jaduhluhdabooks's Reviews (333)

Justice Brown-Jackson is truly one of the most extraordinary humans and I’ve never been more grateful than to listen to her story and her voice. I often forget that I am living proof of my ancestors dreams and that in living in such an age where that truth becomes more apparent in the age where the first Black and Asian American woman VP is the currently democratic presidential candidate and the appointment of the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice. 

I feel lucky to know the intricacies that Justice Brown Jackson described. The grueling realities of academia and the work of law and her journey to this moment in time was not easy. I see how human she is. She is a friend, a daughter, a mother, a wife, and a leader. She is someone who loves the arts and theatre and speaking. She is wise and gentle in her instruction and her directing and I could feel her joy in moments of celebration and her anguish in turmoil. 

She is the dream of so many and I realized through reading this that she was even sorta of my own dream. 

I feel encouraged by her words and her faith and commitment to seeing a system work justly for all those who are in need of liberation. 

I remember reading and listening into her hearings and tearing up at her words and the faith in which she spoke them with. It was healing and after facing what felt like some of the most tumultuous of years with President Trump’s election and administration, I remember feeling hopeful again. 

I think about the picture snapped of her tear shed while listening to Senator Jackson speak life over her and I cried with her. It was such a powerful moment for all Black women everywhere. Black woman who built the foundations of movements and freedom on their backs. Black women who raised power and smart Black men. Black women to loved and cared for the communities from which they came. Black mothers. Black sisters. It was a single tear that carried the weight of so many unshed tears. Moments where we couldn’t cry. We couldn’t shout. We couldn’t be weak. We couldn’t show our brokenness. 

We couldn’t be tired. We couldn’t be burdened. We had to be strong. And we could never crumble. And that single tear was worth it. 

She is a symbol. She is a person. She is a Supreme Court Justice. She is a Black woman. She is Ketanji, The Lovely One, for whom God called and she answered and I am grateful to have listened to her story thus far. 

Ok ok ok. I’m like the BIGGEST Wes and Liz stan around. I can pinpoint the day in college when I finished reading Better Than the Movies and how consumed I became and how wonderful I felt each time I opened up the pages of that book. So I have LITERALLY been waiting like 4 whole years for Wes and Liz to return to the big screen. My expectations were through the roof and I don’t think any author could’ve made them allll come true, but all in all before my words, thank you Lynn for hearing the cries of the Buxbaum-Bennett fanverse and giving us just ONE more Wes and Liz motion picture. For that, I will always be grateful :,)


Now that that’s out of the way… the book was, sorely disappointing :( 
And it PAINS me to say that. Some things that I loved, for me, were having Wes’s POVs - a duh. I honestly would’ve loved just having Wes’s POV the entire time, I think it would’ve made for an interesting dynamic considering BTTM was all in Liz’s and it made sense for Liz’s character in that moment. And I don’t think Liz’s POV served us all that well in the end.

We enter the scene with Wes returning back to UCLA to chase all his dreams after he thought they’d crumbled at his feet and I think that’s such a powerful opening. He’s got baseball, he got college and a degree he’s excited about, and he’s got plans to get Liz. Boom! Great book set up. 

But he was clearly still struggling with his dad and the weight his loss, his mom’s changes,  his responsibility with taking care of his family, and Sarah and we just never got to see that resolved and it was SUCH a significant part of his character development - or had the potential to be and I think that’s a huge loss to the readers and to him. He can still hear his dad’s voice and

( I loved the small shift at the end when it changed to Liz’s voice, but we never get to see that process development and there was time for that!!)

he never stops to readjust and make sense of that voice…there’s no journey for him to really reconcile that voice with something good…there’s like a big sudden reveal versus the dialogue with himself or even a relationship with one of his coaches to mediate and guide that convo or even

the conversation he has with Helena and spending more time with that story and unpacking it..

So much potential. 

All that to say. Our Wessy could’ve grown IMMENSELY, but I don’t think he was given the opportunities. 

I also REALLY struggled with him not being able to love Liz as she was now. LIZ IS FUCKING. COOL. she’s an ICON then and NOW !!!! I get what Lynn was trying to paint. That Wes loved her then and he loves her now. That’s great. He can do that by listening to hear when she says “I’m not Little Liz” anymore because she’s not. She’s Lizzie, and Lizard, and Liz, and Buxbaum, Buxxie, Bux, and moreeee. I do love that he had to earn back Lib and Libby. GROVEL WES. CRAWL. I just - I think it could’ve been incredible to watch him also come to terms with that and say “ok, she’s just NOT Little Liz, but she’s more and in determined to find out and show her that I can and still do love ALL of her.”

It would’ve made his goal to get back with Liz a little less egotistical and “mine, mine, mine.” And more gentle and like the Wes we know who KNOWS our Liz and loves to know her better…


And finally. My last biggest complaint.

WTF WAS UP WITH THE ASHLEY AND FAKE CHEATING PLOT!? No no no no nooooo. Not cheating. No fake cheating. It’s just not even in either characters MO… it was SO. LEFT. FIELD. Wes would never and she could’ve easily just made the New Years Party a plot point where he treated her harshly and she was like he’s over me. It’s over. Cool. Sadness. Next. Continue on. NO CHEATING. It was SUCH a hard stop as I was getting into the story. It took me out pick time and made me hesitant to go back in…

.  But for Wes and Liz, I endured. I will always endure. They deserve the world.

Last and certainly, I hope, the least… I wanted more for the ending. The big revelations. But as I’m reflecting, maybe it was just right? Wes has changed and because of Liz was living a more grandiose view of life like her and her movies  and it’s like the reversed roles and I loved it. I mean CHECK this confession. I SWOONED.

SWOON WORTHY WORDS MR. BENNETT.

Liz too, had changed and with that her grand gestures became small and intentional and I think that small moment between her and Wes, the quiet and the real fit the bill perfectly for them now and their little future. And I cry. Because I had the little smile and butterflies return with those last chapters, watching them in tumultuous to harmonious bliss.  *deep sigh* “this is the lifffffeeee!”

All this to say. I wanted more. I wanted all the anguish and groveling from Wes, because Liz deserved it. and I warned the healing for him like Liz got with her mom and Helena and Joss. I wanted that for Wes. I think those two major missed plots points really make a difference. But I’m grateful to have spent the last 48 hours with these two and let’s be real. I’ll probabaly return soon, because I can never stay away for too long. 

These books are “feckin’” wild 💀

I don’t think I liked them. I think I’m hate reading them fr fr. There’s like no character development and their character flaws are like their existence LOL - but like maybe that’s the point of them? But I just LOL at them and I’m like “what even are these plots?”

I also can’t with the writing. It’s so plain and I’m not bought into their jobs and or lifestyles and I’m just like queasy as I read them AHAH. 

Anywayyysss.  

Ok. This was so different for me in terms of books I read and like make my stomach queasy. But an adventurous read nonetheless. 

I struggled with the writing style the most and the grammar. Yo. Who’s editing these stories becauuussseee there were some major syntax and spelling errors in this book and that makes me sad :/

it was just taboo and new for me. I how the next books has better editing! 

I’m just like. Alina pisses me off.  Mal is obnoxious. And Tamar, Toyla, and Nikolai are the things that saved this book for me. 

I’m actually very confused on what’s going on and kinda hope Mal dies but 💀

I mean. There are two things Ali does well. She writes smut well (I said. Can’t be mad about it) and she writes dynamic characters. I’m always so intrigued by the fact that I can find myself in anyone of her characters.

Rue is a socially anxious human with zero regard for if she upsets you. She’s being herself and while she may not be able to voice that she needs to hold on a little longer and learn her, she is indeed yearning for it. But also, ok if it doesn’t happen.

Eli is a life of the party person who’s seen so much of life and how it can hurt you. But he still has a propensity to love and is looking to be reminded … but hasn’t found someone who can point him back in that direction.

Cue, their meeting and life making more than enough sense and rights in bringing them together. Rue needs someone who is safe and allows her the ability to show up and not repress nor feel remorse for being herself. Eli is someone who see’s Rue from the get go and just wants to know her in all the ways she’ll let him. It’s an unconventional and wildly story where they find each other and in safety and love in each other.

ALSO. THE CALL BACK TO CHECK & MATE. I SCREAMED. REELED. LOVVVEEEDD.

And *sigh* once again, Ali gives me more of her characters to faun over. The Hazelverse is everything to me. Give me a book with all the characters being besties NEOW. Rue and Bea would be WONDERFUL together. Ahahaha 

This was so nerdy and fun and cute. Rivers is my type of human and he found his other half in Jess and it was so sweet. What would you do if you could genetically calculate the likelihood of your romantic match with another? I mean would you get swept up in the numbers or would you just allow yourself to meet new humans and explore ? 

This was such a unique concept of rom com and the also really beautiful with addition of Juno. The epilogue DESTROYED me and I choked up a bit. It was just so sweet and tender and awe. 

I think we could’ve either expanded more on her mom situation or we could’ve done without the inclusion of her character at all and just hinted at the relational strain / trauma to add dynamics to Jess’s character there. I think those bits often took me out of the story rather than moved it along or made me understand Jess fuller. But other than that, a great read and a lovely book.