alexatthelake's reviews
717 reviews

What an unbelievably fucked up book. This book made me all kinds of uncomfortable in so many ways but I just couldn't stop. Chevy Stevens absolutely knows how to write the most twisted, horrifying thrillers that are totally different than any others. I loved that this book was told through the main characters sessions with her psychiatrist, it definitely added another element to how the story was portrayed and received this way! The audio was phenomenal. 

I truly had no idea what direction this story was headed. I had so many theories yet even if I had figured it out, I wouldn't have believed myself. It's just so fucked up but so damn good. PLEASE be aware of the trigger warnings in this book as there are a lot of graphic ones - please DM me if you'd like to know details.

Mazey Eddings is officially an auto-buy author for me. Even when I thought I wouldn't end up liking her work, I end up LOVING it. Her writing is just so raw but relatable, cackling funny and sobbing emotional. Her characters are ones you want to be friends with in real life. They face challenges we all are familiar with and how they handle their issues is so well done. I do think this book is my favourite of the series, but I can absolutely confidently say Jude is my favourite book boyfriend of all three! 

The Plus One takes on two of my favourite tropes - childhood friends/enemies to lovers/best friends brother and it does NOT LET YOU DOWN in the steam department! But there's just SO much more to the relationship between our two main characters in this one. It's a romance novel with so much substance and oopmh, you know? 

I had a very trusted friend suggest this book, and this author, to me. I always trust her suggestions and knew I had to make time for this book. To be honest, throughout the first 30% or so, I was deifnitely enjoying it but was a bit confused as to why this book was so highly suggested. Again - it was good, but not mind blowing. 

Let me tell you when it gets going, it’s GONE. This book had my jaw dropping over and over, my mind spinning and shock after shock hitting. Typically, I’m not a big fan of unreliable narrators, but this one really worked. It wasn’t really an unstable, unreliable narrator so I think that’s why it worked. I loved the back and forth timelines to give you an even better idea of what was going on. Even when I thought I had figured parts out, I had no idea what was going to happen next. This was a great read and I can’t wait to read more by this author! 

I absolutely adore Lia Louis, her characters and her writing in general. She builds the most beautiful stories with the most heart warming characters. The Key To My Heart is a book that discusses grief and how we navigate it, how to rebuild your life, and how to continue living and loving. 

While this is my least favourite of Louis’ books so far, it was still beautiful. The first half was a bit slow, learning about the characters and their grief, but the second half the story really unfolded and destoryed my heart and put it all back together. 

I absolutely adored the Fable series so I was thrilled to hear about Saint, a book based before that series. I loved it! Adrienne Young is a brilliant author, building a world you can immerse yourself in and characters you are enamoured by. I loved the world, the mood, the characters and the atmosphere throughout Saint, but for some reason I just wanted a tiny bit more from it. I couldn’t say I loved it as much as I’d loved Fable, but it was still absolutely excellent. 

Hello new favourite Sally Hepworth! This book was an absolute delight and reminded me why I love these mystery-domestic thriller type books and why I fell in love with Sally Hepworth. This book was fast paced and kept me guessing, even when I was sure I was going to figure out how it was all going to play out. The characters were all awful in their own ways but it really worked in this book. 

I was super confused with the title for most of the book, but I loved how it all came together for the reveal later on. I really liked how everyone had secrets that both intertwined and had nothing to do with each other, so it really kept you guessing and surprised when things were unveiled. There was a lot of mental health/mental illness discussions that I thought were handled very well and quite informative too! 

Yes, I’m going to more or less reuse my review from Lovestruck, the novella that this book was formed on. I did find the book a little hard to read and admit to skimming some of it ONLY because I read the novella in December. 

A sweet and sexy little trip back to Dogwood Cove from Julia Jarrett to visit some lovable characters. This book really hit close to home as Hunter REALLY reminded me of my sweet but sometimes insecure husband and I just loved how Julia portrayed him and his relationship with Kat. I saw a lot of myself in Kat and how she handled Hunter. Besides all that, it was sweet and obviously full of drool worthy steam from the Queen of Steam herself.

I have so much to say about Happiness for Beginners, but also feel like I need to say so little about it because it seriously just speaks for itself. I have an endless amount of love for this book and its characters. There were a lot of moments in this book that really made me sit back and think, and I loved the side characters who were there help our MCs on their journey to find happiness too.

The characters are just the most relatable. I loved how their history played into their present. I loved how they both had their demons that they worked together to settle. I loved the self-love and self-growth they both experienced. Usually I roll my eyes at books that try to preach the whole self-help style, but this book was a total hit with life lessons we could all benefit to learn from. Definitely pick this book up and be ready to take notes! 

I struggle to write reviews for books I loved, especially for ones that are immediate favourites. Basically, I’m going to just swoon my heart out here so buckle up. I connected with Yours Truly SO deeply that I’ll be surprised if another book takes top spot for me this year. I related to the main character Bri more than I’d like to admit, and I saw SO much of my husband in Jacob that made me love him even both (both my husband and Jacob). 

I’m not going to get into detail here, but these characters take us on their journey to better themselves, to learn to love in a different way than they’re used to, and to overcome everything they’ve previously learned in love. There was some serious miscommunication in this book, which normally drives me mental in romance novels, and it did a bit here BUT the overall book explains why and makes you understand why both characters were afraid to speak for their feelings.

Needless to admit, I immediately pre-ordered this book the moment I finished and even went and ordered a bookmark of Jacob right after. Read this one, my friends, and take a minute to read the author’s note and try not to fall in love with Abby Jimenez more than you already have. 

Have you ever just really not wanted to write a review for a book? That’s me, with this one. I really wanted to like this book and had pretty high hopes, but I just really didn’t. I’m clearly in the huge minority here, but it wasn’t it for me. 

Hear me out though - the storyline and the trauma the character went through was raw and real. There were definitely parts of this book that hit me like a brick, made me emotional and feel for the characters but there was so much missing for me. It felt forced, especially the relationship. I feel awful that I didn’t enjoy this one but it was not for me.