charvi_not_just_fiction's reviews
695 reviews

akefdjqblweifabpqlwea the cuteness is killing me, this was just the most adorable thing ever <3

At its core, this is a fluffy time loop story about two lesbians falling in love. Phoebe is stuck in a time loop battling her IBS and waiting for a non-existent day when she has an appointment with a doctor who might finally look beyond her weight and treat her seriously. And yet Phoebe is afraid of change.
And then one day she crashes into her crush Jess and drags them into the loop with her. She has always had a crush on Jess and they were once friends so it's too easy to fall in love with them - which is exactly what Phoebe doesn't need happening in a freaking time loop. 

I absolutely flew through this book. It's an adorable romance with two very lovable characters <3 Both Jess and Phoebe are such different personalities so it was fun to see the carefree Jess push the anxious and cautious Phoebe out of her comfort zone. And despite this being a very cute romance their is a lot of depth to all the characters and their relationships which made me love this book so much more <3

This is a quick and light-hearted read but also very forgettable.
I honestly didn't fall in love with any of the characters except maybe Zach? 
One of my biggest complaints was that even though Tilly is our mc and we get to know what she likes and dislikes we still don't really get to know her. It was hard to form an image of her except that she was in love with Tyler and wanted to break the wedding.

It's a messy and predictable book and the romance was also okay. It developed way too fast in my opinion but was still a bit enjoyable. It's definitely steamy but even the spicier scenes were kinda okay. 

One thing I did love was that relationships of all kinds are complex, not black and white and how they explored that through multiple characters. I liked reading about the characters working on things after they messed up even if they knew everything between them wouldn't be the same.

But overall this was an average read, you can skip it if you'd like.

My first Shirley Jackson novel!
And I don't know what to think...

People have been saying this isn't her best work so I'll probably still continue reading her works.

This was, whatever said and done, quite interesting. It's well, not an inaccurate portrayal of multiple personality disorder and it was fascinating to see the confusion and chaos that arose from Elizabeth and her personalities. There were parts where I was quite hooked and yet there were points where the writing seemed to drag unbearably. I also didn't care for either the doctor or the aunt very much though I did get quite fond of the personalities. So overall this was a mixed bag for me.

Look this is fully on me. I think I'm bored with reading so much on greek mythology. I cannot bring myself to care for this book. Maybe a few years down the line I might want to pick it up but for now, I'm moving on to other books.

Yesterday is History has such an interesting concept! Time travel because of a kidney? Wow, I'm in.

I really enjoyed the set-up of the world and how we are introduced to the characters. I was instantly enamoured by Andre and his personality. Andre has finally got a kidney that sticks, a solution to all his problems and now he can finally get on with his life. He is determined to be at the very top of his class, score well, and get into good colleges to become a doctor. Because that's what he's wanted since he was 6, right?

Andre reminds me so much of myself except I wasn't as feisty as he was, haha.
Some older readers might feel he's being so obstinate and fixated on being the best at his studies and not seeing how that affects his health but this is what I like about good YA - they're showing you a young adult's perspective. While I'm begging Andre to see sense while reading this book I very well know that if somebody had told my perfectionist ass that I need to ease up and enjoy life when I was at school I would have ignored them. It's the age where the anxiety to study and do well academically seems to triumph over everything and I like how the author was able to portray that.

I really liked reading about his parents too. They were anxious and concerned about his health, they were pushing him hard to do his best and become a good doctor - but in the end, their love for him was always more important. Sometimes I tire of parents being portrayed as villains, especially in Asian households (Andre is not Asian, he is black and I cannot speak for black culture so this is just a general statement) where pushing your kid to do something is seen as being a bad parent. Andre went on his own journey to figure out what to do in life, to come to terms with the fact that it's okay to change your mind about who you want to be. I love that message.

The plot in itself is also quite interesting and well-paced as we get to understand how time travel works in this universe and its caveats. Andre's relationships with both Michael and Blake were beautifully built up and heartbreaking in different ways. Both of them pushed Andre in different ways and challenged him to believe in himself and to think for his own happiness.

The end kind of had me sobbing okay, that one letter absolutely destroyed me.

All in all, this was a great book, my only concern was that things felt quite rushed in the second half. I would have loved to give Blake and Andre's relationship more time to flourish, it felt slightly forced. And in general, things just happened so quickly towards the end that I barely had time to process them.

But really, other than that this is a gem of a book and I'd highly recommend it!

Linwood Barclay's books are always thrilling and crazy in the way how they stitch events together and this one was no exception. But I might have become too familiar with his style because I guessed the last plot twist a long time ago. Other than that, most things took me by surprise and the mystery had me hooked, on the edge of my seat as I tried to figure out how all the different characters and their story would line up together in the end.

Barclay does a great job of developing his characters and their backstory to get the reader invested and that's what makes his writing stand out to me in the genre - the depth he's able to put into his books without every info dumping or boring the reader.

Still, while a great book, it's nowhere near my top books by Barclay. Glad to see him still coming up with new books though :D

Listen, the art here is wonderful. I absolutely love the art style and the adorable little cats! Which is why I hate to complain about anything done by artists. It's just that I personally didn't enjoy it as a book. I think some of the individual comics were lovely and the art on a whole was beautiful but a lot of pages were just drawings of cats with affirmations and motivational quotes. 
If that's something you find to your liking then that's great but I was a bit bored?
Yeah I hate to give this critique but maybe it's just not my cup of tea and other might enjoy it more.

Listen I half feel like you all should ignore my review because this isn't the kind of book I usually read. It was a bit out of my comfort zone so even though it wrote about some important and disturbing topics in a beautiful writing style I feel that I couldn't appreciate it as much as other readers did. 

I think I was very much invested in the beginning and towards the end but the book became slightly boring for me in the middle. Again, I think that might just be me and lit fic books in general and not a comment on this book.

Overall this was quite dark, a bit graphic and depressing so do read the trigger warning before you go into it.

This book absolutely destroyed me.

What an end to this trilogy! Expect the unexpected in this one because the plot is nothing like I've ever read. The mysteries just keep building on and this book is basically everything coming full circle. I mentioned in my review of the second book how I loved that the author explored the consequences of the investigations on Pip's mental health and that themes are carried out in this book as well. I think the author does so much justice to Pip's PTSD and writes everything so beautifully because I truly suffered with Pip. I just want to wrap her in a warm blanket and protect her from the world.

I was able to guess a couple of things and plot twists but oh my god the second half of the book is crazy and it keeps getting more and more insane by the second! The last couple of chapters and epilogue had me sobbing okay!!
1 year and 8 months will never be erased from my memory T_T

This is truly a god-tier mystery trilogy, I'd absolutely recommend it to everyone!

Ace heist? Hell yeah!

That was basically the premise of this book and it truly delivered. It's a very fun book about a group of ace friends, a found family coming together to support the protagonist Jack prove that Peter Carlevaro has plotted against his mother to put her in jail.

I like how every character and relationship in this book was so complex and interesting, whether it was the siblings, parents, friends or the romance. Speaking of romance, I'm all here for the different kinds of aces in this book, including the ones who feel romantic attraction! As an ace, I truly crave the rep. I like how the ace rep wasn't in your face or trying to teach you something. The characters were just being themselves and living their lives regardless of their gender and sexuality.

The plot was quite fun, I enjoyed all the spying and hiding and the quirky group dynamics. The plot twist in the end was surprising as well and overall this is just a good, well-rounded read.