Elle
I felt like there was something missing from this book that's present in the others of the series, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I definitely noticed it. Maybe it's because Flora and Alec's story was shorter.
I did enjoy it though I found it to be less dramatic than the others, I was expecting more angst but things were resolved pretty quickly. I liked Flora and Alec, I'm bummed out that we didn't get to see more from them.
I can't help but feel this one isn't as memorable as the others though, I didn't hate nor love it and to be honest I even feel a little underwhelmed by it which is a real shame because this is one of my favourite series and I've been looking forward to the 4th instalment for awhile.
After the way King treated Amelia and what he did to her, he had the gall to act all woe is me. It was so utterly pathetic, I wasn't even mad, I was just disgusted. I found him to be incredibly insufferable and not redeemable in the slightest, even after things had been “resolved” he still treated her terribly with little regards to her own feelings.
Amelia wasn't any better, I found her feelings for King to be ridiculous from the very beginning and she of course suffered from good ol' body betraying syndrome. She let King off the hook wayyyyy too easily for my liking, he deserved a good kick in the head and then some.
I also did not care at all about Quinn's little side quests dotted throughout the book, I found him almost as bad as King.
This one was so much harder to trudge through than the other two, I definitely think it could've been cut down to a duet and didn't need to be 3 books long. I contemplated dnf'ing a quite few times but I spent too much time on this series to give up on it. Things started to pick up again at about 70% and it got me excited but then it slowed down pretty quickly and I was back to begging the book to be over already.
The first 150 pages are just the pack talking about how awful Devon treated Talia and so much repeated dialogue over the same subject again and again, it was so tedious to read through I could literally feel my brain shutting down. There's a lot of roundabout conversations throughout the whole series but it was really prevalent in this one.
And a big part of the plot is getting Talia pregnant, which I should've expected considering all the talk about babies and such, but I thought it was in a freaky breeding kink kind of way. I'm not really a fan of pregnancy or babies so it wasn't interesting to me at all.
Honestly the introduction of Corso's pack into Devon's I did not like at all. The way it happened, Talia's sudden epiphany about being able to give Corso everything she wanted for him when she left I found to be unrealistic, and I did not like the fact that it was brushed over within like 2 chapters, especially considering Talia's VERY strong negative reaction to it. Not to mention, 9 people in one pack is a lot to keep track of, my brain is hurting.
I did warm up to Corso's pack eventually, especially Reid, but it still wasn't enough for me to forgive their earlier mistakes. They have history with Talia and they were able to easily slip into their relationship from before but we the readers did not get to experience the past so it leaves those relationships, at least to me, feeling rushed and disingenuous.
There was also a decline in plot. The first book was fleshing out relationships between the pack members until the last 20% where things really amped up and I was expecting much more action and angst, I wanted more groveling between the FMC and MMC's but unfortunately I was left disappointed. Instead I got 80% of smut and only about 20% plot. I have a feeling book 3 is going to progress much like book 2 did but I am hoping for more plot.
Jesus Christ, those trigger warnings are no joke. Usually things like that don't get to me but I was not prepared for the amount of detail and specifics, it was making me squirm and a little nauseous.
At first I thought this was going to be like every omegaverse book, FMC is forced for whatever reason into a pack of all men that hate women and she's treated unfairly until some big event happens that shakes them all which makes them realise their faults and they have to grovel to get her back. I'll admit I was cringing a bit at certain scenes and dialogue, but goddamn did it start to amp up within the last 20%.
I'm diving straight into the second one and I'm both excited and anxious to see where it goes.
Dark Matter Presents Human Monsters: A Horror Anthology
This one was interesting, in almost all the horror books I've read, they've been about something paranormal and supernatural. This is the first time I've read anything where it's just plain humans as the monsters and I found that very refreshing and interesting.
It may not have had me looking over my shoulder and turning the lights on but it definitely made me uneasy. A lot of the stories are realistic and things that could, and maybe have, happen to real people. Some would argue that makes it all the more scarier.
Some of my favourites were, The Protest, by Jeremy Robert Johnson, The Heartbreak Boys, by Andrew Cull, Scrying Eyes, by Laurel Hightower, and Between The Crosses, Row On Row, by Venezia Castro.
I absolutely loved this book! I must admit I was a little uncomfortable with the stereotypes and a lot of the language used, mostly because it's coming from a white author, but I realise that was necessary and realistic and it really got the point across and I think Stockett did a surprisingly good job considering.
One complaint that I have is that I feel as if the one white character took up a lot of space. I understand how important Skeeter was to the plot and I really liked her but I do feel her chapters were much longer than Minny's and Aibileen's and were filled with a lot of unnecessary information.
But I have to commend Stockett for the story and the characters she brought to life. I was so invested in absolutely every character, even the evil ones! I loved Minny, she was easily my favourite! I especially loved her smart mouth, how courageous she was, the way she looked after everyone in spite of herself, and the way she cared about Celia in her own way really warmed my heart.
Aibileen was the heart and soul of the story. The way she helped garner maids for Skeeter, when both she and Minny encouraged Skeeter to go to New York, the way she looked after and encouraged Mae-Mobley and the affirmations she would recite to her daily, and the way she handled Minny and really understood her. I loved their friendship the most of all.
Skeeter was great too, even though I do believe she had selfish reasons of writing the book in the beginning. As the story went on you could really tell how she came to free herself of earlier thinking, I loved when she saw how nasty Hilly was and questioned why she was ever friends with someone like that and I loved when Skeeter had a moment of clarity and truly understood what her own book was about.
And I loved seeing Ms Hilly backed into a corner by the scheming done by the trio, especially Minny, I do wish I got to see more of a comeuppance for her but in the real world I know that wouldn't happen and I appreciate that things were done realistically.
I like to believe in my hearts of hearts that after the open ending everything went well for Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter and for my own sanity I will ignore everything that says otherwise.
I was intrigued by Faith's story after reading Bad Alpha, it wasn't exactly what I expected but I had fun nonetheless.
Considering Faith was a feral omega locked in a cage and was treated very badly, I expected there to be more of a slow burn. I thought it was a little unrealistic how quickly the bonds were formed within the pack and how easily Faith got through her ‘trauma'.
I found Adam and Faith's reunion to be a little underwhelming, especially considering how finding Faith was basically the main plot of Bad Alpha. It was almost bittersweet and we weren't privy to most of their moments together.
I absolutely loved Chance and Ghost though, the complexity of their relationship was really interesting to me and I thought that with Faith they made a cute trio.
I'm absolutely terrified of the ocean and practically everything in it so this was a great horror read for me!
I enjoyed Fracassi's descriptive writing, it painted a crystal clear image in my head, I liked the imagery of the barnacles covering everything and the way it ate at flesh. I only wish I could've seen more!
I really really enjoyed this one! I put off reading Bad Alpha for awhile because I didn't think it would be my thing, but I enjoyed it much more than I expected.
I felt that we got to know every single character's personality and that their relationship wasn't rushed too quickly and everyone got their own moment to shine. I liked that their relationship wasn't purely physical, there was a lot of smut, but there was also genuine love between each of the characters. Jamie was amazing with making Eve feel comfortable and sorting through her feelings, Garret, Adam, and Rory were also very good at understanding her.
I LOVED Eve, she was such a fun character, completely unhinged and badass, and I enjoyed the way she softened up towards her pack, especially Adam. She was ruthless and cold but she could be caring and sweet towards her pack members and I liked the duality.
After really enjoying Lola and The Millionaires, I decided to give Baby's story a chance and while I did have a good time, I did feel as if something was missing.
There was a few times in the beginning where things felt a bit rushed, Baby goes into heat within the first 5 chapters and also I felt as if the love confessions were too soon and had no weight behind them.
Speaking of Baby's heat, their relationship was built solely on the physical side which i was a little disappointed about, I would've liked knowing more about the pack. We didn't really get to see much of their personalities, most of the story was about their sex lives and the drama from other Motorcycle clubs.
Flip flopping between their Motorcycle Club names and their real names was honestly really confusing at times, especially considering there was so many of them. I didn't have a clear picture of any of the MMC's because I had trouble remembering who was who.
But I really appreciated the platonic relationships Baby had with the rest of the pack, especially Dusty. I also loved the way she stood up for the Beta girls and even developed friendships with them and that there wasn't any jealously.
Baby was a badass, I really enjoyed that she wasn't weak and didn't have to wait around for the men to save her and that she was the one doing the saving. She was also stubborn and didn't let the alpha's walk over her.
I also loved Bomber and Scorch's relationship so much, they were so sweet together and Seth was easily my favourite character. He was so sweet from the very beginning and I liked how he put Scorch in his place when needed.
Book number 3 in The Camorra Chronicles was the most dramatic so far. I've been excited to read Remo's story since the beginning but I don't think it lived up to my own hype.
When he wasn't calling women whores and being an asshole, a lot of Remo's dialogue was so intense and almost poetic. It's hard to immerse myself when almost everything he said sounded so... pretentious and rehearsed, to me it lacked realism.
I did however surprisingly find Serafina and Remo's relationship to be believable, (although there wasn't enough groveling in my opinion, but when is there ever?). Maybe it was the way he cherished his babies that softened me up but I did find their reunion to be sweet and I liked seeing Remo as a family man.
The misogyny was even more prevalent in this one than the second book and I know this is a dark romance, but I found Fabiano to be quite manipulative and coercive towards Leona. There was a scene where she told him she trusted him and he asked her to prove it by stripping for him, even though she was uncomfortable and expressed how much she didn't want to, he coerced her to do so. And it only got worse from there.
I liked Leona even though I found her to be quite the doormat, for both her parents and Fabiano, but she is a product of her surroundings so I can't judge her too harshly.
I especially related to Chapter 1, ‘Feminism Is Going To Ruin Your Life', because it did in fact ruin my life. When I first started looking into feminism more, I became aware of so much blatant misogyny. It's in everything, it's everywhere, and it really does ruin your happiness. Things that you used to once enjoy now leave a sour taste in your mouth.
I also really appreciate that Given made many notes about POC, disabled, and trans women and the problems that they have to go through that other women do not. I always feel as if the feminist movement is dominated by white cigendered women and I valued seeing more diversity, it gave me an entirely new perspective.
With that being said though, at lot of what Given wrote was repetitive. Most of the book was what any feminist had heard before, I feel she started out pretty strong in the first chapter but it gradually became stale. The last 6 or so chapters I found myself skimming pretty hard.
I kind of wish we got to see more from Bram's perspective, I would have loved to have seen his realisation that Aspen was gone, his argument with Bethany, and even a therapy session or two. I feel like we didn't really get to know Bram and it left the story feeling a little hollow.
I also wish Aspen would've made both Bram and Bethany grovel a bit more, they both said some pretty nasty things and I find it a little unrealistic how quickly she was able to get over it and forgive them without properly communicating.
Easily my biggest complaint is how cringe the dialogue could be, especially the dirty talk, multiple times I had to put the book down and walk away to relieve the cringe. Besides all that though, I did have a pretty good time reading, it was entertaining and short enough to zoom through.
No exaggeration, I think I cried about 10 seperate times reading this book, it's something about old people that really gets the waterworks going, especially lonely, forgotten, old people.
I really truly loved this book so much, everything about it was so utterly amazing. Gruen wrote so beautifully and I cared about all the characters so much, they all had such personalities and really came to life. The pacing was good and I unusually enjoyed the flashbacks between Jacob's circus days and him being in the nursing home. I was apprehensive about the ending, I was expecting to be heartbroken but I'm so glad that it was tied up into a happy ending for Jacob.
I feel like when you're writing something like this, a biography of a murderer who killed 100s, you have to stay detached and unbiased no matter your feelings but it was obvious from the very beginning that Carlo was singing Richard's praises and was confirmed by Carlo himself in the epilogue. Carlo also repeated information a lot throughout the book, it quickly become redundant and annoying. I genuinely feel the book would be 300 pages shorter if all the repeated information were to be cut out.
Overall reading about the infamous Richard Kuklinski was very interesting, I do question the validity of his stories, who knows whether they're true or not, and we'd likely never know, but it was incredibly fascinating.
That was easily the longest book I've read but it was infinitely worth it. The plot was so interesting and refreshing, I loved absolutely every second. The world that Asher was able to create and bring to life was so detailed and well thought out, the twists and turns that all joined together in the end was so amazing and I didn't see the ending coming at all.
I absolutely LOVED reading about a FMC that was borderline evil, she had major bloodlust, was strong, and a true bad ass character. I loved both Auset and her little group of mates. I found the characters all so interesting and well written and I appreciated that all those who deserved a comeuppance was delivered one.
I expected a better execution of the intriguing plot and was a little disappointed it fell flat. I absolutely love the huge revelation and angst that comes with a big betrayal, but this did not have that. I kinda expected a bigger reaction to all the truth bombs dropped in the story, and there were plenty, so I was a bit disappointed when they were just brushed over.
I did find the dialogue to be cringey and cheesy, at first I found the plot compelling enough to push through it, until the story started to decline. Once Chantel and Kaysar actually got together, I got progressively more bored with the story. Chantel was so hot and cold it was annoying, I found all her differing personalities to be kind of confusing. I couldn't get a handle on her personality and I still have no idea what she was truly like. I also really despised her jealousy over Kaysar's own sister all because of her ridiculous insecurities. Kaysar was so dramatic when it came to Chantel, he honestly was starting to give me the ick. I find it hard to believe that the supposed “Unhinged One” who was seen as this terrible, horrible, violent king would fall in love so quickly and become such a sap even if he was her mate.
Overall the story was a bit too chaotic, there were things that weren't elaborated on that left gaping holes in the plot and left me feeling unfulfilled. I also think it dragged on for too long and should've ended a good 100-200 pages back.