booksalacarte's reviews
659 reviews

Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard

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hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

War storm 3.5⭐️2🌶️

Fourth book
Multi pov
Ya American dystopian fantasy
Special powers
Politics
Rebellion

I understand why people were disappointed in the ending of this series… and why the author gave in and wrote the novellas. 

This book was VERY similar in structure and action to Glass Sword. 

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The Red Queen Series
Red Queen 4.5⭐️ 1🌶️
Glass Sword 4.5⭐️2🌶️
King’s Cage 4⭐️2.5🌶️
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.5

3.5⭐️

Celebrity
Alcoholism
Drug use
Medical trauma
Abandonment


Reading this after Matthew Perry has passed is very eerie. 

I’m not a Friends Fangirl. But I did enjoy this memoir.

I found myself having second hand embarrassment so often. His self depreciation sense of humor is funny, ironic and sad. He’s so self aware of his issues thanks to all of his stints in rehab and therapy. It makes for a very blatantly honest memoir.
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The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3⭐️3🌶️


3rd person
Contemporary romance 
Romcom 
Sports romance 
Divorced daddy 
Age gap
Forced proximity
He falls first
Opposites attract


This book is the corniest shit I’ve ever read by Tessa Bailey. She compared it, in her own book, to a p*rn category… that should tell you something, right there. The angst was so over blown and not sexy.

The lack of care taken with the trauma of the FMC is astounding. No mention of therapy or ptsd to help cope. Just “running away to Antarctica”. The MMC could have helped her by suggesting it, or doing something other than beat his chest at her.

There was no lead up to the spice. So often intimate scenes seemed to come out of no where, with internal monologue whiplash. It’s like they went from talking about job responsibilities to making out in public when the FMC is drunk. The MMC went from speaking to her with respect and care to calling her gorgeous and propositioning her in one conversation. 

It just wasn’t consistent or in good taste. 

The next book looks like it’s going to be about a guy and his soon to be step sister….. talk about an over exaggerated p*rn category. It’s like that’s where she gets her relationship dynamics from… I’m not a fan.
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The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord

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funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Break-up Pact


3.75⭐️3🌶️

Contemporary romance
Break up romance
Celebrity/public breakup
Small town
Small business owner FMC
Friends to lovers
Fake dating
🏳️‍🌈 side characters
Grief


The set up for the friends to lovers is so good. The out of touch childhood friendship/crush was a great way to established that familiarity with out making the reader feel like they were dropped into the middle of the story with no context.

The shared grief for the loss of the FMC’s older sister creates such a close bond. The sisterly feelings are very real and very touching. 

There is a lot of nostalgia and slow burn. 

The book had a lot of inner monologue that circled a bit. Making the FMC seem immature, but trying to move past it. 

I didn’t love how often social media was mentioned. The TikTok references made it really cringy in those moments. 

I wanted a little more heat to the slow burn. It felt a little like a pop-flash then lots of emotional excuses and avoidance. 

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3⭐️4🌶️

Contemporary romance
Dual POv
1st/3rd Person POV
Stem FMC
Workplace romance
Forbidden romance
Open door romance

I read this in under 12 hours. I didn’t hate this book… it was fine.

I think the FMC’s emotional unavailability was extreme and made it hard to relate and like her. I mean, she was an unlikable character in her descriptions of herself… so maybe AH wrote her too well into that box? I wasn’t really moved by the reasoning behind the why’s of her personality, even though they seemed to be traumatic enough for the FMC to have slight PTSD… I expected it to be more? I don’t know. It seemed like a forced background story. 

The plot with the rival workplace was good. I enjoyed how it came about… even how the side characters played into everything. But it was so much less plot than spicy scenes… which shows the “this book leans toward erotic instead of rom-com” line. There were more spice scenes… they weren’t necessarily any more spicy. It all felt really shallow. The big gestures, miscommunication and declarations were all there… but they were meh…

It should have worked better, all the pieces were there, but it didn’t.
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To Snap a Silver Stem by Sarah A. Parker

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


3.75⭐️3🌶️


Book 2
Dark adult Fantasy
Multi POV
Orphan FMC
Fae/fae adjacent
Folklore/mythical creatures
Stockholm syndrome
Slow burn
Fated mates
Forbidden romance
Secret identity
Separation 


Tw: questionable guardian/ward relationship, toxic relationship, repressed trauma


This series is so rich in internal monologue imagery. The flower and foliage. SAP does this so consistently. She also doesn’t back down from putting her characters through the wringer, physically, mentally AND emotionally. 

This is a self discovery book, for sure. Book 1 was such a narrowly focused book. With the only setting being the castle and watching the FMC strain against herself and her fallbacks. 

Book 2 opens everyone’s eyes to the bigger fantasy world and it’s such an interesting one. Learning about the world along with the FMC is interesting and something SAP is very intentional with. However I felt that so many of the characters were fairly inconsistent from book 1 to 2… which was disappointing.

But the angst is at an all time high, throughout the entire book. 

This had the biggest cliffhanger ending. I finished at 1am and immediately had to start book 3.

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Crystal Bloom Series: unfinished
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom- 4.5⭐️2.75🌶️
To Snap a Silver Stem- 4⭐️3🌶️
To Flame a Wild Flower- 3.75⭐️3.5🌶️
Book 4- unannounced
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To Flame a Wild Flower by Sarah A. Parker

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5⭐️3.5🌶️

Book 3
Dark adult Fantasy
Multi POV
Orphan FMC
Fae/fae adjacent
Folklore/mythical creatures
Stockholm syndrome
Slow burn
Fated mates
Forbidden romance
Secret identity
Forced proximity
On the run

Tw: questionable guardian/ward relationship, toxic relationship, 



Book 2 and 3 take place over a month. That is NOT clear at all until the very end of the book. It felt so drawn out in that regard. I basically wish they were just 1 book. I think book 3 took place over a 2 week period. 600 pages is a lot for 2 weeks of story building.

The ambiguity is finally the focus! finally, the big world building questions are answered, in part, leaving the resolution and unveiling how things fit together. 

I hate it when trials are put into play, but then amount to basically nothing. I don’t think the aspect of the trial moved anyone’s character arc forward. Really, it was a blip just to get to the end of the month/coupling ceremony. A big letdown.

Some of the side character’s arcs are very interesting. But also leaving questions unanswered… in an annoying way.

I’m ready for this series to be wrapped up. If this is dragged out for more than 1 book, I may toss the ending and call it a spade. I think beautiful writing and prose can only take you so far. I need this world building to fully reveal the shape of the fantasy world so that we can just let the plot play out. 

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Crystal Bloom Series: unfinished
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom- 4.5⭐️2.75🌶️
To Snap a Silver Stem- 4⭐️3🌶️
To Flame a Wild Flower- 3.75⭐️3.5🌶️
Book 4- unannounced
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To Bleed a Crystal Bloom by Sarah A. Parker

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5⭐️2.75🌶️


Dark adult Fantasy
Multi POV
Rapunzel retelling
Orphan FMC
Fae/fae adjacent
Folklore/mythical creatures
Stockholm syndrome
Slow burn
Fated mates
Forbidden romance
Secret identity



Tw: drug use, questionable ward/guardian relationship

I love the way that the author starts her series focusing on the characters and trickling the worldbuild and magic system into things as they go along. It leaves you guessing for the first handfull of chapters, but it creates the tension and interest in the characters and the unveiling of the plot in such an interesting way. The hard line is figuring how long is too long not knowing anything about this very intricate and well formed fantasy world before it starts becoming annoying not knowing what’s going on.

The end of this first book is straddling that line.

There is also the questionable relationships going on in this book. It made me question what grooming is when it comes to fae and fantasy books. Yes she is his ward and locked in a castle and barely interacts with her guardian… but it’s the knowledge around all of that that makes me raise my eyebrow to it. No matter how you feel, it’s an incredibly toxic relationship.

I finished book 1 with a LOT of questions. But book 2, here I come!
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Happy Place by Emily Henry

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challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5⭐️3🌶️

Contemporary Romance
Dual timeline
Medical resident FMC
Second Chance Romance
Vacation Romance
Fake fiancé
Forced proximity
Found family
Miscommunication
Witty Banter




This was an interesting fake dating/fiancé reversal where they are pretending for very backwards reasons. 

The found family is so great in this book. I’m always loving the secondary stories that come with the romance of EH’s books. They are always filled with soul healing messages. 

The main couple were hard to like… I was relieved when their HEA came because if there hadn’t been a HEA after all that WORK and miscommunication I would have been pissed.

Actually now that I think about it, no one was really in their best space for this book. Every character had their moments of reality where they weren’t the perfect character or side character. There was a realness to them that you hardly ever see in books. No one was the good guy and everyone had their bad guy moments. 



Was it my favorite EH book, no. Was it still good? Yes.
You've Got Chain Mail by Sam Parks

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.75⭐️3🌶️

Contemporary romance
Dual POV
Dual storyline 
Small town 
Blond MMC
DND/nerd MC’s
🏳️‍⚧️ and 🏳️‍🌈 side characters
Slow burn


This was a nerd’s dream when it comes to contemporary romance. Even as someone who has never played a campaign, I loved the secondary story from their DND group. It’s a celebration of your inner child!

The Legally Blond stuff was hilarious and right on the nose. 

Each of the side characters are solid and unique! I would love a whole series about each of them finding love! 

The pacing was a little off due to some time skipping. But overall I enjoyed so much of this slow burn! The little outdoorsy adventures, the nerdiness, the self work, the side characters. This was a really cute read!

Thank you NetGalley and Harper CollinsUK and One More Chapter for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
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