shereadytoread's Reviews (806)

This book was a nice Christmas reconciliation romance. I enjoyed the characters and the subplot that runs parallel through the story. The romance was incredibly sweet. However, it loses all stakes because the character is very clear from the beginning that she is asking for this divorce to get him to change his behavior, not because she intends to go through with it. Overall it seems like that trivializes all the choices she is making because she is often talking about if certain choices are too far and she intends for them to work.

It was a good story but not really a Krampus story. The Krampus piece seemed to be cornholed in to make it a Christmas story, but it didn't serve much purpose. 

This was such a fun story but honestly too short for the set up. There are magical elements plus fake dating plus insta-love was too many things for the length of the novella. I enjoyed the characters and premise a lot, but it was too packed.

Not rating this one as I DNFd the first book and it seems like a lot of this book is based in things that happened during that story so it was a bit confusing to read. I wasn’t aware they were related when I picked it up. 

As we follow Calliope's story, we get a sense of mystery but we are unsure who to truly trust. This operates as an effective YA thriller with a few drawbacks. 

Pros: 
- Plot and subplot that work well together 
- the secret society inner workings make for a really interesting conflict 
- normal life is not ignored while all these plot twists are happening 
- the setting of the school works really well with allowing for the freedom of the plot, but not being unrealistic in what can happen for teen protagonists

Cons
- Too many reveals in the 3rd act. There are 4 or 5 major plot twists (depending on your definition of plot twist vs plot point) that all come into play within two or three short chapters
- One of the plot twists really undoes the stakes of the 2nd act

This was a bit too much of a slow burn. The large majority of the book includes no romance between the main characters. I love the idea of fated lovers meeting again but it was executed like a weird friendship while the FMC is in another situation for most of the book.

This was an excellent YA fantasy retelling. The fairytale elements combined with an adventure quest melded well. Our main character is likable but flawed, and was written with a good amount of growth and depth. The supporting cast, all tasked with a seemingly impossible situation, made difficult choices with a lot of different perspectives that made the world feel fleshed out. 
It had great queer representation, lessons on empowering yourself and others plus a really fun plot.

Overall this was a solid story with good stakes. I would say the first half is more of a mystery and the second half is more crime thriller. I enjoyed that all the characters were morally grey so it isn’t as much of rooting for the characters to succeed, but more the larger revenge story and wanting the big bad to go down! 

I thought the characters all had interesting depth to them (even if it didn’t make them “good guys”). One thing I appreciated was that the violence didn’t seem gratuitous and served a purpose in the book. The book is definitely DARK but it doesn’t play for shock value.

Disclaimer: I received a gifted ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I think it was a bit repetitive but well researched. It gave a good amount of empirical information that was well balanced with personal stories. A bit more religious than expected (I wasn’t aware he was a pastor going in) but it wasn’t too much of a focus and mostly just part of his personal story mentioned towards the end.