reading_under_covers's Reviews (1.61k)

This is such a fun middle grade horror novel full of Trinidadian folklore, which was so great to read!

Highly recommend having a bag of skittles on hand before you (or your child!) dives into this one!

Such a fun spooky book that I wish I had when I was younger, but am lucky to have now 🖤

Thanks to the publisher for an early copy of this one!

Publication Date: Feb 20

Sooo close to being a 5-star read for me!

This book is my first read by Jesse and when I say it had me smiling from ear to ear, I mean it.

This one was cute as heck and it has me so excited to dive into her mysteries!

Ooooof, dnf-ing around 130 pages because I can’t take a book seriously when every other page has the mmc questioning how the fmc’s breasts can possibly be contained in her tiny shirts.

Was definitely drawn in by the Indiana Jones and Mummy vibes, but am ultimately not getting enough of that action and adventure and too much objectification to go any further 😬 

I’ll start off by saying that I’m not a big romance reader, so this little review should in no way put you off if you are!

This book reads a bit too ya and predictable for my taste and current mood (I’m sure middle school/teenage Hannah would have been way more into this!!)

And circling back to that disclaimer - my romance tbr is extremely selective when it comes to ~vibes~ and I don’t think this one will ultimately hit the mark for me.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing for my copy of VILLAGE IN THE DARK - the follow-up crime thriller to CITY UNDER ONE ROOF by Iris Yamashita, which is out today!

This is definitely an instance where I’d recommend that you read the first book first, since a lot of the characters and plot that lead into this one get more attention in the first!

With that being said, this one had so many twists and turns and Alaska is once again just a fantastic setting for crime to take place! 

I loved getting a deeper look at some of the characters and the secrets this one revealed were definitely some of my faves genre-wise.

Emma Lord’s books are always such a fun time!

Her passions for New York and dessert really shone through in this one and all I can say is I am ready for her adult novel!!

The Koh Sang Resort is famous for being a party island. When Cass becomes a Permanent, along with some other expats, she thinks she’s finally left her old self behind. When one of her dive students turns up dead, no one’s past can stay buried.

THE RESORT by Sara Ochs was an atmospheric, dual POV, destination thriller.

I found myself really enjoying this one up until around the halfway point. The author randomly throws in mentions of the IDF and “that conflict in the Middle East,” which felt heavy handed, especially since the character those traits were attributed to just fell out of the story completely after that.

Then everyone’s backstories seemed to bring in every kind of trauma imaginable (and unimaginable), with some weird finger pointing thrown in the mix.

This one honestly went from yay to nay at the turn of a page and that really bummed me out!

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: February 6

This is very much set up as a mystery book about mystery books. 

I found some of the background origins and examples to be a bit dull, but I overall really enjoyed the setting, the mystery, and the fourth wall breaking. 

What a spooky lil book!

Clocking in at ~160 pages, this story still managed to pack a punch.

Equal parts dystopian and horror, I found myself eating THIS SHIT UP.

Thanks to the publisher for an early copy of this book for review!

This book comes out February 6.