Bianca

2.5 stars. Too much drama, too much convenience (and then phases of inconvenience) and not enough coding.

I am a girl in IT myself, I hoped there would be more than two buzzwords about web development in this. I felt connected to Dimple in the beginning but that got lost in the middle of the book. Rishi is clearly not made for engineering and you see it. But I did not see that Dimple is logical or fitting for actually develop. She has ideas and is creative in terms of e.g. usability but no coding action.

Rishi was loveblind and too pushed around. He is too sweet and chewy to be a good cinnamon roll.

The romance was good in the beginning and I tought it would be a good hate-to-love. But it got into instant attraction very fast.

3.5 stars

I liked the book and the direction we were heading until the last 100 pages. It felt like there was to much going right and it needed to be crashed.
I hated the cameos from Assassin's Blade since I hated the characters in this book but they were as remembered and still got on my nerves.
The romance scenes: I couldn't care less and some even ruined ships for me (way to go). Also: everyone must have romance.... Why couldn't there be main characters without a love interest? (Also Dorian got kind of cocky with Manon and so he got also on my nerves and thrown off my favorite character in this series throne).
Overall I wished the book was shortened by the romance and some dragging scenes and I hope the next two books will be better than this one.

This took a way better use of Russian folklore than the Grisha trilogy did.

1. The Blood of Imuriv by Renée Ahdieh - 4.5/5 stars
   2. Jack by Ameriie - 2/5 stars
   3. Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chainani - 4/5 stars
   4. Shirley & Jim by Susan Denard -3.5/5 stars
   5. The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni -3.5/5 stars
   6. The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer - 4.5/5 stars
   7. Beautiful Venom by Cindy Pon - 4/5 stars
   8. Death Knell by Victoria Schwab - 4/5 stars
   9. Marigold by Samantha Shannon - 5/5 stars
   10. You, You, It's All About You by Adam Silvera - 3.5/5 stars
   11. Julian Breaks Ever Rule by Andrew Smith - 1/5 stars
   12. Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke - 4.5/5 stars
   13. Sera by Nicola Yoon - 3.5/5 stars
   
   Overall: 3.6 stars

I received an electronic copy of this book via Netgalley.

The art was nice but simple. The story was also simple and quite predictable altough told light and fluffy. I would recommend it for kids and teens.

I love random facts since I was a child. So naturally I read a few books about them.
This one still surprised me. The illustrations were interesting and unique and most of the facts were new to me. The facts are grouped in parts i.e. science, nature and history. Each fact or facts to a certain theme (like frogs) are distinguishably designed and illustrated.


Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange of an honest review.

I received an electronic copy via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

This comic was awesome. The story was great and used nordic mythology in a simple yet effective and interesting way. The art was what was really special: Very raw linestrokes, very muted greyish tones made this comic quite atmospheric. I can't wait for more issues.

A nice relatable comic but nothing groundbreaking unique. Many comic strips refer to similar themes like laziness or makeup related comics. It was a nice quick read.

I wouldn't say that this is just for women.

Thanks to Netgalley for an electronic copy in exchange for an hones review.

How did a 18 year old watch most of the series of the eigthies and play videogames in just 5 years? And some of them multiple times, I cannot understand.
The writing was flat and repetitive. I predicted the references of the key and gate quests, way before our main character did. After the first half I couldn't care less what would happen to our main character, who was either absolutely stupid or in the zone and a true gamer. No in between.

What also unnerved me to no end, was that there were no real dead ends. Almost everything had a point and the characters only didn't guessed it. Also the repetitions got on my nerve. Perhaps it was the fault of the translation but reading the same lines every few pages is exhausting and not helpful.

I thought that the ending could have helped this book, but I would have liked a different, not so open ending or an epilogue.

So one and a half quite generous stars for the references and the nostalgia factor.

Erwartet hatte ich eine Homage an die 80er und 90er, aber irgendwie wirkte das Buch sehr fokussiert auf die 80er (die ich persönlich nicht miterlebt hab). Der Schreibstil war abschweifend und vor allem in den ersten Kapitel wirkte es sehr ... elitär auf die 80er bezogen.
Häufig technische falsche und unpassende Aussagen, zumindest offensichtlich für Technikafine, sowie ein sehr starker Fokus aus Videospielkultur, sorgten für diese Bewertung.

This book was better than the precious books but it could have been cut by >300 pages.

Oh god I hated this book. Due to the fact the other two books weren't good for me, I expected to like this more. The beginning was good: Half french girl? Check, so we have a person that can speak french in the School of America in Paris. A not so stupid love interest with interests I could understand? Check. Possibly more logical girl? Nah.

But after 60 pages it all went down the river.

I had real problems when Josh and Isla were in the finish art exhibit and were super jerks to the artists. Ok, I get that not all art is pleasing for everyone. Did they (including an artist) being so jerky? nope. At this point (1/5 of the book) the “artist” characteristics of Josh died for me. A few chapters later, Isla and Josh are talking about La Louvre and other famous old art galleries and are admiring the heck out of them. Ok, old art is, also in my opinion, more pleasing than the new, abstract art. But then the scenes in Barcelona. Gaudí is an artist in the catalonian modernism. It sound so pretentious that he like one art without reasons other than it's beautiful and hates on other art. I don't get it as an artist myself.

At the point of Barcelona and the shocking not so shocking effects of it afterwards, I almost threw my ereader across the room. Due to the fact that I didn't had my physical copy with me, I switched to my computer so that it was harder to throw.

I feel like Kurt, the only sane person with a brain in this goddamn book. The more I read about him and Isla, the more I questioned why they were even friends.

Other Problems I had:
- even the mild stalking is stalking
- Isla is praised as being smart but she's almost as dumb as Anna
- I didn't understood Kurt's mental health issues as they weren't shown to us. I was not convinced that weekly activities like pizza oder sushi night would make a overly structure
- The french: I am an almost native french speaker since my grand-père is french. So I noticed a few weird sentences. Some were more like textbook or translation french but this one urks me to no end:

in chapter 22: “mon bébés” -> mes bébés it's called plural. If you write french, make sure it is grammatically correct. Or the editor should know french. -.-

- Isla's impulsiveness:
also chapter 22: “It's a freaking soap opera.” Like your life isn't one.

- Unbelievableness:
chapter 25: Yeah, totally realistic given the acceptance rates of these both universities are the other way around. Also: If Isla doesn't know what she wants to do in the future for what did she apply for? In France especially Sorbonne, you need to know your “major” before applying. We still don't know what she wants to do in the end of the book as for her major!

- The ending: it was rushed given the 50+ pages of Isla ignoring Josh. The redemption wasn't there. For neither of these characters

- The “couples coming together”: I felt that Lola and her boyfriend weren't depicted as they were in the previous book and it was weird

- The constant mentioning of Étienne loving Anna: I felt like this was done to “improve” the not spoken out reasons in Anna and the French Kiss to give reasons for Étiennes behaviour. So why wasn't this in the first book? It doesn't redeem the fact what happened in book one.

- The ironicness of the use of the term “happily ever after” in the middle of the book

I'm done. I love Stephanie Perkins short stories but I find to much flaws in the full length novels.

God..... this one was so much more annoying than the first one. Lara Jean and Peter were super pretentious and even for teens megahypersuper stupid. Most of the scenes went from kind of cute to super cringy.

Too long and too obvious in some aspects. If you have read some productivity, self management books, you can skip this one and save yourself some time.

Also the german translation pushed even more prose in this book than the original version has.

4.5 stars

I really liked this less than the Hidden Oracle despite of Apollos slightly toned down personality. Old Apollo I could not stand (I didn't like him in the previous series either). Granted I can like a series despite not liking the main characters, it does effect my rating here a little bit. And that's because of the short seperations of the character groups. I didn't like the “only x people can go” strategy here and these mini quests were entertainable but I would have liked a huge consistent quest more. Because of this the “main showdown” felt flat for me.

It was okay, I guess. Partly cute, partly ultracheesy, partly weird.

The way bullying was handled but not as I would liked. I would have liked less drama for the sake of resolving the friendship and bullying issues more. Because not everything is resolved with saying sorry.

I 'guessed' Blue in that way that I didn't tought about the options Simon saw. I knew it was someone of the sports group but the name of the president twist was done quite well.

It was ok but not an extraordinary read for me.

3 stars.
This was quite enjoyable altough I had my problems with the book.

- Anna was naive and judging. All. the. fucking. time! She assumed things about her friends and family (or more like Étiennes family) without asking or knowing them a bit. This combines with the next point drived me nuts and I put the book down for the last 50 pages.
- Show don't tell. Despite a few conversations there wasn't much ‘evil' doing from his father. He was mean but not as mean as told.
- Miscommunication of doom.
- The bullying aspect was unnessesary and not resolved at all. The little help Lola gave wasn't really a good measurement to give a good lesson except ‘bullying is bad'.


The cheating aspect wasn't my issue. Since we only saw Ellie like.... 10 pages? For me, it felt like Ellie wasn't even there (despite the fact that Anna lost her own head over her like every third page).

Lowering my rating to 2 stars because in contrast to Lola and Isla, Anna had a serious case of double standards (slutshaming, I'm not like other girls syndrome, egocentric behaviour towards her own friends, etc.).

2 stars.

This put me in a reading slump. twice.

I didn't like the middle third of the book and felt that the scheming of the group felt not as genuine as in the first book. I guessed most of Kaz plans and some characters fell more flat than in the first book. Also the ending didn't hook me.

So I must sadly say that this disappointed me and I think it's because of the way Leigh Bardugo writes her finales (since I didn't enjoy Ruin and Rising).

3.5 stars.

It was quiet an entertaining read altough I wasn't fond of the translation and guessed the murderer and plot quiet easily. Will read the next one in english to see, if the writing style suits me more.

Offensive and horribly wrong. Geeks and nerds doesn't have a strict correlation, rather causality. Many grammar errors (even noticed by a non native speaker. Perhaps I am too much of an geek myself.

The charts and graphics are either to be appreciated for non geeks or non überGeeks it seems. I rolled my eyes over most of the graphics because they were either old jokes or not funny at all. The curves are either too simplified or have no relevance and proposition whatsoever. Excluding the fact of missing references.

For example the color wheel (paragraph Wardrobe) from Newton has not the purpose of complementary colors. It was to show the blending of colors and the spectrum of a rainbow. The color theory states that artists such as Boulet or Goethe brought the conclusion from the light spectrum to the complementary colors. So I cringed over such wrongly delivered informations.

For a good book into geekdom I would recommend a rather funny one that doesn't drag everything trough the mudd and portrays geeks healthier. Sure there are the stereotypes out there but that has not to be the case for each and everyone of them.

Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo 2 Stars
I didn't understand this story. The first pages were irrelevant to the story and beside two or three lines I loved, I didn't get the romance.

The End of Love by Nina LaCour 3.5 Stars

Last Stand at the Cinegore by Libba Bray 2.5 stars
Super weird and not quite a believable love story to me

Sick Pleasure by Francesca Lia Block 1.5 stars
Too confusing and no real goal as for a love story imho

In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins 4 stars
It was cute but I found Marigold a little bit unpredictable (since out of character is not quite the right term for a short story) and also stupid because of some of her descisions.

Souvenirs by Tim Federle 4.5 stars
so bittersweet. I loved the couple in this story.

Inertia by Veronica Roth 4.5 stars
I first tought: nice premise but the first pages weren't my cup of tea. But then it went the feels rollercoaster.

Love is the Last Resort by Jon Skovron 5 stars
I loved how overly ambigious the narrator was and how the strands of simple, yet cute love stories intertwined

Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert 3.5 stars
This was enjoyable and really cute but a little bit to rash for my liking. Felt a little bit ‘generic' for me

Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare 4 stars
This was the most story driven one of the bunch

A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith 5 stars
Oh my gosh. So cute, so totally up my alley.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman 3.5 stars
It was good but super predictable. I already guessed the ending and plottwist a page into the story

I tried to like the KonMari method, but it wasn't for me. After 3 months of doing it, I went back to my old cleaning habits. Why? Because I was not satisfied.
Most ideas like everything has a place in the home and if it isn't used, give it away are nice and easy ideas of which I used many myself before. I love organization tools such as boxes and document holders, but some suggested ideas don't work for me personally. Sadly these were the most pushed and central ideas of the method: I love my big unread bookshelf because I not only say but eventually read books from it. I am a quite fast reader so ~ 120 books can be tackled in a year.
There are more things like throwing out boxes of products and there manuals which I will never do because warranty is quiet difficult without and I actually read the manual if I need something: I just don't pack these boxes in my living room!

To the book itself: The writing was selfish and arrogant (at least in the german translation) which made me furious sometimes. The tips were either presented clearly and super easy or hidden ( I think there were a few passages where there wasn't a clear tip given). Most of this book was a waste of time in my option. If you can think and have found an organisation technique that works for you: great optimize it and you will be much happier than reading this.
If you are messy or not quiet organized, this might be for you. Although I tried this on some of my friends and given them a list of tips based on the key points of this book. Guess what: It didn't work quiet well. They destuffed their apartment but were furious about things like all-year-closet or similar-things-in-same-area-policies. Not because of tradition, because it doesn't work for their apartments and live style as university students!

This book was just ok for me. The plot and characters were nothing breathtaking as I found the story quite troopy and sometimes overexaggerating. The world building is done nicely but still remained a bit flat (It doesn't always have to be otherworldly breathtaking but describing a world like ours with just a few twists and emphasizing that it's not our world, bugs me a little bit). I didn't particularly like how the time flew... or rather jumped while characters remained mostly static. The “torture” is not as brutal as I tought it was going to be and it was more of psychological mind games to me than real torture itself.

The main character is so driven by a, for me, exaggerated reason and given her revenge, she was just average. Not the whiny, naive protagonist, I give her that, but also not groundbreaking. I liked other characters such as Latha more. Vic's thoughts are so irritating and made me hate her a quarter into the book.



I received this book as an e-arc from netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

This book is beautifully written and the story is well developed and quite unique. I guessed some plot points but was still surprised on other plot development.

What brought down the rating was the fact that I thought that it sometimes tried a little bit too hard. I am a massive fan of japanese culture and so I found myself a little disappointed in the briefness some aspects are covered. I get that not all readers will know everything about the culture before hand, but if you expect a super cultural it's not quiet that.
Also the romance aspect bugged me a bit.

I received this book as an e-arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my gosh. This was hell of a ride. I mostly listened to the audio book since I find the writing style (in english and the german translation) too ... flowery to keep on going in my normal reading speed. Hitting about 30% I knew I was going to like the book and went to order the second book... and was spoiled for this book because of the synopsis tableflip. But it was still nice done plotwise even though I knew the ending of the first book. There were still conclusions that where hinted at but were shocking and exciting.