mj_reads's Reviews (415)

Hmm...this was not quite what I was anticipating?

This novella shows us another side of Warner. It helps me sympathize with him and even start to understand why he acted in certain ways during Shatter Me, but it doesn't do so in a way that makes me forgive him. I appreciate that because I was worried that seeing things from his point of view would change the way I viewed his character in book 1, and he was just so perfectly bad in that one, that I wasn't sure I wanted too.
I think this story does indicate that there is some hope for his character to have some sort of redemption throughout the rest of the series, but I'm still unsure of how he will get that and also how the other characters will relate.
It was nice to get inside his head and be able to understand him a bit, but in terms of plot or anything like that I was pretty bored. The ending felt pretty abrupt, but hopefully it will make more sense once I read the next book.

A+ writing. A+ PoV with things going on.
A BIG GIANT F FOR ADAM.

This was a really well written novella, like potentially one of my favorite novellas ever because it was such a different perspective from major events in the book. It was super important, and put us inside the mind of one of the MCs...so like I should have loved this?

BUT ADAM IS SO ANNOYING. Literally the most selfish character. I hate him. Despite this being an interesting enough novella, I could have lived without it because Adam is the worst. I really don't have anything else to say other than I hate him.

Yeah okay so first and foremost let’s talk about how this book killed me and brought me back to life on pretty much every other page. I could not get enough of this story, I could not read it fast enough, I could not stop while reading it. This book was every single thing that I needed it to be, and more.

I know I’ve said this in other reviews but it’s so hard to actually review a book I loved as much as this one because all I want to do is scream I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT over and over again and hope that is enough to motivate you to read it?

This book is so full of character development, relationship growth, and to be fair only a little bit of plot development BUT every other aspect of this book delivered and there was enough plot that the story wrapped up (in my opinion, PERFECTLY) so I have no complaints! This series is really fueled by the growth and story arc of the MC Juliette. In Ignite Me, she is all about taking control of her power and finally getting what she wants. Juliette wants revenge on the supreme who controls the reestablishment because to put it simply, hes a dick. Juliette also has to deal with what I call an identity crisis because she has let her powers define her for so long and she is finally starting to define what her power is and also who she is so yes this is also a huge part of this book.

Because so much of this story lays in the characters it’s hard to review without giving much away? I’d love to break down how much the character arcs/development/growth in this book DESTROYED ME and yet by doing that I would be telling you everything that happened in this!!! uGH.

So here are some thoughts I had while reading this, because my love for this book was fueled more by emotions than anything else so it is probably the best way for me to get my point across, I won’t drop any details so I guess it’s spoiler free but this might give some things away so idk read at your own risk?
- Fuck adam
- Adam is the worst
- Warner is my life
- He is so smart and beautiful and god the depth to his character was incredible
- God bless Kenji
- Seriously we had more Kenji in this book than the others and it still wasn’t enough
- Fuck adam
- I love Warner
- Juliette is my everything
- I frequently screamed “YES GIRL” in my head whenever Juliette would talk or do anything
- I love Warner and I love Juliette and I love kenji
- The secondary characters were SO PERFECT
- I loved everyone in this book
- Except for Adam
- Fuck Adam
And now here are some things that really crushed my heart in this book but these are DEFINITELY spoilery like no questions about it

Spoiler

- WARNER FINDING OUT ADAM AND JAMES ARE HIS BR O THERS??
- WARNER FINDING OUT ABOUT HIS MOM
- Juliette realizing she can control her powers and touch anyone at any time and let herself be with people because of how she feels about them rather than convenience (I’m still crying)
- JULIETTE TELLING WARNER KENJI WAS HER BEST FRIEND and then later that Warner was her favorite friend
- Juliette opening up to Kenji in all of their heart to hearts about how she feels about Adam and Kenji like GODDAMN MY BABY GIRL IS ALL GROWN UP
- And the ending which I won’t even post here because I know some of you are masochists like me and read things under the spoiler tags but damn we gotta save something for the end

SO yeah I cannot review books I like sorry for all the rambling, thanks if you stuck with me till the end. This book was a wild ride I’m still screaming in my head whenever I think about it.

It's pretty rare when I rate a novella higher than 3 stars but DAMN.
This was so much fun. Fast-paced, to the point, and it kept me interested the entire time.

I might just be biased because of how much I love Valek, but this was worth the read even if it doesn't do much for the series plot. This story shows how much Valek has grown since the beginning of book 1, and that alone is enough to melt my heart and make me love this!

I have to give credit where credit is due...this book is funny. I honestly laughed out loud so much throughout this book. The writing is incredible. I got such a kick out of the bits where the narrators address the readers to acknowledge characters actions and other plot points. This book reads like a breath of fresh air.

So then why did I only give it three stars? Unfortunately I just didn't care about the story. The plot wasn't boring, it just didn't interest me. I was able to keep reading out of curiosity, but didn't have any thoughts or feelings in regards to what I wanted to happen. I think my issue here is that this is a historical fiction book that tells an alternative account of "real" events. So while so much of this is fictional, there was only one way for it to end, so I didn't really have anything to worry or care about in regards to the plot. Which isn't unusual for historical fiction, but I just didn't really care at all about this alternative story. The whole concept of people turning into animals and their supporters vs the non supporters was just didn't do it for me. Also there was a severe lack of character growth & development in this story. Most of the changes that the characters make are correlated to their romantic feelings and I can't help but feel that there was a lot of room and potential for something more than that.

The changing of POVs isn't usually something I mind, but I really only cared for Jane's POV throughout this book. Edward and G just fell flat for me. *shrugs*

Between Jane and the writing this book probably could have scraped 4 stars from me BUT I think a lot of the jokes and references went over my head.

Apparently the other two books in the series are told in the same type of way, but about different characters so I will definitely give those a shot!

You could have cut my heart out of my chest and it would have hurt less than this book.

This story was so beautiful.

This book was emotional, difficult and most importantly so incredibly lovely.

I’d be the liar If I didn’t admit that One of us is Lying fell incredibly flat for me. I just could not bring myself to care about the mystery aspects of this story at all. I enjoyed the book enough while I was reading it, but wow every time I put it down I was like …. Do I really want to continue with this right now or should I read something else?

So here’s the story: Five students are in detention because someone planted phones on them. One student dies because someone put peanut oil in his water, and he has a peanut allergy. The four remaining students are all suspects in this murder case, which could have resulted in a really interesting story except for one problem. THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL TOO DAMN LIKABLE. I never for a second believed that any of them would have done it. I loved reading about these characters, their storylines, their growth, their secrets etc., but I could not view them as murder suspects and therefore I had a hard time caring about the actual plot of the story.
So yeah blah blah blah the plot unfolds the ending is revealed, I’ll skip all of those details since it’s supposed to be a big reveal and I don’t want to take away from the fun for other readers. The ending is pretty creative, despite not being overly interested in the investigation while it was happening I was really impressed by the ending. There were definitely some aspects of it that were easy enough to figure out, and when all was said and done I wasn’t super surprised by any of it…the clues were there all along I just didn’t necessarily think anything of them.

This story is considered a YA mystery/thriller but I think it would have been much better if it was marketed as a YA contemporary with a twist. At least then I would not have felt like this was such a let down. I think if I went into this expecting just a nice contemporary with some drama I would have enjoyed it more? This was very much a case of me just being disappointed because this was not what I was expecting.

Spoiler

Like come on the title is One of us is Lying and NONE of them were lying they were all legitimately innocent in the case, talk about false advertising!!! This story is marketed in a way that makes you think that you will suspect one of the MCs the entire time and then you just DON’T? All they are lying about is stupid drama that gets revealed so early on in the story. Boring. I almost would have preferred if one of them did end up being the person who did it, that would have been such a twist.

In summary: This book was alright, it has a lot of redeeming qualities but in my eyes none of them make up for the fact that this didn’t live up to my expectations (which I guess is my fault but I'm still mad about it). I know a lot of people will love this, and that a lot of people will love the same things I disliked, this just wasn’t for me.

This book was a wild ride. The beginning and ending of this felt like two different stories, and if it weren’t for the incredible characters being there from start to finish I may have been able to convince myself that it was indeed a different story.

The Pros: Great characters, amazing writing, super creative, lots of fun, really really original.
The Cons: Story stretched out a bit towards the end. So many twists and turns that the last few sort of lost their wow factor.

This story was great. I was caught off guard multiple times, but I personally feel as if it was a little much. I mentioned earlier it feels like two different stories take place here, and I stand by that. The interactions between characters (mainly Monty and Percy) have such a different tone from the rest of the book. Everything between them is awkward, adorable, and completely heart warming. And the actual plot of the story is just SO WILD. Aside from hoping that certain relationships worked out a certain way, I had no idea what to expect even once I hit the halfway mark of this story…I just could not even begin to guess what would happen next. Some people thoroughly enjoy that in a book, I however find it a bit overwhelming and distracting.

Despite the twists of this story being pretty crazy/out there/over-the-top, they were fun! I was entertained throughout the entire book. But towards the end rather than laughing or being super impressed by the wild turns, for me they just started feeling like a bit much. Rather than being excited to see what this would mean for the characters, I was just kind of ready for the story to end. It honestly felt like it would never end the way that plot twists and surprises kept popping up all over the place.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is a lot fun, it was just a bit too much for me? I think if the story was shorter I would have enjoyed it more, it just lasted a little to long for me to continue to be entertained by all the surprises. I definitely didn’t hate it, and I wasn’t bored either, so it’s kind of hard for me to explain how I feel about it. *shrugs* This is definitely a time that I wish half stars were a thing because this would much more realistically be 4.5 stars from me.

Since my review is relatively negative which is odd considering that I really did like this book let me just say one last time how much I loved the writing and the characters! Lots of character development in Monty & Felicity, and Percy was just absolutely perfect from start to end. There was some amazing dialogue between the characters. The writing was descriptive and beautiful and really refreshing I will definitely read more from this author!

So many twists and turns that i didn’t expect the ending and yet...it still managed to fall flat.

Loved a lot of aspects but unfortunately aside from the big reveal there wasn’t anything memorable about this.