julies_cozycontentclub's Reviews (264)

When they say don‘t judge a book by its cover, they certainly don‘t mean "The Build-A-Boyfriend Project".

And not only is the cover amazing, but inside you find a story full of humor, growth, and trans joy.

I fell in love with the story in the first quarter, and the premise as well as the main characters, Eli and Peter, gave this such a unique plotline; I couldn‘t stop reading.

While this book covers important topics like grief and boundaries, I have to admit that there was one part that kept rubbing me the wrong way. 
Eli keeps saying that the whole scheme has the goal of "fixing“ Peter, even after it‘s established that his lack of dating experience is due to the unsupportiveness of queerness in his hometown and therefore the missing learning opportunities. Which is precisely the topic of Eli's article. 
Eli as a whole is a really complex character, which made it really hard to understand the reasonings behind some of his choices at times. 

Regardless, his growth in this story is not to be overlooked either, and the end of the book kind of redeemed the problematic actions a bit.

So if you want a rom-com-like story, filled with jokes, big feelings, drama, and characters that are taking their happiness in their own hands, while also getting lots of movie recommendations for your watch list... then grab yourself a glass of iced Americano and enjoy. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review. 

Communication is key. This is something that "You're the Problem, It's You" has proven in this beautiful and yearning steeped romance story.

I couldn‘t put it down, and whenever I looked up to check my reading progress, I found that I had read 50 pages since I last checked in what felt like the blink of an eye. The flow of Emma R. Albans' writing is just so incredibly addictive.

This is such a worthy follow-up to "Don't Want You Like a Best Friend“ with just as much tension, wholesomeness, and victorian sneaking around.

All the reoccurring characters and especially the return of the best sapphic matchmakers make this book so lively; I am in love.

I would take another 30 of those right now. 

This is the story of a Junker who learns that maybe fighting for rights is not entirely useless, when transporting an activist across the galaxy. 

One of the aspects of Junker Seven that deserves to be spefically highlighted is the way the character development is written. Juno was the push Castor needed, but she wasn‘t the reason why they decided that fighting back was worth it. I desperately need this in more stories; your love interest shouldn‘t be your only reason for doing good things.

With all of the autism representation and the amount of queer and trans characters, it makes for such a well-written space story, which topics are now more recent and important than ever. 

(Looking at you, American politics.)

Maybe some things in this book shouldn‘t really be followed step by step, like letting a candle burn overnight, unless you want to lose all the wealth you already possess in a housefire.

Bu if this would work I would be a rich witch indeed.

I propably would tell only a handful of people, but there would be signs (a massive library for one).

A queer crew of space criminals solving mysteries and trying to take down an oppressive government? What else could you want?

In case any more convincing is needed:

The Strange Case of Starship Iris has amazing voice actors, well-written characters, (surprisingly) singing, and some reflection on the absurdity and horribleness of some of our human behaviors (colonialization, war crimes, treatment of our own kind, humor, and the silliest thing of them all: gender). 

"Serial Killer Support Group" is an insane story. 

Not only does it have such an interesting insight into the characters thoughts and therefore the reasonings behind their terrible actions, but you also have the aspect of Cyra looking at those actions from an outsider perspective (or is she?).

This book is also equipped with some really good plot twists but also topics that can be really hard to stomach, so definitely check out the trigger warnings beforehand if, aside from the murder, of course, things like transphobia, stalking, or panic disorders are an issue for you. 

Since I received the audiobook version, I can't let the work of the voice actors go uncredited. Abby Craden did an incredible job at voicing the surprisingly wide range of characters while still managing to make them sound different and recognizable. I was literally so immersed, I jumped out of my skin the first time the voice actors switched. 

So for anyone who has some time to kill, is interested in an immersive story (especially in audio), and can stomach some pretty hard topics, this is 100% worth checking out. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review. 

This may sound a bit harsh, but my enjoyment of the story profited greatly from the fact that I didn‘t actually read this myself but instead listened to an audio version.

Yes, the spooky vibes and interesting base plot are there, but you are soooo far removed from all horror (about four layers) that it's not really genuinely scary. 

For maximum enjoyment, I recommend the version narrated by Jonathan Sims, because you can tell he genuinely likes the story and voices the different characters so distinctly and in such an entertaining way that highlights the good parts of the story and even makes the slower ones enjoyable. 

Rick Riordan has done it again! 

He just has that sarcastic sort of humor that still works no matter if you get older.

But the humor doesn‘t go at the cost of serious topics.

The book is for everyone wondering about how to sustain friendships in hard times, how helping people one at a time can really make an impact, or if Percy eats seafood (the answer was very enlightening). 

Please never stop writing, Rick. (Just maybe not about Percy, Grover and Annabeth, they need a break.) 

 Things that make this book such a compelling read:
✧ insanely badass characters
✧ many intense action scenes
✧ so many good quotes

The only thing that left me a bit confused was the plane scene. Either the fight was insanely short or the runway was insanely long, but something felt a bit off here. Also, I would argue you can‘t really easily close a plane door while said plane is driving…
Regardless, it probably says more about me than the book that I get caught up on a plane scene instead of anything else, but heyyy this is such an action-packed and fun read that even the issues lose significance.

I also loved the fact that the book even had queer representation. Just a tiny bit, but still a diversity win.
I definitely need more of that spy duo in the future!