This was my first Celeste Ng book so I wasn’t as disappointed as most people were with this book, but I was definitely expecting more. The story is told in 3 parts, and could be very slow moving at times. I really enjoyed Part 1 but once Part 2 started I got bored, but when the short Part 3 began it picked up again. 

It’s meant to be an emotional tale, but for some reason it felt very sterile and detached, which is very sad considering this is a book centering on Asian American discrimination and one of the stereotypes we face is being “unemotional” and “robots”. It never feels like the characters are experiencing things themselves, more like the characters were telling us stories they heard from the news.

The thing that saved this book for me was Lucy Liu’s narration. It felt like I was being read a bed time story, and even when the story wasn’t gripping me and I was spacing out, I just listened to her lovely voice. I also enjoyed most of Bird’s POV in the novel, but I don’t think we needed Margaret’s POV at all.

I don’t think this was a bad book, I just think this type of storytelling is not for me. I definitely see what she was going for, and I can understand why other people would like it. I have a lot of respect for this book and the topics the author exploded, and I will definitely check out her other novels as I did enjoy the prose.

This was a solid middle grade read. 

The first half didn’t have me, but I was also working while listening so I just couldn’t pay attention well. I listened to the second half while taking walks and it definitely improved the book.

I loved seeing the progression of Caroline’s story and her crush on Kalinda and how they work through their young sapphic emotions together. I enjoyed her story with Kalinda more than the one with her mother, but overall I think they were both good storylines. 

I would recommend reading it physically or digitally rather than the audiobook. The narration wasn’t terrible, but it definitely felt like it dampened my experience of the book at times.

I can’t remember the last time I read a middle grade book, so this was a nice quick reintroduction to the genre.

A beautiful and well written book about a disabled female lead, a second chance romance and breaking generational trauma.

I think this book was good, and I certainly see why so many people love it. It’s refreshing to have a romance lead by characters in their 30s, and personally I like the dynamics that having a child in the mix brings up. Unfortunately, with the hype surrounding this book, I feel like I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have had I not known anything about it. 

Eva and Shane were electric together, but to me it was a bit bogged down by their backstory together. I love a second chance romance, but when we go back to their week together as teens it kind of felt like a euphoria episode. I would’ve liked if as adults they were able to discuss that what they had was an infatuation, not love, and had learned to love each other as individuals rather than the fast paced codependency of their youth. 

Another problem I had was that the constant pop culture references and Audre’s long winded rants were just too repetitive and out of place and cringy at times. Key word is “at times”. I also didn’t really like the ending, but it wasn’t bad per say. 

Overall, I liked this book. Eva is a great main character and I loved her interactions with her friends. Audre was a cutie, and I loved Shane. 

The Dutch House started off strong, but around 60% quickly became boring and frankly, unnecessary. This book would’ve been much better off as a novella rather than a full length novel.

I enjoyed the storytelling and Tom Hanks narration. I know some people found it overdone or confusing, but personally I loved the time jumps. The first half of the book I enjoyed (although isn’t necessarily my type of story) and would rate around a 3.5 star.

Ann Patchett is a great writer with beautiful prose, but after 60% of the book I didn’t understand why the book was still going. Then, a big event happens around 65%-70% that left me wondering what message the author was trying to convey. The last 40% of the book, Tom Hanks narration was the only thing that left me finish the book. If I had been reading it physically, I probably would have DNFed.

If you’re already an Ann Patchett fan and this is your favorite type of story, I would recommend to give it a try but otherwise, this story won’t change your mind.

Ava Reid has such beautiful prose, and this book was overflowing with mythology and culture. 

Pros:
The characters: I loved our hella stubborn female main character, and I liked the male main character as well and the relationship they slowly build with each other.

Mythology: it was so interesting to see a fantasy book with Hungarian and Jewish mythology. I will say, sometimes the way the author would introduce a story or a myth felt very out of the blue.

Cons:
The villain and ending: For a character that had so much “screen time”, he wasn’t all that interesting or unique. The ending was fine, I honestly don’t know how it couldn’t been better but I didn’t find it very satisfying.

The pacing: The book would go back and forth between slow and fast paced quite abruptly. Along with the frequently scattered fairytales, it felt jarring at times.

Overall, I had so much fun with this book. I would highly recommend, and I’ve already purchased Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid as well!

Wow. I can’t understand how anyone could rate this under 5 stars, it was brilliant.
This is an immediate new favorite. This book was beautiful and haunting, and will stick with me for a long time. 

I read this in one sitting, and it made me cry multiple times. This was a unique, heavy and wonderful read that I could not put down.

I tried really hard to continue this book, but I think it’s just not for me. 

The story is told through a first person flow of consciousness style. Personally, I couldn’t stand it. The plot was nowhere near compelling enough to justify the constant paragraphs of continuous descriptions and commentary that never seemed to end, and honestly for the most part never even had a purpose. 

Although I definitely believe that books with struggling adult main characters are important (especially stories featuring minorities, as is the black woman starring in the book), oh my god the main character never caught a break. Constantly being humiliated and degraded, it was not only exhausting to read, but felt unbelievable.

This sequel was just as good and comforting as the first, I’m so happy to have read this series.

In this book, we are witnessing Sibling Dex is learning their value in just existing rather than being helpful to others, while Mosscap comes to terms with being sentient. The conversations between the two are just lovey, and never feels cliche or cringy, but instead like we ourselves are apart of the conversation. We traverse new beautiful landscapes in this world and meet people with different ideologies.

This duology will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m grateful to have experienced it.

This was a decent read with a good premise, a great narrator (read at 2x speed) and a refreshing storytelling format. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as I expected. While reading Her Name is Knight I was also reading Who Fears Death (which was very slow and I didn’t like much) which features the same heavy topics and themes, so unfortunately I feel like I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I would have otherwise.

The Pros

The characters: 
I really liked the cast of characters (minus the villains obviously). I loved reading about Nena being accepted into her new family during the “before” chapters, and then Nina taking Georgia under her wing during the “after” chapters. 

The storytelling format:
I really enjoyed how the book consistently went back and forth between her backstory and present time, and it created a stark contrast between her life “before” and “after”. Although I love a good backstory reveal, sometimes it’s nice to know from the beginning. This was also a downfall for the book as well. The “before” chapters are brutal and very descriptive, and after all the emotions and despair of those chapters, sometimes the “after” chapters feel boring and don’t bring any emotional impact.

The narrator!
She did a wonderful job, and I especially enjoyed the subtle distinction between when she is voicing a male or female character. Sometimes narrators tend to do too much when voicing the opposite sex, but I thought she did great.

The Cons

Overdramatic writing:
It felt like there was some type of analogy or simile every sentence. Obviously that is a major part of writing as a whole, but for some reason they stood out every time and took me out of the story quite a lot. 

Insta-love:
I am usually 50/50 on insta-love, it really depends on how it’s done. Nena deciding she felt an ease with the MMC (can’t remember his name) that she’d never felt before with a man was VERY sudden. I don’t think she even had a full conversation with him before she felt comfortable with him, and for her backstory and her own thoughts stating she’s never felt this way with a man before, it was extremely abrupt. 

Overall, if you are considering reading this book I would say give it a shot if you can stomach the contents. It has really heartbreaking themes, which at some points go into pretty graphic detail.

This is my first book by Beck Chambers but I think I’ve already fallen in love.

Her writing is beautiful and really makes the world come to life. Never does the descriptions of the landscape or of simple things like Sibling Dex cooking feel unwarranted, in fact it’s very welcome.

I read this book exactly when I needed to. Sibling Dex’s struggle to find purpose really hit hard for current 21 year old me. I loved the dialogue between Dex and Mosscap and the question of “is finding a purpose really necessary?” Not gonna lie, this book made me cry multiple times and had me pacing my room afterwards lol (in a good way)

This book really felt like a hug and a warm cup of tea. I loved it.