too slow or drawn out. All in all I really enjoyed it. 

The multiple perspectives of the characters, as well as the dual timeline, gave a really well done picture of the life of teenagers growing up with class/wealth gaps, fighting to figure out who they are and who they are to others. Then as adults, how all that plus irrevocable mistakes change who you are, and you’re given the choice to question, fight, or do the right thing when offered. Well portrayed and interesting progression into the whodunit of the murder. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

While the storyline was interesting, and the chapters themselves were written well, I spent the majority of the audiobook really confused. I could not figure out what was going on most of the time. Maybe it was just a very different style than I prefer but I just struggled  

The writing overall felt choppy in a poetic sort of way, and disjointed and had a lot of characters. It would hop from character to character, current timeline to a future recorded interview of one of the characters, then back to another character. It was just so hard to keep track of or to know what was going on. 

When I was in the middle of a chapter that I could grab a thread on, I enjoyed that piece and the writing of it. It just didn’t stay there long enough for me to get into it. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine.

Loved it. Marriage of convenience and forced proximity, really well done. It had great tension and depth and was so hard to put down. 

Cute and heartwarming. I liked the forthrightness of Livie and Eric, though that made it weird when they didn’t talk but overall it was a quick, good story. 

Definitely liked it a lot better than Wuthering Heights. Also I’m so glad I listened to the audiobook. With all the various narrators doing the interview parts it totally fleshed out the story so well. Overall I liked it quite a bit - still sort of a sad story and super flawed characters as  spinning it off WH requires (tho not nearly as bad as WH), but it fit well in a narrative of a competitive Olympic sport. 

 I really liked the storyline and concept of a dystopian India in the 1960s, if they had not gained their independence from the British. It had some impactful threads on fighting for freedom, taking life-threatening risks, benefits and consequences of violence vs non-violence, etc. I also really loved the friendships and loyalty the women had, and that they stood up despite so much against them. That they were selfless in fighting for each other and their people even to their own detriment, but understood the importance of *being* better than their oppressors if they wanted a better world, rather than matched retaliation and justification. 

What I struggled a little with was the writing style. It was very narrative-based with arguably most of the book being Kalki’s contemplation, flashback memories and rumination. I didn’t feel invited into their struggle or fight so much as looking at it from the outside, removed from the story. It was hard to be invested in what was going on consistently outside of *wanting* to be invested because of the value of the story. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

I really enjoyed this look at a handful of very influential women working with propaganda for the US during WW2. I’ve read some fictionalized versions of some of this based loosely on Zuzka in Rome and the USO teams like Marlena worked with but this fleshed out their real lives and real stories so much better. 

I thought it was very well done - I liked both the facts, events, backgrounds of their lives and what they went thru all combined. It gave me the ability to be invested in them as well as what they did for the war and their skill set and experiences. The women are so inspiring in both what they accomplished and what they endured in a male-dominated and female-diminished environment, and they were absolutely brilliant. 

The book is relatively short but I appreciated that rather than so many nonfiction histories that just get so bogged down in the details. This felt like a great balance of information and detail. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine. 

Very informative, interesting and sad history of the late 1800s and the prejudice and violence against the Chinese in the US during the gold rush, the tunnels, and being shanghaied. 

I had heard small bits about this time in history but knew very little about the landscape of how the Chinese were invited to work when they were needed but then retaliated against violently when greed came into play. I’d never heard of the massacres and murders described that Celia’s character bore witness to, and it’s a little incredible that that period of history isn’t known. 

The story itself was a little slow at times, and Celia felt a little overly naive, but I liked the mystery and how the timeline hopping kept you in the dark about what ultimately led to Celia’s captivity in the tunnels. I thought that was done really well and had me invested in the story, trying to piece together possibilities. 

Ultimately the ending surprised me, and I thought everything tied together well, while telling the history of the Chinese immigrants in Portland at the time. As sad as it was, I’m really glad to have learned about it. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.