morganthebee's Reviews (489)

Read (or rather listened to) The Bear and the Nightingale at the recommendation of a friend. It’s an amalgamation of folktales set in 14th-century northern Russia. It was a bit slow to get going, mostly to set the stage and give us a feel for the frozen tundra where it’s set, but it’s well written and the story does pick up.

I’m not sure I would have picked this one up on my own, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and plan to continue with the trilogy.

I can’t seem to figure out how I felt about this one. It’s beautifully written, but it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the story and figure out who the focus of each section was. I actually debated dropping it at one point but I kept going because it’s relatively short, and ultimately I’m glad I did.

The art is really lovely, but I felt like the story dragged a bit right up until the very end. Once it reached the end I found myself thinking “wait, that’s it? Really?” I didn’t mind the slowness, but the abruptness of the end was quite jarring in contrast.

Listened to the audiobook after my friend Katy recommended it. It was an interesting look at disability in the US from Rebekah’s perspective. She shared insights on her thoughts and experiences, and I found the chapter on feminism and intersectionality particularly interesting. I enjoyed hearing the story through the author’s voice and it gave me a lot to think about, although I felt that some of the stories jumped around and circled back on themselves, and I found it to be a little repetitive as it went on. Overall a really good book, and I recommend checking it out!

I really enjoyed this one. The setting was interesting, and I loved the characters. Their respect for each other, even in the earlier part of the book, was evident. The way they opened up, really communicated with and supported each other as the story developed, was so great to see and felt really natural.

There were some plot points that were brought up earlier in the story that got dropped or disappeared, and there were some grammatical errors later that were a little distracting, particularly later in the book. The ending felt a bit rushed, and there was a time skip near the end that wasn’t clear so I found myself confused for a moment. Those things kept it from being a 5-star read for me, but overall this is a reply great book and it was almost there. Definitely recommend.

This is a single POV romance from Avery’s perspective. Avery and Elise have off the charts chemistry and clearly still have a lot of love and respect for each other, but it’s messy and emotional and yes, steamy. Their initial breakup was due to Elise’s decision that she wasn’t ready or able to come out, and Avery didn’t want to be in a relationship she had to keep secret. 

Elise has a lot of regret, and Avery understandably has a lot of residual hurt. I found both of them to be very likable and believable and they had great communication, but there wasn’t much variety in setting and there were minimal side characters. I get the setting since they spend much of the story with Elise hiding out in Avery’s house, but I found pretty much everyone else to be flat caricatures instead of developed people.

The stalker aspect felt like it was just a vehicle to reconnect the two, though, and I didn’t find it particularly compelling. It wasn’t really addressed much beyond Elise’s anxiety around it and Avery’s protectiveness, and I found myself wondering whether they were ever going to circle back to resolve it.

Ophelia After All is not a romance. It’s a story about friendship and first love and family, both found and blood. It’s big feelings and allowing yourself to be open to them. It’s the story of a girl realizing that sometimes we aren’t who other people think we are, but sometimes we aren’t even who WE thought we were, either.

I found myself on the verge of tears several times, and identified with so much of what Ophelia was experiencing. Goodness, this is the kind of story I wish was around when I was in high school. The writing was expressive and the characters were really well developed, and once I started I didn’t want to put it down.

This is a cute little novella that’s part comedy of errors, part miscommunication, and all love. Ash plans a surprise Valentine’s week getaway with her fiancée, Willow, so they can step away from their everyday responsibilities and reconnect. At first it seems like everything that can go wrong does, but sometimes that’s what you need to see what’s really important. Ash and Willow are both lovely, and there’s a bit of spice, as perhaps there should be in a Valentine’s story.

I won a copy of the ebook in a giveaway the author hosted through a Facebook group. It can be read as a stand alone, but the novella continues the story Abigail began in My Gift to You. I haven’t read that one yet, though I fully intend to remedy that so I can see where it all began. If you’re interested but haven’t read either book yet don’t be like me, start there first.

This is a really sweet slow burn romance between a painfully shy, family-loving, soft hearted butch lesbian, and a sweet, outgoing woman who always believed she was straight. Denny receives a text intended for someone else from Eliza, complete with selfies, and the two begin an exchange that develops into a friendship and deeper feelings.

For me personally this book was a 3 star read, simply because the tropes here aren’t my favorite. I don’t love age gap, I’m not typically into butches, and the toaster oven trope (especially when the woman in question seems completely blindsided even on introspection) doesn’t really do it for me. Objectively, though, with the writing and character development, and the way Jae just gets people, I’m giving it four stars, and if those tropes are your thing I think you’ll love it.

Stumbled onto this one looking for more Abby Craden-narrated sapphic fiction in my quest to delve further into the audiobook realm. I mean really, that should be enough said about the audiobook, because I’m fairly certain Abby could make anything sound beautiful and sexy.

I haven’t read a lot of shapeshifter stories, but this one was interesting. The sexy scenes were hot, the settings were well described, and the side characters were interesting. It was long, and I figured out both of the mysteries fairly early on, but it wasn’t totally hit you over the head with it and overall I enjoyed it.

I don’t know what it looked like in print but there were parts where the dialogue felt stilted, and it got a bit repetitive, but I genuinely liked Evie and Aurora and they definitely fed off of each other’s energy. There was a bit of possessiveness from both sides that I don’t think I would have enjoyed in a real world setting, but I have a feeling that’s a genre thing with the whole animalistic beast side of the shapeshifting fantasy realm.