monarchbooks's Reviews (547)

I want to preface this review by saying you must read it while picturing me giddily screaming the words. Because, let me tell you, I fucking love January and Gus. I fucking love this book. I love the complicated relationships with parents and the complicated relationship with one's self and the academic "rivals" to lovers and the bet turned relationship trope and the terrible movie marathons and the having to face the bad parts of life and the rawness of everything and the sex against bookshelves and the writers block and the meddling lesbian aunts and the friends can be soulmates too and the love that basically seeps off the pages of this book and of course, the wonderful homage to A Walk to Remember. I loved this book so much it has me reviewing in run on sentences. And oh my god, this book makes me fall in love with the miscommunication trope. How does that happen? How does an author write miscommunication so well that I like it? Emily Henry, the lady and savior of Adult romance, please answer me because I need to know.

After picking this book up, I heard a few bad reviews about it - saying the characters were cliché and the writing cringy, but I'm glad I listened to the good reviews instead. This book was absolutely fantastic; it was not too dark for my taste which made it a nice easy read, and the writing and characters were much better than made out to be in some reviews. I did not want to put this book down until I finished it and I can't wait for the rest of the series. 

Pros: I particularly loved Hermes and her interactions with the characters around her. 

Cons: Zeus's death scene was a bit anticlimactic, which, if this was an action novel, knock down the rating a bit, but it's a romance, so the rating stays at five.

 

Having read this after it's sequel, Hang the Moon, it was so fun noting all the little references to Brendon and Annie's future relationship, it's clear that Alexandria was planning them from the beginning. This book was full of nerdy references and pop culture, from Star Wars to Soap Operas to Bewitched to Archive of Our Own, it was just the perfect read for someone who has an affinity for nerdy stuff. It was also the perfect read for someone who loves the fake dating trope or anyone who loves characters that have a complicated relationship with their family, while still loving them completely. I liked this book a lot more than Hang the Moon because I feel like it explored personal history of the characters more and it also embraced Elle's bisexuality in a way that I didn't feel Hang the Moon did with Annie. To truly describe the book, I have to put it this way - If Hang the Moon was the pinnacle of romcoms with Nora Ephron and Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, Written in the Stars is that one guilty pleasure Hallmark movie you watch every year around the holidays that you love beyond reason.

This was the perfect dark retelling of Cinderella - it was sapphic, it was feminist, it was raw and real and magical and just so absolutely perfect. Sophia and Liv and Erin and Luke and Constance and Émile... I can't even begin to choose favorites. I loved all of them deeply and fantastically. I don't reread a lot of books these days but this might be an exception because of how wonderful an experience I had while reading it. 

Pros: Literally everything. 

Cons: The only con is that a dark retelling of Snow White by Kalynn Bayron is not already in my hands.

It took me about a week just to get through the first two parts of this book but it only took me one night to get through the rest. While this book starts off slow, it is definitely worth pushing through the beginning to get to the rest of it. I loved the characters, the cliché hugh school tropes, the complicated relationships Liz has with everyone in her life, etc. Once I got through the beginning, every bit of this book was amazing. 

Pros: My favorite characters were Jordan, Quinn, and Amanda, oh my god, they're all so perfect. 

Cons: Rachel was almost too much of a cliché and, it started out slow.

This book was a must read for because of who wrote it. Tess Sharpe wrote Far From You, the first queer book, the first thriller I ever picked up, and when I saw that she had written another, I knew I needed it in my possession. And it lived up to my expectations. This book had me on edge the entire time I was reading it because well, I loved the characters so much and I didn't want any of them to die. It also had me smiling at the flawless way she wrote Wes and Nora's friendship, and the even more flawless way she wrote the relationship between Iris and Nora, because break-ups and secrets and abusive fathers can make writing relationships very difficult and somehow Tess Sharpe wrote it perfectly. Not to mention how perfectly written Nora's character was written, with her messy past and even messier ongoing identity crisis. 

Pros: Found family trope, amazing writing, lovable (if morally grey) protagonists, and the best bank hostage story I have ever read or watched. 

Cons: None

Additional Content Warnings: hostage situation, blackmail

This book is absolutely amazing, a wonderful romance with all the tropes, including, but not limited to: lovable grump x sunshine, romcom reenactments, there was only one bed, found family, etc. It was a fun read to get me out of the reading slump caused by trying to read one too many fantasy books in a row and it also convinced me that I need to move to Washington (I really do, Seattle sounds amazing). 

Pros: Almost everything about this book was absolutely perfect from the friendships to the backstories to the little screw ups that inevitably happened at every one of their dates, but... 

Cons: This book was pitched to me as a queer book with a bi mc in a m/f relationship but Annie being bi is only mentioned once, on page 263 of the book. I mean, I guess there were a few flirty looks between her and a barista at the beginning of the book, but Annie being bi felt like a last minute write in to me.

This book is absolutely wonderful. I picked it up because I know it's low fantasy and I'm hoping to get more into fantasy soon but I was met with a wonderful world of found family, slowburn romance, and such fantastic imagery that I felt like I was there myself. After all the sad books I've been reading, this book put me back together - truly a new favorite. 

Pros: I fell in love with all the characters - particularly Lucy, Talia, and Theodore, but all of them are amazing. The imagery is, as I said, fantastic. And the story is one that I needed to read - so wonderful. 

Cons: It was a bit slow at times, which is unfortunate, because otherwise, amazing.

Not spoiler-free, don't read pros list if you haven't read the book 

I read this book as a little breather from all the sad books I've been reading, thinking it would just be a cute little summer romance and NOT an analysis on wanting to escape your hometown and loneliness and not knowing what you want because you've repressed it for so long. This book is amazing and full of tropes - one bed, best friends to strangers to maybe friends? it's awkward to lovers, kind of hallmark-ish, roadtrips/trips, taking care of each other, etc, but it will also teach you something about yourself that you may not want to know just yet. 

Pros: My favorite parts were 1) how the "evil ex", Sarah, came back and Poppy realized that Sarah was never evil, she was just... a person existing in the same corner of the universe, and how nobody in the Sarah-Alex-Poppy situation was in the wrong, the relationship between Sarah and Alex just wasn't right, no matter how much they wanted it to be, andddd 2) how Poppy's middle school tormentor, Jason, randomly popped up and explained the "most people in middle school think being an asshole is the only way to survive so that's what they do" thing. Also, LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that both Alex and Poppy went to fucking therapy before jumping into a relationship that probably wouldn't have worked out if they hadn't put in that effort first. And the bit at the end where Alex and Poppy's dreams aren't what they really wanted so they change those dreams? I love this shit okay.

Cons: None? I literally can't think of anything wrong with this book.

Do you know that feeling when you're reading a book and you suddenly know how everything is going to unfold? You know what's about to happen, what's about to be revealed, and you want to stop it from happening, you hope that you're wrong, but deep down, you know what you're about to read and how much it will break your heart to read it? That's the feeling I remember most clearly when I think of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, having finished it less than 15 minutes ago. That, and the frustration I felt while reading it. It felt so real when the characters felt like they had to hide their truth just so they wouldn't lose everything they worked so hard for, that it frustrated me, because I've felt the same way in the past. This book was a masterpiece, and it broke me, and I know that unlike the other books I read, I will not be able to specify pros or cons because I simply cannot pick it apart like that. I can barely give it an honest rating because doesn't a book like this deserve more than a simple 5 out of 5? Shouldn't a book that makes you want to rip your heart and hair out but, in the end, gives you hope that you can piece yourself together deserve more? It does. But it's also the best I can give it.