paulaks's Reviews (171)

Like the first novella "Destroy me" this was a nice add on to the story! Especially seeing Adam´s perspective after disliking his character in "Unravel me". I´m still conflicted about him - his motivations just aren´t clear and he´s making weird choices. 
Slowly you start getting comfortable with the wiriting and it´s now one of the things I can mention as a good thing ;) 
Same rating as the first novella, both of them delivered perfectly matching timelines to the main book series and hit my expectations just enough. 

The potential this book has is just incredible! 
The plot is definitely a 10/10. Yes, it needs development here and there but there are like 3+ books left to develop, so I´m not that worried about that. 
What worries me tho are Juliette and Adam *no spoilers* but they have to be the worst characters so far. Even Warner´s dad has a better personality. It´s not that I just hate them, it´s more that they are flat like a white paper. Juliette's character got so boring and predictable. I really hope Tahereh Mafi will fix that in the next book. It´s incredibly frustrating (and kind of entertaining) when they interact with eachother

keep in mind that when they do, they just scream-confess their love and frustration to eachother

. Besides, there are some amazing characters that really push the rating. As someone said: 4 stars for Kenji and for Kenji only. I think I have to agree, he is the best character so far. 
All of that said I´m looking forward to "Ignite me" to see if my wishes for the story come true.. 

Es gibt gewisse "Non-fiction" Bücher, die man auch einfach in einem Online Beitrag zusammenfassen hätte können, anstatt ein ganzes Buch zu schreiben. Das ist eins davon. 
An sich, sehr locker geschrieben und eine Art Wohlfühlbuch. Dadurch hat es Spaß gemacht darin zu lesen und man kam immer sehr schnell vom Fleck, auch wenn die Autorin eine Idee zum x-ten Mal wiederholte. 
Für alle, die sich in irgendeiner Weise schonmal mit den Themen "Wie man sein Leben verbessert", Motivation oder Ähnlichem beschäftigt haben, die werden aus dem Buch wenig entnehmen können. Ein paar Konzepte waren mir neu und diese waren auch inspirierend, aber das meiste sind alte Ideen recycelt. 
Vielleicht war ich nicht die Zielgruppe und ich denke für Leser, die sich noch nie wirklich mit den Themen beschäftigt haben, kann es wirklich informativ sein. 
Ein letzter Punkt, der mir gefallen hat, war die Aufmachung. Die Seiten, Bilder und die Kapiteltrenner waren toll gestaltet und haben das Lesen defintiv etwas schöner gemacht (das Auge liest mit;)). 

I had a fun time reading this book but was it really memorable? 
The characters were..interesting. Our MC is pretty much the rebellious teenager who tries to deal with her emotion and her mum. Most of the characters felt a little bit flat for me. Only exception has to be the bodyguard duo, those were interesting personalities and you want to learn more about them.
I was quite invested in the storyline: it was kinda intriguing to solve this little mystery and I loved the aspect with the MC´s trust issues. She struggles a lot with that but it feels reasonable since her mother literally doesn´t trust her daughter. 
A good book with some flaws but I don´t think it will stay in my mind for a long time. 3.5/5 stars!

I really loved reading this book! Never thought I could talk about a non fiction book like that but this one deserves it. This essay collection was my first feminist work of literature and it couldn´t be a better pick. The book is a collection of many short essays, personal stories, poems and more - all about feminism, the patriarchy and everything in between. 
The pacing was really nice because of those short "chapters".
Honestly, if you have any interest in that topic I don´t see a reason why you shouldn´t give this a shot. Of course there are stories that are less interesting than other´s but I can guarantuee there will be (at least) ONE story that will inspire or motivate you.  

I'm happy that I picked this up right after "Shatter me" because the timelines fit perfectly. Well, this was just a novella and a nice add on. Read this in a day and fairly enjoyed it. 
Definitely interesting since this was the first time we got a new POV besides Juliette's. 

Wow, I´m really positively suprised by this book! I went into it with some high expectations because of the praise on booktok but I try to give every book the same chance so I lowered these as I started reading. This book is as dystopian as it can get. A dark atmopshere, a destroyed world and depressed people. It gives the reader a first introduction in the world, how it functions and introduces the characters. This book is obviously a setup, it isn´t supposed to have a big climax or something. I think the author did a good job at setting everything up while still giving us moments to giggle, make us excited and scared.
Should you pick this up? For a dystopian read, yes! For romance only, no. 
The story is definitely filled with some clichees and the MC was a bit overdramatic at some point but I´m kinda invested so I´ll give the second book a try.

A beautiful romance story for the autumn / winter months! I was happily suprised with all the characters we met because they all seemed really nice. The small town aspect was well done (of course) and I loved the Christmas Tree Farm itself. Beautiful descriciptions overall. The main characters - Luka and Estella - were unique and their flaws made their relationship build-up harder than expected. Overall a decent novel that I really enjoyed. The only bigger critic point is that the description for the book only fits the last third. Of course the plot line with the competition happens but this girl shows up around the 60% mark so if you´re looking forward to that plot - I warned you. BUT while waiting for it you´ll not be bored. 

Sehr schönes Buch für den Herbst und Winter! Das Setting war wirklich toll und durch die kurzen Kapitel und einfache Sprache, kann man das Buch schnell lesen.
Hat es mich vom Hocker gehauen? Nein. War es trotzdem ein gutes Buch? Ja, teils. Die Idee hat mich sehr überzeugt, jedoch hat mir die Umsetzung in der zweiten Hälfte nicht mehr zugesagt. Das ist natürlich Geschmackssache, aber für mich war es einfach zu flach und kitschig. Dennoch war es ein absolutes Wohlfühlbuch, durch ein paar Plotlines, die abwechslungsreich und kreativer waren. 

There are many thoughts I have about this book so let's brain dump them:
- Obviously beautifully written. Result: Lot of quotes!
- Interesting characters, non of them exeptionally "loveable" but that was not how they should be. Their flaws and different beliefs made this so interesting and without those the book couldn't thrive.
- Additional to the point I just mentioned, it was very manipulative. Looking at the time it was written the characters (men) wanted to be right and brush their beliefs onto everyone else. Even though those beliefs included misogynistic and racist views - the concept of that was really interesting and really important to the character development.
- The pacing was.. weird. Sometimes it was way too descriptive about e.g. a perfume. At other points it felt rushed especially at major plot lines. That was confusing but maybe intended? Edit from future me: After some debates with my dad I realize - the pacing was totally fine and fit the purpose perfectly. As a contemporary reader this is quite odd to read. Being used to a stable outline reading Wilde's work is weird but sheds light on an important tool in literature: pacing. 
- The philosophy was on point about society, youth, art and more that you will discover in the book. Especially the person who told his philosophical views was entertaining.
- I loved the athmosphere! Dark, dramatic leaning into gothic.
Overall: 5 stars. I think I will reread this in 2 or 3 years to get a new view on it. But I can recommend to start as early as you can to pick this book up! If you are lucky (like I was) you can get a perspective on this book quite early, maybe even in your "youth". That will hit harder since there are many dialogs about that ;)