Tyler

4/5 • A more insightful self-help book that Trixie and Katya's début.

I found this book to be more organised, useful and content rich than its first instalment “A Guide to Modern Womanhood”. There was less dialogue and filler pages and it appears more time was taken in the planing and sequencing of the book. Would definitely recommend to fans of both Trixie and Katya, I got many laughs and some actual takeaway advice.

5/5 • Literal goosebumps!

I can't believe I hesitated on this book for so long. I started it early last year and the first 100 pages didn't really grab me so I put it down. Finally picked it up the other day and wow, the writing, the story, the character relationships were all superb and that ending was just heartbreaking!! Couldn't recommend this book more.

Honestly, the police in this town are USELESS and couldn't solve a puzzle let alone a crime.

Ultimately, I felt like Connor was too close to the incident to be an impartial detective, resulting in his presence just annoying me. He was consistently interfering with Pip's investigation and expected everyone to go above and beyond just because it was his brother that was missing. I also didn't find this case nearly as interesting as it was a missing person case rather than a murder case. The twist at the end though really got me and resulted in the book going from a 3 ⭐️ to a 4 ⭐️ read. I feel like the follow up book needed to be a longer period after the previous case (maybe when Pip was finished with university and this turns into her career). I did enjoy the aspect of her posting updates to her followers whilst she was solving the case and viewers could input their ideas and suggestions that Pip then followed up on. Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read with a good twist at the end regardless of how left of field the twist was (honestly it felt like I was reading another book when everything unfolded) and I would recommend this to anyone that enjoyed the first novel.

5/5 • Easiest 5 star rating of the year.

I absolutely adored this book. After not reading a true fantasy book in years I am now hooked and can't wait to start the next. The descriptions of the land and creatures was immaculate and the character dynamics were jaw dropping. The hatred I felt towards the end of the book was a true testament to Maas's writing of villains.

3/5 • Not what I expected.

I went into the book thinking it would be a lighthearted, quick, romance read based on the blurb. It was anything but that, it relied heavily on the work obsessed female trope too busy for love and I found some of the events a bit heavy especially considering how the story ends.

“Some people are born in the mountains, while others are born by the sea. Some people are happy to live in the place they were born, while others must make a journey to reach the climate in which they can flourish and grow. Between the ocean and the mountains is a wild forest. That is where I want to make my home.”

A great book that delivers insight into gender neutrality and the power of using correct pronouns.

I'm at an utter loss for words. This series was incredible! I'm very glad a waited to read this series as it's been sitting on my shelf for awhile, as I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I read it earlier into my reading journey. This trilogy was very heavy, intense, dark and at times hard to follow and explain to those around me that asked about the book. However, I appreciate that Kuang didn't dilute or dumb down this important story to appeal to the masses. At its core this is a story of war, colonisation, political agendas and ultimately revenge. I absolutely loved the concluding novel God of War because Rin our main character was betrayed almost constantly by powerful men around her that took advantage of her age and naivety, and she got revenge and became arguably a problematic character. But guess what I DONT CARE!! I was 100% supporting women's wrongs in this book, Rin's enemies got what they deserved and I very much enjoyed their suffering. 5 ⭐️, great book, #RinIsAGirlboss

1/5 • First DNF of 2023

This book has been sitting on my TBR for a couple of years and I finally picked it up at the start of the year. While this book touched on some important adult topics such as; managing finances, body image issues, eating disorders and blended families etc. I felt there was way too many characters introduced too quickly with virtually no description given till later in the story and for some characters no description at all. As the story centres around three seperate couples within a family I think the book would have been better structured in three parts, one for each couple rather than blending them into a mismatch of chapters. I found nearly all the characters and the relationships un-relatable and this book put me in a bit of a reading slump as I didn't want to pick it up so unfortunately I had to dnf to move onto a book I would enjoy.

3/5 • Really wanted to love it.

I think this book has been recommended to me the most over the past year or so. I went in with high expectations and whilst I did enjoy some of the story I found most of the characters to be quite frustrating and honestly unlikable. The storyline was relatively predictable, I did enjoy the court trial and the descriptive language used to describe the landscape. Overall a pretty avantage read.

Okay, I'm sorry Miss Rebecca that I ever doubted you! The fact that you have made me hate, tolerate, like, love and then absolutely despise a a primary character in this series shows how incredibly well written these books are. Unfortunately, from pages 200-400 I felt a real lull in the pacing and not a whole lot of things were happening; however, now finishing the book I understand why these scenes were important for the conclusion of this book. I have taken off a star though because I do feel like the middle of the book could have been more condensed to reduce the overall length of the book or even if more storyline peaks were included to juxtapose the troughs of important information. Overall, that ending had me gagged and I'm jumping straight into the third and final book.

3/5 • A frustratingly, toxic relationship.

While I appreciated the beautiful writing of this book with rich descriptions. The dynamic between the two main characters can only be described as toxic. I found myself towards the end really not caring about their relationship and wanting them to both just move on as they both brought too many issues and hid their true emotions.

I was so invested in this story and main characters that I managed to read this book in mostly one sitting. Pip was such an enjoyable protagonist and I loved her type A personality and it made me reflect on my time as a student and made me miss academia. The reason I couldn't give this book 5 stars was partially because I guessed part of the twist pretty early on, so instead of an ‘OMG' twist it was more of ‘I knew it!' moment. I think aging up the characters would have lended to a more high stakes outcome as it felt at time pretty unbelievable the risks a 17 year old was willing to take. Also the amount of time it took characters to literally reveal all their deepest darkest secrets after very little probing from Pip, further added to the unbelievability of the story. Overall, this is a highly recommended read and I will be continuing the trilogy.