juliaegreene's reviews
752 reviews

this started out fun, but quickly became way too intense for me. listening on audio is much more visceral for me, so i'm not sure if i could have finished this in print, but i'm putting it down. the main characters are going through it here, and i was already getting really frustrated with this for multiple reasons. checking content warnings and seeing death of parent (which has not been hinted at and there was no content warning at the beginning of the audiobook) pushed me to dnf this. also the sex scenes were lowkey not sexy. romance authors stop saying "delicious" or "my sex" (barf) challenge!

the writing of this just did not work for me. it's choppy, tells more than shows and felt much more like the author was telling me her idea for the book rather than writing the story. this starts slow and never really picks up as much as i wanted it to. the ending was rushed and not very satisfying or impactful. the family stuff was a good way to learn ricki as a character, but it didn't feel like it came to anything by the end. very disappointed that this wasn't for me since most of the reviews are so positive.

beautifully and powerfully told, all my rage explores what it means to hurt, forgive, remember, and hope. 

not really sure how to rate this even though i finished it almost a week ago. this book is really sammy's, and honestly, she's a fucking disaster. she's about to lose her job and is hoping to find a reclusive rock star to review an album that may or may not exist (she also got ghosted by him 11 years ago), her relationship with her mom is on the rocks, she doesn't know her late father's family or culture at all, and she's going back to the town she lived in for a year when she was 9 to figure it all out. she is 29 years old. but despite that, this is a coming of age story. it's about figuring yourself out, family (whether it's blood or found), falling in love and finding a path. the real star of this book is sammy and paloma's relationship. the writing is engaging and the cast of characters is well-rounded. sammy and max's relationship was not my favorite, especially with how they just kept hurting each other in the exact way the other had asked them not to. my biggest frustration was how messy it all gets. as sammy continued to lie to the people she cares about and herself, avoids her problems and pushes people away, it got harder to support her. (i listened to this on audio and there was a lot of yelling at her in the car.) 

this book is the best in the lovelight series, which makes me so sad that it's over. charlie and nova are PERFECT. charlie's story hit especially hard for me and it was so inspiring and healing to see him grow. the romance was funny and sexy and supportive and i really enjoyed the balance between the characters personal growth and the development of their relationship. loved seeing our faves from the other books as well, although the timeline of this universe makes little sense to me. might have to buy this one when it hits the shelves this summer!

writing is sooo cringe and i’m just not feeling it. hallmark will snap this up

 a surprisingly hopeful story for a book about journeying to the lowest part of the underworld. nico (and will!) finally getting his own book feels very important and powerful, especially with rick and mark co-writing to bring it to life. i loved the use of different colored paper for the dreams to help readers distinguish and set a tone. while the nico/will argument/frustration stuff was a bit dragged out, i liked how they handled it and had mature conversations about their relationship. personally, this was a bit longer than i feel it needed to be, but the writing is engaging and there's plenty of riordan-brand humor to keep you going. very lovely messages throughout about accepting both the darkness and light inside of you and our ability to change. i'd say that transphobes belong in tartarus but honestly that might be offensive to tartarus after finishing this book?? loved the trogs, loved the allegory, loved the lesser-known characters getting some time on the page. 

FENCE IS SO FUN!! i love these dummies. aiden and harvard continue to be my favorite relationship, but nicholas and seiji finally had a big moment that propelled them forward for me. things are starting to pick up and i can't wait for the next one! the art in this was beautiful, too, especially the "appointment."

SO disappointing. the main concept was barely developed, the characters were kind of annoying and it felt like it was trying way too hard to be messy and/or sexy at times. just didn't work for me. 

nothing special. abby does best when her love interests are in the same room for at least 50% of the story.