Ray

The first half of this book I was so sure I was gonna end up with a 1 or 2 star rating at the most. The writing was just so sloppy. The author said she's never written a book this fast, and it really does feel rushed. Their chemistry at the beginning felt silly and ridiculous. 
The ending felt a little bit redeeming, the family characters slowly grew on me I guess. I think Whit was a character with lots of potential, but didn't quite reach there.
Nevertheless this was still a fun, quick romance for the moment.

I have no idea why I'm so obsessed with these books

How can someone write something like this I have no clue

I think there's such a fine line with making meaningful commentary while also being entertaining and funny, and the author does it so effortlessly in this book. I was absolutely laughing out loud at so many points but also i cannot even fathom what those low points must have felt like. 

An absolute must read, even if you're someone who knows nothing about medicine.

I feel like Lucinda Berry has the perfect formula to make me happy with a thriller. A steady pace, characters built with depth, lots of plot twists in between and slightly ambiguous and weird endings. Ive come to enjoy looking forward to how she's gonna end her books.  

As usual I was emotionally invested in the characters from the start. 
I wasn't expecting to enjoy the cult thriller because it's a widely disliked trope that I've never bothered to try out but i really did enjoy reading it. 

I loved the way this explored how each person reacted in this scenario, the mom who's been so thoroughly brainwashed, the daughter reuniting with the mom she thought was long gone, the dad who is still madly in love with his wife who went missing a decade ago, and his new wife who's seeing where she fits into all of this 
Overall another great thriller experience.

Definitely one of the best short story collections I've read. The author has such a skill with really building a complex narrative around each character in such a short amount of time.
I enjoyed the first few stories a lot, but I think the last few were mediocre. 
Still had a great time with these!

I was a monster, I realised, by choice.

This was a fast paced, addicting, compelling book that I could not keep my hands off of. The rage is so raw and unfiltered. The romance was so hot. The revenge was so satisfying. 

The only issue I had is with the way the  feminist commentary was delivered. I would say this is very loosely based on Medusa's story. The commentary was too... In your face? I feel like i would've appreciated more subtlety. Some of the characters were comically misogynist, especially for a college setting with adults. I don't know if that's what the author was going for, but i feel like this book would have hit harder if the misogyny and the victim shaming were done in a way that i could relate to in real life. 

Also this is just me but LEX AND LUX? Like?!?!
I think it's supposed to be cute but it was kind of annoying to me tbh

Overall it's a fun book, worth the time. Not perfect, but fun.

This was a great book as a series finale, and i enjoyed reading it, but I feel I had different expectations for it? 
I wanted to see some resolution for Giovanni, maybe more in terms of his mental growth, treatment of mental illnesses, maybe some resolution of his trauma, and yes I understand that a trauma as heavy as his is not something that can be solved in a set amount of time. So I guess it's okay for what it's trying to portray. 

I like how the grief was handled and i enjoyed that this was narrated by Silvio. 
I did observe some minor shift in his character, in the previous book he is portrayed as extremely playful, energetic, doesn't take himself too seriously, whereas he had a more serious tone throughout this novel. Again I think that can be explained by grief.

Overall this is a great series, with unique dynamics I've never read before and thoroughly enjoyed.

This was a cool concept, I liked the setting, the almost paranormal aspect of the mindreading, it was fun. 

I just did not connect with the characters, though. This is probably my 6th Nyla K book, and it's definitely my least favourite.  

I just could not get over the tiny little plot holes, just couldn't sit with the story properly. While the world itself was fun I don't think the world building was very strong. I can't see how this cult of people completely isolated from society are so self sufficient. How they have a construction team. How they keep getting away from police. 
Also I hated how insta love it felt with Abdiel and Darian and Drake, which is crazy because it took them like 200 pages to start getting together but it still felt rushed and I didn't enjoy it. 

Another thing that i dont particularly enjoy, and this may be a personal thing but I just don't like books with jealousy of each other within a poly couple. 

Lastly, I had read the White Snake (which is the Grimm brothers' fairy tale this is a retelling of)as a child, and to be honest i really did not make the connections and interpret the story as much as I should have. It was only after reading the author's note at the end I began drawing my conclusions. That just doesn't sit right with me, though, that the author had to come out and explain to you the aspects of her interpretation when you should've picked it apart on your own.
Also the author recommends rereading for a better understanding but i don't think I will 

This was a pretty heavy read for me, and so worth it. 

This book explores the complexities of victimhood, primarily. Our society really simplifies issues especially with sexual abuse but there's so many layers to it, and this book really brought that out. 
Vanessa is one of the most complex characters I've ever read, such an interesting exploration into the mentality of her, as a young girl but also as an adult. How the abuse absolutely destroyed her life. I mean, I think we all know that abuse is damaging but I was not prepared for the absolute extent of it. 

Another thing that the book focuses on is girlhood. That age of 15, 16, when your worldview changes and you suddenly discover all these new parts of yourself and you discover the sexual power that you now newly hold. And that keeps becoming more and more relavant everyday with the increase in sexualisation of minors. I've never read anything that captured it so perfectly. 

There were just some scenes that blew my mind. Every word felt like it was handpicked. It was so simple yet so heavy. The bare truths laid out and it hit me so hard. 

The author says she's worked 18 years on this book, it really shows. 
Its genuinely one of the best, and most complicated books I've read in my life.

This book was much more slow paced than the thrillers I usually go for, but I think the slow pace set up a creepy vibe that i enjoyed in the beginning. 
The plot twists weren't all that exciting, some of them just don't make sense to me. I feel like I have a lot of unanswered questions, and felt like some aspects didn't tie in together well.

Hal's character was very interesting to read about because she was so honest, and I haven't read a character with such a strong moral compass before. .

This was my first Ruth Ware read, and I might check out more. 

I think I've already forgotten all about this one 

Let me start by saying my expectations for this was absolute shit after what I've heard about this so this has just been sitting on my shelf for years, but I finally picked it up. 

I was pleasantly surprised, this did not feel solely like a cash grab, atleast in my opinion. She definitely did put effort. 

Lily's character didn't grow all that much here, not that she needed to. But we get to see Atlas's pov, and I loved watching his character develop throughout. I love how they go on their seperate journeys without each other. That way when they did come together they were strong, and independent individuals. Not just ‘2 broken people fixing each other' trope that I was expecting. 

What I didn't like is how black and white it was, Ryle vs Atlas. Ryle bad, Atlas good. The reason why I loved It Ends With Us is because of how wonderfully well depicted Ryle was as an antihero, we see all sides of him whereas in this one he was completely villainised. Don't get me wrong, he is an absolute piece of shit, but he was so complicated in the previous book, I felt like he was really simplified here.
Meanwhile on the other end Atlas is so incredibly perfect, flawless in every way imaginable, and it was clear that the author was trying to point out that contrast. 

Despite that, I actually really enjoyed this one. I think she said all she had to say, all the right things that had to be said.

I feel like I kept waiting for this to get better when I should've just DNF'd. The story starts off with an incredibly rushed insta love romance between Kane and Jaxon, and the spice picked up way too early before the story was ready for it. I feel like i needed to know the characters more and the backstory needed to be developed more before the non stop sex. It just felt very meaningless. 

Also every person has a nickname for every other person and i did not have the patience to remember each one, especially when i barely cared for the characters. Elijah and Jaxon read like the same character, i felt like they were not distinguished. 

Blaze is depicted with having lots of mental health struggles and also suicidal thoughts and murderous thoughts, and i hate that the characters never even once consider therapy for him. I personally hate when a book ends with dick being the ultimate cure for all mental health problems. 

Also this may be just me but god I was actually cringing at multiple points 

I don't think ive ever read a book that made me physically nauseous. The air around me felt tense and I had to stop to take a deep breath at one point, I wish I was exaggerating. 
I've read quite a bit of extreme horror, just gore for the sake of gore, but this was so horrifying because it was so realistic. Based off of a true case. The 50s setting was so perfect, and the author takes time to really humanise the victims. 

The pov worked really well too, because this is being narrated by the boy next door to where the abuse was happening, and how he perceives everything as an impressionable teenager himself. There is also narration from him as an adult which was painful, but insightful. You really get to see what it's like to be witnessing something like this. 

This book is not easy to get through, yet i couldn't stop myself from flipping the pages. So brilliant for what it set out to do.

The orange was a poem I randomly came across and loved so I decided to read the whole collection that it's from. 

I liked a few others, but overall it was just okay. Some were funny, others cute.  The number of ones about alcoholism was a little bit alarming ngl.

There is such beauty in the way that she expresses pain, this is a heartbreakingly beautiful poetry collection.

This book was sweet and tender while also bringing great spice to the table, which I think is really rare to find, so I'm really happy about that!
I loved both the characters, they had such sweet banter while also having meaningful conversations, and also bonding over their dorky video games and gay sci fi novels, it was so cute.
I'm not even a dog person but the dogs were such an adorable addition to the story 

I never thought a book would make me scared of spirals but here we are 

Aggressively average, although there were some fun scenes, I loved the one where they go on a hike together 

This is the one of the most unhinged thing ive ever read and i hate that i enjoyed it as much as I did lol

weird stepbrother manipulation shit involved, I don't know if it made any sense but I couldn't care less

What the fuck did I just read

Reread after 4 years, this book still gives me the flutters, the sparks flying off of the page. Such a cute and wholesome book that will be my comfort read. 

Sure it's a little bit cliche, of course everything turns out okay, and of course the entire world just accepts them for who the are, but I think that's the beauty of this book. Its so comforting to know that nothing will go wrong and that everything will be okay no matter what. 

This book has the most adorable cast of side characters ever. 
And obviously, Alex and Henry. I love Alex because he's that one friend who will never fail to make you smile, and Henry has so much love to give. 

If you need a cute ‘us against the world' gay story, this is absolutely it.

This is my fourth book from Lucinda Berry, and just like her other ones, i thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I was hooked from beginning to end, and i know people are are complaining about the ending being rushed, but this is actually the best ending I've read from her so far lol

As usual, Lucinda Berry is excellent with writing the themes of women struggling with their teenage sons, and this time there was 3 families to keep up with, which was a little bit challenging but it worked. I loved reading the domestic abuse storyline too, I think that was done really well.

Also as per usual, she makes her stories so gut wrenchingly emotional and her characters so easy to relate and sympathise with. 

This was such an instant 5 star read for me... I know this is a book that will not leave me for a long time. Its insane how attached to these characters I feel, the connection that was built is so, so beautiful. 

I loved that this book is narrated by Giovanni himself, unlike the first book,because you get the see it from his perspective, and how broken and damaged he is.  You get to witness how much these two love each other albeit in a slightly weird unconventional way. And then Silvio and his involvement, so well done. 

The sex in this book was fantastic. 10/10. Scenes that I've never read about before and they were done amazingly well too. I also loved how the book takes time to explain to us how important it was for Giovanni to reclaim his sexuality, and how the sex was also an integral part of his healing journey.

Also I was a sobbing mess in the end how could you do that to me