shereadytoread's Reviews (806)

Withholding reviews at the request of the union due to the HCP Union Strike

This book seemed more like adding elements for shock value sake, rather than pushing the plot forward but my main issues were: 

1. Pathologizing female m*sturbation: It was presented as part of the MC's pathology, and not as an absolutely normal occurrence for young women. This is overdone in media where the same subject for boys is presented as normal and often comedic. 
2. EXTREMELY poor mental health rep: The author doesn't even name the mental illness. That indicates to me that she wanted to pick and choose symptoms that fit the story, rather than actual representation of mental health issues in the MC. The story presents a method of self-h*rm that is again based in shock value. 
3. The FMC doesn't consider SA to be a violent crime and even argues with the MMC about being self-righteous when he states that a group of football plays SAing a young drunk girl was a violent crime because she thinks women consent even if they are intoxicated. 

Once I found out who the killer was (someone else told me after I DNFed), I couldn't believe that it was the one person I thought "no way" because it is so OBVIOUS and overdone the entire time that I assumed it had to be a red herring. Glad I didn't waste the rest of my time. 

This book was nearly 5 star read for me, but it’s over reliance on the same thing happening multiple times took it down a bit for me. 

Pros: 
- great queer representation
- informative discussion of bi erasure + ace spectrum
- supporting cast is so we’ll done (the grandmas are the best)
- such a cute romance 

Cons: 
- over reliance on miscommunication. Almost every conflict except the parent/child conflicts were based around misinterpretation of the situation
- a tiny bit repetitive as the MC tries to avoid the sister 

Would have been perfect for me without the miscommunication trope multiple times

It’s on the short side so there is less room for character development. It does have a fun twist which made the book a little better but so much of the MCs character is just based along her thinking about boys that I wasn’t really invested in her as a person. Overall a quick cute YA Christmas read.

Withholding reviews at the request of the union due to the HCP Union Strike

Nothing wrong with the book it was mistakenly listed on a recommendation for black Caribbean authored books by mistakes. I picked it up intending to read that and discovered it was not.

Overall I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read, but it doesn't give us enough depth to figure out the clues of the game which I expected to be half the fun. It give us a double reveal of the same killer for the murder subplot and then then the "red herring" comes too late for the main mystery. In addition, major aspects of the main character are introduced and commented on multiple times but it doesn't pay off at all so it seems like filler to be mentioned and emphasized throughout. 

The clues are based in history of the characters that is not revealed to us, so we are reading the clues but unable to put them together ourselves. There is an anagram game but at the end once you see the key, the anagrams are just random parts of sentences in paragraphs so to figure it out you would have to attempt to unscramble every few words the entire book. 

 Love in Winter Wonderland is the perfect winter romance for an older YA crowd. It follows two black college students as they attempt to save a local black-owned bookstore by Christmas Eve.

I thought the characters were both well developed with internal conflicts that fed into the larger conflicts of the book. The supporting character cast was wide but played essential roles to the plot!

Their building romance was cute and their interactions were *chefs kiss*