lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

Okay, so yes, I knew it was a novella, and a prequel. But I was not prepared to be left quite so hanging at the end of it. That’s my own fault. However, it was definitely a good story and it makes me want to read on! From what I can tell about the synopsis of book 1 in the series, which I do have a freebie copy of that as well, it will be about one of the characters we kind of barely met in this one, not the couple from this book. And it seems I’ll be waiting till the 3rd book to get Marcella and Seb’s story from this novella. Although it sounds like that book will be only 6 months after this one, so that is good? Anyway, a fun quick read at only 79 pages. My first book by Liz Alden who I’ve been wanting to read for a while!

Honestly, this was a really good book, especially if you are a fan of unreliable narrator thrillers. It made me think of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer for one thing. I know my students will love the thrilling suspense and twist of the story at the end. Personally I had a feeling about one or more things that ended up happening, not that it was played out poorly, just again because I had an inkling. My not giving it a 5 stars like I gave the other book by this author had more to do with my own preferences in stories and characters, and I won’t say what the specific issue for me was, because I think anyone who loves a good thriller or the movie I mentioned will really like this one!

Wow, three YA contemporary romances in a row! Fortunately I think, while the last two kind of had a theme about figuring out how to be a better girlfriend/boyfriend, this one might have more to do with just a teen trying to figure things out, and more of a funny enemies to lovers trope to it. This book had me literally laughing out loud once again. The snarkiness and sarcasm between all the characters was perfect. I know some people might not think that is a good way to be, but it is my family and my friends, so I loved it.

I also was cracking up constantly over the little things River would think about Sarang because she was short (I am also very short, only 5 feet tall, so loved this!). When he thought to himself, “Why are short people so scary?” All of the characters were so interesting and full of color and jumped off the page for me. It was totally clear what was going to really come back and bite River in the butt at the end, what would cause the big blowup, but that didn’t matter. Because there were so many other things happening, and with all these wonderful characters, in the end he wasn’t the only one who had to apologize or make up for something.

His family, especially his father, wow, it was easy to see why he was so scared to tell them, even as I kept wanting him to just come clean earlier in the book about his new job. His ex-girlfriend, wow, I wanted to punch her so many times. And then the betrayal by one member of the group at the end hit hard. I couldn’t believe how far she went, even with the way she felt about what drove her to that point. 

This story had so many good parts, so much humor, and lots of emotional bits as well. I once again enjoyed reading about all the different foods. And while I really kind of want to try bingsu, I also just can’t picture beans, even supposedly “sweet” beans, mixed with shaved ice and fruit. Beans, other than jelly beans, are not sweet to me. It’s kind of like the whole beans on toast thing, it just seems weird to me! But maybe some day I’ll try bingsu!

So this was another fun contemporary romance with some family issues in the background, although not quite as much a part of the story as the last similar book I read. It’s kind of sad to say that I understood Leo’s problem of mistaking niceness for someone being interested. And usually thinking when someone was interested I just thought they were being nice, not to mention how I developed crushes that never worked out. Afraid to say that has happened even at my age still!

There were actually similarities in this book and the last one I read because once again the main character is trying to become the best partner he can. Only as his list is created from his exes telling him what they didn’t like about him, I can see the ways he puts into motion what they say taking so many bad turns. Not to mention how much it sucks to see him let the things they say cause him to change himself. But again, he’s a teen, so definitely makes sense. It also was so hard to read as he said and did things that were so wrong to the wonderful friends he had. Even knowing he was just trying to follow his plan. It took a few times, but he did realize what he was doing at the end and try to stop himself.

And it made me so mad how much he let his big crush that turned into his first boyfriend be such a dick to him. Yeah, I know people have problems with that, and it’s understandable with how his romantic life or lack of one had been so far at his age. Everyone else kind of noticed or knew who Leo was missing that would be his perfect boyfriend. Almost that person themselves didn’t quite maybe see it or understand at first from the way we get his story. Leo had such great friends though, especially in how they handled him through this without letting him completely run them over and ignore them. But not giving up on him either.

The family aspect of this story was sadder than with the other book I just read. I hated Leo’s dad so much. And honestly I’m still not sure how much I like his brother. In the end I like the way things worked out, how his mother realized she needed to work on some things too. And I loved his whole scrapbooking hobby/lifestyle. I remember making a scrapbook for my sorority memories when I was in college. We even got a little scrapbook type thing when I graduated from high school that we could order from Jostens. I still have both of those. I also made a scrapbook for my dinosaur dig trip after college. These days I enjoy making them on sites like Shutterfly, even though I can’t help but go in afterwards and add in things, like the ones I made for the Book Bonanza conventions.

A fun romance, another one I’ll be sure to have for my students to enjoy!

Wow, this book was intense, and so so dark and full of anger and Sally’s revenge schemes and also her dream of freedom. As it says at the end of the blurb, it is loosely based on a true person. And there are so many real moments from history in it, the author did a great job of weaving true history with incredible and dark possibilities to create this tale. Reading all of Sally’s experiences that made her the way she was in this story made my heart hurt, and also made me root for her plans as well.

Yes, it is something to look and see that maybe people had reasons for the things they did. But oh the things that were done to her, as well as other people similar to her, it made it easy to understand her thirst for violence and ruin of these people who had treated her this way. So many detailed plans, things that would not be thought of this day maybe, but fit in well with the way people behaved and the things they valued in those days. Their good names, their connection to the Queen or royal family, their own wealth even. 

I’ve read another book by this author and was also captured to where I could barely put it down. Obviously the author has taken these people and built a whole world of things that aren’t what really happened. But she makes it so that I wanted and did go start looking up all I could find about the names of people and if they existed and how they lived if they did. I would say another hard hitting, winning historical fiction form Sarah Raughley for sure.

The publisher reached out to me about this one and I wasn’t completely sure if I’d enjoy it, but I loved the idea of all the cultural aspects to the family, and the whole find out with the exes maybe what was the problem is one type of story that is fun as well. I was lucky enough to have snow days off from work and got to read almost straight through this in a little over a day. 

There was a lot of humor, between how the family interacted with each other, which I loved – reminded me in ways of the sarcastic qualities of my own family, and the clumsiness and awkwardness that Amelia seemed to go through life and on her dates with. It was easy to see why Amelia wanted to get out and have a gap year away from her family. As wonderful as they were to have around and just be there for her, it also was a bit suffocating for her, not to mention no one had ever really asked what she actually wanted. She gave a description at the end of how she wasn’t good at anything, and not in a way that she was putting herself down, but a way she was describing that the choices she’d made led her to not know what she liked or try to get better at things other than what her family wanted or expected her to do. And those weren’t the things she was good at, or cared to get better at.

Her romantic life was funny, but also I definitely cringed for her a lot. The whole going back to try with exes reminded me both of one of my favorite books/movies – What’s Your Number? and also the episode of The Big Bang Theory when Raj had all his exes meet him and then he asked them questions about what went wrong and what he could do to improve. Of course there was the ONE ex, Leon, who suddenly showed back up in her life. The one who had broken her heart, and never apologized or even explained why he did what he did. And here he is back again in her life, and he still does neither of those things.

That irritated me for her, I mean if he’d just explained it could have saved so much heartache early on. Not to mention maybe she wouldn’t have gotten the revenge plan in her head. All the different things that made Amelia end up going viral, embarrassing things, made so much of the book, and wow, it just sucked for her! And oh did I want to punch that person at the end, I had a feeling that the little journal was going to get in the wrong hands, I just didn’t expect that to happen!

But it wasn’t just a romance, there was the whole issue with her family and how she felt with them, even as she loved them as much as she did. The moment when she talked about why she wasn’t good at anything, and then the whole what you might call “come to Jesus” discussion with her family was so good. There was so much emotion, and so many things that came out, it was great having her mom kind of come out and take a stand, as it seemed Amelia’s mother really did need to do something to take care of herself. And the things that we learned about her aunts, things they’d done and not told her, and how they reacted and possibly changed after the big talk, all of it made for so much more than just a contemporary romance type of story.

I had one small issue, but it is something that would be very unpopular as an opinion right now, so I won’t list it, and it was the reason I was unsure about taking the book and marked it down to 4.5 stars on my blog. However I was so into this story, once I picked it up with time to read I could barely put it down. Another one I can’t wait to share with my students!

Once again Hunting has added to this huge interconnected hockey world she has built for so many years. Even if our characters are new to us, they have so many connections to characters from all the other series, especially the Toronto Terrors series, and it was fun putting all the pieces together to solve all those little degrees of separation between them.

I loved how Cammie was a total LoTR nerd, but she was still able to stand up for herself with the mean girls. Sure, she still had the self confidence issues, with wondering about how she would fit in with Chase’s friends and teammates. But when it came push to shove, she could take care of herself. She didn’t need to be rescued by a man, and let him know, nicely though, that she could.

I also adored Chase. He was the fantasy book boyfriend in that as soon as he spent a little time with her and got a look at her, he was hooked. And his willingness to listen to her weird ideas/fanfic and even want to read it and also get hot and bothered by it was cute as well. In a way he totally reminded me of the hero character in the YA I wrote myself, because honestly, he was almost a little too good to be true.

So, I have to say that while I did really enjoy this quick and easy read, I had a few issues with what was kind of insta-love. I also felt like I didn’t get as much of the angst and background story that the author usually infuses her plots with. I don’t know if that’s because it is supposed to be less angsty, because her other new adult series was sooooooooooo angsty. There was also a LOT of sex. Not a bad thing, but felt like more with how the story was in this one than her normal books. And, again, Chase was almost too perfect for me, almost too unrealistic of a college aged guy, based on what I have experienced when I was in college or what you hear about these days.

However! Even with all my issues, this was a feel good romance for me. I loved how the characters got along, the guys talked and stuck up for each other and their girls. Even as they gave each other a hard time. I look forward to maybe getting Brody’s story? Not to mention I would love to see if Cammie’s sister maybe gets with Brody and Tristan’s brother? Knowing Hunting, she has plans for them all!

Wow, Ryland was one that hurt my heart so much. It was understandable after all he’d been through that he felt the way he did, and when the one big thing he’d been worried about a relationship making him do actually kinda sorta happened, gah! It made that third act break up so real and so heart wrenching! 

I loved being back in Almond Bay. Gabby was such a sweetheart, but also had her own issues, with good reason, for not wanting to start a relationship. She had been a former resident with her brother Bennett, well, they lived outside of town and didn’t get in much due to their own family struggles. So really she got to try the cookies and meet some of the regular town characters for the first time. While she knew who Ryland was because he’d coached her brother, she didn’t really know his family. Which I love the family. Especially little Mac. Her Chewy Chondra and how she played with her Uncle Wyatt was so much fun! So cute and adorable. 

Of course in true Meghan Quinn fashion there were so many hilarious moments that had me laughing out loud. Especially when poor Gabby slid down the pole she was painting and got burns on her inner thighs. Which of course led to some sexy moments as Ryland was helping her with that. Of course him getting the paint dumped on him when the ladder fell was funny. When Ryland was playing as Godzilla Plus with Mac, and she nailed him right between the legs, oh that whole scene was so funny. 

While our family stories are pretty much wrapped up, especially with how far down the line the epilogue is, I’m hoping for a spinoff for Gabby’s friend Bower and her brother, an older woman romance, I’m all there for that! 

Oh yeah, the author redid the covers with this one, and I do love this one! 

I haven’t read this author in a while, although I loved her If I Stay series. This book has a bit of that same feel to it, with a daughter that had supposedly died when a car hit her bicycle. We don’t know that at the beginning of the story however. We just read about Amber riding her bike home from school at the end of her senior year. But when she shows up, no one is home. However when someone does come home, it is shocking, and it’s because to them, she died 7 years ago. 

So Amber has to figure out what exactly is going on. Why is she back? Things of course have changed so much in those 7 years. Her parents are divorced, a common occurrence when a child dies. Her 10 year old sister is now the same age she was or the same age she thinks she is now. Her boyfriend seems to have become completely different from what she remembers. And her aunt, who used to be her mom’s best friend has left the country and hasn’t been back. An old friend of hers that she did something mean to when they were younger because she wanted to move on to new friends seems to be there for her now as well. 

But that’s when I got the hint that maybe it was more than just her being back from the dead. Her friend Dina said she couldn’t go in somewhere with Amber, and I was thinking that was weird. Was Dina alive? Or was Dina not allowed to go into that place because her mother was a cop, so obviously she’d keep her away from unsafe people/places?

When we got Amber’s POV it was in first person. But there were other people in the book we got their POV in 3rd person. Such as her sister. Some people who seemed kind of random too. A teacher, a school photographer, etc. The way those people filled in the story was good, and all the little connections that seemed random were perfect. I really liked how it all fit together at the end, making the story more than just a girl back from the dead, and adding some philosophical aspects to the story. Even getting a mystery solved by all these little puzzle pieces and seemingly unrelated connections.

I definitely can’t wait to share this one with my students, and I could see it being a possible Gateway nominee in a year or two!