Rita

The last few chapters really made me want to give this 4 stars. Kudos to Yarros for going there! But I had to take half a star off for the absolute slog the middle was. So much repetitive nonsense where Ella is a hypocritical liar who hates liars and Beckett wrongly blames himself for everything so much he actually messes things up. Everything was a lot better when the romance was the romance and the drama was the drama. When the drama is the romance, things get tired and I take off points. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would halfway through!

Super fun rom-com that owns the distinction of being the first book in years that I've read cover to cover in one day.

Perfectly moody, if a little slow to start. I liked how well defined each timeline was and how the tone was different for all three.

Only deducted a star for the weird mico-anachronisms in the 1998 timeline that kept taking me out of the story and spoilers: the fact that the cat dies.

I wanted to like this far more than I did, but alas. I roll my head at the weird prose, all the characters in this book and their horrible decisions, and cheap unearned twists.

Started out ok and then completely fell apart for me. Millie is so unlikeable and dumb and then the twist happens and lasts way too long explaining itself. Closest I've come to DNFing a book in a long time.

Absolutely brilliant mystery. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, everything was flipped upside-down. I did manage to guess the final twist, but even that was done really well. Favorite read of the year so far.

Picked this up after listening to the author give the keynote at a conference. Four stars for the awesome content, minus half a star for the existential dread.

Emotions everywhere. These are the kinds of melodramatic hits you don't find in traditional publishing. Sometimes you just want to read something that's going to make you bawl at 2am.

My autistic pattern recognition means my love of mysteries is somewhat hurt by the fact that I can almost always guess who the killer is very early and get annoyed at obvious red herrings. This book kept me guessing the whole time and I was genuinely surprised at the reveal. Great read.

Watching Heated Rivalry made me want to re-read this. It may be fanfic, but it's the superior Rivals to Lovers story featuring a Russian guy and a Japanese guy who have professional careers on the ice.

A house with good bugs (and birds)! Like many things I read I feel like it did take a long meandering time to get going. I learned more about bugs than had much genuine escalation of tension or scariness until almost near the end. The climax is done very well and though we end on a happier note, it isn't completely happy, which I like.

Even with the plot and pacing issues, this gets a 4 from me because T. Kingfisher makes me laugh and I love horror that makes me laugh before, during, and after it scares me.

Entertaining phrasing and funny stories abound. Unfortunately, so do casual misogyny and homophobia. A product of its time for sure, but a fun read if you can get past the occasional word, phrase, or idea that makes you cringe a bit.

Cicero makes a lot of good points and some interesting arguments about growing old. Who needs sex when you can farm?! Me. I guess that means I'm not old yet.

I liked this book a lot. The style and flow of the prose feel intimately familiar to my brain in a way that reminds me I should probably go to therapy. The only thing that kept it from being a 5 for me is that the ending is a little abrupt for my taste and there are a couple of plot threads I would have liked more resolution to.

I've seen a lot of reviews label it as too serious to be a comedy, but I would disagree. While there are a few serious topics, even those are treated with a bit of lighthearted mania that made me laugh. Again, your mileage may vary if you aren't as neurodivergent and anxious as I am, but if you are - highly recommend it!

Started off a little slow but picked up and by the end I stayed up way too late to finish it, which is the mark of a good book for me. I did guess the who-dunnit very early and kept getting mad at the red herrings, but that's much more the fault of my autistic pattern recognition and less a problem of story telling. The reveal was well done.

I really wanted to like this more, but wow did I find the protagonist, Liza, absolutely insufferable. Even knowing that as the narrator of a cozy mystery she was highly unlikely to end up murdered, I still hoped she would be. The killer was easily spotted and I thought it would have been a lot more fun if somehow Hanna was Mr. B. Parts were still pretty fun which brought it up to a 3 for me.

I was so looking forward to reading this and I was not disappointed! It gave me everything I wanted and more I didn't even think of. I knew the bones of Haymitch's story from reading the original trilogy of course, yet reading it was still engaging, emotional, and surprisingly surprising. It was fun seeing people we know in District 12, and later in the Capitol, though I do wonder if maybe there were too many once we got into the games. Spoilers on who they are here, but seeing how involved Beetee, Wiress, and Mags were in Haymitch's games makes me wonder if most of the reaping done in Catching Fire was completely rigged, since Haymitch would have gone in if Peeta hadn't volunteered, or if their inclusion here was mostly fanservice. If it was rigged, that's pretty cool. If it's fanservice, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, I want to read an entire book on Mags' life please.

I only knocked down half a star because of the overuse of "The Raven" throughout. At first, it was cool to see where Lenore Dove got her name and she symbolism of the lost Lenore who would haunt Haymitch forever, but by the end (where it was used A LOT) I completely skipped reading the poem parts in the middle. I think it would have been fine to maybe throw in a short quote in there once or twice, but we didn't need as much of the poem as we got, and I say that as someone who LOVES "The Raven."

Bring on any more sequels Suzanne! I would read 71 more books of each Hunger Games we haven't seen.

A lot of interesting ideas here, though listening to it as a child of a parent with undiagnosed Autism, an adult who myself was undiagnosed until I was 35, and an now a parent of kids with Autism, I have to wonder if a lot of these "emotionally immature" parents aren't simply neurodivergent. Not that it excuses crappy parenting - it doesn't. But it might be an explanation for why there are so many of these types of parents.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Went back and forth a lot about whether I liked June or not, whether I wanted her to get away with what she did or get caught. Fun read for sure.

I've read a lot of murder mysteries and this is one of the funniest ones I've ever read that was also still riveting and managed to surprise me. The constant breaks in the 4th wall were very well done.

The Way Out has some very interesting ideas about healing chronic pain. Even people with structural reasons for their pain, as opposed to the neuroplastic pain the book focuses on, might find some good techniques to help relieve their symptoms. I have a little bit of both, and while I haven't used all the tools in the book yet, it has been helpful even just giving me things to think about and discuss with my doctor at my next visit. I listened to the audiobook, which was read very well. Recommended for anyone dealing with chronic pain who has an open mind.

Three stars only because it was a little short and while the techniques are discussed, I would have liked more detail about how to actually do the work needed to treat the pain.

Some really good questions in here. Great conversation starters for sure.

I started out thinking this ending to the trilogy wasn’t as strong as the first two, but by the end it completely hooked me. And that end!

Funny and irreverent. Great for fans of sci-fi or comedy, but ideal for those who love both. As with the first two, I listened to the audio book read by the author and it made it way better.

Great storytelling wrapped up in Angelou's poetic and lyrical phrasing made for a great listen, especially since the audiobook is read by the author herself.

People on the Autism spectrum are not homogeneous, yet so much of Jenifer Cook O'Toole's story rang true for me. For many women born before 1990, we were never diagnosed or even considered for a diagnosis until we had children who are on the spectrum and saw ourselves in them. Life has been a struggle of always feeling weird or somehow left out until the light of diagnosis showed us that we are not flawed, just different, and Autism in Heels does a great job explaining what undiagnosed life was like. Audiobook was great as I got to hear Jennifer's voice tell her own story, but I'm sure the printed editions are just as good. Recommended for any woman who is or might be on the spectrum, or anyone who knows or loves one.