Please let every man in my life read this book. Honestly the audiobook is a must because to hear Justin talk about his journey with such emotion and realness is a gift. I've also listened to the podcast which I enjoy as well. Justin does not purport to have the all the answers by any means, but this is a raw, open and honest book about struggles with patriarchal ideals of masculinity.

Whether you consider yourself a 'creative' or not, I recommend this book to anyone looking to figure out how to find inspiration, tackle fear and live more authentically. The short chapters are almost like little essays, so you can read in short bursts if you like.

I highly recommend the audiobook as Liz Gilbert narrates it with such great emotion and humor. 

The beginning dives right into the world and action. The gritty and gothic settings of Mexico City is described well and is an interesting backdrop for a vampire story. Via audiobook keeping the different characters separate and their involvement in the story was a bit difficult. However because it's multiple POV, as the story progresses the pacing gets off and really slows down. 
Overall there was not enough character depth or development, and by the ending I rather feel like nothing had changed? meaning the story was kind of pointless?
I've read a few books by this author and none of them quite hit the mark.

2.5/5🌶️

A diverse/LGBTQ+ Hunger Games is basically how I would describe this book. It's been a while since I read THG but the parallels between these stories are blatant. But it is a unique world, and the descriptions are lush and vivid. The characters are diverse in every sense of the word. But there are a LOT of characters, and it helps to look up more info on them on the author's website (it would've been helpful for this to be included in the book). 

However, for a book with a trans main character, and LGBTQ+ rep, I found a lot of the dialogue to be rather sexist. I have never read a book that used the word "douche" so many times, and it's not like that word can be used in a way that's not derogatory. I really wish the author had chosen different words to describe someone being a jerk that aren't rooted in misogyny. This kind of ruined the overall experience for me and I found it hard for me to enjoy the book because of it.

I might read the sequel when it comes out from the library, but probably won't make it a priority.

I am not a huge second-chance romance trope person, and for it to be super engaging there needs to be more time spent apart for the love interests. For me, the two main characters being fairly recently divorced and still so involved in each other's lives made me miss that 'rediscovering' each other thing that often happens with second-chance romance. It also made the first half-ish of the book drag a bit, as the reasoning for their separation is teased out to us. That being said, in the end of course you're rooting for them because obviously these people belong together. The romance is a bit slow burn in places, but the ending - woooo it goes there!

HUGE TW for grief especially - this book covers some heavy topics (miscarriage, death of family members) but does so in beautiful and meaningful ways. If you have experienced grief you will likely get teary-eyed. I love to see an entire family in therapy by the end of a book!

3.5/5 🌶️ 

I actually didn't love this book quite as much as the first one. It moved a bit slower and there was overall less action, which made the pacing of the book drag a bit in parts. However, overall I really enjoy this series.

The villain in this book is SO well written! I was kind of hoping for Xingyi to go all "burn it all to the ground", but I also understand the path that she takes. The love triangle is still around in this one - I was really holding my breath for all three of them to get together ;) Throughout most of this book (while it's overall the best love triangle I've read) I was really unsure how Wenzhi could ever make Xingyi trust him again, but he is relentless. Until really the last 5-10% of the book this is still unclear and then THE ENDING!!! It broke me. The ending alone bumped this book up .25 of a star.

Who cares? like literally there is not enough world building or character development for me to give a crap about this story. All the secondary characters are barely mentioned let alone given any actual substance. The MC Wren is bi, ok, but we don't get enough detail of her prior relationship with Una (sp? idk audiobook) for it to actually mean much? I guess in the end it's more like enemies to lovers/close proximity once she arrives at the estate to take care of Hal. I wasn't even really into their romance either. The main mystery is like 'solved' almost too early, and then the end of the story drags on. It's just a lot of like gore and medical horror strung together into kind of a fantasy (really more court politics) lackluster romance.

The ending is super unbelievable, like all of a sudden at the last second Wren is able to convince the Queen to just stop siding with Lowry?? just like that? even though she tried before...

2.5/5 🌶️

I can't believe it took me this long to read this book. I absolutely loved it!
Even though this is a 500 pg book, to me it reads very fast. I think this is accomplished by not spending extraneous time on repetitive day-to-day descriptions of the main characters' lives. The focus stays on the crucial scenes to the storyline. I think this gives a good sense of how the characters (as they are immortal) experience years as if they were days. The action-packed pacing made me not want to put it down! The writing throughout is beautiful and poignant, yet very easy to follow. I found the world to be very unique and lushly described. I actually really enjoyed the love triangle (which I usually don't enjoy reading).

I will say the one concession I have is that this book does not pass the Bechdel test, as Xingyi's one real female friendship does not have a lot of depth, and often they are just gossiping about Xingyi's love interests... I think there might be one very brief, barely conversation where they kind of discuss their families.

I will say this book wraps up fairly nicely, and since this is a duology I am curious where the second book will go... but I am excited to read it!

REREAD: this book is everything. Daddy Death 4 life.

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This is not a stand-alone!! (I’ve reported this so there’s no confusion for others). I didn’t know that going in so was not expecting it to end not wrapped up!

The overall theme is about our main character Signa embracing the power she has around death and eschewing societal norms to join society and marry a respectable man. It’s definitely a story of self discovery and coming into one’s own as a young person. Also there’s like a murder mystery as a main plot point. Definitely there is romance as well, and it gets kinda spicy for a YA novel! The writing throughout is beautiful.

"I know how society teaches us to be soft and dull and compliant, but you will not be any of those things, do you understand? Do not change the parts of yourself that you like to make others comfortable. Do not mold yourself to fit the standards someone else has set for us." - Blythe

3/5 🌶️

Tbh I was just not invested in the characters and was only mildly interested to know how Oliver ended up in prison. This book just wasn’t for me: imo if you are not a Shakespeare fan then I think you’ll feel like you’re missing a lot from this book. 
A friend told me the ending and I’m glad I didn’t continue with it