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purplepenning's Reviews (1.72k)
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
A contemporary time-slip romance set in NYC's publishing and restaurant scenes and anchored by an inherited Upper East Side apartment — what a great idea for a paranormal/magical realism story with a lot of heart and sense of place! I wish I had been more convinced by the romance. Insta-anything isn't my thing, so I had a hard time with this one even though I generally liked the characters. And, unfortunately, my lack of investment in the relationship left my brain free to think too critically about the rest of the plot. What I did like, besides the characters, however, was the portrayal of grief, and the thoughts about change, connection, and timing. (Don't skip the author's note.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol
Minor: Dementia
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Alcohol
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
STEMinist and STEAMy, this latest rom-com from Ali Hazelwood does not disappoint. (Unless, like many vocal pre-read-reviewers on Goodreads, you want it to be COMPLETELY different from her previous books, in which case I might suggest reading any of the hundreds of thousands of books written by other authors.)
Have I mentioned, by the way, that I love it when the conflict in an emerging relationship (i.e., the third act breakup) is organically developed from the backstory and from characters responsibly working through their baggage rather than from a simple miscommunication? Ugh. So good. Anyway... pick this up if you:
Have I mentioned, by the way, that I love it when the conflict in an emerging relationship (i.e., the third act breakup) is organically developed from the backstory and from characters responsibly working through their baggage rather than from a simple miscommunication? Ugh. So good. Anyway... pick this up if you:
- were on the fence about The Love Hypothesis but like the idea of rom-coms featuring women scientists finding love (and a fitting career and health insurance)
- are prepared for mature, explicit communication, in and out of the bedroom
- are prepared for groan-worthy science puns
- are intrigued by an acrimonious hedgehog roommate
- like the "friend's brother" trope and the subversion of the fake-dating trope
- are a recovering people pleaser or peacemaker or (thanks, patriarchy and gender roles!) only girl in your family
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Gaslighting
Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Acephobia/Arophobia, Outing
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
"You are a professional."
"Yes, ma'am," Alice said.
"You would never behave in a manner contrary to the agency's Code of Conduct."
"No, ma'am."
"Because this is a thriller, not a romance, isn't that so, Agent A?"
"Yes, ma'am."
The final thrillingly fantastical romantic farce in India Holton's Dangerous Damsels series is even more packed with literary (mis)quotes, (mis)adventures, and innuendo. And this time with two book-nerd protagonists — Alice (Agent A) and Bixby (Agent B) — who steal our hearts and have us instantly under the spells as if they were born to piracy or witchcraft instead of the secret service.
“Reading is not a hobby,” she said. “It is a way of life.” He was silent a moment as he considered this, then he nodded in agreement."
Alice and Bixby, two orphans who were (mis)educated and molded into top agents, are clearly the heart of this story, but readers of the series will be happy to find that Cecilia and Ned, Charlotte and Alex, and the elderly piratical matriarchs all have significant roles here at the end — and at the end of the end in a surprisingly touching epilogue that champions female friendship and found family.
It's the middle of the story that lags a bit for me. Alice and Bixby's undercover attempts to find a weapon at a house party of pirates drags on a bit long for my tastes, though there are plenty of pirate shenanigans and (un)veiled sexual tension to keep most readers happy.
Besides Alice and Bixby's relationship (superb), the good-natured lampooning of the literary (always amusing), and the incorporation of past characters, the rambunctiously intelligent writing voice is what makes me a fan of these books. The Secret Service of Tea and Treason reaches Terry-Pratchett-levels of a sort of anthropocentric metaphoring that I never cease to find blazingly brilliant and absurdly amusing.
His brain ran around shouting urgent orders and waving red flags, trying to forestall an eruption of emotion he absolutely could not afford... And his heart, sighing in defeat, packed up all its wild and hungry longings and went to hide under a blanket.
Daniel and Alice exchanged a glance that didn't know whether to be amused or anxious, but that mostly wished it could go sit in a corner somewhere and read a book.
A laugh sounded... It was dry, brief; the kind of laugh that has eyes in the back of its head and just knows when you're about to do something stupid.
As the silence lengthened, growing heavy with overtones, undertones, and implications, the air between them blushed, made up an excuse, and departed the room in awkward haste.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Abandonment
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
The kind of adventurous, thoughtful, mysterious, empathetic story that can turn readers of any age into great readers.
These young readers felt things about books, which is why I call them great readers. Being a great reader has nothing to do with reading great sophisticated books or reading great long books or even with reading a great many books. Being a great reader means feeling something about books.
The Lost Library is told in three perspectives: 1) Evan, who is an inquisitive boy entering the last summer before middle school; 2) Al, a ghostly librarian who has lost her place in the world; and 3) Mortimer, a large orange cat who is dedicated, kind, and lonely. They are connected, tenuously, by a little free library, and more deeply by the mysteries of the former town library, another inquisitive boy, and the improbabilities of mice.
The dear boy was, as I've said, a great reader. He read a good number of books and, more importantly, he took some of them straight into his heart.
Fun, sweet, mysterious, sad, triumphant, and just a touch fantastical — it's a near perfect middle grade read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Mental illness, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness
Minor: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This got just a little melodramatic for my tastes, but it's an engaging, well-written, community-oriented story that stands well with the author's previous book, All the Lonely People, and should work for fans of Anxious People, The Authenticity Project, and Maame. Despite, or maybe because of (grief is a funny thing) having lost my mom relatively recently, I didn't find this one quite as unexpectedly charming and touching as All the Lonely People.
The Museum of Ordinary People is sort of a late coming-of-age tale about grief, losing and finding oneself, the people we're meant to keep in our lives, the people we're meant to let go, and the extraordinary ordinary people and things we could all see a little more clearly and think about a little more deeply. Populated with realistic and relatable characters (main character Jess is, in particular, perfectly written and developed), the book is also given a suitably simple, warm tone by the audiobook narration.
The Museum of Ordinary People is sort of a late coming-of-age tale about grief, losing and finding oneself, the people we're meant to keep in our lives, the people we're meant to let go, and the extraordinary ordinary people and things we could all see a little more clearly and think about a little more deeply. Populated with realistic and relatable characters (main character Jess is, in particular, perfectly written and developed), the book is also given a suitably simple, warm tone by the audiobook narration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: Hate crime, Violence, Antisemitism, Abortion, Pregnancy
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Grief, Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Abandonment
Conjecture about suicide