Reviews&Recaps

book reviews, recaps, and quotes 😗📚

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Review: A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)

★★★★★

I enjoyed this so much more than A Court of Thorns and Roses! A Court of Thorns and Roses felt like it could’ve been two books, the pacing was so strange. It seemed like the plot started at the very end of the book, when Feyre goes Under the Mountain and starts learning about Amarantha’s curse. From the very beginning of A Court of Mist and Fury, we know a conflict is brewing. We know what the conflict is going to be. There are surprises along the way, but we know what we’re building up to. Knowing there’s a plot and movement and forward progression was what I needed from this series at this point. I loved the characters that were introduced in this book. It was great to see Feyre overcome what she had to do Under the Mountain. It was great seeing her making friends and finding a new family. I loved the flirtation between Feyre and Rhysand. Normally when a new romantic interest is presented in book two, I end up hating everything. Sometimes so much that I can’t finish the series. The way that Sarah J. Maas set up Feyre falling out of love with Tamlin and into love with Rhys was masterful. After reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, I really wasn’t excited for this book. But now, I can’t wait to see what happens next!

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“Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden

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Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

★★★

I liked it, overall, but it took me a long time to get through. The pacing was strange. It didn’t feel like a three part story. It was more like four or five. When it was good, it was really good, but when it was slow, it was so slow. There was a ton of exposition. Normally when that happens, it happens in one big chunk at the beginning, but this book had it in big chunks throughout. I understand that this is the kind of story that has a lot of backstory that needs to be explained, but it was painful. I’m sure I’ll read the next one. I’m hoping that we got all of the exposition out of the way in A Court of Thorns and Roses, and we can just focus on what’s happening now in A Court of Mist and Fury.

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Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Maggie Stiefvater

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Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1)

★★★★★

This book was so much fun! Monty, the main character, had the most engaging voice I’ve read in a long time; it had me hooked from the very beginning. The plot of this book was unpredictable and fantastic; it was so refreshing to read. The trio of characters featured in this book were all wonderful. I wasn’t expecting to love Felicity as much as I did, but she was perfect. I can’t wait to see more of her, more of all of these characters, in The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. Please, please read this book. It was such a bright, hilarious romantic comedy. I’m already looking forward to rereading it.

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“The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot

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Review: It Ends with Us

★★★ This book was so frustrating to read. I've read a few of Colleen Hoover's other books, and this one wasn't at all what I was expecting. 

A lot of what happens in this book feels unrealistic to me. For a lot of this book, I felt like the main character was living in a dream world. The guy she's dating works constantly, so she barely sees him; she barely knows him. But she's still making excuses for everything he does wrong. From the very first time she meets him, she sees that he has a bad temper. Then, after he hits her the first time, she makes excuses for his behavior. And then, after like six months of dating, they elope. This girl is smart enough to have a business that's successful within a few months of opening, so the impulsive decision making felt off for me.

The pacing of this book was also strange. It lulls, and then jumps ahead weeks or months, which I think contributes to the dream world quality this book has. We're supposed to intuit things about how these characters' relationship is developing in the time we're skipping, but it just made their relationship feel artificial. 

Some things that I liked about this book: Alyssa and Atlas. I loved Alyssa's relationship with Lily. She was a really good friend to her, and I was happy to see that. I also really like Atlas and I wish we would've seen more of him. I also really liked his friend group, and I wish Lily would've spent more time with them.

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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Review: Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I've Loved Before #3)

★★★

I thought it was a decent conclusion to the trilogy, but I had some problems. Lara Jean is an immature, annoying character, but I thought she’d mature in this book. I didn’t see that happen. She was just as immature as she was in the first book, but it was worse because she was older and going off to college. Her dialogue and actions were so irritating. I don’t know of any adult children who call their parents “Mommy” and “Daddy.” Every time she did, it made my skin crawl. I also wasn’t a fan of Margot in this book. Her reaction to her dad’s engagement was so selfish. In the end, Lara Jean makes a responsible decision, but GAH. It takes so long to get there.

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John Muir

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Reviews: Turtles All the Way Down

★★★★

I love John Green, but John Green has never been one of my favorite authors. If I’m being honest, I don’t understand the hype around most of his books. I’ve read Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and The Fault in Our Stars. I didn’t love any of those book, and I didn’t love this one either. However, this book was my favorite of the few I’ve read by him.

One of my main problems with John Green books is that every character sounds like him. He writes about teenagers, but they all speak and think in his voice. While these characters were smart, and some of their unbelievable conversations had me rolling my eyes, I thought Aza’s voice was almost believable. And, more importantly, Aza’s voice put into perspective something that I’ve never had to understand before – what it feels like to live with OCD and anxiety. Aza’s headspace is something I’ve never experienced for myself before, but I have friends and family who live with anxiety. Getting to understand what they go through through Ava’s thoughts was really valuable and eye-opening.

(THAT HAND SANITIZER PART THO)

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Eldest, Christopher Paolini

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A Tale of Two Cities

★★★★

I’ve had this book on my shelf for about a year now. I finally decided to read it because Cassandra Clare’s  Clockwork Princess comes out this month. Tessa and Will talk about A Tale of Two Cities throughout the first two books in The Infernal Devices series. I plan on rereading those books before I read the final book, and I wanted to know what they were talking about.

The only other book I’ve read by Charles Dickens (besides A Christmas Carol) was Great Expectations, and I wasn’t really a fan. For mostly that reason I wasn’t expecting to love this book, especially after reading the first few chapters. It started out slow and, like most classics, wordy as hell. However, as the story progressed I found that I really fell in love with the characters. The novel is divided into three books, and by the end of the second book I was completely invested.

The writing was humorous at times and heartbreaking at others. The story twists in ways that I would have never expected from the beginning.

Classics never make me emotional. I think it’s because there’s normally so much padding to these stories that by the time you’ve waded through all the crap and finally get to the point you’re drained. This wasn’t the case with A Tale of Two Cities. Yes, there was padding, but by the end it didn’t matter. By the end I was even grateful for all of Charles Dickens writing. By the end I was crying every time certain characters were mentioned.

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“Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Recap: A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)

Synopsis:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world. As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it… or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

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The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien