sam <3

omfg i was having such a bad fucking week and then this book came along was like I'M HERE FOR YOU BITCH,,, 
the entire thing was just pure fluff and i love nothing more than that in life!! 
also we need to talk about the demisexual rep??? as an ace person myself, i can't even tell you how fucking happy that made me (autism and diabetes rep are some other reasons to check out this book !) 
this book got the classic grumpy/sunshine trope ~exactly~ right!! it was truly ✨chef's kiss✨
jonathan was soooooo hot omg!! the way he was so caring and protective of gabby had me SWOONING
i loved all the side characters so, so much and this was the cheesy, sappy, You've Got Mail-esque rom-com of my dreams  ! 
AAAAND i loved all the meta-bookish parts of this shit way too much 😭
OH BTW SHE HAS A CAT NAMED GINGERBREAD??? I'LL NEVER RECOVERRRRR

My feelings about this book are way too complicated to even try to explain.

The fact that this book had the best love interest out of all ali hazelwood books yet and was still so completely mediocre is kind of impressive. 

This book was so goddamn cute. I love stories about sibling bonds anyway so this was right up my ally. This was also unexpectedly funny in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. I loved how the “romance” was not even a romance, but friendship. That made it so much better. And I need that Irish book lady in my life PRONTO. This also had some really tender moments which I lived for. Overall, a good time through and through. 

I loved this!!! It was so cuteeeee even though the ending was kinda rushed. Liam was such a cinnamon roll gahhh

this is literally my perfect young adult book. i loved absolutely everything about it. it was VERY juicy in a gossip girl kind of way (expect much better coz that show SUCKS. the drama in this one on the other hand was✨chef's kiss✨) and the romance made me realise what swoonworthy even means. 
also even tho we didn't get a lot of it, ivy and emily's friendship completely melted my heart??? LITERAL GOALS I SAY,,, 
oh and the mixed media format was so fun to read. truly one of my fav parts of the book !!
i lurrrrrved the relationship between ivy and daniel. their arc was just sooooo damn satisfying. also mateo and autumn were prettayyy cute. BTW MATEO IS MY NEW BOOK BOYFRIEND. 
and can we just talk about ivy and mateo??? that ship was def the highlight of this book for me. they even made my cold heart flutter (jk my heart is not cold, its warm as a blanket) 
cal was def my least favorite tho. like why was he even there??? other than to further the plot of course 🙄. idk he was just really annoying.
i loved how lil things tied up together by the end tho. like, even the ones outside the actual mystery ( although it gave me trust issues lol). 
speaking of the actual mystery, even though it kind of took a backseat for me because i was just soooo invested in the characters, i loved the main reveal itself. it was just such a mess but also made some points about topics i was not expecting this book to go into. 
i wasn't really a fan of the twist at the end tho. seeing as this isn't a series (at least as far as i know), i saw no point in going for a kind of an open, unsettling ending. idk i just like my books to answer all my questions and not leave me with more by the end, especially in a YA thriller. im the kind of person who needs my stories to be perfectly wrapped up by the end with no cliff-hangers if there isn't going to be a sequel. but that's just me. 
OVERALL THO TAKE ALL MY STARS QUEEN 🙌

NO BC THIS BOOK WAS SOOOO GODDAMN CUTE???!!
This story managed to be original while being a good retelling AT. THE. SAME. TIME.  Also, my phat ass loved the body positivity so fucking much. 
I loved all the characters (or at least the ones that we're supposed to love)!!! And the ending!!! it was so sweet, im cryinggggggg

This is the worst book i have read this year, and the year has just started. Fuck me.
This book was just bad. The writing was mediocre at best, and Jenny acted like a 9 year old (actually, that's an insult to tweens).
This is literally first world problems in a book. ALSO, INSTA-LOVE. UGH. 
The ending left so many things unexplained??? Least of which is the hook of this book. It's just so lazy. Anyway, I don't wanna spend one more second thinking about this trash. 

 Overall, I really enjoyed this book!!! Although there was plenty of snark, it was also a bit darker than I was expecting. In fact, this book was not what I'd assumed it would be like at all. In a good way...I think.
I loved the fat representation so much. Even though everyone apart from Mila & Aniyah was annoying (fat girls unite) , this book was still enjoyable.
Oh, and what's with me predicting whodunnit all the time??? Maybe it's coz MEN ARE THE REAL TERROR. 

 Objectively, this was bad. Buuuuut,,,,,also fun. Sure the writing was kinda cringe at times, and the characters were kinda stoopid and annoying but I still wanted to keep reading. this book is clearly inspired from the cecil hotel case which is cool, i guess.
I WILL SAY, the big reveal was so obvious, i knew it the moment that fucking character was introduced. this book was also too on the nose with everything. SHOW, DON'T TELL, MADAME.
as a whole, the entire thing was pretty tame but there were a couple moments that got me. this book also tried to be super woke & it didn't feel completely forced??? so that's good ig
i hated how amatonormative this story was tho. i despise it when everyone (conveniently) couples up.

ANYHOO, MORAL OF THE STORY IS THAT MEN ARE THE REAL TERROR. 

i loved it so fucking much??? as an abuse survivor myself, i related to it so much that it made me sad. i literally highlighted half of this book. the characters are so??? i fucking love them??? especially lee!!
it's also really funny and happening and has some truly badass moments. also can we talk about how iris has endometriosis?? that's so fucking rare in books and i love the rep...
it's also wonderfully feminst which i love to see!! this book is just really fucking powerful
JUST READ IT AAAAAAAA THIS BOOK IS THE SHIT

• what i liked:
- this book is very funny
- it is a wild ride
- i wasn't bored for a second 
- the concept is amazing
- so is the cover

• what i hated:
- the heaps of casual fatphobia
- margot is lowkey a terf if you think about it
- i hate sammy and avery
- i hate the conclusion??? 
- like the way it all wrapped up made no sense in the context of the story fr
- this is me being nitpicky but i hate when books use unnecessary exclamation marks!!! or RANDOM CAPITALIZATION
- imma forget all about this book in like 2 days so
- there is a lot more but I'll have to go into spoilers and I'm tired af

basically i don't think I'll be continuing with this series, toodles x

After You Have A Match, my expectations were definitely way too high for this book. And I was kinda let down. :(But let's start with what I liked. This book had a really strong beginning, or maybe I just thought so coz I had the NEW EMMA LORD BOOK high. I thought this story really had a lot of depth to it. I loved reading about the emotional moments (didnt cry tho which is pretty sad). Millie as a character was quite fun to read about and SOME parts of the romance were definitely Swoonworthy™. Also, I really like that cover.The second half of this book is actually where it all seemed to fall apart for me. I don't usually have a problem with this, but this book was wayyyy too unrealistic to ignore. I was rolling my eyes so hard when it turned out that everything Oliver did that led to the animosity between him and Millie was actually for her own good uwu~~Oh and when Cooper and Beth became a thing (and then got engaged not even a year later)?? COME TF ON NOW. i mean, i get it, we want Millie and Chloe to be stepsisters, but was it really necessary to go to SUCH lengths to make it happen??? in fact, why did everyone have to couple up?! let ppl be single and happy ffsAlso, I saw that reveal coming from a mile ago so like,,,,ANOTHER EYE ROLL. i swear i almost saw my lord and savior jesus christ back there. 🙄Plus, the romance relied way too heavily on the miscommunication trope just for the sake of creating angst even tho it made NO sense. they kept saying they knew each other but he didn't even know what was going on until the last 10% of the book??? NOW NOW NOW i didn't like completely hate this book, hence the rating. i was just expecting something much better. sighhhhh :///

 This was my first audible original & you couldn't pay me to stop now. From the incoming of traffic to the whining kitty (HE WAS THE CUTEST), the sound effects on the production were SO GOOD. And the narrators killed it btw!! This is absolutely the ✨best✨ audiobook I've ever listened to,,,, 

Coming to the actual story, I loved it so much that idk what to say about it (...proceeds to write entire paragraphs). The characters were EVERYTHING. Vera was so fun to read about. She was funny, fierce, kind and quirky in the best way. And Cal is my book bf, I call dibs. He was the softest cinnamon roll hero ever????? I LOVE THEM SM. 
In fact, I loved the entire thing with all my heart. These two had so much emotional chemistry, considering they don't even meet till the last chapter. And all the personal conflicts they were dealing with actually got to me??? Like, I cried. Multiple times. But overall this book made me so happy I wanna S C R E A M. 

PS- HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT TWIST COMING??? I WAS FLOORED & I FEEL STUPID ABOUT IT 😣 

i actually liked this book a lot!! i love stories that are unique spins on classic murder mystery settings. i was also pleasantly surprised by that ending!! the characters were all interesting (except for hanna, she def lacked ~depth~). the romance on the other hand was...just alright??? honestly, it felt a little cookie-cutter and bland but whatever. i loved how this was almost a parody of the exact kind of story it was trying to be. the writing as usual was great, as is expected from alexis hall. 
Overall = i really enjoyed this ,,,

This book is so hard to rate. I hated it and it was my favourite of the series. And by hated I don't mean in an affectionate I hated how much I loved this way. I mean, I really wasn't enjoying myself at certain points. But. Everything got SO. much. BETTER in that last act.
What I disliked the most about this book was the romance aka David. Yes, I finally hate him and have joined the bandwagon. What an ass. And I absolutely hated how Stevie behaved around him. Like, girl, grow a spine and have some self respect.
This is one when of those books where I was not the fan of where the mystery was going UNTIL the big expose where it all came together. I fucking loved it. It's the work of a genius. As underwhelming as the first two books were in that department, this one totally makes up for it. I loved the attention to detail to everything. The way it all came together was so fucking satisfying. I already miss these characters. 
Also, Nate. He's the fucking best. I need a whole book just about him. He better be in the next one.

I liked Tweet Cute but this was so much better. Emma Lord's writing has improved noticeably! 
This book started out just okay to me but then it slowly got better and better. This has enough family drama to rival the haunting of hill house 💀
I loooooooved the characters especially Finn and Connie (my aro queen ❤❤). Also, Savvy and Micky were so cute, I would kill for them 😭
This gave me the same feelings as Foolish Hearts and I am ALWAYS looking for that. (It's time we accept that authors named Emma are just superior!) By the end, I literally couldn't stop smiling. 
Abby's relationship with Poppy almost made me CRY which literally never happens... 
And Abby and Savvy (that rhymes!) are sister goals. Also, LEO. He is SO precious, my heart can't take it. Abby and Leo were childhood-friends-to-lovers excellence. They kind of also gave me star-crossed-lovers vibes. 
This book made me weirdly nostalgic like my heart is so full??? 
I loved how this wasn't just straight up a rom-com, it focused on so many other relationships too. Emma Lord should do more of that! 
This book just gave me a lot of hope. I related to Abby and her struggles SO much. I don't wanna sound cliché and say “it tackles so many important topics” but it really does. I think a lot of people (especially young people) will resonate with this. The premise is crazy but the execution is amazing.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. THE best Emma mills book. Truly everything I could ever want in a contemporary. 
WHY THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER:
-it is funny af. im not kidding, i laughed out loud at SEVERAL points.
-the dialogue is sharp & witty & entertaining
-its such a happy book but makes me wanna cry at the same time
-THE CHARACTERS the characters THE CHARACTERS i wanna give em all a never-ending hug, every single one of em
-PAIGE AND IRIS, name a better fucking couple i dare you
-this book weirdly made me wanna be a better person??
-it's so tragically underrated
-and it's just instant serotonin
I love this book in such an intrinsic way, i can't even describe it. Going into this, I NEVER imagined it would be so good. Sure it's not a perfect book, hardly anything is, but I will never stop screaming from the rooftops about this.

really disappointed by the big reveal. i knew they were sus. also, this book was so rushed.

This had a weak start but THEN I fell in love with it. It was just so fun and a complete page-turner. I loved the characters so much. It was unexpectedly funny and I surprisingly didn't completely hate David.
What I didn't love was the actual mystery. Not because there was anything wrong with it, apart from the pacing, but since this is a series, no real questions were answered in this book and it was just all set-up. IMO, it would have been better if each book followed a different mystery (like in Prep School Confidential) instead of just one in the entire trilogy. Also, I have no idea what the ending means. SpoilerLike, are David and his dad ghosts? Is this shit paranormal? Please, someone let me know.
I have to say though that I, like most people, am fascinated (and terrified) by true crime. And even though the one in this book is obviously fictional, that is the case with this one too. It felt so real.



TL;DR: SO. MUCH. FUN.

 update 26/12/21: lowering my rating coz in hindsight i've already forgotten a lot about this book. it was a quick one time read but didn't really leave much of an impact on me in the end.

i didn't even know how much i needed this book until i read it. it was the perfect quick read to get me out of my mini-slump.for a book with such a small cast of characters, i really did love a lot of them.I loved holly and rose and ida and stacey so fucking much!!! my ragtag bunch of vengeful vampires 🥺 their dynamic was everything, especially the original three.paige, no, parker...was bland and kind of boring but i didn't really *hate her either.
oh i DESPISED elton, is anyone surprised???
i also loved how feminist and casually queer this book was, which really is the perfect combination if you think about it. i mean who doesn't like a book full of badass women??
this was just a great read that may not have been the absolute best thing i've read but was still a ton of fun (even though the ending was a tad unsatisfying).
this book touched on several different topics and they were handled very well imo. the allegory on abuse was also SPOT ON.
i found the rules of vampirism in this book really interesting too.
BASICALLY I LOVE VAMPIRES, GIVE ME MORE VAMPIRE BOOKS!!!  

I already know that this is going to become one of my comfort reads. I am completely enamoured by this book. 
It is happy and  hopeful and exactly what I needed. 
The way I loved ALL the characters??? Except for the asshole ones, of course. It was funny and clichéd in the best way. 
The romance made me swoon at multiple intervals and have I mentioned how amazing this cast of characters is??? Everyone from the main characters to the side characters rock.
We have so much representation??? MY HEART IS SOARINGGGG. 
HE POLITICAL ESCAPISM HEALED MY HEART BTW & FILLED IT WITH HOPE 😭
All the relationships in this book were so precious??? 
I don't know how to put into words my love for this book & everything that it did. JUST FUCKING READ IT. 

As much as I hate calling books that, this book is so important. I absolutely adored Darcy as a main character. She did make many mistakes which will make you cringe but that just makes her all the more human and endearing. 
In fact, it's hard to think of a character I didn't like in this, which is so rare. The romance was so fucking precious it made me feel like a giggly teenager (...which I am). I also loved all the amazing queer rep in this! We have people from various indentities which made my heart go soft. 
The way this book handled biphobia (both internalized and very much not) in a subtle way was truly commendable. Also, I'm in love with Brougham. 
I loved the Locker 89™ advice sections at the beginning of most chapters. It was enlightening, even for me. 
And the way that “You're queer” scene had me crying in the club? Pitiful, really. 
This book was also really funny. I was cracking up at multiple points. 
Though I have to nitpick about how many times a guy-is-drunk-and-needs-to-be-taken-care-of situation happened. Which is twice, but it's still weird that it happened twice. 
And it did take me some time to get invested in everything and guage how I was feeling, but once I was in I was in. 
Overall: I would totally recommend this book to everyone!!! 

This book...ugh. I absolutely loved Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake so I decided to try Alexis Hall's other works. Clearly that didn't go well. 
I hated almost all of the characters with exception of Luc's mother. Oliver and Bridget were THE WORST. 
Oliver is definitely one of my least favorite love interests I have ever read about. This entire book made me so angry. There were one too many conflicts for my liking. Also, that entire plot-line with Luc's dad was...unnecessary??? I wish we'd just been told that he is an asshole and that'd been it because it went absolutely nowhere. I was just desperately waiting for it to end. Honestly, I kinda wanna forget about it. 

Omfg this book was so fucking good, I'm kinda at a loss for words. If there is one thing I have a weekness for, it's a cooking/baking competition setting in books & this one absolutely delivered. Honestly, just reading about reality tv in general fascinates me. 
Even though I didn't think much of her in the beginning, by the end Rosaline really grew on me. Harry was a fucking cinnamon bun, Amelie was an icon, Anvita a legend and so were almost all the other characters, except for the shitty ones. Can Alan go die in a ditch please and thank you. 
I EVEN CRIED!!! AND THAT'S THE HIGHEST PRAISE I CAN GIVE A BOOK. 
It made my heart swell like a balloon and was also so unbelievably funny??? 
All the discussion around mental health, toxic relationships, shitty parents and finding yourself really got to me. It was so fucking spot on. 
Also, this book was wonderfully queer, so that made me really happy. 
Don't even get me started on all the baking talk! It weirdly turns me on. /j
And the romance was cutest thing on earth??? I HOPE WE SEE MORE OF THEM IN THE NEXT BOOK. SPEAKING OF WHICH, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL 2022??? 
ALEXIS HALL, TAKE ALL MY MONEY UWU