with love, Dani

where a dreamer lives 

[thelunarpages]

Hypothesis: Because of my bad track record with booktok hyped romance books I’m not going to enjoy The Love Hypothesis. I’m going to preface this by saying that I don’t usually have much luck with booktok famous/hyped books. SPECIFICALLY, ROMANCE BOOKS. And because of that I usually tend to stay away from booktok hyped romance books. However, I heard that The Love Hypothesis was based on/ was originally a ReyLo fanfiction and that sealed the deal. I HAD to read it. My expectations for this book was through the roof. I’m not gonna lie, in the first 25% I was getting iffy and coming to terms that I might not enjoy this book like how everyone else enjoyed it. But, the book pulled through in the end. So, we have Olive, our badass, girlboss, STEM Queen. Who happened to be my favorite character in this book. As a character I find that her existence, a young, smart, and capable woman is basically what the STEM field stamps down. I mean it is a male dominated field. But, here you have someone as young as Olive making bounds in her research for pancreatic cancer. This book contains tropes such as fake dating, mutal pining, and the male lead falling hard first. Plus also kind of grumpy sunshine because Adam literally is only sweet to her and is a gump with everyone else. I rated this 4 stars and it’s only one star away from a 5 because I did find that the beginning could not suck me into the story. But other than that I greatly enjoyed Olive and Adam’s story.

[thelunarpages]

aren’t maps in books just so gorg? 

[thelunarpages]

"We were alone in the world, unique. We were bound together and always would be." -Alina Starkov

Well, where do I start? I started this trilogy in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic because of all the wonderful reviews I heard about it. I breezed through the first two books but for some reason I couldn’t pick up Ruin and Rising. At the beginning of 2021 I told myself that I’d finish reading it by April just in time for the show. I’m not gonna lie it took me a good month to finish this book. I started it late February and finished at the end of March.

Ruin and Rising was a roller-coaster for me. There were parts where the book was really good and I could get sucked into the story not wanting to put the book down. The towards the middle I couldn’t get into it and felt like I was pulling teeth. I thought I was gonna half to rate this book less than 5 stars however, things took a turn with the last five chapters. In these chapters I found respect for Alina and Mal and a few insights on The Darkling as a person.

I’m rating this book FIVE stars because of how much growth all the characters had. From the first book all the way to the end of this one I finally saw how they grew as people and came together when needed. I love all of these characters, yes including The Darkling. Our misinformed, unloved Aleksander Morozova. Leigh Bardugo’s ability to write such amazing growth for her characters was awe-inspiring to behold. Even our story’s villain I loved and found pieces of him that were human. That hinted at a boy that was blessed with power yet completely alone in the world. I do admit that The Darkling was my favorite character and though I am quite sad at his ending I feel it was best ending for him. I do wonder if the Grisha realize that they’re still going to be fighting what HE was fighting for, for what he believed in and wanted – a safe place for Grisha to live and practice their talents. For all his faults Alina herself saw who The Darkling truly was and what he wanted: a boy who loved Ravka and only wished for love back.

I understand why Alina chose Mal and I don’t think she chose wrong. I get why people say he has the personality of a wet sock but, he’s good. He was the man that The Darkling COULD have been.

While I disliked that I felt like I was pulling teeth in the middle of this book I absolutely LOVE the character development that we see in the end. I actually cried reading the last two chapters! What a heartwarming yet wrenching end to the story of Sankta Alina, her tracker, lover, best friend: Mal, and Aleksander Morozova. I find myself actually not wanting to leave these characters and Ravka behind just yet. It really did leave mark on me.

[thelunarpages]

I feel this may be an unpopular opinion on this book, but I thouroughly enjoyed it! I feel it may have had to do with the fact that it really reminded me of Nina and Matthias (my bbys). I have yet to read the 2nd and 3rd book, but I do feel that I will enjoy them as well. 😅 It's just one of those books. The story, while containing plot holes the more I think of it was so very intriguing. The main heroine, Louise (that's my second name!) is such a sassy and fun character. Something I'd like to give a little shout-out to is the fact that the side characters weren't just thrown in there. In my opinion they aided the development of the story better.

[thelunarpages]

BOOK REVIEW: To Be Your Only by Rae Kennedy

Well, it took me a while to sit down and write this review more so because I have mixed feelings about this book. Generally speaking, I enjoyed the book, it was a quick and light read that honestly took me less than a day to finish. Eric and Kyla’s relationship was adorable. From the get-go you can tell that they were meant to be. However, what slightly irked me was our heroine, Kyla. In my opinion she was very childish and a bit dense. How she viewed Wes was so meh to me. They literally had nothing in common and yet she kept pushing. You could FEEL how strained everything was when she conversed with Wes because Wes showed to interest in her. There was no chemistry. Hence why I thought she was a bit dense.

 Overall, I would rate this 3 stars, 3.5 actually. It was a quick and fun read. If you’re looking for something to delve into for a nice light read full of romance and banter then this is the book for you.