lailams's reviews
106 reviews

Honestly, I have no idea how to rate this book. It's an exceptionally clever book, even though I was barely able to follow it and it didn't leave me with a ton of emotions, which normally means I wouldn't rate it above a 2.5. However, it wasn't until about the last hour that I realized this book was an experiment about pushing the boundary on how purple you could write a purple prose story. With the main characters being Red and Blue slowly becoming one, and little metaphors and motifs of color just swathed through the entire thing... I genuinely appreciate the concept and cleverness it took to write this book. The two authors accomplished exactly what they set out to do, I think. If you want to read this legitimately, it's a quick one, so I can recommend it in good conscious - in fact, I highly recommend it if you already know you like very flowery descriptions/language.  However, I definitely recommend giving it your undivided attention. Popping on the audiobook while working or doing anything but the most mundane tasks will leave you reeling and reversing every couple of seconds to figure out what the heck is going on. Super interesting book. Glad I gave it a shot

I think I've been reading too many higher-stakes family dramas a la Little Fires Everywhere and Hello Beautiful where there's this tension throughout the entire book where you know something terrible is going to happen at the climax. This one isn't like that at all! I think I spent most of the book kind of expecting their family to implode in this big blowout fight or something, but it was just kind of lighthearted to the end, a super rich family slowing realizing their place in the world in sort of gentle and sometimes funny ways. Starting as a family of rich assholes and ended in a family with a little perspective. Still very real, though, with some tragedies that humanized them a lot. Honestly, I loved it! I had me rooting for characters I used to hate, and it very much had the vibe of a family who is going through growing pains, figuring out how to live with each other as their situations slowly change. 

Maybe I just like family sagas where the family ends somewhat happy and whole. I will say, there isn't a lot of direction in the book's plot. At 60% of the way through, I was still wondering where the author was going with it. At 90%, I still wasn't sure. It's more of a snapshot of their lives. It did make me feel warm and fuzzy inside by the end though, so that's what really matters. Didn't expect it to be a pick-me-up, but it kind of was!

I saw the movie years ago, and I decided that I forgot enough of the story to be able to re-experience it new. Turns out that wasn't true at all and I remembered most of it. From what I can tell, the movie pretty faithfully followed the book. Not sure if it was worth it to put my heart through that much pain all over again. If you've never experienced the story, I highly recommend it and a fun, unique, heartbreaking love story. Be prepared with tissues. 

I am abstaining from assigning it a star rating since my enjoyment was heavily impacted by knowing what was going to happen already, and I don't think it's fair to judge a book based on a bias like that. 

It's a different story from the first book, for sure. The last book ends with an air of hope and moving on, which I felt sort of odd about since it sort of glances through her grief. This book picks up many months after Will passed and Louise is drowning in her grief, and I think it was handled really carefully and well. I loved the ending to this one much more than the ending of the last one. I also love that this series includes snippets of quite comedic ridiculousness, like Louise's crazy job uniform and the dark banter from the grief group, that doesn't try to distract from the heaviness of the book but instead just kinda pops in every once in a while. I would recommend reading it!

Sort of a difficult read for me. The characters are all very flawed and you can see the conflict before it even happens, it's a train wreck you can't look away from. I had a hard time enjoying the drama of it just because it was so upsetting to see the family conflict develop. I think it just hit too close to home for me since my family is also very close like they are and I desperately hope something like that never happens with us.  It's just not my cup of tea, but if you enjoy family sagas, you'd love this one. It did make me bawl my eyes out at the end.  

I thought I knew how this book was going to end about 75% of the way through, and if it had ended like that, I would have been happy. But it was surprising and satisfying in a way I didn't think could even happen. Leigh Bardugo is an incredible author, truly. Every new book outshines the last. 

Crazy motivating. I haven't felt this good about my habit-forming prospects maybe ever. I'm about to download his worksheets and put them on my wall today. I hate to say it but the grindset mindset bros are right. This book might be the most impactful book I've read this year so far.

Scheming, thrilling, romantic, plot twists at every corner (but not in a way that will tire you out of plot twists, just in a way that slowly shares secrets for characters that you knew were hiding things). The book layers each new reveal in such a fun way that I had a great time reading this book. Insane ending, I can't wait to see what the next book holds. Found family is the best trope, and since there were three different couples in the group, it was like reading three different romance stories at once, all using different tropes. So many butterflies.