sarahsbookstack's Reviews (2.55k)

I honestly don't know how to review this! I liked it a lot but also didn't love it like I did  Fourth Wing. It might just be what I like to refer to as the "second book curse". It wasn't perfect to me, it took me longer to read than the first one, and I struggled a bit with a certain dragon (but can't really explain why because of possible spoilers).

I am so torn with the relationship of Violet and Xaden. He keeps SO MUCH from her. You love her-tell her the important things! Don't hide them. Let her decide how she takes the information. But the scenes between these two are always charged! 

I still enjoy this world Rebecca has built and she sure knows how to do a cliffhanger to keep you salivating for more! 

Wow, this was a pulse pounding debut that I read in a few hours!

Silas is back to where he spent his summers in the Sierra Nevadas with his two young boys to live in his Aunt's cabin. 15 years ago, he fled after a 5 day long search/rescue operation for his ex-girlfriend Jessica was called off with no results. Then the unthinkable happens and his boys get lost in the same area... This time to aid in their search is Meg and Danny. Silas's friends that were there when Jessica disappeared.

The chapters go back and forth between the past and the present and my heart ached in each time period. I was riveted to my seat, felt the fear from the 3 MCs (especially fear for the small boys as a mother can feel that fear) and the rescue teams and felt the cold and darkness during the search. 

Luke and Rita are a couple that I adored and rooted for so hard! Luke is a billionaire grumpy head of his father's company and Rita is an aspiring chef with a very big heart.

This is a slow burn that was so well done! The way they slowly go from tiptoeing around each other, to starting a tentative friendship, to really becoming good friends, and having a fake relationship to becoming a REAL relationship... It was just super fun.

Rita struggles with a father that's an alcoholic and didn't have a great relationship with. Luke is trying to show that while he does head this huge money making company, he is not like his tyrant father and had a good heart. These two really helped balance each other out.

Both Rita and Luke's best friends are such comic relief and I loved every single scene with them too. 

Dara is the CEO of J-Date, an app for Jewish doctors, and she comes from a line of women matchmakers in her family. One day promoting her software on a daily show with her Bubbe- who divulges a checklist for the perfect Jewish mate written by Dara.

The show's host, Chris, fascinated by this list comes up with an idea that will also benefit him as he's in danger of losing his show. Show Dara using her own app to go on dates in search of that perfect husband.

The dates are centered around certain Jewish holidays and always tend to end in disaster. As time goes on, Chris becomes so fascinated with Dara and Dara also, but because of traditions that she wants to uphold in her life, is reluctant to get too close. 

I liked how Dara was so open about her anxiety disorder and the ways that she coped with it were interesting. I really appreciated all I learned about these holidays and the reasons why a lot of Jewish people marry in their own faith. I really like that. As soon as Chris knew his feelings for Dara were cemented, he immediately looked up what it would take to convert. Even though we don't get to see what happens in that direction, I appreciated that his first thought was how he could work it out for her sake and not for his. 

There are some outstanding side characters like Miriam and her ChallahBack Girls who were just delightful!

This is my first ever book about car racing. I liked it a lot more than expected. I loved getting to see rules and how will really have to have to work as teammates or it just won't work. Very much a team sport.

Now I really love Mia. She had a lot to deal with- her father being gone, her belligerent and not nice twin brother Jordan, and becoming the lead of her dad's racing team... All while being in the presence of her former boyfriend, Luca. 

Jordan I thought would not have a great character and he'd just be mean all the time, but he really surprised me at the end. I love watching Mia and Luca get to reacquaint themselves as adults and learn to love each other for who they are now. 

Annie Hawkins is an amazing character. She's tenacious, brave, smart, and more. A photojournalist who is once again going to Afghanistan to photograph as the Taliban take over the country... But this time, her daughter will be there too and Annie is determined to keep an eye on her.

Most of this book has me in pulse pounding terror. I was certainly on the edge of my seat a lot. The horrors that Afghans are subjected to constantly are terrifying. 

I have a new found respect (I tried to come up with a better word) for those going through PTSD. The author brought triggers of PTSD into the story for Annie even when she was actually in a safe environment each time it reared its head. I could clearly see how frightening it can be through this character's experience of it. 

This novel stages beautifully the political background of Puerto Rico as they adjust to being a colony of the states and a brand new marriage between a poor man Marco and a rich debutant Isa.

The marriage of these two had so much strife and a lot could have been so much better for their marriage if they had truly listened to each other's views and been honest and fought for their feelings. Instead they tended to hide much from each other.

The book is very dense in history and may throw some people off for the slowness of the novel but I found it fascinating. I love learning history that I never got from school. 

Most of this novel takes place before my mother was born, but I loved reading it because my grandpa was stationed in Puerto Rico for the year after her birth. It just sounds like an amazing, beautiful place and I hope my mom gets a chance to go back one day. 

Have you ever wanted to curse an ex and have it come true? Vivi curses her ex Rhys one night (which certainly wouldn't actually work because the most magic she did was reheat tea) after he left her brokenhearted.

9 years later, Rhys is back to secure his family's magic in the town of Graves Glen... and suddenly... the curse takes hold! Now these once lovers must work together to help the town not fall because of said curse. We get a talking cat, animated plastic skulls that are vicious, and a vengeful ghost with a VERY big vendetta against Rhys family.

I enjoyed these real MCs. I liked the second chance they got at their romance that had never let the fire burn out even all the time apart. I really enjoyed Vivi's cousin Gwyn as done very LOL comic relief. Fun read for the witchy season!

I really enjoyed this story as Eva and Alex's relationship progression was really sweet.

Eva is the daughter of a famous supermodel and rock stars who has been protected from the media by her family... Or was it for their own benefit? Eva is soon to find out. Alex comes into her life through her brother who is a recovering alcoholic who had a stage accident. Alex is running from a scandalous past that not many who know him know about.

I really appreciated that Alex never pushed Eva into furthering their relationship to a very physical one until she gave consent. I liked how miscommunications never got too far and lasted too long. I liked how Eva grew into her own person from getting out of her family's shadows. 

This was a cute book with a centuries old vampire trying to figure out how to live in the modern 21st century.

Carrie is in need of a place to stay as she's being evicted. Answering an ad for a $200 rent in a very prestigious neighborhood seems WAY too good to be true and the occupant, Frederick, who put out the ad is...well, odd. 

Going out on the town and Frederick trying to like "order a coffee" or "pay with card" was what had me laughing the most. When they finally get physical, the "needing" blood while doing the deed is just strange to me and it was just a tiny weird. I thought the whole relationship was interesting.