yourbookishbff's Reviews (650)

This is the most unflinching and affirming representation of OCD I've ever seen on page in fiction, and I am so grateful for a story where two neurospicy people can navigate a happily-ever-after with all of the appropriate accommodations. Our MMC, Jack, has OCD and is managing heightened symptoms during the narrative. He experiences (on page) obsessions about self-harm (sharp objects), losing bodily control (fear of shouting or writing things he doesn't mean), and harm toward others (fear he's hurt someone and doesn't realize it, etc.). His compulsions include rumination, "just right" repetition, mental scripts and magical thinking, and seeing his cyclical obsessions and compulsions - all of which are largely mental/invisible to others - on page feels significant in a space where OCD representation is typically narrowly focused on contamination obsessions/hygiene compulsions. Jack's loved ones consistently resist reinforcing his compulsions (specifically when he is seeking reassurance), and encourage him to continue his exposure therapy, and we LOVE seeing true OCD therapy repped on page! I am so appreciative of the research and sensitivity reviews that clearly went into this character. 

ENTER RAINE, adventure-seeking wanderer and med-school drop-out with ADHD, who is, most importantly, earnest and soft-hearted and curious. I cannot speak to the accuracy of the ADHD representation, but I so appreciated the author's openness about her own ADHD diagnosis and her desire to write a character through which she could show herself some grace. Raine's ADHD is never a superpower and it's never an obstacle to her love story, but it is something she manages and navigates in her day-to-day life to a degree she needs others to understand and accommodate (and they DO). 

I just loved how well these two saw one another, how insistent they were on supporting one another, and how committed they each were to their own wellbeing, first. And the author truly sticks the landing on the happily-ever-after, resisting a spiral into codependency and giving each character space to grow and heal independently before choosing partnership. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Ok I had such a great time with this. I was side-eyeing the whirlwind romance at the start and then BOOM everything blew up and it became my favorite brand of angsty absurdity and I was in book heaven for all the twists and turns in the second half. A few thoughts, in no particular order and with no particular artfulness:

1) This is a hot-and-cold romance that winks at the reader the entire time it subtly weaves in little subversions. The portioned reveals toward the end reflect back to us what we were missing earlier in the story and it feels so casually done and I love it. 
2) What is wrong with me that I specifically love when a character overhears the love interest saying something horrendous about them. The DRAMA. 
3) A meddling dowager. A know-it-all bestie. So much ill-advised and high-stakes gambling. Dramatic irony in spades (pun intended).
4) JEALOUSY AT EXACTLY THE RIGHT TIME. Love seeing a secondary character with shockingly similar interests and a pleasing but ultimately tepid personality casually enter the story to make the possessive but skittish love interest go absolutely feral.
5) A gesture - grand, perhaps - that made me whoop.
6) Hot. This book is hot.

I received a complimentary print copy of this book from the author, but actually purchased an audio copy because I needed a romp to occupy me during a particularly tedious house project. The-full cast audio is so much fun (and it was so unexpected! more of this for historicals, please!). 

I loved this, and I don't normally enjoy reading extensive first-person, single POV stories, but everything about this construction worked so well here. Being in Sal's head feels necessary and intimate and deceptively casual (the occasional direct nods to the reader made me feel like I was back in THAT MOMENT in Fleabag season two, IYKYK). I was so pleasantly surprised by how connected I felt to Vanessa's character despite never having her POV, and how richly built she feels through Sal's narration. The cast feels small and the geography intentionally tight, reflecting the reality of life for those existing wholly within a specific neighborhood, and the lurking threat in Sal's (and the reader's) periphery is so visceral. And the way Sal and Vanessa ultimately negotiate a happily-ever-after feels exactly right for each of them individually. I look forward to reading the rest of this series and more, generally, by Mia Hopkins.

An absurd, heartfelt and ultimately joyful character-driven story of two siblings and their vibrant circle of friends and family. I had the best time with this on audio, and found both Greta and Valdin painfully and hilarious human. Valdin's obsessive anxiety, Greta's desperation for love (and purpose), Valdin's longing for normalcy, Greta's flyaway thoughts and plans, and in the midst of their chaotic, circling journeys, the mysterious and unknowable lives of all the people who love them. I particularly appreciate how Reilly maintains a limited perspective until the very conclusion, opening up to new POVs merely to sate our curiosity before closing the curtain on our cast. This was a book I wanted to immediately own in print simply so I can push it on all of my own favorite people.

The prose here is spare and haunting, the story surreal even in its direct narration, and the premise unsettling. I opted for audio, and appreciated the narrated critical commentary at the conclusion, as it provided context for the author's personal history and the reception to her story in the years since it was published. This leaves the reader with far more questions than it ever answers, and I appreciated how open-ended the philosophical questions are. How do you define time when you are the only human to experience it? How do you experience grief or loss when you don't have a memory of what came before? How do you tell a story when you aren't sure anyone will ever hear it? Ultimately, I really enjoyed the way this made me think about living in community with other people and how we organize time and experience to survive.

This is so lighthearted and cozy and horny and genuinely a really good time. This is absolutely a fated-mates style set-up with insta-lust, so if that's not your thing, take note! But I wasn't bothered by this at all - it felt like most of my fave cheesy early aughts rom-coms. Of course he walks into her cute cafe and makes eyes with her and they keep crossing paths in silly ways until they finally bang! Also, the complaints that this is somehow too horny are frankly absurd, because I feel like I read a thousand reviews saying there's too much sexiness and then they didn't kiss until more than halfway through and it felt right? This is like Practical Magic with more kitchen witch baking and a happily ever after. Extremely low stakes. 

As always when I read contemporary romance, I'm always *hoping* for a sexual health conversation before oral, and it almost never happens (shout out to Erin McLellan who gets it right every time, though). It doesn't happen here, and there is an annoying comment about how they've "nearly" had sex that just doesn't make sense to me when the FMC is canonically bi and they've already had oral and don't need the hetero only-PIV-is-sex nonsense. But these are the little sex quibbles that make me cranky about contemporary stories, generally, because I can't suspend my disbelief as easily as when I'm in a historical or fantasy setting. 

Things I loved:
The slow-and-steady recovering of a high-achieving perfectionist who has never figured out how to lose. Laine was so frustrating for me at times, and I think it's partially because she's deeply relatable (in a way I hate to admit!). She is so caught up in her own insecurities that she struggles to see what's happening around her and misses some really critical insights into the lives of friends and family. I loved seeing her work to build back her own self-confidence in a truly sustainable way.

Zoe. Zoe is fantastic, and if anything, I feel like she's too forgiving and gracious when I would probably stay petty! But I do love that for her.

Queer found family. The Queer Mountaineers are so good, and I loved seeing a best friend really come through in the third act.

The struggling family business in a small town. This is one of the few real overlaps I can judge in my own life and it hit very close to home. Having grown up in the ever-present shadow of my family's fourth-generation greenhouse/florist, I really appreciated seeing Zoe's inability to separate her complicated grief from her own career ambitions and her stubborn refusal to feel shame for the patchwork ways a small business holds itself together (hey, we used a potato masher to strip the leaves from rose stems for cut-flower vases, so I see your plastic-wine-bins and stand in solidarity). It's hard to convey just how much you can love something that also feels like a massive burden and how quickly you will cut out anyone who says a word against it because it's YOURS. I loved this.

Things I didn't love:
I really wish there had been a conversation related to sexual health in this - the absence was noticeable for me in the opening blind-folded threesome. I really appreciate when authors shows how to have an affirming and non-stigmatizing conversation about sexual health and STI history before oral, in particular, and that doesn't get page time here.

The sub-plot with her dad. I love the family's backstory, to a point, but my patience for lovesick-in-grief when it involved some fairly profound parental neglect came up short. 

Ugh, Rachel. Just, Rachel.

Ultimately, I zipped right through this and really enjoyed the central romance, even if a few beats didn't really work for me.

The alchemy of a KJC novel is in how she will take two absolutely average people and make it swoon city by the end. It's remarkable. Every single time she starts us off with "here's a guy you would literally never remember after you saw him, he is average height and average build and his eyes are kind of gray and he wears pretty average clothes that look a little old if I'm honest and he isn't very confident you know and he also doesn't have a lot of friends or hobbies or anything he's particularly good at" and then at about the 50% mark the other character is ready to take a bullet or a long sword for him and honestly that tracks because this guy is pure gold and I take back every average thing I ever said about him.

Anyways, this is that, again, and it never gets old, and I loved these two softhearted fools and all the ways they explore intimacy and partnership. Lovely. 

Abdullah is so underhyped it's frankly criminal. I reread book one in anticipation of this release, and I was still absolutely delighted to see how creatively she recapped the first book's plot at the start of The Ashfire King (we love our long-winded prince!!). It takes about 20% or so for the plot to really thicken in this installment and for the quest to kick in, but once it does, the action moves at breakneck speed. I need an entire glossary of the ifrit stories (please!!!!), because they are so fascinating and also I can't keep them straight, and every time Loulie tells herself "wow this magic really is too complicated for me to understand," I would think, same girl. My understanding of the magic that holds together the jinn realm is about as solid as the magic holding together the jinn realms, but I was still having a great time.

I love our little cast of found family misfits so much, and seeing the character development for each of our primary crew - Qadir, Loulie, Mazen, and Aisha - was so gratifying. The friendship and partnership between Qadir and Loulie is so damn pure and heartwarming and I just love seeing them fight for one another, and Aisha's journey to accepting the limitations of her own abilities and experiences is well done. I also deeply appreciate the exploration of duty and unasked-for responsibility in Qadir and Mazen's storylines and the ways the narrative questions the stories we tell about war. I cannot wait to see where we journey in book three.

Damn. The first 75% of this felt like a story we've read a couple times before, and at times, I was more curious than wholly invested, and then the final 25% was like being repeatedly punched in the gut, and the reason for this prequel finally made perfect sense. Collins makes very clear the personal risks those who resist authoritarians take, the nature (and remarkable ease) of deploying propaganda and how easily we misunderstand the sacrifices of those who fought the system before us. The epilogue felt almost too on the nose for me, personally, but ultimately, this conclusion felt meaningful in its addition to the canon, and while I've seen others complain that the cameos felt like fan service, I truly felt like the cameos finally made Catching Fire make SENSE (IYKYK). Also, this installment is even more deeply rooted in Appalachia, and I loved seeing some of our original trilogy lore interwoven in Haymitch's backstory.