shereadytoread's Reviews (806)

It hurts my soul to rate a fake dating story so low. But there is such little romance in this romance. It is a slow burn to the extreme. It’s mostly just about their terrible lives where apparently a single good thing has never happened to them. Also pushing scorned woman making fake SA accusations as the backdrop? No. 

Terrible pacing. Terrible. See below for full explanation of the pacing. No specific plot points just when the HEA happens

Everything happens in the last 20 pages of the book. There is no payoff until then, and then the nerve to have a miscommunication trope thrown in at the end. If you’re going to have a third act break up, it shouldn’t happen 15 pages from the end.

(2.5 stars) This is a book that I would have rated higher, but for all of it's representation of queerness and body positivity, it leaned heavily on villainizing mental illness. Although we do have 3 POVs from each triplet, I would argue that Amber is our main character and has much more of an arc than the other siblings so they fell a little flat although there was clear intention to explore each of their personalities individually

Pros:
- representation of queerness is well done and consistent throughout without the need for explanation 
- body positivity arc that is explored well 
- they actually explore how the differences between the triplets affect their relationship in ways that I didn't expect
- pretty creepy moments that played out well 

Cons:
- a few too many red herrings that overcomplicate the plot. I feel like if it was more straightforward, it could have been explored well but it had to quickly move to wrap up the red herrings 
- villianizing mental illness - really. we're still doing this?
- the parents were beyond terrible in a way that didn't seem to make too much sense 

Perfect choice for someone not well versed in true crime that is interested in the genre. Overall the stories were fine. It was not clear from the blurb that everything inside was previously published in other news outlets. It is more of a collection of older articles. I wouldn’t have picked it up if I had known that, but it’s not a bad book in itself.

This book had much more depth than I expected. It confronts a lot of “good intention, bad execution” experiences and how we often justify our own actions in effort to meet goals. There is very positive representation of queer identities and how black and white thinking leaves little space for people to be who they are. I really enjoyed this book!

I think the breadth of the story was just too much. The first 1/4 of the book is basically just her background of life and family before she travels. We do get a lot information about the case and the investigation but we also get a TON of background about Tokyo general international issues, the background of the industry she worked in, connected industries, etc. basically ANYTHING remotely connected to the case, even dead ends, we get chapters of information about. This book could have easily been 150+ pages shorter and still told a cohesive story of her disappearance. 

 This was such a good book. I feel like most second chance romances focus more on couples reuniting after it didn't work in their younger years. This story follows a family that accomplished a lot together and then fell apart. While it is very much a romance that focuses on the two main characters, the supporting characters were well fleshed out with their own problems and successes. The addition of the children of the family was so well explored and improved the stakes of the story overall. I loved that the romance was so well developed and the reader was able to understand the full depth of how things fell apart. I cannot say enough good things about this book! 

Overall I really enjoyed this one! The variety in the stories was much greater than I expected. While they were all "monster" stories, they were not all about monsters. There was romance, family, sexuality, adventure, colonization and more explored. Some stories were from the perspective of the monster which I loved as well. The variety of the Latin American countries/cultures represented was great as well. Perfect read for this time of the year. At the beginning of each story there is also a B/W illustration that connects to the monster which were fun to look at and try to get what the story would be about (I was almost always wrong).

This book's strengths are in how unassuming it is. The MC is a sheltered teen who in some ways has learned things that many people won't in a lifetime. It is a quiet spin on a traditional coming of age, where a teenage girl is unprepared to deal with normal life for an abnormal reason. The main character is easy to root for because you understand she is not at all at fault for the things that she is dealing with and choices that would be frustrating to read with a traditional teen MC are not. The story creates gentle suspense in wondering what will happen as the stakes of the story get higher. Coming to terms with everything you know being a lie is difficult to say the least, but the author has managed to describe it in a way that is easier to digest. The supporting cast is small but superb and how they shape the main character is great. 

My only drawback is that the family is painted as SOOOOOO extreme but none of their actions really followed that. Their main beliefs yes, but as the story plays out, none of their actions really are.