Pretty good! I’d never read anything by these authors before, and I quite enjoyed this. 

I didn’t expect to be so captivated!!! To me, Love on the Brain was a less well written version of The Love Hypothesis: the exact same plot & tropes, with a near constant mention of “he big, she small.” So I kinda figured I’d never read another of Hazelwood’s books again. But here we are! I loved Bride!!! The “he big” was less overt, but also bc Lowe is an alpha werewolf instead of a regular guy, I was fine with it. And there wasn’t any “she small” bc Misery is quite tall. 

I quite liked this world, and I was unprepared for so much plot - I thought it would be a light plot mostly to get straight to the sex scenes. but not At all! Lots of plot.   I was very interested in the political intrigue and the mystery they’re trying to unravel. And I thought everything was perfectly paced. 

The only annoying constant in Hazelwood’s books is the very obvious looming “miscommunication/mystery/etc” which is that he is in love with her, and the female protagonists tend to be deliberately obtuse about it. That’s the only reason this one isn’t a full 5 stars for me. 

Wow, this was phenomenal!!! It was powerful, devastating, hopeful, and inspiring. Highly recommend. 

The art was gorgeous, no doubt, and that was the best thing about this book. Oh, the other great thing was the queernormativity in every facet of life. 

Overall, it felt like the author was trying to have a lot of depth and raise big topics, but the topics were only ever lightly broached, then there were weird time jumps/unexplained events so it was hard to follow the plot progression, all wrapped up in a never fully explained sci fi universe. I frankly was not able to understand most of the plot as a result. I don’t know why there was a politic uprising, how the Firebacks are resisting it but also low key taking over other planets themselves, and why the Empire is bad (other than that empires are rarely good news). I also don’t even really understand how it ended, other than with an explosion. I was constantly double checking that I hadn’t accidentally skipped a page (or several) or missed any panels, bc the transitions were NOT smooth and I couldn’t follow how we got from one place to another. Which is surprising bc this graphic novel is also 350 pages so you’d think it’d be more clear. 

Anyways, I didn’t really enjoy this but I didn’t dislike it either. 

This was quite fun and quite odd!

As someone who uses Slack nonstop at work in a corporate setting, this was super fun bc it was so REAL. All the unhinged & needlessly urgent demands from clients, the workplace banter, and ultimately meaningless tasks/work was A+.  I especially enjoyed the addition of Lydia and the howling, this might’ve been my favorite part. 

Who would have guessed this would take a turn into romance? I didn’t love that Pradeep had sex with Gerald’s body fully knowing it was inhabited by the Slackbot, knowing that Gerald wasn’t really the one consenting.

I’ll be recommending this to the coworkers that I Slack the most, for sure. 

Based on the plot, I assumed Neil and Wyatt were in college but in fact they are 16 and at a boarding high school. 

I know Neil wasn’t supposed to be likable for the beginning part, but dang it was hard to root for him, esp when he was mean to his future love interest, Wyatt. Teens are often self-centered dummies (respectfully) but the diff between Neil and Wyatt in this regard was stark. I’m not a fan of romances where one is actively mean and the other has a boundless well of compassion regardless of what happens. 

Also

to go from first kiss right into sex in the same day, on the first day of admitting they like each other, after four days of fake dating, is a wild choice. I’m shocked by Wyatt’s decision here.

Bc this was set in Charlotte and Neil was constantly saying things like “I don’t deserve this” and “this isn’t our life. And it never will be, no matter how badly I want it,” means that Neil was giving real Clay from Love Is Blind season 6 vibes. 

Overall this is an important book and I’m glad I read it, but it’s not for me. And that’s ok! I’ll still check out other books by this author, this was my first time with them. 

Going into this one I was doubtful of an octopus POV, but all the reviews assured me that it was well done and believable. It turns out, I was correct to be skeptical! 

I fully believe that octopuses are sentient and are smarter than we realize, but I do not believe that they can understand English and help solve mysteries. It doesn’t help that I recently read a book about animal senses and also one about octopus intelligence/consciousness specifically. Part of the thing with animal senses and understanding how they might think is that we just can’t really. They process different types of information (eg electromagnetism) and their brains are wired differently so we truly can’t even comprehend what that might be like for them. So for the octopus POV to essentially be a very intelligent creature who can help

discover long lost relations through deliberate actions and bring two people together

is a bit of a surprise. Also, ultimately, I’m not sure we needed the octopus POV. Bc the clues from the octopus were rather simple and could’ve easily been accomplished in a somewhat similar fashion even without his presence. So I’m not sure why we needed it, other than for added fun/uniqueness, I guess. 

I finished Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting earlier this month and while at first glance these stories aren’t that similar, they actually contain many similar themes! An older women not sure what to do with herself as she ages, grief over the past, finding a second act, various seemingly random people coming together and being more intertwined than they’d imagine. I’d recommend Iona over this one tho, that was one was very heartwarming and well done. Remarkably Bright Creatures was just alright.