Overall this was a fun listen (and I really enjoyed the narrator!), but there were still a lot of things that didn't fully work for me, so this rating feels fair.

I really liked that this book discussed bad acne and skin problems, and the impact that can have on teenagers as they're growing up, and how it continues to affect them long after. I never struggled with bad acne, just other skin issues, so it was an interesting perspective to read and hear, even though it was heartbreaking to see how much it impacted Natalie, and that she could never really escape it. I can't say anything about the authenticity of this part of the book, but it felt honest and real, and eye-opening in a sense too.

I was on board with Natalie and Alex at first, but then it both felt like it moved too fast and not at all. The build up was real cute, and I could see myself really enjoying the relationship, but at some point I sort of stopped seeing it, and the book never fully brought me back to enjoying it again. I feel like not enough time was really spent fixing the issues they had, since the book was quite short overall and there was a lot of other stuff going on at the same time.

I generally liked Natalie, though sometimes I got really frustrated with some of the things she said to people around her. A lot of it was fair (at least coming from her perspective), even if harsh at times, but it just went too far here and there without ever really backtracking. I wasn't too annoyed with this while listening, but overall I don't know if I actually liked Natalie, and I feel like a stronger resolution could've fixed this a bit more for me.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this book, though it doesn't feel super memorable as a whole. I might still try some more by this author, depending on the premise! The Australian perspective is always fun to see too, and a bit refreshing compared to most US-centric high school books out there.

I enjoyed this overall, but it just didn't fully work for me. The audiobook was a lot of fun though, and I still have overall positive feelings about this one!

I really liked the start-up of this one, and I really liked the friendships that were central to this book. They all genuinely seemed to care for each other, and I always love when the main character has a good support system in a book. I also love that the story centered these friendships alongside the MC's goals, not just the romance itself. It made for an overall strong character set up!

I really loved the start of the relationship in this story, from the banter to how these two couldn't seem to get enough of each other. I lost a bit of interest when they actually got together, however, as it started to feel a bit repetitive for me, in both of the POVs. It was a combination of how happy they were with the other character, but the same worries coming in every time. I get that these worries were going to be there until they got resolved at the end, but it just didn't fully work for me, and I started losing interest. I did still like them overall together, though!

Overall, I did enjoy this, just won't be a favorite romance of mine. I do plan on trying more of the series though, especially after that cliffhanger ending!

My friends weren't the biggest fan of this one, so I went in with lower expectations, and it ended up really surprising me? I definitely see how this isn't for everyone, but I ended up finding it cute, especially as an easy audiobook to listen to while playing Minecraft.

The family relationships were sometimes quite tough to listen to, and there were so many times I just wanted to yell at the parents or siblings. The main characters made up for it, though, and I really liked their dynamic together, too. I think Jack was definitely my favorite, and I liked the perspective on twins that this story tried to give, and how it differed from the standard sibling rivalry due to them being identical. I felt like the twitter war was a good entrance into their dynamic, even if at some point I sort of lost interest in it and was more interested in their real life interactions.

This book tried to tackle a lot in the main characters' personal lives too, and I like how they seemed to have the same focus (extreme parental expectations regarding the future), yet manifested in entirely differently ways. It allowed for bonding between Pepper and Jack without ever feeling too repetitive. I also liked that this book didn't necessarily emphasize going to college as the only path forward, and that both the characters really spent time thinking about what was good for them and their future, not just what was expected of them.

Overall, this was a cute, light read, and it overall was just a lot of fun! I'll definitely be trying some of this author's other books, and hopefully get the same vibe and feelings from it!

While the premise of this book is quite interesting, and it sets the scene for some interesting conversation, dynamics, and events, it just didn't fully work out for me. The book itself reminded me a lot more of Blackout than I originally thought it would, largely due to the single night during a large community event set up, though I enjoyed how Blackout handled that premise more overall.

This book is quite short, and action-packed, and that unfortunately meant that it was lacking in some areas of development, especially regarding the characters themselves. The combination of a white girl and a Black girl trying to escape a riot and get home safely create a large space for discussion, and there were many moments where it seems like the authors were going to start this discussion, but every time the dialogue between the two characters fizzled out before it felt like any growth was made (especially on the part of Campbell, the white girl). We basically see them assuming a lot of bad things about each other, them getting frustrated with the others' assumptions, a conversation starting about how those assumptions are unfounded, but then never get to the step where growth comes from those conversations. Every time one of the two characters just gets overly frustrated and steps away, or more frequently, the action comes back in to drag the characters out of this discussion. It made the book feel like it had a lot going on, but not a lot of substance overall. I would have liked to see Campbell grow out of her naivety a bit more, though maybe I'm supposed to come away from the ending with the thought that she will continue to do so bit by bit over time.

Overall, it seems like this book wants to create a space for discussions about tough topics like poverty, racism, etc., and while I feel like this book does bring quite a few things up, it doesn't do so as strongly as I've found other books too. Perhaps if this book had been a little longer, or a bit more time was spent on expanding the discussions between Campbell and Lena and a little less action/boyfriend drama, it would've felt stronger overall.

I honestly probably would have never tried this had it not been for a bunch of my friends enjoying, and in the end I'm glad I did!

I was definitely put off at first by Piper, since she seemed so shallow, and I was honestly worried it was going to take a while for her to grow on me. However, right as I was sharing these worries with my friends, she began to show more and more depth, and I quickly became attached. I'm still surprised by how fast this switched for me. I ended up liking Piper a lot overall, even though some of the scenes at the beginning are still questionable, and I loved the growth and transformation she went through during this book, without the story necessarily focusing on Piper changing herself wholly as a person. She learned more what matters to her, without giving up the girly, sparkly aspects of herself.

The love interest, Brendan, was a bit grumpy and callous at first, but this quickly shifted too. I liked the dynamic between the two a lot, and how they both forced the other to open up to new experiences and ways of looking at the world. In the end, both Brendan and Piper were stuck in their ways/world views, and meeting each other and learning from each other caused both of them to open up more and grow. It was really nice to see as the book progressed. There were some miscommunication/hiding secrets that were frustrating at times, but for the most part this was actually okay in this one, and the climax + ending didn't annoy me as much as they sometimes do in romances like this. It felt overall more like a huge misunderstanding that wasn't wholly the fault of either party, which made their resolution at the end of book still feel real, rather than hollow and weak.

Overall, while this won't necessarily be a favorite romance of mine, I still did really enjoy this, and can't wait to continue the series!

This book was wild, but in a good way? Usually? From the beginning, it just feels like complete and utter chaos, and once it quickly gets you on board with how overdramatic and wild it's going to be, it's honestly a quite enjoyable ride.

I really liked the concept of a whole book being based out of a single location, and that's it. This story really stuck to it's title, and there wasn't a single scene that wasn't at the mall (with some exceptions of driving to the mall, but that's it). We don't get any scenes of the MC at home, pondering the daily happenings of mall life, and I honestly really liked how that was done. It really limited the story to the single location, and it worked a lot better for it.

Overall I was into most of the characters, or at least how they were used to further the story (quite a few unlikable people in here), though I had some issues with Cassie in the final parts of this book. While I did like the final resolution and the amends that were made, there wasn't enough time spent on Cassie learning why what she said/thought was wrong, and we never really see her come back from some of her harsher thoughts, especially regarding her friend Drea. This book would've been a 4 star if this had been either handled better, or toned down overall. The relationship was cute too, though you could tell the focus was the friendship.

There are quite a few side plots that could've been developed more had the book been longer, or if there had just simply been fewer of them. However, with everything thrown together, it really gave the impression of Cassie's entire life falling apart, and matched the overall chaotic vibes of this book.

In the end, I did overall like this, but I was enjoying it a lot more before Cassie got a little too mean near the end there. And considering I got about 0% of the 90s references, the fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did is already impressive!

While I did enjoy this, it just didn't quite live up to my expectations from the first book, unfortunately.

The main thing that this book suffers from, for me at least, is unbalanced POVs. It's very hard to get a multi-POV book where all the various POVs are just as interesting, but this wasn't even close. At some point I really only cared about Anton and Jude (or, those were by far more interesting than the others), and I was lucky they both had their own POV so at least 2/5 remained interesting. I think their dynamic and romance was just a lot more interesting than what the other characters had going on, and the plot they were following also held my interest more than that of Hassan, Ephyra, and Beru. While overall I can appreciate what was happening with each individual character, and the paths they were going down, I really was only able to connect with Jude and Anton. Ephyra, Hassan, and Beru were definitely interesting, but felt almost farther away, in terms of me connecting with them. I liked thinking about what was going on, but it didn't make me feel as much.

I did enjoy when they finally started coming together again, which was another downside of this book. I loved that in book 1, the groupings of these characters kept on switching, and we got to see them slowly grow together at different moments. In this book, they're much more isolated overall, being stuck with the same group of people the entire time. It isn't until the very end that they start grouping up again.

However, I did really like how the plot was furthered in this book, and how the overall picture of it seemed to grow much clearer in this book. We had gods and prophets and the secrets kept between them, and there were just enough twists and reveals to keep you fully invested the entire time. These twists also didn't just come out of thin air, and I loved seeing the build-up of it releasing into a massive revelation that changed the shape of the story each time.

Overall I enjoyed this, and while I am still excited about the final book, I hope it fixes the balance of characters a bit more.

This book... this book

Re-read Review:

I'd been missing Novik's fairytale sort of writing, and my friend hadn't read either of them, so we decided to start off with a reread (for me) of Spinning Silver!

I remember loving this book so intensely, and the same is still true now. It took me longer to get through this time around, purely because I kept being distracted by other books and other things to do, but I really enjoyed the time I got to spend back in this world. I hadn't remembered the nuances of everything, and this reread reminded me of just how fiercely I loved every character, especially Miryem. They’re all just such strong characters, and they'll do anything for those they love.

I also still love the icy descriptions of everything so much as well. You're transported to the icy forests, to the frozen mountain and roads, and you almost feel as if you could catch a chill simply by reading this story. I just love how atmospheric Novik's writing, and how much depth her descriptions have.

Up next, a reread of Uprooted! After I get a few more books off of my actual tbr, of course...

This was a heartbreaking and painful novel to read, but it handled the topics that it set out to discuss well, without trying to tack on a suddenly happy ending that would ring false.

There's a lot going on in this book, but unlike many novels, it can actually bear the weight of all the issues it tries to discuss. Everything is given it's space, especially Lex's healing process from trafficking and parental abuse/neglect. This book is largely about Lex slowly learning that she deserves good things, and what happened to her is not her fault. There's no magic hand-waving, and suddenly she's a happy teenager, and that's what I appreciated a lot about this book. It dives deep into the process of healing from such a massive trauma, and doesn't make it appear as a speedy process with a guaranteed happy ending. We meet plenty of side characters that suffered from similar things who have much different outcomes from Lex, and this book examines why that is, and what support systems help with healing. And somehow, it does all of this without any victim blaming (the girls that are drawn back into the life they were saved from aren't blamed for it, the book instead tries to rationalize with the reader why they might have made those decisions, and that ultimately it's the fault of their abusers) and girl hate (Lex doesn't hate the girls that haven't gone through her same pain, and a friend character is good at reminding Lex that everyone has their hardships that affect them, even if they aren't technically as bad as her's).

I also liked how this book tackled romance alongside this healing process, both by viewing the negative relationship Lex found herself in after being saved and by looking at a healthy relationship she finds after, and how her experiences shaped her actions and thoughts during both of these relationships. It also focuses a lot on disassociation as a way of not feeling, and how this impacts Lex's approach to relationships, from platonic to familial to romantic. It's all handled really well, and it serves to show Lex's growth in small steps instead of large bounds, a more realistic path of healing than some other books show.

Overall, I can't necessarily say I enjoyed this book, but I thought it handled the tough subjects very well, and I liked seeing how Lex grew as a character, and seeing the path of healing she started in this book.

My opinion of this book is a weird one, because up until the very end, I was largely disappointed by this finale. I blame this largely on the pacing of everything, and had this been fixed, this book could have very easily been a 5-star finale (which is very tough to do!)

Another big issue going into this one is that due to the second book, I went in only really invested in Anton and Jude. I'd grown disinterested in the other POVs, so a lot needed to happen in this book to make me fully invested in every aspect again. And I had high hopes, since the second book ended with so much chaos happening, but with all the characters in the same place again. Unfortunately, the first 25% of this book is them once again being split up and trying to team back up (sort of, it's more that certain individuals want to save other certain individuals, and it turns out they all happen to be in the same place that they need to be saved from). It picked up once again after, when they're teamed up and have a solid plan, but when that plan unravels... the team splits up again. This constant splitting up means that over the course of this series, the group doesn't actually spend all that much time together, which makes some of their intense positive feelings about each other ring false, except for the few pairings or trios that did spend the majority of the books together (Illya and Ephrya, Anton and Jude, Ephyra and Beru, Beru and Hector, Hassan and Khepri). It was only those relationships that ever felt like they had any strength to it, especially since when the groups got larger, they couldn't stop fighting. We didn't see any true camaraderie until the final few chapters, which is where I started to really love this book.

The ending itself is what brought this book to 4 stars, rather than 3. I really enjoyed how it all went down, and it gave me back the same intense emotions as the ending of book 1 did. While the resolution to the overarching problems could've been better woven into the rest of the book, instead of one side character just spouting the solution on their deathbed, the solution itself did a good job of tying the story together, and further tying the characters themselves together as well. There was also enough sacrifice and change that it didn't feel just, miraculous that they ended up winning. It was a solid ending to the story overall, and I especially loved the extended epilogue. While it was an overall happy ending, it wasn't too perfect of a happy ending, and it showed how much work the world and characters still had to do, while still giving them some peace and respite after the hard events of the book.

Overall, there was a lot of potential in this series, and while I did enjoy it a lot overall, issues with pacing and character relationships (more so in the overall group rather than on an individual level) made the series not as great as I'd hoped. Anton and Jude were excellent, though, and their ending (and the lead up to it) made me cry so many times. I'll definitely be trying whatever this author writes next, and hope the issues I had with this series are resolved a bit more!