matmatmatty's Reviews (128)

This was a fun little story (although will say that the audio narrator wasn't my favourite).

As usual with a Talia Hibbert story, this story isn't just a straight romance, but a romance with a curvy black female lead, and a male lead with trauma.

I think that Talia Hibbert can cover some really good topics in her story. It was obvious to me that this was written earlier than some of the ones I had read, and since it is shorter and Christmas themed it didn't really go into a lot of depth compared to some of her other work, but it was still enjoyable and a sweet story.

So this was written after many of the Narnia books (despite being listed as first on the series) and is written as a prequel, rather than its own adventure.

This was a fun little story about the founding of Narnia (though it takes a while to get there!)

Justice for Uncle Monty 😭

I adored this! The premise, the 'stakes' - this was exactly what I wanted out of a historical romance!

The story follows Evelyn, a young orphaned lady who is tasked with finding a wealthy husband to support her and her sisters, and Ahmad, a biracial dressmaker setting his sights on expanding his business. Together they 

This story clearly had a lot of care put into it, especially with the historical accuracies! Very accurate to the time-period and really helps you feel like you are there with our ladies.

This is a closed-door romance, so no spicy scenes, but the tension between our two really adds to the story, and I honestly prefer historical romances like this. If you like the slow burn romances of the likes of Jane Austen, then give this one a try!

Cannot wait to read the next one!

This was a difficult read, but one I'm glad I did.

Some may say that this book is tropey or doesn't do anything new, but of course in it's time, it was very new and novel and you kinda need to see it through that lense.

The story itself brings up a lot of questions about humanity and how we treat our fellow humans. Lots of "fallen angel" analogies and it gave me a lot of food for thought. 

There's clearly a lot that Shelley has put in here that has had a lot of influence on our culture and it is incredible to see that from a book written by a teenage girl.

It's not all great though. As a Christian, there are a couple of moments where Shelley's bias is clear when she is speaking of other religions (I don't condone it but also this was written more than 200 years ago so...) and I think the female characters are barely characters.

I would recommend reading this at least once - it probably won't be your favourite but if you care about literature and the evolution of storytelling, I think this is an important part of it.

Really enjoyed this book!

This follows the story of the first book, continuing Emily's and Wendell's stories, but this time with a bit more urgency than the previous story.

I did enjoy seeing Emily in Cambridge, as well as more of her colleagues and her family.

Very much looking forward to the next one!

A really good murder mystery (with some discussions of 'trial by media' in there too)

Really had me guessing the whole way through and I really enjoyed it!

only thing that makes it not 5 star is that I didn't really understand what Elliott's plan was, and I don't think it made sense to me honestly. I don't think a teacher like that would just decide to kill a student just to cover his own tracks like that. I understand the blackmail with the alibi but not the murder.

This was weird honestly. Follows four friends (three black and one white) who decide to open a bookshop together. In the process of doing this, each of them experience something that will change their lives forever...

The start felt a bit like a sequel (like I didnt really get the closeness of these women, because so many characters were thrown at me it felt like I was missing something). The book references felt a little too forced at times for me, and I didn't like some of the messaging at all.

I'm gonna go by character because I think its easier that way:
Celeste - our 'main' character (opens on her and closes on her)
Mild spoiler for start of book (from first couple of chapters):

Celeste is struggling after the after math of a carjacking at gunpoint and is refusing to go to therapy, even though she can barely get in a car without having a panic attack. Her husband gets annoyed and asks her for a divorce.

Spoilers for later on:

It turns out that her husband did that so she would get the therapy and never expected to actually divorce her, which WHAT. If a man tried that with me, I would be fuming and would NOT ask to renew our vows jfc

Toni - the influencer

Toni is about to get married to her dream man, who wants to have kids. She finds out that she might not be able to have kids (and I have a MASSIVE issue with the doctor who told her outright that she can't have kids because she's stil having a period, so she can still get pregnant, it'll just be difficult) and decides to hide this from her fiancé. also she starts getting messages from an account that turns out to be her old boyfriend, who knocked her up when she was like 15, forced her to get a backstreet abortion and tricked her into committing a crime. He's out of prison and is now blackmailing her or he'll tell everyone.

Authors need to stop writing influencer characters without actually knowing what it is like. She goes live constantly and has a ridiculously high viewer count, but isn't being swarmed constantly? Those are like Drake numbers she's doing honestly. But she can still live a normal life? also

the idea she could put her wedding info out on social media and not expect gatecrashers is ridiculous.

I also think her story raised a lot of issues in my opinion.

It does get addressed, but the fact that Toni goes so long talking about her abortion and how she can't have kids that i read it that she thinks she can' have kids because of her abortion. Which is not true, and i think is quite harmful.

Also i need words with her fiancé because

telling a woman that he can't wait to see her 'belly swell with his child' is the least sexy thing I can think of and dude needs better dirty talk lines.

Leslie - the white one
Spoilers:

Leslie's only daughter gets sick and then she finds out that she was adopted and her dad isn't her biological dad. She needs to find a match for her daughter so reaches out to find her birth parents and turns out they are still together and have a bunch of kids. She gets the match, makes up with her dad and has more family.

Leslie's story was maybe the weakest for me because I felt that she was overreacting a lot. I get she went through a lot (probably the most) but for a 34 yo woman, damn she felt whiny.

Yasmeen - the poor one
First, I think it is crazy to see how well off her friends are and how she struggles to get a job that pays well, and how any of them could have helped her, But whatever.
Spoilers:

Yasmeen wins the lottery but starts spending like crazy, ends up meeting a woman who scams her and she loses most her money. Also there is the subplot because her parents disagree with gambling and so don't want any of her money (despite literally having their lights turned off at the start of the book, I just think that's unrealistic)

Overall, this felt like a lot of drama and not what I was expecting. Really didn't like this one.

Also maybe the audiobook was different, but I;ve heard people talking about sex in this book and everything I heard was 'fade to black' at the most. Mostly people talking about having sex and no actual sex shown.

Really enjoyed this! A good example of a children's book that can still be enjoyed as an adult.

Snicket's writing is unique and you can definitely feel the narrator is a character in its own right

Will be reading the next one!

A very difficult book to read, but I think very important.

Would recommend checking out CWs for this, but I think this is so beautifully written.

Made me very uncomfortable at times but that's the mark of good writing.