madeline's Reviews (776)

I love Adriana's work and have been on the edge of my seat for each book in this series basically since she announced it. It was such a delight to return to the Leonas and to learn more about the pieces of history that those in power have chosen to try and overlook. Adriana's incredibly successful about building out a super immersive world and cast of secondary characters.

The primary storyline here just felt a little underdeveloped to me. There's a few plot tools/character traits that I think could have been more fleshed out, and a lot of the mid-relationship growth between Cora and Manuela seems to take place off-page.

This is still an incredible read, though, tender and swoony, and I cannot wait to read Aurora and Darnick's book - and hopefully, more historicals from Adriana! I've particularly enjoyed her entries in the Like to F... series and would love to see characters from those pieces revisited.

Thank you Canary Street and Edelweiss for the ARC!

A horrifying look at the repeated failures and intrinsic racism of the American foster care system that lead to the deaths of six children. 

Overall an incredibly fun read, particularly on audio - it's set up as a "how to" guide for the general public from a secret professional murder school with entries from one student's journal mixed in, plus the stories of two other students. Very unique and so engrossing. I 100% could have done without the discussions of people """getting in shape""" and

the fact that one death was set up to look like a man had been murdered by a cross dressing man he'd unknowingly picked up and tried to have sex with, and then the murderer is like "oh how sHaMeFuL!!"

. Still, overall a thrilling read, and I would absolutely read more from the McMasters deletion universe.

Thank you Simon & Schuster and LibroFM for the ALC!

Ali Hazelwood wrote 350+ pages about chess, a sport I have loudly claimed to be entirely uninterested in, and I ate it up.

This book has a lot of classic Ali Hazelwood fingerprints - a girl who's carrying a lot of weight on her shoulders, a boy who isn't quite sure to ask for the love he'd like to receive, sweet friends, and great banter, all scaled a bit back for a younger reader. I had a great time, and loved seeing Ali in a new genre playing with some new elements, too;

Mallory is bisexual on the page in a way that Hannah didn't have the space to be in BELOW ZERO which I really loved, and although Mallory feels a real need to help provide for her family since her father has died and her mother is chronically ill, she has a strong familial support network.

I loved this so much - as always, I cannot wait to see what Ali writes next!

Thank you Putnam and Edelweiss for the ARC!

Delightfully tender and cozy - you're immediately rooting for sweet, precious Gareth and gruff but tender Joss. I don't love the "threatening to out you" element, but I could have spent another 50 pages with Gareth and Joss and been quite happy. I'm so excited to see Luke get his HEA in the next book!

Thank you Sourcebooks for the ARC!

An incredible murder mystery with a super unique approach - thrilling and engrossing from the first page. I cannot wait to read many more novels about Ern!

Thank you Mariner and LibroFM for the ARC!

CW:

graphic descriptions of murders and death, death of a child remembered, child endangerment remembered, graphic description of an injury, addiction

A really fun and interesting premise is let down by mediocre writing and overdescription - like, I think we knew everything anyone was wearing at any given point. Still, I enjoyed the cast of characters and will give the second a try!

Thank you St. Martins and LibroFM for the ARC.

Knives Out x GBBO

A fairly run of the mill mystery, somewhere beyond cozy. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read it instead of listening to it, since I found some of the narrators annoying. Did make me want to bake a bunch of pies, though!

Thank you Atria and LibroFM for the ALC.

ethereal, haunting, unputdownable

thank you random house and librofm for the arc

I'm not a big fantasy person - a book has to have fairly accessible worldbuilding and a really compelling plot for me to be engaged. And I think this book had both! Lore is a secret death-magic user, Gabe is an official death-magic user who's therefore some kind of warrior monk, and Bastian is the prince the two of them have been roped into spying on. It's a good time! Gabe's a big softy who's clearly regretting his vow of celibacy, Bastian is very devil-may-care-but-also-I-care-about-you-specifically, and Lore's just a gal trying to figure it all out. 

Sure, the pacing falls apart a bit in the last third, and sure, the worldbuilding may be a bit inconsistent. But I had a great time, and if this isn't a setup for a throuple I will simply scream.

Thank you Orbit and Edelweiss for the ARC!