Elle

This one was interesting, in almost all the horror books I've read, they've been about something paranormal and supernatural. This is the first time I've read anything where it's just plain humans as the monsters and I found that very refreshing and interesting.

It may not have had me looking over my shoulder and turning the lights on but it definitely made me uneasy. A lot of the stories are realistic and things that could, and maybe have, happen to real people. Some would argue that makes it all the more scarier.

Some of my favourites were, The Protest, by Jeremy Robert Johnson, The Heartbreak Boys, by Andrew Cull, Scrying Eyes, by Laurel Hightower, and Between The Crosses, Row On Row, by Venezia Castro.

Honestly the introduction of Corso's pack into Devon's I did not like at all. The way it happened, Talia's sudden epiphany about being able to give Corso everything she wanted for him when she left I found to be unrealistic, and I did not like the fact that it was brushed over within like 2 chapters, especially considering Talia's VERY strong negative reaction to it. Not to mention, 9 people in one pack is a lot to keep track of, my brain is hurting.

I did warm up to Corso's pack eventually, especially Reid, but it still wasn't enough for me to forgive their earlier mistakes. They have history with Talia and they were able to easily slip into their relationship from before but we the readers did not get to experience the past so it leaves those relationships, at least to me, feeling rushed and disingenuous.

There was also a decline in plot. The first book was fleshing out relationships between the pack members until the last 20% where things really amped up and I was expecting much more action and angst, I wanted more groveling between the FMC and MMC's but unfortunately I was left disappointed. Instead I got 80% of smut and only about 20% plot. I have a feeling book 3 is going to progress much like book 2 did but I am hoping for more plot.

Jesus Christ, those trigger warnings are no joke. Usually things like that don't get to me but I was not prepared for the amount of detail and specifics, it was making me squirm and a little nauseous.

At first I thought this was going to be like every omegaverse book, FMC is forced for whatever reason into a pack of all men that hate women and she's treated unfairly until some big event happens that shakes them all which makes them realise their faults and they have to grovel to get her back. I'll admit I was cringing a bit at certain scenes and dialogue, but goddamn did it start to amp up within the last 20%.

I'm diving straight into the second one and I'm both excited and anxious to see where it goes.

I feel like when you're writing something like this, a biography of a murderer who killed 100s, you have to stay detached and unbiased no matter your feelings but it was obvious from the very beginning that Carlo was singing Richard's praises and was confirmed by Carlo himself in the epilogue. Carlo also repeated information a lot throughout the book, it quickly become redundant and annoying. I genuinely feel the book would be 300 pages shorter if all the repeated information were to be cut out.

Overall reading about the infamous Richard Kuklinski was very interesting, I do question the validity of his stories, who knows whether they're true or not, and we'd likely never know, but it was incredibly fascinating.

This one was so much harder to trudge through than the other two, I definitely think it could've been cut down to a duet and didn't need to be 3 books long. I contemplated dnf'ing a quite few times but I spent too much time on this series to give up on it. Things started to pick up again at about 70% and it got me excited but then it slowed down pretty quickly and I was back to begging the book to be over already.

The first 150 pages are just the pack talking about how awful Devon treated Talia and so much repeated dialogue over the same subject again and again, it was so tedious to read through I could literally feel my brain shutting down. There's a lot of roundabout conversations throughout the whole series but it was really prevalent in this one.

And a big part of the plot is getting Talia pregnant, which I should've expected considering all the talk about babies and such, but I thought it was in a freaky breeding kink kind of way. I'm not really a fan of pregnancy or babies so it wasn't interesting to me at all.

After the way King treated Amelia and what he did to her, he had the gall to act all woe is me. It was so utterly pathetic, I wasn't even mad, I was just disgusted. I found him to be incredibly insufferable and not redeemable in the slightest, even after things had been “resolved” he still treated her terribly with little regards to her own feelings.

Amelia wasn't any better, I found her feelings for King to be ridiculous from the very beginning and she of course suffered from good ol' body betraying syndrome. She let King off the hook wayyyyy too easily for my liking, he deserved a good kick in the head and then some.

I also did not care at all about Quinn's little side quests dotted throughout the book, I found him almost as bad as King.

If I had a nickel for every time I read a book about a woman developing psychosis from postpartum depression I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice.

In all seriousness, I really resonated with Jiyoung's story, especially the special treatment of her brother. I was even sharing excerpts of the book with my sister and we both mulled about the similarities between both Jiyoung's life and ours.

Reading about the experiences and sacrifices that us women have to go through just because we're women made me incredibly sad and disheartened, and usually I use reading as a way to escape from real world horrors, but I truly truly loved this book and was so glad that I read it.

I absolutely loved this book! I must admit I was a little uncomfortable with the stereotypes and a lot of the language used, mostly because it's coming from a white author, but I realise that was necessary and realistic and it really got the point across and I think Stockett did a surprisingly good job considering.

One complaint that I have is that I feel as if the one white character took up a lot of space. I understand how important Skeeter was to the plot and I really liked her but I do feel her chapters were much longer than Minny's and Aibileen's and were filled with a lot of unnecessary information.

But I have to commend Stockett for the story and the characters she brought to life. I was so invested in absolutely every character, even the evil ones! I loved Minny, she was easily my favourite! I especially loved her smart mouth, how courageous she was, the way she looked after everyone in spite of herself, and the way she cared about Celia in her own way really warmed my heart.

Aibileen was the heart and soul of the story. The way she helped garner maids for Skeeter, when both she and Minny encouraged Skeeter to go to New York, the way she looked after and encouraged Mae-Mobley and the affirmations she would recite to her daily, and the way she handled Minny and really understood her. I loved their friendship the most of all.

Skeeter was great too, even though I do believe she had selfish reasons of writing the book in the beginning. As the story went on you could really tell how she came to free herself of earlier thinking, I loved when she saw how nasty Hilly was and questioned why she was ever friends with someone like that and I loved when Skeeter had a moment of clarity and truly understood what her own book was about.

And I loved seeing Ms Hilly backed into a corner by the scheming done by the trio, especially Minny, I do wish I got to see more of a comeuppance for her but in the real world I know that wouldn't happen and I appreciate that things were done realistically.

I like to believe in my hearts of hearts that after the open ending everything went well for Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter and for my own sanity I will ignore everything that says otherwise.

I've seen a few reviews critiquing the ‘flowery writing' and I unfortunately have to agree, a lot of big words strung together and it became tedious to read after awhile. I also had a really hard time understanding what was going on.

I wanted to like this one much more than I did. It did get better as time went on and I enjoyed the ending, but that doesn't undo my confusion for more than half the story nor the way it was written.

I liked Andrew. I found him to be redeemable and actually quite sweet. I loved his use of letters to open up to Victoria in hopes she'd open back up to him, especially because letters were so important to her. I understood why he was angry at her, thinking she and her family had schemed to marry him for his title, and because of that I found it easier to let go of his mistreatment towards her. I also think he worked very hard to make it up to her.

Even though I thought she could've been a little angrier with Andrew, I loved Victoria. She had a good head on her shoulders from the get go and the way she was able to take charge in times of uncertainty and look after the estate she was abandoned at was very admirable. She even took in and loved Andrew sisters like her own even though she wasn't on good terms with her husband.

I cannot even begin to express how disappointed I am that there hasn't been a second book in 15 years, I would've ate this series up! Thankfully I believe it ended on a decent ending that could be mistake for happy for now, so I'm at least somewhat satisfied.

Meyer created such an interesting world in The Host, I loved the concept of aliens taking over planets in order to make them “peaceful” and not seeing anything wrong in what they're doing.The difficulty of being two people in one body and having differences with that person created the most perfect angst. I felt so sad for Melanie and what had become of her, the way she mourned her life from before with Jared and Jamie. Every memory she flashbacked to made my eyes water and yet I didn't hate Wanda at all, which was polarising. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her also and how she was treated and what she had to endure. The way she felt so unsure of herself and how people really felt about her because they couldn't separate her from Melanie.

The tension between Melanie & Jared, and Ian & Wanda was so sad. It was hard to watch the way they all pushed and pulled against eachother. I thought Ian's love for Wanda was so sweet, when he told her that he held her in his hand and that she was so beautiful, I squealed a little. Now that is a man that would love you even if you were a worm! That being said though, I did find the romance to be a bit cheesy and sappy at times, also Mel being 17 and Jared 26 at the beginning of their relationship was a little off putting but that's a Meyer staple I guess.

I felt like there was something missing from this book that's present in the others of the series, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I definitely noticed it. Maybe it's because Flora and Alec's story was shorter.

I did enjoy it though I found it to be less dramatic than the others, I was expecting more angst but things were resolved pretty quickly. I liked Flora and Alec, I'm bummed out that we didn't get to see more from them.

I can't help but feel this one isn't as memorable as the others though, I didn't hate nor love it and to be honest I even feel a little underwhelmed by it which is a real shame because this is one of my favourite series and I've been looking forward to the 4th instalment for awhile.

This was a sweet, fast, and easy read. I liked Evan and I found him to be redeemable, not only did he apologise several times, he also made grand gestures that showed how he had matured from before. Running away for ten years was little crazy though, I felt that time frame was a little too long.

Elaine was sweet also, she was brave considering what she put up with and I like that she didn't forgive Evan right away and he truly had to work for it. I absolutely loved Elaine's mother and how protective she was of her. Lady Stockhurst was an absolute genius, but she was also very whimsical and had the ravings of a mad scientist. I thought she was a fun character.

Getting proper insight from BTS themselves was both intriguing and heartbreaking. Hearing of how they were treated in the early days and their thoughts and feelings throughout their career was very eye opening. Looking back on moments in the past 10 years and now knowing their thoughts behind them has made me look at things with a fresh perspective.

I've read my fair share of Harlequins and know what to expect at this point but this one really peeved me and left me feeling unfulfilled. In my opinion, Angelo was not at all redeemable and Gwenna was far too naïve and innocent, she had absolutely no backbone and bent over backwards for literally every character in the book.

Her rude and entitled step-sisters and step-mother that constantly belittled and bullied her. Her own father who stole from her when she was just a child and used her as a prawn in his schemes, who was also a sniveling, spineless loser that didn't get the comeuppance he rightfully deserved and was forgiven far too easily. And the supposed Hero who treated her terribly and made her feel awful from the very first moment they met and then all through their “relationship”, if you can even call it that, and yet all he had to do was kiss her and suddenly everything was okay again. I've given myself eye strain from the amount of times I rolled my eyes at Angelo being “oh so irresistible” that Gwenna simply couldn't stay mad at him. I spent the whole book wanting to shake the woman by her shoulders and demand she stand up for herself for once.

2 stars for Piglet and Piglet only. What a good boy.

The premise of the story was both unique and interesting, I think White executed it decently well and I really liked the ending, but I do have a few complaints.

The amount of times weight is mentioned in this book is crazy, it was so redundant and got to a point where it was taking me out of the story. Same with Sarah constantly talking about how she's “not like other girls”, she was peak female character written by a male author and again it ruined the immersion. I shouldn't be surprised at thinly veiled misogyny and constant fat shaming considering the plot of the book but it is a horror story and I would've much preferred the focus on that instead of filling up the book with useless moments and dialogue that served no purpose.

Whilst reading A Hunger Like No Other I was intrigued by the Valkyrie's and so it was interesting to get a glimpse about their origins in the beginning.

Myst was great, I loved how witty and smart she was. I'm a bit iffy on Wroth, he could be a bit of an asshole and his obsession with Myst's past lovers was incredibly annoying to read about, who cares how many she's had in the past, she's hundreds of years old! But I liked how he proved himself in the end.

Once again I felt as if something was lacking, but I'm holding out hoping that each book in the series will get progressively better.

Preferential Treatment is far from my usual taste but I gave it go for Heather Guerre and I was not in the least disappointed, in fact I enjoyed it immensely.

I loved Kate so much, her intelligence was easily my favourite aspect of her personality. Her upbringing, her family, her friendships, her morals, I loved reading it all and I found her to be very relatable. I also really liked that Kate and her sister rekindled their relationship.

Mikhail was such a sweet sweet man, even though he was a bit stupid at times, I liked him a lot and found his dry sense of humour to be genuinely funny. I appreciated that the third act break up between the two didn't run on for so long and things were resolved well. I thought that Mikhail's gestures to show Kate he loved her were very grand and sweet.

The dialogue was unrealistically formal and I found the writing to be a little juvenile, it was hard to immerse myself when that was all I could focus on. There was also a moment when Amalia said, “women are often petty and stupid” and that really rubbed the wrong way. Nothing I hate more than a FMC with internalised misogyny.

Rurik's feelings towards his own son was another thing for me, in the epilogue he spoke about how he loved him but could barely tolerate him and “he often wanted to throw him across the room for trying to be more dominant than him.” He also said that he didn't find his own son cute because he is a male. I just found that to be a little weird and off putting.

One thing I did really like was the action, the book starts out relatively slow but the action was fast paced and exciting, I enjoyed it. I do think the story was a just a tad long and could've been 100 pages shorter, but I did appreciate the slow burn.

I loved reading about all the new characters Viv interacted with, I loved how everyone had their own little quirks and that Viv was able to network with them and even befriend some, it was so sweet when everyone banded together to help her out. There were so many loveable characters, I couldn't possibly pick favourites, but Thimble and Amity have a special place in my heart.

A sweet and satisfying end to an amazing series! I've been obsessed with The Bonds That Tie from the very first book and have been eagerly devouring each release since and I can't believe it's really over!

The entire plot was unique and something I haven't seen done before. The action during the whole series has kept me on my toes, it has been gripping and truly entertaining to read. The romance between Oli and her bonded group has been incredibly sweet. I loved reading each of their individual moments with Oli and their first bonding's to each other, especially Nox's, and how they all learnt to get along with one another and their god bonds.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series since the very beginning and I think that the way J. Bree executed it was great. I'm genuinely a little sad that it's over and that we'll have to say goodbye to Oli and her boys but I can't wait to read what's to come next from J! I'm lowkey hoping that some time we get to delve into Sage or Sawyer's story.

I don't know what possessed me to read this considering I have a fear of moths but I'm glad I did! It was a such a sweet and fluffy romance.

Merrick was so darn cute and soft, I love the awkward, introverted, nerdy type and he was exactly that! He was so shy in the beginning, stammering and rambling out of nervousness, I loved seeing him come out of his shell!

I loved Grace and how she was determined to not fall inlove until she met Merrick and the way she spoke about him was so incredibly sweet! I loved reading her big declaration of love, even though that's not usually my thing, with these two it was very fitting.