I loved this! Junior and Lauren are different characters to Ally and Josh, and so this story feels different to lights out, but in a good way. Though lights out is one of my favourite books, I don’t want the same story every time! 
Navessa Allen’s writing is engaging, laugh out loud funny and so SO hot. 
For me, it didn’t quite have that tiiiiiny bit of special ✨something✨ that makes a book 5 stars, but I still loved it and it came so close. 
Audiobook continues to be my favourite way to read Navessa’s books! 

This was not at all what I was expecting. I definitely thought at first glance, this was a cute YA sci fi romance. Yes it has romance in it, but I wouldn’t call it a romance. It almost had thriller vibes in a way. 
I think it’s worth going in blind other than knowing it’s not primarily a romance, because it is excellent! 

Super cute YA fantasy that reads kind of like a historical romance mixed with a fairytale. Cool magic system and really sweet, earnest romance between the two MCs. 
I love Aubrey and Edmund 😭

I absolutely loved this. If you like slow-burn, sci-fi fantasy mash ups and monster romances where the love interest is an immortal humanoid with a tail who lurks in the rafters like a dramatic house cat, this is for you! 

The writing was great, the characters felt three-dimensional and the world building was excellent -  not overly convoluted for a sci-fi newbie like myself to digest. 

I loved Fi - at first glance you might think she’s just another sassy snarky FMC but she has so much depth. I loved how we see her peel back layers throughout the story, and see her vulnerability underneath the bravado.

Antal is the antler-having monster man of my dreams. I love a man who is dramatic and snarky and occasionally a bit sulky. Their banter was SO good. 

I would say the story is very romance forward, but there is still an overarching plot that we are constantly moving toward and it felt well paced between the romance and the main conflict of the story. 

Overall, a really enjoyable read and I’d highly recommend it. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. 

This is like nothing else I’ve ever read. Prepare to be confused for most of the book, but like, somehow it works and is also amazing? 

This was such a solid debut and I enjoyed reading it. Lilah and Arthur’s story pulled me in, and I finished this quickly without even really trying to! It was just incredibly more-ish. 

As a formula 1 fan, I felt like the sport was accurately portrayed in Slipstream (something that will immediately take me out of the text). But it was still accessible enough that even if you’re not a fan, you won’t feel out of your depth! 

I did find that there was a lot of telling instead of showing - I often felt like Lilah as the narrator just was explaining everything to me, where as I really prefer when an author trusts me to read between the lines and hear what the characters aren’t saying as much as what they are. I also felt like some of the plot points were a little vague, and Lilah’s ending felt a bit left-field.

Overall, I still had a great time with this book, and I will absolutely pick up other books by this author! 

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is probably the most difficult time I’ve ever had rating a book because my feelings about it are so conflicting. 

On the one hand, the writing is absolutely stunning. Just truly breathtaking in places, the way the author talks about love and loss and the YEARNING gosh it was beautiful.  I also enjoyed how descriptive the flashback chapters were, the historical settings felt so vivid. 

The concept for the story is so unique and had SO much potential. At times it gave me real Addie vibes, one of my all time favourite books. 

But here’s where I’m so torn. I feel like I spent a lot of time being told these people loved each other, but I didn’t actually see anything to make me believe it. I feel like the concept just wasn’t effectively executed, and so the ending just didn’t have the emotional gut punch I think the author was going for. 

Also, I feel like nothing happens for most of the book! The flashbacks are repetitive, the same conversations are had and I know it’s partially because there’s some relevance to the plot but it’s just such a delicate balance and for me it didn’t work. The ending felt a bit random, like we got nothing for 380 pages and then suddenly big things happen but it all falls a bit flat. 

If the concept had been better executed, and there had been a bit more plot either in the modern timeline or the flashbacks (maybe fewer flashbacks, but longer??), this would have been an easy 5 stars. I’m so sad 😭

The tension in this was ✨palpable ✨ from the very first page. Julie Soto writes tension like no one else. 
The CELLO SCENE - I will never recover. 
I only knocked off a half star because I feel like the ending should have been longer. It felt like it ended a little too quickly, when the emotional development throughout the book was so considered and well explored, to have it wrap up so quickly felt like a disservice to the characters and the story (though I did like the ending itself). 

I was nervous about this because I’ve seen so many negative or average reviews on TikTok and I just, did we read the same book?!?? Because I loved this so much! 
I really enjoyed the dual timeline, I was interested in Margaret’s story and I absolutely did not see the ending coming. One of the things that really stood out to me is this idea of not leaving things unsaid, of having the difficult conversations while you have time to have them. Life is both long and short at the same time. 
Most of Emily Henry’s books are more slow burn and/or “enemies” to lovers and this could be considered a bit more “insta-lovey” but I don’t think that means the romance didn’t feel real or I felt like it suffered because of the two timelines. 
I think Alice and Hayden were just “when you know you know” vibes and I thought their romance was beautiful, tender and feet-kicking adorable. I think it makes sense that they fell hard and fast, they were on a tiny island spending a lot of time together - it’s like a whirlwind summer romance and was like a parallel to Margaret and Cosmo. 
I  loved Alice and Hayden’s ending, all the parts of it. 
Also Alice and her mum’s relationship hit really close to home for me. 
I honestly would have read 400 more pages. I loved it. 

This book. This FRICKEN book. These characters are messy, imperfect and feel so three dimensional. 
I loved a lot about this but most of all, I love that the author trusted me to read between the lines. The characters’ feelings weren’t spelled out for me, but I understood who they were through their words and actions. I didn’t always agree with them, but I understood them. 
The YEARNING. My heart. Can I have 10 Josh’s please?