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onceuponanisabel's Reviews (1.48k)
It feels impossible to give a star rating to a memoir -- Maia's life is real, so of course I have no criticisms of eir storytelling. The art was beautiful and I really enjoyed eir story. Books like this are so, so important for those of us who are cis -- I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for more nonbinary-centered books. I'm going to go ahead and give it a rating based on my own experience of the book (really enjoying it, but probably not something I'm going to reread) just because I only leave books unrated when I have something to say about the author separately from the book, and I don't want to lump this book in with them.
This was a May pick for the Enby Book Club hosted by Jesse at Bowties & Books.
This was a May pick for the Enby Book Club hosted by Jesse at Bowties & Books.
Deep sigh. Another flop.
Girl Crushed is about a girl named Quinn navigating high school having just broken up with her girlfriend, applying to colleges, dealing with her parents' drama, trying to save her favorite coffee shop, and developing feelings for a new girl.
This book was a disappointment.
After being sent home due to COVID, I went on NetGalley and requested a bunch of cute looking romcoms as a little pick-me-up without checking how they were doing so far on Goodreads. But I saw the low rating this one has when I went to add it to my shelves, and I knew I had probably saddled myself with reading a book I wasn't going to like. Nonetheless, I do at least attempt to read all of the books I get approved for, so I sat down to read this morning with as much neutrality as I could muster given my pre-existing bias against the author.
The book was still a disappointment.
A mediocre story with no character development, no chemistry between the characters we're meant to be hoping will get together, and no interesting plot. Quinn's favorite coffee shop is struggling, so she raises a little bit of money and hopes it'll be enough, but who knows?, because the book ends abruptly without any form of epilogue or conclusion. Quinn has two love interests in the book who we are told she has chemistry with, but I never felt even a spark between any of them. She has gossipy, annoying friends, she's hypocritical and unkind to her ex. There was literally nothing I liked about this book, and while there was nothing I really hated about it either, I was so deeply unimpressed and uninterested that I certainly would have DNFed this if it hadn't been an ARC.
There are so, so many better romcoms (and queer romcoms!) out there, so save yourself the time and go for [b:Tell Me How You Really Feel|41150474|Tell Me How You Really Feel|Aminah Mae Safi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538585429l/41150474._SY75_.jpg|58373028], [b:Her Royal Highness|41734205|Her Royal Highness (Royals, #2)|Rachel Hawkins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543361518l/41734205._SY75_.jpg|61355595], or any of the other great f/f stories available to you. Give this one a pass.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Girl Crushed is about a girl named Quinn navigating high school having just broken up with her girlfriend, applying to colleges, dealing with her parents' drama, trying to save her favorite coffee shop, and developing feelings for a new girl.
This book was a disappointment.
After being sent home due to COVID, I went on NetGalley and requested a bunch of cute looking romcoms as a little pick-me-up without checking how they were doing so far on Goodreads. But I saw the low rating this one has when I went to add it to my shelves, and I knew I had probably saddled myself with reading a book I wasn't going to like. Nonetheless, I do at least attempt to read all of the books I get approved for, so I sat down to read this morning with as much neutrality as I could muster given my pre-existing bias against the author.
The book was still a disappointment.
A mediocre story with no character development, no chemistry between the characters we're meant to be hoping will get together, and no interesting plot. Quinn's favorite coffee shop is struggling, so she raises a little bit of money and hopes it'll be enough, but who knows?, because the book ends abruptly without any form of epilogue or conclusion. Quinn has two love interests in the book who we are told she has chemistry with, but I never felt even a spark between any of them. She has gossipy, annoying friends, she's hypocritical and unkind to her ex. There was literally nothing I liked about this book, and while there was nothing I really hated about it either, I was so deeply unimpressed and uninterested that I certainly would have DNFed this if it hadn't been an ARC.
There are so, so many better romcoms (and queer romcoms!) out there, so save yourself the time and go for [b:Tell Me How You Really Feel|41150474|Tell Me How You Really Feel|Aminah Mae Safi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538585429l/41150474._SY75_.jpg|58373028], [b:Her Royal Highness|41734205|Her Royal Highness (Royals, #2)|Rachel Hawkins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543361518l/41734205._SY75_.jpg|61355595], or any of the other great f/f stories available to you. Give this one a pass.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book was really set up for me to love it, but in the end, I was kind of let down.
Queen of Coin and Whispers follows newly crowned Queen Lia and her spymaster Xania as they navigate the court and attempt reform whilst surrounded by traitors and schemers alike.
I generally like court intrigue type stories: I like the politics, I like the element of mystery, I like when multiple characters all have their own motivations and you get to see how they unwind when thrown together. But I just felt like this one wasn't really all that well done.
My favorite part of this story was by far Lia and Xania's romance. It felt real, there was dynamism to it. They disagreed, they argued, but in the end, they loved each other. We get to see Lia have to make tough decisions as a leader, and watching her struggle to make the right decision when there was no right decision was interesting to be sure, especially as it affected her relationship. F/F representation is still relatively rare, so I'll always appreciate it.
Unfortunately, I didn't love a lot of other aspects of this book. Firstly, Xania as the spymaster made no sense to me. She had no prior training, so I have no idea how or why she was suddenly Very Good at it. She would often make assertions about people with no proof to back it up and the whole thing just felt really unrealistic and kind of took me out of it. Hand in hand with that, I don't think the court intrigue aspect of the book was actually executed very well at all. There were no shock betrayals, everything played out as expected with the people who we were told were bad guys from the beginning just kinda...being bad guys the whole time.
Finally, my biggest issue with this book: the pacing. A lot of this book was really, really slow, but then all of a sudden at the end, months would pass in a single paragraph in a way that bothered me. It wasn't just the five year time jump at the epilogue, which wouldn't have bothered me on its own. It's that there were several scenes at the end to wrap everything up that happened several months apart and it really threw me for a loop. I really needed either the entire book to have that "lots and lots of time is passing" vibe, or I needed the end to slow way way down.
All in all, this book was decent. If you're looking for a fantasy to pick up casually or if you're looking to read more f/f, I think this is a good choice for either of those things. But I don't think I'll be coming back to it.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Queen of Coin and Whispers follows newly crowned Queen Lia and her spymaster Xania as they navigate the court and attempt reform whilst surrounded by traitors and schemers alike.
I generally like court intrigue type stories: I like the politics, I like the element of mystery, I like when multiple characters all have their own motivations and you get to see how they unwind when thrown together. But I just felt like this one wasn't really all that well done.
My favorite part of this story was by far Lia and Xania's romance. It felt real, there was dynamism to it. They disagreed, they argued, but in the end, they loved each other. We get to see Lia have to make tough decisions as a leader, and watching her struggle to make the right decision when there was no right decision was interesting to be sure, especially as it affected her relationship. F/F representation is still relatively rare, so I'll always appreciate it.
Unfortunately, I didn't love a lot of other aspects of this book. Firstly, Xania as the spymaster made no sense to me. She had no prior training, so I have no idea how or why she was suddenly Very Good at it. She would often make assertions about people with no proof to back it up and the whole thing just felt really unrealistic and kind of took me out of it. Hand in hand with that, I don't think the court intrigue aspect of the book was actually executed very well at all. There were no shock betrayals, everything played out as expected with the people who we were told were bad guys from the beginning just kinda...being bad guys the whole time.
Finally, my biggest issue with this book: the pacing. A lot of this book was really, really slow, but then all of a sudden at the end, months would pass in a single paragraph in a way that bothered me. It wasn't just the five year time jump at the epilogue, which wouldn't have bothered me on its own. It's that there were several scenes at the end to wrap everything up that happened several months apart and it really threw me for a loop. I really needed either the entire book to have that "lots and lots of time is passing" vibe, or I needed the end to slow way way down.
All in all, this book was decent. If you're looking for a fantasy to pick up casually or if you're looking to read more f/f, I think this is a good choice for either of those things. But I don't think I'll be coming back to it.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Alright people of Goodreads -- it's been a few days since I finished this and I've kind of changed my mind on this one. I stand by my assertion that this book has an inexplicable addictive quality, but my prediction that it would stick with me turned out to be incorrect. I have checked out book two from the library already, but honestly I wouldn't say I'm any more motivated to read it than I am the other several books I have checked out.
So I'm dropping my rating to 3 stars -- Captive Prince was weird, somewhat enjoyable, and pretty far from what I usually read, but I'm interested enough to keep going.
So I'm dropping my rating to 3 stars -- Captive Prince was weird, somewhat enjoyable, and pretty far from what I usually read, but I'm interested enough to keep going.
I am by no means a poetry connoisseur. I've read relatively little of it and I'm not a critical poetry analyst. Nonetheless, I find myself loving a lot of the poetry I read.
I know a lot of people criticize this type of "Instagram poetry" as being shallow and artistically lazy, while others commend it for being accessible and emotional in a way that more complex poetry often is not. I find myself on the side of those for it. Just as with books, poetry is varied. There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying more approachable poetry over the effort that is required for a lot of what is considered traditional poetry, just as there's nothing wrong with preferring YA over Adult books for its ease.
In this way, I thought break your glass slippers succeeded. It is a feminist manifesto in the same ways that many of these collections are, covering self-love, body positivity, toxic relationships, and insecurity (among many, many more). These topics are treated with short poems that read more like affirmations, but there's power in that. Even if it's something you've heard before, sometimes what you need is to read that one phrase. It was only a seven-line poem, but one of them was really what I needed to read tonight.
Honestly, if this book can provide that in just one of its poems for all of the people who pick it up, it has succeeded fully. I look forward to exploring more of Lovelace's books in the future.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.
I know a lot of people criticize this type of "Instagram poetry" as being shallow and artistically lazy, while others commend it for being accessible and emotional in a way that more complex poetry often is not. I find myself on the side of those for it. Just as with books, poetry is varied. There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying more approachable poetry over the effort that is required for a lot of what is considered traditional poetry, just as there's nothing wrong with preferring YA over Adult books for its ease.
In this way, I thought break your glass slippers succeeded. It is a feminist manifesto in the same ways that many of these collections are, covering self-love, body positivity, toxic relationships, and insecurity (among many, many more). These topics are treated with short poems that read more like affirmations, but there's power in that. Even if it's something you've heard before, sometimes what you need is to read that one phrase. It was only a seven-line poem, but one of them was really what I needed to read tonight.
Honestly, if this book can provide that in just one of its poems for all of the people who pick it up, it has succeeded fully. I look forward to exploring more of Lovelace's books in the future.
ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley.