sam <3

this was actually really fun and ridiculous. i enjoyed it quite a bit. i have so many funny moments highlighted!! 
BUT. charlie grant is def one of the most annoying mcs i have ever read about. the way she behaved really got on my last nerves. 
anyhoo jj is clearly the superior sibling!! OH AND RODNEY LOML

 minor spoilers???


THIS BOOK WAS SIMPLY EVERYTHING. It was so well written and also made furious at men who do this (as if i needed any more of that in my life 😫). Scarlett is my favorite girlboss and honestly I relate to wanting to kill shitty men.
While i didn't see that twist coming, it was also not anything entirely new to me. But it still made a lot of sense. Every single man in this was awful (except Drew, my gay dad) which is realistic ig 😭
I lurveeeeeed the ending so much. My little meow meows, my precious little sapphic murder buddies 🥺🥺🥺
The entire time I was going, “AS SHE SHOULD 💅”
Nicking half a star though because at times this was kinda predictable. Still absolutely loved it. 

i have no idea how to write a review for this book but you gotta start somewhere so here goes. this is officially now one of my all time faves. 
this book made me cry happy tears. like a lot of them. first of all, I loved all the mental health rep. And the rep in general actually. Charlie is also on the asexual spectrum and Dev is Indian! 
Dev put it best: this book is a queer party. Like almost everyone is queer?? And that means so fucking much to me. 
Charlie and Dev were literally so cute, I'm sending them my dentist's bills. 
THIS BOOK WAS ALSO REALLY FUCKING FUNNY WTF
I was a sobbing mess by the end of it tho. like how dare you make me feel so much??? 
IT IS SO WELL WRITTEN ASDGHYGJUBNJ
I loved all the discussions that were had in this book and they're all really important. 
I LOVE PARISA AND JUNE AND SKYLAR AND EVEN RYAN. 
Also, that ending. Daphne's sapphic season spin off when???

There's a lot I liked about this book. It has GREAT representation and is really diverse. It was at times really funny. The characters were v easy to root for. The overall message is SO interesting. I was completely immersed in the story. Like all of Lauren James' work, this was incredibly creative. 
But. 
The writing could've been better. I also felt that the execution was kind of wobbly. And I did find it arguably unrealistic. Some of the decisions the characters made were REALLY frustrating. This honestly felt slightly longer than it needed to be. And the villains were almost the cartoonish mustache-twirling type.
But, despite everything, this book was one HELL of a ride and I even had some fun with it. ;)

This is one of the best romances I've ever read. It has Love, Rosie vibes which I loved and I was a sobbing mess by the end. A wild ride from start to finish.
It was incredibly funny with witty banter and entertaining dialogue but also really profound at the same time. This is everything I could ever want in a romance. It really has some of FAVORITE tropes. 
That is not to say that this book was perfect. The entire time we are building up to the Croatia trip and what caused their “friendship” breakup but when we actually get there, the pay off is very disappointing. I was left feeling like, that's it? this is what made you not talk to each other for two years?. Alex, at times, was really prickly and that kind of ruined it for me. Also, the miscommunication trope is...used. But I still freaking loved it. This book got me out of a reading slump!

in theory, this book had the potential to be absolutely amazing but it didn't really live up to that. as much as i liked logan and her dads (ashley was annoying), i couldn't connect to any of the characters and found most of them awful. this book was just underwhelming and even the romance felt rushed. i did like the writing but that is not enough to carry a whole ass book. the mystery was...aight but i didn't exactly have my panties in a twist. i liked how easy to read this was tho. and at least i got some dilf action so not everything's doomed lmao.

that was actually so good wtf??? such a great origin story! it was also really funny and entertaining. i loved all the little twists. if you love this series, you will probably love this too.

where the fuck do i even start. i don't think it's a secret that i'm not the biggest fan of the first two books in this series (tho the 2nd one is better than the 1st). But this one blew my mind and shattered my fucking heart. this series progressively gets darker and darker which means PAIN yayyyy.
But let me start from the beginning. I was really not enjoying myself at the start of this book. I even thought it might be my least favorite of the trilogy but then at the halfway point EVERYTHING CHANGED.
Pip is kidnapped and we learn who the DT killer is and I think is this book ending already???. BUT THEN. bUt ThEn. Pip and Ravi become murder buddies??? Wtf??? And the whole trajectory of the book changed and it became a revenge thriller???!!! And I was fucking digging it?? It was so goddamn badass. If he will LITERALLY help you take care of the body, THAT'S how you know he's a real one.
I was so impressed with the amount of callbacks from the 2nd and even the 1st book??? Especially considering AGGGTM was originally supposed to be a standalone like...woooooow....holly jackson YOUR MIND. 
But then THE thing happened and everything went wrong and my heart was ACTUALLY breaking omfg. And then the SECOND thing happened and I was like miss jackson HOW FUCKING DARE YOUUUUUU???? DO YOU HAVE NO REGARD FOR MY MENTAL HEALTH?? (note: she doesn't and we love her for it!) 
I think I've only ever been this sad over a book ONCE before (and that was evelyn hugo, for you nosy fucks). i was so anxious for pip and these characters the entire time... 
AND THE FUCKING ENDING. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR CRY. (that's a lie. i cried. because that last chapter was so

well, at least this was better than the first one. i didn't even plan on picking this book up because i wasn't a fan of the first one but then I thought what the hell. and...i didn't hate it.
the writing is nothing special at all and the neither are the characters so the only thing that saved this for me was the actual mystery which is funny because that's exactly what was lacking in the first book.
i think holly jackson should ease up on the foreshadowing though because that makes it really easy to figure out who is sus right away but at least i didn't figure everything out this time around.
i did like that this book was very binge-able. i finished the whole thing in the span of like 12 hours. and i guess i am going to read the next book so yayyyy

i mean...i liked it and i didn't??? it did follow a lot of typical thriller tropes as KMM's books often do and I didn't find this particularly thrilling but it was still good. it won't go down in history as the best thriller to ever grace the ya genre though and the big reveal was really underwhelming. but i have to say i do like KMM's humor a lot. and the characters were cute. it is definitely unconventional in its own way. i really didn't see the point of the allison pov & think that it took away from the story but if you like character focused thrillers (aubrey was my favorite), you can give this a try. don't really have a lot to say about this one other than that. 

I actually really liked this book and no one is more surprised than me at this fucking miracle. 
This book was...much funnier than I expected it to be. Unexpected would be a good word to describe it, actually. Sure, it was also at times predictable and seemed to follow the formula that a lot of YA thrillers follow, but I'm not really complaining. 
My one criticism would be that I wish I'd connected to the characters a bit more, but other than that, this book was like a fresh breath of air in that you need to experience it to enjoy it (duh). It was also really diverse which I'm happy about and it does talk about the privileges cis-het white men enjoy, that I really fucking loved. Oh, and the last line made me gasp out loud. 
Overall, a really solid thriller! 

 This has to be my least favorite Kara Thomas book. But let's start with the good parts.
This is a very well written book. The writing drew me in & didn't let me go until the very end. Like all of Kara Thomas' books, this was compulsively readable. And for a thriller, this was pretty thrilling. I actually felt anxious for the characters at many points during this book.
I also really liked how complex all the characters were!
They were not one-dimensional at all & I really appreciated that. I do love me some morally grey badasses! Though I have to add, some of the characters (that I assume we were supposed to care about) were just plain assholes.
Now on to the negatives. Hmmm, where to start.
For a mystery, I don't think the mystery was very good at all.
I had so many unanswered questions by the end of this book. Like why did Jack say “I'm sorry” if he was innocent? Also, all the deaths didn't even turn out to be related at the end?! There weren't five murders, just three (plus a hit and run) unlike what the book would like you to believe. 
I felt like this entire book, we weren't getting anywhere at all. Like Monica would come across an oh-so-shocking clue and then we would somehow be back to square one? It was a lot of beating around the bush. 
Most of the discoveries that Monica made weren't even relevant until the end? It was like KT was trying to fill up pages with vaguely “thrilling” shit until she reached the desired page count. There was like ~one~ measly twist that actually shocked me. 
The ending was very weak and the whole thing just felt lazy. It was sloppy at best. The ending was also very open which I'm not sure I liked. There was no real closure when it desperately needed one. 
Anyway, I've read so much better from this author. 
 

This is Kara Thomas' best work yet. She is truly such a versatile author.
In case it isn't clear: I fucking loved this book. The twists & turns kept on the edge of my seat the whole time (tho I can see how people might dislike that particular one but, for me, it just made me laugh). It took such wild directions. It was fucked up & so not what I was expecting, like, at all. The twists are literally jaw-dropping. Okay, maybe not literally but you get my point.
Sure, Clary was kind of annoying sometimes (more on that later), but I can't deny how good this was. 
This was also much darker than I expected it to be which I loved (also unexpectedly). But some parts actually made me sad. Check out the trigger warnings before going in because it deals with some serious topics.
This book is so binge-able & I wasn't bored for a second. It is full of such raw emotion. Also, I love Thomas' writing so much. The pacing, too, was amazing. I couldn't stop reading it.
Btw I did not love the romantic subplot at all. Like, why.
Now coming to the reason I didn't rate this a full five stars.
I did not like the way depression was treated in this book. First if all, when it is suggested that Jesse may be depressed, Claire vehemently denies it which pisses me off. You can't tell just by looking at someone if they are struggling. Mental illness isn't always visible on people's faces. Also, I hated how depression was villainized in this book. It is heavily implied that Jesse killed Kat because he was depressed. Which is just a terrible thing to put in a book. Of course, that doesn't actually end up being true but I did not like how Claire did nothing to deny that and instead, kind of played into it. 
For me personally, I can overlook that blip & still love this book but to each their own. 

pros:

- the mystery was rock solid. it took some really unexpected turns too.
- some twists totally caught me by surprise
- this was really funny. definitely more than i was expecting it to be.
- the writing was very digestible which i loved
- stevie, my relatable queen
- david, the hopeless romantic
- nate is such a softie & a hilarious one at that
- susan & paul are my gay parents


cons:

- the pacing was kinda off. We got a couple of flashbacks and that was it?! the rest of the book was in present time which didn't really make much sense in the context of the previous books
- it was almost like i had read this book before. coz i had, in all the previous books in this series. all of them follow pretty much the same format and it can get really tedious. 

Overall, this was probably my favorite installment of this series. I enjoyed it a lot! Hopefully we'll get more of Stevie Bell and this isn't the end. I also gotta read all of Maureen Johnson's backlist. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a hit or miss author for me but this one was a fucking hit. I loved it so much. I loved all the female characters, as is to be expected, and scoffed at all the men, as is realistic. 
I fell in love with June and Nina and Kit and Casey and even Tarine (and Ricky, I love him). I wanted to castrate Mick Riva. I was rolling my eyes at Jay and Hud. 
I'm not usually a big fan of flashbacks but TJR does it so incredibly well. 
June, and especially Nina, are some of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. The love I feel for these characters is inexplicable.
The family dynamics in this book are truly spectacular. I HAVE NO WORDS AAAHHHH. 
That is not to say that I liked everything about it. The first half of this book was so much better than the second one what with having to read about random, unimportant characters in the latter. 
And, as much as I felt for these characters, this book could not make me cry. Also it made me hate men even more than I usually do. 
But, at the end of the day, this is still a very well done and complex story that I enjoyed to great extents. Would totally recommend to everyone! 

I just realised that Jess is literally the main character.
This was a surprisingly good book! I mean, sure, the synopsis is very misleading and the big twist, while quite unpredictable, requires a great suspension of beliefs; but I still really enjoyed it. This book was a wild ride from start to finish and took a completely different direction than what I was expecting. The romance was really ~unexpected~ and cute. I think I speak for everyone when I say that this just turned one of our biggest what-ifs into reality. Like I said, this book is not very realistic as this would never happen in real life but, sometimes, that's exactly why we read fiction. Overall, this was a really fun read and I would totally recommend it!!!

Oh. My. God. I'm in love with this book.
No, you don't understand, the amount of creativity one needs to create something like this...I'm honestly speechless. This was truly iconic.
The plot twists? Unbelievable. The humour? On point. The accuracy? Unmatched.
I've never in my life read anything like this. 

READ THIS BOOK OR I'LL MAKE YOU!!!

 This was probably my most anticipated book of the year. After all, I proudly proclaim take a hint dani brown as one of the best romances I've ever read. So it's with a heavy heart that I announce: this wasn't as good as that book.
Don't get me wrong, I really liked it. There were genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this. The banter were so fun and several scenes had me going awww and wtf?! (in the best way).
I just didn't didn't care about this couple as much as I'd hoped to. Also, some parts of this book were painfully corny. And the last-act-conflict was so stupid. Ugh. I hate the miscommunication trope with every fibre of my being. Nevertheless, I still had a good time and am going to be reading whatever Talia Hibbert writes for the rest of eternity because damn, that woman can write. I love her weird books. 

This was pretty fun lol. I really loved the writing of this one. It was observational and mesmerising. It read more like a mystery than this author's usual whodunnit-thrillers because here the protagonist wasn't actively trying to solve the case but rather twists were slowly unfolding pretty much on their own. I absolutely adored all the complicated family dynamics.
I wasn't too shocked by the big reveal but I didn't completely see it coming either so that's that.
Overall: totally would recommend. Check it out to get your fill of YA thrillers.

Wow. That was so weird, I loved it. Unlike anything I've ever read before.
I enjoyed April's character and wanted to scream at her all the same. She did some really shitty things like thirsting over other people when she already had a girlfriend (even though she never treated Maya like one). She is the epitome of an unlikable protagonist.
This made some great observations on humanity and internet culture. The social commentary was one of the best parts of this book for me. 
This book was incredibly funny too. It made me laugh out loud several times. I also loved how intricately woven the plot was. Hank Green is a genius.
While I wasn't expecting that ending, it did leave me kind of unsatisfied with the few answers that we got. I understand that there will probably be more of that in the sequel, but that makes this book seem like all build up.

is there anything sadder than rereading an old favourite and realising it isn't a favourite anymore?

PROS
- the second half
- all the twists i didn't see coming
- a friends-to-lovers (the superior trope!!!) romance, however vanilla
- this book could save the world
- i loved the direction it took iykyk
- i could honestly read a whole damn book about maya's social media posts, which were infinitely more interesting than anything else in this book

CONS
- the first half
- the writing which felt more middle grade than YA
- how slow (but at the same time not slow) this book was
- the notion that you can't be happy if you don't have kids (ugh, breeders)
- shen was boring as hell

*

The fact that I read this during a similar pandemic . . . hi, eerie existential crisis.
full rtc

what i liked
- how funny this was, i mean at the core of it this is not a light-hearted book but some parts were hilarious
- badass women!!! being badass!!! doing hot girl shit!!!
- what a fucking page turner
- i highlighted the living hell out of this book

what i didn't like
- the cheating & how everyone was cool with it
- how anticlimactic this really was, like i was expecting some epic shit and then it came down to it & i was like ''that's it? what even was the point of so much build-up then?''
- this book was just everyone being a horrible person for 300 pages straight
- killing camila off so that billy & daisy could be together
- wtf was that ‘‘twist''?!

bottom line: was this as good as the seven husbands of evelyn hugo? lol, clearly not

THE GOOD: 
-i'm just so happy that this book exists. not because the writing is great or the plot is ground-breaking but because I've never felt so seen. for that, this book will always have a special place in my heart. alice oseman is a treasure.
-the dialogue was really funny, love that for us
-so many quotes!!!!

THE BAD:
-the writing was at points was painfully juvenile
-certain parts were a cheesy fucking cringe-fest
-a non-binary character goes with ‘‘he/they'' pronouns yet ‘‘they'' pronouns are never used for them

I really, really enjoyed this book. I devoured it in a blink. The characters were well-fleshed out (though there were one too many conflicts for my liking), the writing was really digestible and at times, profound, and I just had a fun time.
Sure, it was predictable and pretty standard YA but I need just that sometimes. Also, Tash is asexual!!! Even though she is not where I am on the spectrum, I still loved the representation. Even apart from that, this gets brownie points for ALL the representation. It is quite a diverse story in all spheres.
None of the characters were too likable, which is fine, because I don't like saints anyway. This also deals with some heavy topics so check out the content warnings in case you are bothered by that. I really enjoyed the Unhappy Families parts of this book, which was A LOT. All in all, a pretty solid read!

Uhhh...this is awkward.
This wasn't that bad and occasionally really funny but also clichéd as fuck. I had high expectations because this book is hyped but alas! Why the fuck can we not have nice things?
I also could not be free from that cursed “miscommunication” trope. Sigh. Lemme just say, I called it!
I will still be picking up the next book because I've heard it's gets better, just not right away.