mariareadsbooksalot's Reviews (1.05k)

WOW omg!! I finished this in like 4 hours. I saw the cover posted for the second book and was like hm I think I need to read this book?? And I’m glad I did!!! I loved Candace so much. She was such a great MC with a good head on her shoulders. She was incredibly hardworking and also stood up to huge high level people on a National stage?? Good for her!!! I flipped back and forth between wanting her to be with the two love interests but I liked the way the story ended! Definitely left a lot of room for the second book to swoop in and win me over once again. I am not a k-pop listener (I’m very intrigued now though) so I went into this without any knowledge of the process and the insane amounts of pressure and all the terminology?! Imani’s dictionary was so helpful to me LOL. I found myself looking up songs that were mentioned and loving them! This book taught me so much about the pressure that these trainees face and the sexism between the boys and girls wow. It’s crazy! I really loved getting to know all the different characters in Candace’s group and how they all came to be there and who they wanted to be. I got so nervous during the final group announcement and was so excited but then so proud of Candace for using her voice! This book is so good and I highly recommend it to anyone who already loves k-pop or those like me, who know nothing about it but want to learn!!

Is it possible that I liked this better than the first

I would give this book a million stars if I could! Tashie Bhuiyan is a new favorite author after this one. Her writing was incredible, her characters felt SO real and relatable. I really felt I was just listening to friends the entire book. She told Karina and Ace’s story so well and had me laughing, tearing up, and smiling along with the book. This book will forever be a recommendation for anyone who loves YA. It beautifully covers the topic of complicated family relationships from both Karina and Ace and also anxiety and mental health. This is a book i wish I could have read when I was an actual teenager!

This book was incredible! I loved every single character in this book. Kate and Anderson were such great friends and an example of platonic soulmates. They had me like

(3.5 rounded up)

Ahhhh okay. Let me start by saying that this was originally a DNF for me. I read the ebook in 2020 and couldn’t get into it so I stopped. I decided to pick up the audiobook and enjoyed it more! I thought this book was really cute and I loved Leon so much. I loved how this book covered domestic abuse. It showed that abuse is not always physical and sometimes a victim doesn’t realize the signs right away. I loved the note leaving and awkward encounters between the two MC. I also enjoyed getting to know Leon’s brother and seeing his story unfold. Overall, I enjoyed this but didn’t love it. It was a little draggy in some spots and I found myself wanting to skip through some parts. I liked that the audio was two different narrators, it brought the characters to life.

I picked this up after browsing through random audiobooks on Libby. It was a really quick listen and I liked it. It was fast paced and cute, but honestly a little anticlimactic. Nothing too dramatic happened and there wasn’t a huge conflict. I liked seeing the MC and her mom work in their relationship and getting to know the love interest. It was overall a cute YA romance that gave me big summertime vibes!

This book was adorable! I loved the audio and was able to speed through it. I honestly wanted this to be more of a love triangle between the love interest and best friend and I played myself by wanting a love line with the wrong character

AHHHH WOW. This was an old middle school favorite that I have been thinking of forever. I only had one scene in my memory and couldn’t remember the name. It took a lot of obscure googling to figure it out but I’m so glad I did! I loved how this covered grief from the point of view of the person who died. It’s such an interesting topic, especially from a 15 year old girl. She was so upset about things like missing prom, getting boobs, and never growing up. These are such important things to so many teenagers and I definitely understood all of the sadness she had. The only thing I had a slight issue with was the weird ages thing. If you’ve read this, you might get what I’m saying. The love interest was 17 in elsewhere but he was older when he died and it was a little strange to me to wrap my head around. I did love their relationship. I was so reminiscent of high school love but also seemed so mature. Overall, this is a fun audiobook that brought back so many memories!!

AHHH WOW. I am SO excited for everyone to read this book because it may be my new favorite. The Russian (Vlad) has always been my favorite side character and it made me so happy when I found out he was getting his own story. This book was a marriage of convenience, and childhood best friends thrown in and wow they were done so well. I loved watching them realize true feelings and getting to truly know each other again. Elena was so great and I understood her apprehension towards things in the beginning. I loved seeing bits of the side characters as well as new ones being introduced (speaking it into existence - a book about Colton in the future???) I also really love how this book covers toxic masculinity and really allows the men in the book club to be their true selves because they’re all so supportive and great. anyways, I have this book preordered already and I am anxiously awaiting the release!

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley For this EARC in exchange for an honest opinion!

I LOVED THIS ONE!!! This is perfect for fans of the royal family, pretty steamy relationships, and sexy bodyguards. Every single page of this book had me like *heart eye emoji here*. It was sexy, funny, and overall a really lovely book. I had such a grin on my face for this entire book. I loved that the main conflict of the book didn't involve the couple breaking up or going through something like that. I feel like I have read so many books like that and it is refreshing when the couple can go through something and grow together. I loved the end of this book and definitely shed a few happy tears. I loved the reunion scene and how happy everyone was. I also really liked the representation of mental health. All of the charcters had gone through so much and were so open about their struggles. Overall, this was such a great book and I want 85 more books about Harrison's bakery and just domestic scenes of both of them!!!