Julia

I can see why people have been raving about this, and definitely want to read Writers and Lovers now. I mean, this opening!

"You knew I'd write a book about you someday. You said once that I'd dredged up the whole hit parade minus you. I'll never know how you'd tell it. For me it begins here. Like this."

To me, the first two thirds were stronger than the end, but I'm not sure how sure I am of that, or if King just captures how college learning and love feel SO WELL that other life epochs pale a little in comparison. Either way, this is beautiful and I loved it.

Read from the beach house my family was staying at in Corolla, NC. A perfectly serviceable beach read! The protagonist's fastidiousness got a little tiresome, and the exact details of how a central investigation unfolded felt a little clunky, but this was totally fine.

I'm behind on reviews, so have already finished American King, as well. I'm not sure what I would have written just at the end of this one. From the series as a whole, I think I like Embry best of the three mains because of his moral/personality complexity. Kudos to Simone - this one was just as spicy if not moreso than the first, and good plot propulsion toward a series finale.

I co-sign the blurb on the back that reads, "The only thing hotter than a character written by Chloe Gong is a betrayal written by Chloe Gong." Yes, yes, yes. This sequel is a real psychological thriller as a bunch of compellingly nuanced characters try to figure out whom to trust and what is true. And just like Immortal Longings, a cliffhanger of an ending that I was exhilarated by instead of mad about. One thing I've also noticed reading this series is that Gong also excels at world-building that happens almost completely unobstrusively. San-Er is quite the crumbling empire, and yet my knowledge of that was never gained at the expense of speed/plot tension. Interested to see how this series concludes!

Not sorry I read this, but hoo boy. There are some plot holes that make this book a fine work of open-weave crochet, but worse, I found some of the characters' choices totally inexplicable based on what we already knew about their personalities from Book 1 (ahem Leo ahem). Still - I really appreciate that Straube is one to go big or go home, there was plenty of spice, and I particularly liked the end. She writes like she's not afraid of making choices her readers may not like, which I appreciate about her!

A friend of a friend recommended this after hearing our spicy pepper book club liked "Kiss of the Basilisk" (while also finding it ridiculous!). This book is SPICY in a way that almost makes up for some considerable flaws - an initial age gap that was almost a dealbreaker for me, pretty wooden writing, and a protagonist who lacks confidence in an almost parodic way (think Rachel Leigh Cook in "She's All That" if you're millenial). That said, spice covers a lot of sins for me! If this book was written now, it'd almost certainly have content warnings. I also appreciated Simone's observations about jealousy, which was also when her writing was the strongest. Will for sure read the whole series.

This book defies easy summary. The plot jumped the shark essentially from the initial premise, then never stopped jumping, as if denying the existence of sharks at all. And yet it was a pretty fun if totally inane romp, and I know my friends in our "spicy pepper book club" agreed. Best and spiciest part of the book is easily the bonus chapter, which felt like Straube creating the fic every fan would dream of writing.