leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

Oh man, the mystery is building! What are the Lumberjanes?

I absolutely loved seeing everyone working together and showing Jen how loyal they are to her and what friendship looks like by going through some great perils to find her. Just another excellent volume!

Side note: the art has officially grown on me and I wasn't jarred out of the story because of it, so yay!

Here's another fantastic romance contemporary! The characters were well rounded (flawed and kind and so very human) and the story was just so freaking good! It made me laugh and cry, and I was rooting for that happy ending!

Now, I should really read This Kiss Quotient (and any other books by this author)!

This had such an interesting concept but unfortunately, the execution left a lot to be desired. The story was really disjointed and a bit jarring to read because of it. I had a hard time following the story line and had to keep going back because I thought I was missing pages.

The characters and world are really fascinating, so I'm definitely going to check out the TV show.

Wow, I was not expecting the incredibly emotional element that this story had. I've been trying out a lot of romantic contemporaries over the past couple of weeks and expected the same ride. However, the grief in this story really brought a different depth to the story that I haven't read yet in the genre.

Again, gotta mention the lying trope being here, and not being a fan of that, but I absolutely loved everything else (characters - especially were top notch here!)

The characters here matched the show perfectly, and for that, I applaud Sarah Rees Brennan. I imagine that was incredibly hard to do. I particularly loved the other characters chapters. They were the highlight of this book for me, and I think that's just because we see so much of Sabrina in the TV show. It was great to see outside of her story. I loved the formatting of this book, but the black pages (with white letters) had my eyes straining a bit.

This did take me a bit to get into, and I think it's because I didn't love the plot here. Other than that though, I'm interested to see what the next book brings.

It had mermaids...excuse me...merwymn! Which is awesome, but other than that, this wasn't my favorite. It felt a bit like a filler volume, and I'm just not sure how this adventure works for the overarching story as a whole.

And then there was the art - this style just isn't for me.

As a lover of fantasy, I'm pretty used to reading books that have different settings and characters but similar magical systems, and I'm totally cool with that. Because I love fantasy, and I love that there are some aspects of the genre that are canon. But, it's always nice discovering something completely new (to me). That's this. I haven't read many books that follow witchcraft in nature/natural settings, and having a gift surrounding wine and beer and perfumes and baking and whatever else is such a neat concept.

I really liked the setting - turn of the century France, with new technologies and old way thinkings meshing together with a set of characters that were captivating.

Fucking perfection! Obviously, I joined Alice Oseman's Patreon so I can get more of the story now, because I need this story in my life every single freaking day.

Before I go into my review, I wanted to mention that I think it's important to remember that many illnesses, diseases, and health issue can affect people in many different ways, and that no two people have the same story or same symptoms even if the health issue is the same. And when one of those topics is handled in a book differently than you hoped or expected, it's OK to criticize but to be kind. Because what you're criticizing as being unrealistic or insensitive may be exactly how someone's story unfolded.

I won't speak anymore to the sensitive topic that is brought up in this book, because of my own struggles with the topic and some of these reviews on this platform hurt, even when they're valid.

Now, onto my thoughts of this book. Obviously, you can see I'm giving it 3 stars and that's for some of the tropes that I absolutely DO NOT like in books - the unicorn girl and the possessiveness here are pretty much no-gos for me.

I liked the chemistry between the characters and didn't mind most of the goings on here, including a plot devices that'd be a bit spoilery to mention, but have been mentioned in reviews (look into those at your own risk). None of that bothered me, but the characters personalities...those weren't great.

I think this book would've been a five star had it been the same plot, same chemistry but with a lady lead that could be like other girls and herself and that being OK and a male lead that possessiveness isn't sexy.