writingpen

Disclaimer: I am a long time Cabot fan.
I was super pumped for this book and reserved from the library the first moment I got. And I'll admit I read it pretty quickly. Like always, Cabot's prose style is extremely readable and turns pages. Elements like the book within the book were fun. I also enjoyed both the variety of author personalities and the fact that none of the characters were perfect 1:1 for actual famous authors. The author/ fan interactions also felt cute and real. Also, I will admit that I enjoyed the cat puns.
The (non)- spoiler bad.
- The central “conflict” never felt fully explained. Every time it came up, it felt like the characters were saying “Well, you have to understand....” without ever actually resolving the issue.
- The Harry Potter mention. I totally respect people who love Harry Potter, it was a part of their childhood etc. That being said, indirectly promoting Harry Potter in a published work is just unnecessary at this point. Some of your readers have been traumatized/hurt by J.K Rowlings very public views and at this point HP references take me out of the story. If you must mention a book of the genre, use Circle of Magic etc. ( This is not related to me subtracting stars, but I felt I should mention it. Some people may not want to read this book because of this mention.)
- The main character has like...way too little respect for other people's privacy. It felt invasive and gross.
Potential spoilers beyond this point!
I'm sorry, but this romance plot is completely non-sensical. He said something mean about an author who was also plagiarized *which was completely unneeded*. He could mentioned how badly their writing styles mesh because they write in wildly different genres. Therefore plagiarizing both is just weird. And then she *wildly* overreacts. Refusing to even attend the same convention? Really?? I get not wanting to socialize with him/ not wanting to be on the same panel. Totally reasonable. But she acts like he led a campaign against her or something. It makes the character come across super melodramatic and less likeable compared to the rest of the book. And then! She tries to flesh out a characters background using his personal life. Like, using someone as a vague inspiration is one thing. Diving into his super private business because apparently you can't create your own tragic back story for a character is another. It just felt *super gross.* True, he wrote an entire book that was loosely inspired her, because he thought she was hot. In comparison, it still felt less squicky. Points returned for : no stupid lying, hilarious mentions of their relationship in the press, emails being at the end of the book, excerpts from authors book, and nods to previous Little Bridge characters.

As many other have noted, Daisy is annoyingly quirky. Also, the author really needed to rethink the age gap given their past. ( 4 year ago gap is fine with adults. duh. Him being “aware” of her when she turned 16 is uhhh....real special. There were some moments I enjoyed (yay, swords!) and prose was an easy read. That being said, this is one HEA I don't need to revisit.

This is a really hard review to write. I agonized for several minutes about what the star rating should be. So the good and then the bad!
The good:
I once again love Gailey's prose style. I am not an English major so don't ask me to quantify what makes it so awesome.
I always appreciate when it makes sense why characters didn't communicate fully. A physical separation combined with a trauma would definitely cause two people to see a situation super differently. Outside of a therapy setting the passage of time decreased the odds of a real honest conversation.
I loved the nurse character. She scares me in a good way.
The teenagers felt more like teenagers than a lot of other books I read. Not perfect, the mean girl trope was a bit much, but pretty good.
The parlor room scene was pretty great, though it did have one sort of weird gap.
The bad
- All of the teachers should have been informed that the investigator didn't have a magic background. I know she asked the woman who hired her not to share that info, but it would have been more realistic if that information had been already shared with the adults in the room. I'm willing to buy the kids not being informed.
- I know this book isn't a romance and that its just a minor subplot. That being said, the romance plot used one of my least favorite tropes in a really dumb way.
- Why is she the only one immune to the weird persuasive power?? It is never explained. I kept waiting to find out the main character was immune to magic she didn't consent to, as like a plot twist or something. But nope. Just randomly immune. For reasons. Argh.

This book is adorable. I love the reality show concept and how detailed they get with the crafts. The families cracked me up. My one complaint is the frequency of R-rated scenes. As somewhat of a prude, I cannot speak to the ah...quality of those scenes. I enjoyed the rest though!

Read this for the second time because the dates in the book were actually happening. It's interesting to see how much my own mental focus/ interests affected which things I noticed and cared about each time I read. After I read it the first time I remembered more strongly the protagonist's ex being an a-hole, the main characters lovelife, and of course SCIENCE. The second time around I noticed secondary character more and how stupid a business can be.

Honestly, my main complaint is that it felt like there was slightly too much going on but I enjoyed the ride.

The art style is super pretty and the stories were nice. Zero checking out from library regrets here.

I went into this book wanting to like it more. The premise hooked me immediately. The short story it's inspired by was one of my favorites when it was assigned reading. Unfortunately, I feel it made some incredibly weird mistakes. These include: the "everything is a misunderstanding" trope, weird poems written by a jaguar??, and a nonlinear timeline. I was also just really annoyed by how many cliffhangers the end had. I will fully admit it was a page turner and I read it quickly but I didn't feel satisfied when I put the book down.

This book is probably a 3.5 for me. I could tell the author put a lot if effort into some parts of the book: Like the experience of being closeted. A good job was done of creating a sense of place and the pain of mourning. The friend group and social decisions the MC makes feel very genuine. All the being said, I feel like the author had two book ideas in one book and the story I was wanted : the supernatural research etc. took a backseat. The MC strongly did not approve/ was afraid of the supernatural and avoided dealing with it. I would love a prequel novella. It was like being trapped in car with your friends. You drive past all the stores you want to go to and the car stops at the store your friend wanted to go to.

I finished this book in one day! I could not stop turning the pages. The were twists and turns and the prose was weirdly compelling. I will definitely be looking up the sequel. I liked the way the character rationalizes actions and consciously has to consider her moral code. I think I mainly have two complaints: The MC is way too willing to switch sides/ allegiances. To the point where switching allegiances is no longer shocking. I also felt like Nita's personality/ passions could have been slightly more expanded. I felt like she had her dissections and Disney music and not much else. If she had shown more interest in food like is teased in the beginning or had mentioned she enjoyed singing with the Disney music etc. she would have felt little but more well rounded.

I enjoyed this Mercy Thompson entry, but it's definitely not my favorite. This series shines through it's side characters and this book was focused more closely on the central gang. Also, I was hoping for a more interesting Sherwood Post back story. Overall, I don't regret reading it. It some truly fun scenes and I always like when Zee gets to shine.

Honestly, 3 stars is being generous but I'm rounding up from 2.5 or so. This book was all over the place. It sort of felt like the following happened : 1) author thinks of setting. 2) realizes he has different possible concepts for this setting. 3) Instead of choosing whichever concept workshopped best he wrote a crossover novel between 2 of his current series. The entire things feels like 2 unfinished books were forced to become one at gunpoint.
Crossovers aren't a deal breaker for me but they have to work (ex: Bosch & lincoln lawyer.) In this case, it just felt like too much was going on. It takes way too long to find out why this case has been assigned to the FBI, the body count is so high I lost track at one point, and the way “hints” are used is just strange. Also, the sheer number of conspiracies going on in a small town in North Dakota is just unbelievable. The core mystery Decker is trying to solve gets resolved in a way that pushed my ability so suspend disbelief and I say that as a person who reads fantasy novels. I know Liz has mortuary experience but I feel like she was written as criminal mastermind with no explanation how she got these skills. I know she made stupid mistakes but still. Also: the only gay people in the book are either A) dead. B) psychotic C) Dating/ married to man to hide their gayness. The older lesbian manipulating the younger hot woman and going on murder spree was...not great. It leaned on stereotypes the gay community is associated with. Dammit Baldacci.

This was a fun read. My main complaint is some things felt slightly too convenient. Also, as always with this series I hate the main romance with a burning passion. Thankfully, it was only a minor subplot.

This may even be closer to 2.5, I'm not sure yet. I picked this because (like many others) I enjoyed CRA. In a lot of ways this book gave me what I wanted in terms of rich people drama, exciting locations and generational conflict. I also found the way race and racism was handled was interesting. As a white person I cannot say how accurate that aspect was but I felt it was one of the few areas the really fleshed out the novel. In other words: I could tell Kwan cared about that sub-plot. I also liked that it gave us another perspective on the old vs new rich. It handled in a fresh way and was not a copy paste from CRA.

Unfortunately, the book really suffered in other areas. It's possible part of the issue is Kwan is more used to writing about older people who's relationships have history? The only interpersonal relationships I fully bought into were friendships. The romances just didn't have time to breath. I never felt l knew why these people were in love with each other beyond sexual tension. I mean, George seems preferable to the alternative but I never felt like I knew him. I felt like I knew Auden better!
Additionally, Lucie seems stuck in a permanent state of immaturity, where she can't handle anything in her personal life. At least one of her decisions the letter writing fiasco comes out of a 16 year old's playbook. Which would make sense in the first half of the book, but it happens in the second half. I understand the way she was raised plays into this, but I feel like we never see her adult business woman side. It's like Kwan forgot to mentally age her up after the time jump.
Conclusion: I enjoyed this book and read it really quickly. Yay popcorn reading. But it's lower quality popcorn than I was hoping for. If Kwan writes another book I will certainly give it another chance. Everyone has a dud at some point.

Personally, I really enjoyed this book. Though that may have something to do with the baking the main character does. Give me all the cake... I enjoyed it more than a certain other book with a similar concept. I appreciated that dual timeline didn't have some weird twist where the narrator is outright lying or its someone else. That being said, I can definitely see why it wasn't the right book for some people. The pacing was occasionally odd the main character doesn't take enough responsibility for her present day actions. The whole secret drawer thing, where she never feels bad about stealing someone's cellphone rubbed me the wrong way. Similarly, she constantly blames her mother for her drug problems even though she hasn't lived with her mother for years. In addition, while I enjoyed the lead up to the ending I'm not sure it stuck the landing. It felt like the author wanted as many twists as possible, which meant the final twist didn't feel as genuine.
Tl;DR: I enjoyed the prose but the pacing means you might not feel as invested at the midpoint. The finale is good, but the final final scene just doesn't get 5/5 from me.

Weird, creepy, and appeals to my childhood obsession with Dollhouses.

Probably closer to a 3.5 for me personally but I rounded up.
The Good: I enjoyed the boats and how they operated. The build up people powers and how their motivations made sense.
The bad: the start to this book was a little slow and bumpy. I took me awhile before I got that yes, story! feeling. Additionally the shifting view points are a little hard to follow until the characters are more established. I had to flip back and forth at least twice making sure I was connecting the snippets correctly, which would have been a pain with an ebook.
Conclusion: I had a good time and don't regret picking up another book by this author. In my opinion, she still has room to grow as an author.

I really enjoyed this book. The main problem I had with was the love interest lacking depth. I know its not a romance novel, I just wanted the character to actually feel like a person. Instead it just felt she was there to move the plot along sometimes. Otherwise a fun book with decent twists,

I loved the different perspectives and the “translation” issues.

Full Disclaimer: I don't write reviews all that often as I am more articulate in the conversational format. Also: I don't like that both editors were male, but that didn't affect my rating.

I so so badly wanted to rate this 5/5 stars. Some of the stories were just that good. I love the theme of this anthology and how it crossed genres. My mother is even planning on reading one of the stories before I return it to the library.
So...why didn't I give it five stars? Because of certain editorial choices. The story Wrestling Jesus, was a good story. I don't regret reading the story. But it didn't belong in this book. The focus of the story is the interpersonal relationship between several men. The dangerous woman is effectively a prop for a dick measuring contest. I don't think she even has more than one line. There are ways this story could have been told (For instance with flashbacks) that would have made this story's inclusion make more sense. Similarly, the Outlander story in this volume left something to be desired. The so called “Dangerous woman” folds when forced to do so and lets her man do the talking. This book deserved better.

This book is hilarious.

I've always liked [a:Agatha Christie 123715 Agatha Christie http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1321738793p2/123715.jpg]but this was amazing.

Maybe closer to 4.5. It repeated the same plot point too many times for me to give 5 stars.

I have a certain weakness for books about taking down superheroes. Admittedly a rather small genre so I get excited when I find one. I liked the way the characters played off each other and the battles of conscience we see them go through. The main reason this doesn't get 5 stars is there was one twist that I felt like didn't land. Also, I felt the ending could have been a little bit tighter but leaving room for sequel was prioritized.
Interesting things this book has:
-text message conversations
-Queer people who exist beyond their labels/without labels
-Lady friendships
-The awareness that sometimes the main character is wrong
-Interesting use of powers
-mental health/healing
Less interesting:
-Sexual tension that goes nowhere
-Side plots that got lost/ were saved for a sequel.

This is a fairly cute read and I enjoyed the pictures that were included in the book. The pacing is decent and I never felt like it was dragging on. The Gamer Grandpa was a good setup. That being said, this book suffered from a few issues. 1. Everything just feels...too convenient. That's not me knocking on how romance novels work in general. 2. Since the shop owners they were stopping to visit were at least somewhat known quantities, the percentage of them being jerks felt higher than it should have been.
For you if:
If you enjoy romance and d0n't mind mid-range sexual content. It never felt X-rated to me.
Like roadtrip stories
Enjoy characters being immersed in nerd world/ courting through card games.
Found family/ family supporting each other
Youtubers/ influencers
Queer representation
Not for you:
If you dislike melodrama
If you want everything to be realistic
If homophobia being in the book somewhere is a problem for you.
If you are anxious about paying for college/ what to do after college and don't want more anxiety in your reading.