sam <3

pros:

- the mystery was rock solid. it took some really unexpected turns too.
- some twists totally caught me by surprise
- this was really funny. definitely more than i was expecting it to be.
- the writing was very digestible which i loved
- stevie, my relatable queen
- david, the hopeless romantic
- nate is such a softie & a hilarious one at that
- susan & paul are my gay parents


cons:

- the pacing was kinda off. We got a couple of flashbacks and that was it?! the rest of the book was in present time which didn't really make much sense in the context of the previous books
- it was almost like i had read this book before. coz i had, in all the previous books in this series. all of them follow pretty much the same format and it can get really tedious. 

Overall, this was probably my favorite installment of this series. I enjoyed it a lot! Hopefully we'll get more of Stevie Bell and this isn't the end. I also gotta read all of Maureen Johnson's backlist. 

This is one of the best romances I've ever read. It has Love, Rosie vibes which I loved and I was a sobbing mess by the end. A wild ride from start to finish.
It was incredibly funny with witty banter and entertaining dialogue but also really profound at the same time. This is everything I could ever want in a romance. It really has some of FAVORITE tropes. 
That is not to say that this book was perfect. The entire time we are building up to the Croatia trip and what caused their “friendship” breakup but when we actually get there, the pay off is very disappointing. I was left feeling like, that's it? this is what made you not talk to each other for two years?. Alex, at times, was really prickly and that kind of ruined it for me. Also, the miscommunication trope is...used. But I still freaking loved it. This book got me out of a reading slump!

i have no idea how to write a review for this book but you gotta start somewhere so here goes. this is officially now one of my all time faves. 
this book made me cry happy tears. like a lot of them. first of all, I loved all the mental health rep. And the rep in general actually. Charlie is also on the asexual spectrum and Dev is Indian! 
Dev put it best: this book is a queer party. Like almost everyone is queer?? And that means so fucking much to me. 
Charlie and Dev were literally so cute, I'm sending them my dentist's bills. 
THIS BOOK WAS ALSO REALLY FUCKING FUNNY WTF
I was a sobbing mess by the end of it tho. like how dare you make me feel so much??? 
IT IS SO WELL WRITTEN ASDGHYGJUBNJ
I loved all the discussions that were had in this book and they're all really important. 
I LOVE PARISA AND JUNE AND SKYLAR AND EVEN RYAN. 
Also, that ending. Daphne's sapphic season spin off when???

omfg i was having such a bad fucking week and then this book came along was like I'M HERE FOR YOU BITCH,,, 
the entire thing was just pure fluff and i love nothing more than that in life!! 
also we need to talk about the demisexual rep??? as an ace person myself, i can't even tell you how fucking happy that made me (autism and diabetes rep are some other reasons to check out this book !) 
this book got the classic grumpy/sunshine trope ~exactly~ right!! it was truly ✨chef's kiss✨
jonathan was soooooo hot omg!! the way he was so caring and protective of gabby had me SWOONING
i loved all the side characters so, so much and this was the cheesy, sappy, You've Got Mail-esque rom-com of my dreams  ! 
AAAAND i loved all the meta-bookish parts of this shit way too much 😭
OH BTW SHE HAS A CAT NAMED GINGERBREAD??? I'LL NEVER RECOVERRRRR

i actually liked this book a lot!! i love stories that are unique spins on classic murder mystery settings. i was also pleasantly surprised by that ending!! the characters were all interesting (except for hanna, she def lacked ~depth~). the romance on the other hand was...just alright??? honestly, it felt a little cookie-cutter and bland but whatever. i loved how this was almost a parody of the exact kind of story it was trying to be. the writing as usual was great, as is expected from alexis hall. 
Overall = i really enjoyed this ,,,

 update 26/12/21: lowering my rating coz in hindsight i've already forgotten a lot about this book. it was a quick one time read but didn't really leave much of an impact on me in the end.

i didn't even know how much i needed this book until i read it. it was the perfect quick read to get me out of my mini-slump.for a book with such a small cast of characters, i really did love a lot of them.I loved holly and rose and ida and stacey so fucking much!!! my ragtag bunch of vengeful vampires 🥺 their dynamic was everything, especially the original three.paige, no, parker...was bland and kind of boring but i didn't really *hate her either.
oh i DESPISED elton, is anyone surprised???
i also loved how feminist and casually queer this book was, which really is the perfect combination if you think about it. i mean who doesn't like a book full of badass women??
this was just a great read that may not have been the absolute best thing i've read but was still a ton of fun (even though the ending was a tad unsatisfying).
this book touched on several different topics and they were handled very well imo. the allegory on abuse was also SPOT ON.
i found the rules of vampirism in this book really interesting too.
BASICALLY I LOVE VAMPIRES, GIVE ME MORE VAMPIRE BOOKS!!!  

This is the worst book i have read this year, and the year has just started. Fuck me.
This book was just bad. The writing was mediocre at best, and Jenny acted like a 9 year old (actually, that's an insult to tweens).
This is literally first world problems in a book. ALSO, INSTA-LOVE. UGH. 
The ending left so many things unexplained??? Least of which is the hook of this book. It's just so lazy. Anyway, I don't wanna spend one more second thinking about this trash. 

This book was so goddamn cute. I love stories about sibling bonds anyway so this was right up my ally. This was also unexpectedly funny in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. I loved how the “romance” was not even a romance, but friendship. That made it so much better. And I need that Irish book lady in my life PRONTO. This also had some really tender moments which I lived for. Overall, a good time through and through. 

 This was probably my most anticipated book of the year. After all, I proudly proclaim take a hint dani brown as one of the best romances I've ever read. So it's with a heavy heart that I announce: this wasn't as good as that book.
Don't get me wrong, I really liked it. There were genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this. The banter were so fun and several scenes had me going awww and wtf?! (in the best way).
I just didn't didn't care about this couple as much as I'd hoped to. Also, some parts of this book were painfully corny. And the last-act-conflict was so stupid. Ugh. I hate the miscommunication trope with every fibre of my being. Nevertheless, I still had a good time and am going to be reading whatever Talia Hibbert writes for the rest of eternity because damn, that woman can write. I love her weird books. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a hit or miss author for me but this one was a fucking hit. I loved it so much. I loved all the female characters, as is to be expected, and scoffed at all the men, as is realistic. 
I fell in love with June and Nina and Kit and Casey and even Tarine (and Ricky, I love him). I wanted to castrate Mick Riva. I was rolling my eyes at Jay and Hud. 
I'm not usually a big fan of flashbacks but TJR does it so incredibly well. 
June, and especially Nina, are some of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. The love I feel for these characters is inexplicable.
The family dynamics in this book are truly spectacular. I HAVE NO WORDS AAAHHHH. 
That is not to say that I liked everything about it. The first half of this book was so much better than the second one what with having to read about random, unimportant characters in the latter. 
And, as much as I felt for these characters, this book could not make me cry. Also it made me hate men even more than I usually do. 
But, at the end of the day, this is still a very well done and complex story that I enjoyed to great extents. Would totally recommend to everyone! 

Wow. That was so weird, I loved it. Unlike anything I've ever read before.
I enjoyed April's character and wanted to scream at her all the same. She did some really shitty things like thirsting over other people when she already had a girlfriend (even though she never treated Maya like one). She is the epitome of an unlikable protagonist.
This made some great observations on humanity and internet culture. The social commentary was one of the best parts of this book for me. 
This book was incredibly funny too. It made me laugh out loud several times. I also loved how intricately woven the plot was. Hank Green is a genius.
While I wasn't expecting that ending, it did leave me kind of unsatisfied with the few answers that we got. I understand that there will probably be more of that in the sequel, but that makes this book seem like all build up.

 This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe. 
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush. 
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me. 
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one. 
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author. 
 

i loved it so fucking much??? as an abuse survivor myself, i related to it so much that it made me sad. i literally highlighted half of this book. the characters are so??? i fucking love them??? especially lee!!
it's also really funny and happening and has some truly badass moments. also can we talk about how iris has endometriosis?? that's so fucking rare in books and i love the rep...
it's also wonderfully feminst which i love to see!! this book is just really fucking powerful
JUST READ IT AAAAAAAA THIS BOOK IS THE SHIT

this is literally my perfect young adult book. i loved absolutely everything about it. it was VERY juicy in a gossip girl kind of way (expect much better coz that show SUCKS. the drama in this one on the other hand was✨chef's kiss✨) and the romance made me realise what swoonworthy even means. 
also even tho we didn't get a lot of it, ivy and emily's friendship completely melted my heart??? LITERAL GOALS I SAY,,, 
oh and the mixed media format was so fun to read. truly one of my fav parts of the book !!
i lurrrrrved the relationship between ivy and daniel. their arc was just sooooo damn satisfying. also mateo and autumn were prettayyy cute. BTW MATEO IS MY NEW BOOK BOYFRIEND. 
and can we just talk about ivy and mateo??? that ship was def the highlight of this book for me. they even made my cold heart flutter (jk my heart is not cold, its warm as a blanket) 
cal was def my least favorite tho. like why was he even there??? other than to further the plot of course 🙄. idk he was just really annoying.
i loved how lil things tied up together by the end tho. like, even the ones outside the actual mystery ( although it gave me trust issues lol). 
speaking of the actual mystery, even though it kind of took a backseat for me because i was just soooo invested in the characters, i loved the main reveal itself. it was just such a mess but also made some points about topics i was not expecting this book to go into. 
i wasn't really a fan of the twist at the end tho. seeing as this isn't a series (at least as far as i know), i saw no point in going for a kind of an open, unsettling ending. idk i just like my books to answer all my questions and not leave me with more by the end, especially in a YA thriller. im the kind of person who needs my stories to be perfectly wrapped up by the end with no cliff-hangers if there isn't going to be a sequel. but that's just me. 
OVERALL THO TAKE ALL MY STARS QUEEN 🙌

I liked Tweet Cute but this was so much better. Emma Lord's writing has improved noticeably! 
This book started out just okay to me but then it slowly got better and better. This has enough family drama to rival the haunting of hill house 💀
I loooooooved the characters especially Finn and Connie (my aro queen ❤❤). Also, Savvy and Micky were so cute, I would kill for them 😭
This gave me the same feelings as Foolish Hearts and I am ALWAYS looking for that. (It's time we accept that authors named Emma are just superior!) By the end, I literally couldn't stop smiling. 
Abby's relationship with Poppy almost made me CRY which literally never happens... 
And Abby and Savvy (that rhymes!) are sister goals. Also, LEO. He is SO precious, my heart can't take it. Abby and Leo were childhood-friends-to-lovers excellence. They kind of also gave me star-crossed-lovers vibes. 
This book made me weirdly nostalgic like my heart is so full??? 
I loved how this wasn't just straight up a rom-com, it focused on so many other relationships too. Emma Lord should do more of that! 
This book just gave me a lot of hope. I related to Abby and her struggles SO much. I don't wanna sound cliché and say “it tackles so many important topics” but it really does. I think a lot of people (especially young people) will resonate with this. The premise is crazy but the execution is amazing.

After You Have A Match, my expectations were definitely way too high for this book. And I was kinda let down. :(But let's start with what I liked. This book had a really strong beginning, or maybe I just thought so coz I had the NEW EMMA LORD BOOK high. I thought this story really had a lot of depth to it. I loved reading about the emotional moments (didnt cry tho which is pretty sad). Millie as a character was quite fun to read about and SOME parts of the romance were definitely Swoonworthy™. Also, I really like that cover.The second half of this book is actually where it all seemed to fall apart for me. I don't usually have a problem with this, but this book was wayyyy too unrealistic to ignore. I was rolling my eyes so hard when it turned out that everything Oliver did that led to the animosity between him and Millie was actually for her own good uwu~~Oh and when Cooper and Beth became a thing (and then got engaged not even a year later)?? COME TF ON NOW. i mean, i get it, we want Millie and Chloe to be stepsisters, but was it really necessary to go to SUCH lengths to make it happen??? in fact, why did everyone have to couple up?! let ppl be single and happy ffsAlso, I saw that reveal coming from a mile ago so like,,,,ANOTHER EYE ROLL. i swear i almost saw my lord and savior jesus christ back there. 🙄Plus, the romance relied way too heavily on the miscommunication trope just for the sake of creating angst even tho it made NO sense. they kept saying they knew each other but he didn't even know what was going on until the last 10% of the book??? NOW NOW NOW i didn't like completely hate this book, hence the rating. i was just expecting something much better. sighhhhh :///

As much as I hate calling books that, this book is so important. I absolutely adored Darcy as a main character. She did make many mistakes which will make you cringe but that just makes her all the more human and endearing. 
In fact, it's hard to think of a character I didn't like in this, which is so rare. The romance was so fucking precious it made me feel like a giggly teenager (...which I am). I also loved all the amazing queer rep in this! We have people from various indentities which made my heart go soft. 
The way this book handled biphobia (both internalized and very much not) in a subtle way was truly commendable. Also, I'm in love with Brougham. 
I loved the Locker 89™ advice sections at the beginning of most chapters. It was enlightening, even for me. 
And the way that “You're queer” scene had me crying in the club? Pitiful, really. 
This book was also really funny. I was cracking up at multiple points. 
Though I have to nitpick about how many times a guy-is-drunk-and-needs-to-be-taken-care-of situation happened. Which is twice, but it's still weird that it happened twice. 
And it did take me some time to get invested in everything and guage how I was feeling, but once I was in I was in. 
Overall: I would totally recommend this book to everyone!!! 

 Overall, I really enjoyed this book!!! Although there was plenty of snark, it was also a bit darker than I was expecting. In fact, this book was not what I'd assumed it would be like at all. In a good way...I think.
I loved the fat representation so much. Even though everyone apart from Mila & Aniyah was annoying (fat girls unite) , this book was still enjoyable.
Oh, and what's with me predicting whodunnit all the time??? Maybe it's coz MEN ARE THE REAL TERROR. 

I actually really liked this book and no one is more surprised than me at this fucking miracle. 
This book was...much funnier than I expected it to be. Unexpected would be a good word to describe it, actually. Sure, it was also at times predictable and seemed to follow the formula that a lot of YA thrillers follow, but I'm not really complaining. 
My one criticism would be that I wish I'd connected to the characters a bit more, but other than that, this book was like a fresh breath of air in that you need to experience it to enjoy it (duh). It was also really diverse which I'm happy about and it does talk about the privileges cis-het white men enjoy, that I really fucking loved. Oh, and the last line made me gasp out loud. 
Overall, a really solid thriller! 

I just realised that Jess is literally the main character.
This was a surprisingly good book! I mean, sure, the synopsis is very misleading and the big twist, while quite unpredictable, requires a great suspension of beliefs; but I still really enjoyed it. This book was a wild ride from start to finish and took a completely different direction than what I was expecting. The romance was really ~unexpected~ and cute. I think I speak for everyone when I say that this just turned one of our biggest what-ifs into reality. Like I said, this book is not very realistic as this would never happen in real life but, sometimes, that's exactly why we read fiction. Overall, this was a really fun read and I would totally recommend it!!!

 minor spoilers???


THIS BOOK WAS SIMPLY EVERYTHING. It was so well written and also made furious at men who do this (as if i needed any more of that in my life 😫). Scarlett is my favorite girlboss and honestly I relate to wanting to kill shitty men.
While i didn't see that twist coming, it was also not anything entirely new to me. But it still made a lot of sense. Every single man in this was awful (except Drew, my gay dad) which is realistic ig 😭
I lurveeeeeed the ending so much. My little meow meows, my precious little sapphic murder buddies 🥺🥺🥺
The entire time I was going, “AS SHE SHOULD 💅”
Nicking half a star though because at times this was kinda predictable. Still absolutely loved it. 

Uhhh...this is awkward.
This wasn't that bad and occasionally really funny but also clichéd as fuck. I had high expectations because this book is hyped but alas! Why the fuck can we not have nice things?
I also could not be free from that cursed “miscommunication” trope. Sigh. Lemme just say, I called it!
I will still be picking up the next book because I've heard it's gets better, just not right away.

is there anything sadder than rereading an old favourite and realising it isn't a favourite anymore?

PROS
- the second half
- all the twists i didn't see coming
- a friends-to-lovers (the superior trope!!!) romance, however vanilla
- this book could save the world
- i loved the direction it took iykyk
- i could honestly read a whole damn book about maya's social media posts, which were infinitely more interesting than anything else in this book

CONS
- the first half
- the writing which felt more middle grade than YA
- how slow (but at the same time not slow) this book was
- the notion that you can't be happy if you don't have kids (ugh, breeders)
- shen was boring as hell

*

The fact that I read this during a similar pandemic . . . hi, eerie existential crisis.
full rtc