adds

Me: starts reading
Kindle: 8 hrs 5 mins left in book
Me: Hmm ok, I'll have to put this down for bed, but that's alright.
Kindle: 1% done
Me: If the rest of this is as good as the first 8 pages I'm in trouble...
Me: 5 am I didn't put it down. I don't regret my decision.

We Are the Ants is the perfect blend of the human condition, bittersweet nihilism, and tenacity of hope. I saw myself reflected in the cynicism and dry sarcasm of Henry, the main character. I keenly felt the paralyzing fear of choices through this book. I laughed until I almost couldn't breathe, got choked up, paced in circles around my house, and even woke someone up in another room with an uncontrollable cursing fit from the emotional roller coaster at one point. Whoops!

I can safely say We Are the Ants is 1 of my top 3 books this year.

I like Elle. I love Ceph. I hate how obvious his name is, but that's whatever. They're great together; I just wish this wasn't as insta-lovey as it was. Give me more resistance, angst, survivor's guilt, and guilt over perceived betrayal. I actually found myself pretty invested in the sci-fi action/adventure plot.

If voyeurism or exhibitionism bothers you steer clear of this book. Everyone knows what you're doing thanks to group telepathy.

I'm embarrassed I read these 3 novellas. Not because of the sex parts, but just because of how craptastic everything was. I mean, bad. Really really bad. I literally said, “what the actual fuck?!” every few pages. This should have been put on Literotica and left there.

I know what it's like to be conflicted over someone. I get it! But good Lord, Katie had multiple personalities to the Nth degree. She flip flops multiple times on the same damn page. “I love him because... PENIS! I hate him... sort of.” Brandon is a creepy domineering asshole. I wanted to punch him in the face so much. Of course this story makes it ok though, because he's rich and hot and he had... reasons. Douchenozzle deserved a restraining order and a swift kick in the nuts at the least.

Author(s), if you want to publish a sexual fantasy of yours then that's totally great. But you have to flesh out an actual story, not just awkwardly force a plot along to get to yet another not-so-fantastic sex scene. I don't know anyone who orgasms at the drop of a hat. If you can insta-cum the second someone puts a finger in you then you're the exception, not the rule. Also, people can and do say no to sex, even when it's with someone they love.

DNF 26%

I spent most of my time frowning while reading this. Too many questions of “why?” or extreme skepticism. The vibe of this is social commentary, but the message isn't clear.

Also, the characters suck. I hate Cal and I hate Frida even more. If anyone shouldn't have survived whatever the hell happened it's her. Cal I could see actually making it with some struggle.

I was hoping I'd be one of the few who liked this, but I'm not. I can understand the low-ish votes and semi-negative reviews.

I just finished Star-Crossed and I'm so exhausted. Done-in. Emotionally drained. I've just been on one tempestuous journey, and it wasn't always very easy to keep going but thank god I did.

I almost gave up on this book at least 3 different times. I was seriously so frustrated with how awkwardly hard it was trying. Having them perform Romeo and Juliet while reading Lolita at the same time? C'mon now, really? So disgustingly obvious I almost couldn't take it. Yet there was this little voice that kept whispering about how much I was liking Kaitlyn and Will Tennant's interactions. It kept saying, “Who is Mr. Tennant? What will he do?” I will be honest that I skimmed a lot just to get the gist of things and get right back to Kaitlyn and Mr. Tennant.

For me, Will Tennant made this book. Kaitlyn may be the main character and did the most evolving, but I silently saw everything from Will's perspective even while it's Kaitlyn's voice guiding and telling the story. He's my age so I easily put myself in his shoes. I've even had someone years younger than I am make an impressive attempt to woo me into a fling with more confidence than someone their age should rightfully posses. It was disconcerting for me to say the least. I also totally understand how some people and relationships can transcend societal barriers. Some people just connect and the rest almost pales in importance.

Both Kaitlyn and Will had a lot to figure out internally. Different kinds of growth spurts haphazardly come throughout life. There's no guidebook on how to grow up and sometimes it hits hard and devastates while it's happening. So yeah, Will made me cry. I literally started bawling for him I couldn't even see to keep reading. It surprised the hell out of me how much I empathized with his pain.

I would definitely recommend this book to people. It might not be easy to get through but do what you gotta do to keep going because I found it absolutely worth it by the end, faults and all.

Game of Thrones Dothraki romance/erotica fan-fiction set on another planet humans have partially, and somewhat unsuccessfully, tried to colonize where the wannabe Dothrakis have tails.

Somewhat questionable consent in that if you get someone tipsy and the touchy-touchy feels good it's not really rape.

I'd call this more a short story. Or a .5 novella prequel. This doesn't have to be read to understand the other two books. If I hadn't read this I wouldn't have had the horror Rose refers to painted out for me in gory detail. I might not have minded that. At times it can be good to imply or hint at things and let the reader use their imagination.

It's been years and the blurb and genres are still misleading. This is erotica veering into BDSM like spanking, anal, power play, and primal/animal play. This isn't dark romance. There's almost no romance at all actually until the last 10% of the book. None of the characters are really obsessive/possessive or even morally grey. Trauma and violence doesn't automatically mean dark romance. If you're looking for that from the title and the blurb it's not here. Instead we get a paranormal mystery thriller plot to get us from one sex scene to the next. It's really unfortunate that this wasn't a romance to keep me more invested. I was never really hit with any big emotional impact. I had the mystery figured out 45% of the way in. The twist is revealed at about 88% which is also when the more romantic stuff starts up but there's barely a love story to get choked up over. If this had been tackled differently I probably would have cried over these characters. Instead I mostly watched them have somewhat rough sex while calling each other bunny, lion, sir, and master a few too many times. This isn't a bad read, it just wasn't genre melded together, presented, or sold the right way for me.

This is ok. Ophelia never being even a teensy bit scared of the “monster” kind of defeats the purpose of having a monster as the love interest for me. If you like Luxuria try [b:Land of the Beautiful Dead 27228341 Land of the Beautiful Dead R. Lee Smith https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446254788l/27228341.SY75.jpg 47272939]. And if you didn't like Luxuria definitely try it because it has all the romantic and sexual pining, angst, and drama that I was missing here.

I'm not sure if it's the cover, or what, but I fully expected a poorly written story just to get readers from one interspecies erotica scene to another. Wow, that's not what the Wraith Kings series is at all. I'm so here for the world building.

Also, the second book might even be better than the first one, and Radiance is pretty darn good.

Written by a millennial woman for other millennial women. I would know; references felt targeted. The writing is mildly pretentious a handful of times and the book, with the entire premise of I'm-sad-you're-sad-let's-be-sad-together, isn't really worth adapting into a movie imo.

The female lead is an early to mid (I swear an editor missed an age consistency) 30's children's librarian who dowdily looks the part and seems to never wear makeup. We also get a smattering of adorkableness, I'm-not-like-other-girls, a huge dose of negative self-esteem, along with trust, and daddy issues. What a bundle of joy she is (sarcasm). I don't know how, but somehow, she's still “sexy”.

Her male romantic love interest is again, somehow handsome through his potheaded bearded scruffiness and self-confidence issues which stem from slowly revealed family baggage and drama (not trying to give away too much here). His personality is a massive improvement from hers and at least got me to finish this.

If you're in an airport bookstore and the pickings are slim this should do for a flight. Otherwise, life is short read something else unless you're great at skimming.

There were a few times (a lot of times) I considered chucking this book, but I actually finished.

Reasons why I almost quit:
1. Outrageous names like Six, Sky, and Dean Holder-but-of-course-he-goes-by-his-last-name.
2. Slut shaming.
3. Gay bestie trope.
4. Creeptastic and volatile male lead.
5. Teens who have dialogue that is either completely unrealistic or should be coming from the most ridiculously well-rounded adult ever.
6. The constant, and I mean freaking constant, misuse of lay/lie. It hurt. It hurt me so much. Ow...

Reasons why I kept reading:
1. Must know big twist.
2. Must see if I'm right about a possible second smaller twist.
3. Must see how the actions of the male love interest are explained away and if it's satisfactory reasoning. Verdict: meh, kind of?
4. Actually awesome sexual tension. That was intense and obviously where Colleen Hoover excels.

Focusing on Mr. Intense Dean Holder for a minute. I've read worse. He could have been way worse. I see a lot of reviews ragging on Holder for remembering small details, but I've been there. I've kind of been Holder. I'm intense. I have an uncanny memory for recognizing people, remembering names, dates, or just general info about someone. This freaks people out. I've been freaking people out for years. My good memory has traumatized people before. Poor me. And hopefully poor Holder settles with age. Man, stop punching things. Therapy will help.

I almost need therapy after how much turmoil was in this book actually. That shit was rough. Someone needs to add some trigger warnings somewhere.

Music that fits
Oh Wonder - Livewire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjgnOP8f5NU
Made In Heights - Murakami https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEy1yZwJ-ko

This is obviously not the kind of story where someone locks eyes with a dragon and ends up telepathically linked or some such. No, this is about science and study, but not in a boring way. This is still an adventure. Smugglers and murder and intrigue. Oh my!

Now in her older years, Isabella has decided to write a series of memoirs. I usually quite like memoirs. The people writing them tend to be interesting or they wouldn't have a story. Isabella has a story, and it's a good one. I just wish she wasn't so damn arrogant.

At times in the first half of the book she'd take us out of the story and talk to us, the readers, as if we're beneath her.

“You may think you see plenty of stars, friend reader, but you are wrong.”