thelibraryoft's Reviews (477)

4.5 stars!!!
I am obsessed with this series. Tarisai is just that bitch. I don't want to spoil anything but themes you can expect; Revolution. Dealing with guilt from things your ancestors have done. Friends & loved ones not being ready for change the world needs. Finding your passion. Romantic love/platonic love/ familial love/ soulmates. Asexuality. Women who don't want to be a , but want to leave a legacy.

This book has SO MANY characters and I truly love them all. Tarisai, Dayo, Jeet, Ai Ling, Kirah, Zuri (I'm sure I am missing more favs). The only negative thing I have to say is I wish the end was a little longer. Part 5 went by so fast, I wish we saw a little more of the underworld & resolution at the end. 

 Jo is a debut author and feels very reminiscent of Ali Hazelwood. I love a intelligent woman succeeding in a male dominated field.

Corrie is giving Latina Indiana Jones energy. I loved her passion, her belief in herself, and how ballsy she is. This is an enemies to lovers, and when Corrie & Ford are enemies I get it. I can feel the chemistry, the banter is great, and the sexual tension is off the charts. I really liked the adventure and mystery; it was a fun diversion from a typical contemporary romance. It does get a little unrealistic and cartoony towards then end, but If you put on your rose colored rom-com glasses & suspend reality a bit it is still a lot of fun.

The real ick of this book was out MMC, Ford. He focused too much on her looks in my opinion, and the white male privilege was kinda off the charts. Him using Corrie's life work and not including her from the beginning sucked. I get the mom situation, but I needed more way more groveling. 

 I don’t often say this, but this should be required reading for women in America. This was a heavy memoir, but a beautiful and powerful book. Tarana is the founder of the Me Too movement, but this story is mostly about her life before Me Too and how she became an advocate. She tells her story about growing up in the Bronx, her multiple sexual assaults and the shame she felt because of them. While I was able to personally connect to her story, I appreciated the focus being on experiences of Black women, girls, and femmes, how their stories can be so vastly different and how they are less heard and empathized with. I keep finding myself thinking about Tarana feeling that she had to remain silent in order to protect not her perpetrator, but the other Black men in her life who could be affected by coming forward. Tarana had a beautiful openness about acknowledging her own moments of failure, and not being able to be the best support system to other girls when she has not yet given herself empathy. As well as holding other advocates accountable not matter their positive contributions to worthy causes. I gained new perspective and awareness reading Tarana’s story and truly cannot recommend this book enough. 

 

I don't exactly know how to put into words how I feel about this book. I was expecting a typical romance, but the story being split up into multiple books was a shock.

I will say that this book had me hooked. All the characters were messy and made so many bad choices. I appreciated the found family already in place at the start of the story. It was really nice to see even when there was drama within Walsh & Cam, Walsh’s family was never treated him any differently. If you like messy characters, multiple love triangles & a little cheating, this one is for you. 

I am really happy books like this exist and are getting public love. This story is YA and it definitely reads like Ya, but that's okay. Felix was a very interesting protagonist. Honestly, in the beginning I did not like him. Felix was very petty, entitled & had a lot of growing up to do, but I enjoyed watching him go through the process. I also really liked the conversations about racism, sexism & transphobia even within the LGBTQ+ community. It was fun to read a book where almost every character (friends & foes) were all queer in some way.