mlinder18's Reviews (632)

I was a bit disappointed with this but that is really all my fault for not understanding the purpose of this. I thought this was going to be a deep analysis on art, the art world and types of art/style. Instead it is just a very short and condensed memoir from the author. Her story is interesting, however, it was not for me. 

I also saw someone else mention this and I agree, they should have added photos of the art work the author discussed. I think it would have been more impactful. 

I was so looking forward to this book for a fun summer mystery/thriller. I am sure the story is good. I cannot get into the writing. So much detail and not a fan of the 3rd person omniscient POV. Oh well. 

This was a pleasantly surprising read. I tried one "cozy mystery" before and I hated it. Because of that I let this sit on my shelf for over a year. I finally picked it up and I LOVED it. Is this the most mysterious or thrilling book out there, no. Will this book make you laugh and delight you while trying to figure out all the twists and turns, I hope so! 

I wasn't planning to continue the series but now I must. I need to know what will happen with this family, the potential love interest(s) and what other mysteries will happen in this small town. 

There are so many mixed reviews about this book and I think many have to do with the terrible background of the author. 

I did find this book to be decent. The story was great and the character development was wonderful. However, I think it was overwritten and SLOW. Often times I felt myself skipping paragraphs of useless writing that did nothing to the story. If I had to sum it up, this felt like required reading for a school assignment. Overall not bad but I'll never pick it up again. 

This book confused me. It was marketed as a romantic murder mystery and those are like my two favorite genres. However, I didn't find the mystery part interested or focused on enough. I actually forgot that someone was murdered because most of this is just a romance (and not a good one). 

So speaking of the romance, I hated it. The insta-love wasn't a deal breaker for me, considering the size of the book, but I just didn't like the characters. It was hard for me to believe this is the same author that wrote the Bellenger sister books because this felt so different. I didn't think the writing was good, character development was lacking, and plot was missing. 

If you want a fast spicy summer read then sure pick this up. Overall, I was disappointed. 

After Katy loses her mother she takes their planned mother daughter trip to Italy alone. There she meets new friends and gets a chance to connect with her late mother in an unexpected way. 

I was deeply impacted by this book. It had a strong emotional start. However, it got a little muddy in the middle. It brought it all back together at the end and was a beautiful story about family, finding yourself and grief. 

It was already a pretty short book, under 300 pages, but I think this would have thrived from being a novella or some additional plot points to thicken this up. It was a weird length which I think make the middle suffer a bit. 

I was really between 2 and 3 ⭐ here but I'm going with 2. 

Let's start with what I loved: SUMMER VIBES, camp atmosphere, murder...

What I didn't like: 
- I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but seriously this cover is SO misleading. This is no slasher and it's barely a thriller. I won't spoil anything but the body count here is disappointing.
- The overall motive of the "killer" is lackluster and kind of boring
- Almost all the action takes place in the first quarter of the book and then the last 30 pages
- Terrible teen relationship representation
- Abundance of teen alcohol and drug use

Christina Lauren knocks it out of the park again! This writing duo just know how to write a fluffy little romance. Now, this is not my favorite novel of theirs, however I think it was their most emotionally interesting (that I've read so far). The family connections were written so well, and the stakes of this relationship were high due to there being a child involved. I'm not usually a fan of children in romance books, but LOVED Juno in this. The chemistry between Jess and River was emaculate and River and Junos relationship was beautiful (the epilogue had me crying 😭). 

I think the thing that makes this book not 5 ⭐ for me is the over explaination of the scientific aspect. Once the plot twist/third act conflict begun I was getting a bit overwhelmed with all the science explaining. 

Great read! You always know what you're going to get with these authors and I honestly appreciate that. 

I would categorize this book as a satire or black comedy. Gerald's consciousness gets uploaded into Slack and he is trying to find his way back to his body, however, work always comes first. I laughed a lot but was also confused a lot. Things moved rapidly. I was a huge fan of the layout but would have loved timestamps on the messages. 

Also the whole Lydia plot got lost for me. As many other reviews stated, they never wrapped it up in a satisfying or clear way. 

Thought this was clever and fun but at times this book was very :dusty-stick: 

A retelling of a classic Greek mythology story involving Achilles and Patroclus. 

It was a slow start for me. I was truly thrown by the narration being from Patroclus's POV, however after about 30% of the book passed I adjusted and really emerged myself. I enjoy mythology and this was an angle I never expected. Nothing in this book shocked me, however, I was still ripped in two by the end. 

Beautiful, heartbreaking and tragic. Bring your tissues to this one!