Harisa

My Ecuador book around the world.

Im always happy to read more romance from different perspectives—especially with so many regency romances out there basically having the same characters recycled over and over (no shade—I still read that too).

Like many reviews stated, this had more heart than expected based on the cover and I enjoyed it! I would've liked more about his family, and the theme of escaping your hometown then “making it” financially and leaving your siblings behind explored. The book wrapped up a bit too quick and I think there was a lot here that would've taken this book one step further.

While I don't think I'll be continuing this series because Zac and Robyn are the ones I want to read more about not the others, I'll be watching this author and looking forward to the rest of the books she writes.

While I can see the appeal, I had a hard time with this. Ultimately too little happening for too long.

Austria book around the world

The end really unraveled there and pissed me off

Very much targeted for youth book on gender identity and other teen issues. It was informative, but it covered A LOT which also means it brushed past too much and barely scratched surface.

The beginning was solid but then it covered many topics really quickly without as much explanation.

Lacked connection and very short but a decent (small) snapshot of the Democratic Republic of Congo

Not my type of book, generally fine for what it is. Hoping some of the crime fiction mix with fantasy and snark gets better developed. Will give the second one a shot soon!

I didn't agree with everything she said but an interesting perspective and very readable book.

Unfortunately, everything I didn't like about the first two was basically all this one was.

My Antingua book around the world.

Short, but pretty good and powerful. I wish the aunts and mom stories were a bit more fleshed out.

3.5.

Hard to rate. I like the beginning, I liked the backstory, I liked the intro to BEAST in this story. While I thoroughly enjoyed the dive into the darker side of this, and I felt like this is what I was looking for in the first one, a lot of the “action” was communicated through dialogue while walking/riding to go from point A to point B. Sooo was weirdly boring but interesting at the same time?

I'm reading the third one anyway hehe.

My Serbia book around the world.

The actual cool stuff about the history and all that got very lost on weird stuff about the tiger which was maybe just too deep for me but I was not into it.

While I didn't agree with everything she wrote (didn't really touch low-income women who couldn't afford the one income household, said housewives deserved their own version of the GI bill, and when she did touch on race and homosexuality it was pretty cringe-worthy) I still think this is an important piece of literature that transcends its time period.

I had no idea the amount of women that got married so young to be housewives in the US in this time period. The mixture of the history and psychology lessons make this book very engrossing. I found what she wrote about what basing your entire identity on your children can do to both the mother AND the child to be especially insightful and important. I also enjoyed her exploration about how marketing campaigns exploit this lack of identity found in housewives.

I've read that Betty Friedan was rather brusk in person but this book lays out her ideas well and I would definitely recommend it.

Maybe a 3.5. Entertaining and kept me VERY engaged. But I've read better wife-thrillers.

Strong 3.5. Will be reading the rest of them.

I underestimated this! I really enjoyed this, and I appreciated the true nature of how these characters struggled and wrestled with what was going on in their lives.

I thought the main character was a bit too hard on herself though and the end came a bit too abruptly. It's like it got to the point where I thought “okay this isn't just a romance novel there is more to this..”then BAM it ended just like any of them would. So that's a bit of a let down but overall I enjoyed it.

Always nice to see Christians being humans and dealing with real stuff and not robots.

I always love Lewis's insights. I particularly liked the discussion of kindness not equaling love. Interesting perspective and good argument.

South Korea book around the world!

That makes 52 out of 198!

I wanted a contemporary light-hearted novel after the nonfiction from North Korea but this just ended up making me mad for other reasons. Wouldn't recommend.

India book around the world.

Started out SUPER cute then fell into normal young adult romance tropes and got boring

Ivory Coast Book around the World.

Loved this one! A fun snippet into a small city in the Ivory Coast in the 70's loosely based on the author's own experiences. I may continue the series if I can locate the English version and I'm very jealous of the French that get this entire series—especially since it ended on a cliffhanger!

Jamaica Book around the World!

Nigeria book around the world.

Ultimately, I couldn't finish my collection of all of these novellas. I DID finish Ruth but stopped Bathsheba in the middle of it. It became harder to read and the character development just got weaker and weaker.

This one was unfortunately just not as strong. Again-while the story and overall messages was good I didn't feel very connected to Rahab we I did with Tamar. Rahab's life was just as difficult yet I didn't emotionally connect with the character at all.

Really enjoyed this one and how she put this kinda weird story into its historical context. It really helped me understand everyone's motivations.

I did not like this.

Sarah Dessen has been pretty much hit or miss for me but this actually was r/im14anddeep personified into a book. I really didn't like the main character and we didn't spend NEARLY enough time on the secondary characters.

17 year old who acted like a bratty 14 year old.