hermusings's Reviews (303)

Honestly, incredible!

This depicted being in your early twenties, in NYC, exploited and on the road to burn out eerily well.

Gwen and Alex/Xander’s love story was sweet and lovely to read. This story also opens a window to the orchestra/classical music space that I’m not personally familiar with but was completely captivated by in this story. 

Julie Soto keeps hitting the mark on writing romance in such a grounded and enjoyable way. And I absolutely loved seeing characters from Forget Me Not interconnect with this story. 

This was cathartic, intriguing and hot. I’m purchasing a ticket to the New York Pops asap!!

Reread update: still a banger!

The formatting was fun and visually stimulating. However, the story dragged on for longer than I would have liked and I had a hard time reading this subject matter at some points. 
You could tell a twist was going to occur but I did not expect it to be

Ezra’s mom is Biotech

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Overall, I think this would be a great read for middle grade readers or those who enjoy a conspiratorial sci-fi read. 

Did I read this because of 360 by Charlie xcx? Yes, of course.

The lives this woman has lived!! She’s extremely resilient and it was such an engaging read. Her voice as a writer is clear and purposeful. She truly paints a picture of what it was like to be there at some of her lowest lows and how being a drug addict can taint experiences yet it’s a personal choice to continue to push forward. And one that not many around her were strong enough to make.

I’ve seen this get some bad reviews because it was not introspective enough but I felt like Julia really wanted to be factual and as impartial as possible. Which is extremely difficult to do when telling one’s own story but something women constantly get told to do. “Set your feelings aside”. 

I also think to have lived through this much there is a point where you either own it or give up on yourself. Julia clearly has some regrets but she owns her choices constantly.

There’s so much to unpack here but this added layers to “I’m everywhere I’m so Julia”  and I will be thinking about it for a long time!!

Read this as supplementary read to Down the Drain (which I’m still listening to). 
I kept wishing I had visuals for some of what she was describing so this really brings to life that time period in her life in addition to now knowing how she felt.

Will be backkkk

Nature is healing and Lucy Foley is back!!!

Finally a decent revenge mystery from Foley since The Guest List.

This was witty, intriguing and satisfying. 

Foley has a way of writing stories that are satisfyingly interconnected and have a happy ending where the baddie always gets what they deserve. The midnight feast is no different, which made some things predictable yet it still held onto its suspense and intrigue. 

I also enjoyed the lore and nature elements of this story.

The cover and title of this book is incredibly misleading but I’m deeply happy that I pushed through that appearance and continued to read this!! It was funny, tender and cathartic.

This is exceedingly more literary fiction than romance. And it is exceptional at that! However, the mistaking of it as a romcom to the reader does leave room for disappointment (similar to Beach Read, by Emily Henry, upon its debut).

Although annoying a lot of the time, main character Natalie mirrors what it’s like to be in your mid to late 20s still holding out for your dreams while you’re friends are moving on. And in a beautiful juxtaposition, Rob is someone who follows the traditional road to success and finds that’s also messy and unsatisfying.

Most importantly, I think this book is about female friendships and how they age. The things that go unsaid, how you go from doing life together to getting highlight reels of each other. Hankin does a beautiful job at depicting this.

This book has some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking prose. 

Its aim was not overtly ambitious however, the execution was unnecessarily convoluted. 

The choice to have every other paragraph be about Cyrus (undoubtedly the most annoyingly unlikable character) made the story hard to follow at times. I will say I listened to the audiobook which may have made it harder to follow. 

I think overall it's a book about humanity at its rawest form yet through the lense of someone who seems to do everything but appreciate life or humanity. Instead, Cyrus is on this deep quest to make his life meaningful through death and the deaths of others which is interestingly the most selfish way to go about finding purpose. 

I will say the "book of martyrs" / the stories of different family members and acquaintances was my absolute favorite parts! 

ALSO that twist at the end... explains so much and infuriated me.

Actually infuriating.

This book is reminiscent to Like Crazy & One Day (rest easy there is no death at the end).

Grace and Matt are obnoxiously soul mates and every possible choice they make leads to them miscommunications about their love.

Carlino does a good job at creating the most annoying characters yet making sure the plot is just engaging enough to make you want to continue to see how they can dig themselves in deeper into their mess. 

Overall, It felt a bit rush and as hard as Carlino tried, I couldn’t care less about their romantic relationship. 

Also the whole “she had Matt’s child this whole time” was unsavory. Ashe being the main driving force pushing them together felt incredibly uneasy to me as this child had to suffer at the hands of these two twats not communicating.