lara_ayrolla's reviews
53 reviews

This was a messy ending.

I got teary-eyed because I love these characters and seeing the way they felt affected me a lot. However, the ending made absolutely no sense to me. It wasn't tragic in a classical way, but it also wasn't happy at all. It felt weird.

I also hated how the ending made it feel like Séverin was the only one who cared about Laila and loved her. Everyone did, and I think to impact the readers the way it seemed like the book was trying to, everyone should have gotten the chance that Séverin did. But then again, it would have still been weird.

Overall, though, the reading was enjoyable and I'm going to miss the story and the characters a lot.

This book was an excellent continuation of the series. It aligns with the quest style, the magic system, and the tone. Great known characters are back and new characters are integrated somewhat seemingly. The 400 pages felt like 200 and I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it.

Overall, it was a nice read, and I would definitely recommend it.

Pros:
* The puzzles in this book are more satisfying than the ones from the previous book. They made me feel like I was a part of the discovery because everything clicked when they were solved. At least for most of them.
* The characters are vivid and make sense of what they were built to be. They seem like real people coming out of a page. Zofia is a highlight to me, and even Séverin's annoying emo personality goes along with his grief and stubbornness.
* One of the predictable plot twists was so well crafted that even though I knew it was probably what it was, the author made it so convincing that I believed it and wanted to yell when it turned out the way it did. So good.
* The ending was so emotional that it made me tear up. That is always a good sign.

Cons:
* In the first chapters, there are too many explanations about things from the previous book, as if the audience hasn't read any of it. It is not integrated seemingly and feels sloppy.
* Some of the puzzles were way too simple and not polished enough. I loved that they were easier to understand and more logic-based than the ones from the previous book, but I hated that sometimes they didn't even feel like puzzles, just a lucky guess.
* The descriptions are way too detailed at some points, making it hard to get through some sentences without getting distracted.
* A lot of the character growth is forced and doesn't feel justified. One moment a character thinks something, the other they don't think that anymore and we don't know why. But we're supposed to pretend like we do.
* Some plot twists are very predictable and have way less impact than what it seems like they're supposed to have.

TW: fatphobia and eating disorders (binge eating, anorexia, bulimia)

I sort of feel ashamed for reading this book. Even the title is fatphobic.

I guess there will always be this internalized fatphobia inside of me, especially after being fat for most of my life and having suffered so much because of it.

If I'm being honest, there's a dark side to it that must be acknowledged. Society taught me to hate myself even though I don't want to. And if conforming makes it easier to cope, I end up choosing it.

That is probably the reason why I don't feel pretty in my body right now, and that is a problem. However, it's not the main reason for me to want to stop bingeing.

I hate being out of breath after simple physical activities, feeling so heavy I can barely turn on my bed, getting embarrassed about leaving the house, being gassy and uncomfortable for an entire day after eating too much, not fitting in the clothes I love, feeling so out of control of my own life... I want to stop bingeing because I want to be happy.

Reading this is to me is about how I feel about myself and my body. I'm not condoning anyone to feel the same way and do the same things.

That being said, this book was a good way to dedicate time to actively think about my eating habits, encouraged me to create a flood plan to accomplish my goals, was easy to understand, and seems effective.

It does, however, contain hints of fatphobia and a lot of arrogance. It can be very triggering to people with eating disorders, and it has the potential to make people feel worse if they fail to understand the method and fully apply it.

Pros:
* I love that, despite the title implying the main reason to never binge again is being a thin person, the entirety of the book focuses mainly on being happy and healthy.
* I love that it keeps being reinforced that your food plan should be nurturing and not too restrictive.
* The book was an easy, simple read, and I genuinely think it positively impacted my thinking.

Cons:
* I hate the links to the website at the end of almost every chapter. The resources seem good, but they should've been included in the book itself as well as the website.
* Despite the book being marketed as an obvious solution, the method is not a miracle. It's more about putting in the work than anything else, and that by itself is not a problem, but the insistence of the author in saying that it can't fail if you truly apply it is disingenuous.
* A chapter about using the scale as a tool was so triggering that I almost cried. I avoid the scale because anorexia and bulimia are very real, and they ruined my life because of 1kg fluctuations from one day to the other. I felt judged and criticized for being afraid of the scale and avoiding it to protect myself.

Before anything, I would like to thank Sarah E. Burr, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, this book was a nice experience. It doesn't particularly stand out to me and has some flaws, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

Pros:
* Coco is a nice character with personality, ambitions, flaws, qualities, and relationships. She feels real and complete.
* The writing style was easy to follow and I was able to eat the book up quickly.
* The relationships seemed real and lived in, including family, friendship, and romance.
* As per usual with murder mysteries, the story kept me engaged and curious to continue reading until the secrets were unveiled.
* All plot points were nicely tied in at the end.
* I got chills finding out what happened to LaTàge. The message behind it was very sad and very real.

Cons:
* The ending was anticlimactic and didn't give me the thrill that usually comes with the resolution of a murder mystery.
* Some of the dialogue was unnatural, with different characters often using the same expressions, failing to differentiate themselves and seem like real people.
* There weren't many beautiful quotations to highlight, which is something that might not matter to other people, but that I enjoy a lot.

Before anything, I would like to thank Siobhán Gallagher, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very nice book that resonated with my core and made me feel less alone in my thoughts and experiences.

The messages are beautiful and I completely agree with them. I wish I could let go of my fears and free myself like the author has done. Maybe one day.

It wasn't a perfect read, as I pointed out in my cons list, but overall this book is beautifully written and drawn, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Pros:
* The aesthetic is on point. I loved the colors and the designs. Even the table of contents is beautiful.
* Even though this is a memoir, it has such nice storytelling and compelling lessons that you don't need to know who the author is at all (my case).
* I related to many things in this book. The anxiety, the NYC passion when I was younger, the eating behavior, the body image problems... I felt seen.
* There were so many nice quotes I wanted to highlight, as well as a lot of cool scenes I wanted to print out and hang on my wall.
* There is feminism and fat acceptance throughout the whole book in an educative manner that is interesting for people who already know and for people who don't know about these topics.
* I like how the book acknowledges that the experiences shown are from a white, straight-sized, able-bodied, cisgender woman and obviously don't represent everyone's experiences.
* I love how it is shown that even after finding love, the problems with body image and disordered eating can still affect relationships.
* It is also really nice the addition of the fact that living in your dream city and having your dream job won't fix all your problems.
* The ending made me cry. Which I always love.

Cons:
* At a few parts, especially in the beginning, this book didn't feel like a comic to me, with long texts and explanations. That is fine, but it's not what I expected when I picked up a comic to read.
* The sections of the book (despite the 4 bigger parts and the chapters) are not very defined. Sometimes I had to double-check that I didn't skip a page because the scenes would go from 0 to 100 out of the blue and completely change the subject unannounced.
* At some points, I felt like it is trying too much when it comes to flowery advice and explanations of concepts. It never went too in depth, so sometimes things feel shallow and just there for the sake of being there.

Before anything, I would like to thank Kathryn Trattner, the publisher, and BookSirens for providing me with an ARC. I received it for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What kept me going with this read was my absolute panic for DNFing books, so not a good sign.

I think the only thing I loved about this book was how realistically the crush Emma had on Jake was portrayed. The idea of liking someone and not knowing if they're into you was perfectly executed, and I found myself saving an enormous amount of quotes from her inner monologue about her feelings. Reminded me of every time I liked someone who didn't like me back.

However, I do think the romance was rushed way out of proportion. It made no sense for them to like each other that much that quickly.

I also didn't completely understand Vivian's abuse towards Emma, as it was mostly told a lot, but barely shown. It was hard to empathize with Emma without a true notion of what she went through.

The author has a talent for vivid descriptions and I could really picture every place described but it came at a great cost. The chapters dragged with endless paragraphs describing a room and it became super boring super quickly.

The plot was chunky and felt a little disorganized, in need of a bit more polishing. There were unnecessary scenes that added nothing to the story, and the plot itself didn't impress me.

What was supposed to be scary didn't scare me, what was supposed to be surprising didn't surprise me, and what was supposed to be emotional just bored me. I was more surprised by the first 20% of the book than I was by the rest of it. Everything was so predictable, and it felt like it was trying not to be.

Overall, the idea was ambitious, the writing style was good, but the story didn't impress me. It just wasn't for me, but I'm sure it could be someone else's favorite book.

I waited 8 months after I read 100 Days of Sunlight to read this during Christmas time. It was 100% worth it.

This book is super cozy, setting the perfect mood and executing the theme quite well. It kept me engaged and I was able to start reading in the 24th and finish in the 25th of December, even though I was pretty hard into a reading slump. The story is wholesome, age appropriate, and perfect to give the brain some rest.

The humor in this is awesome. I laughed out loud multiple times and had a great time, especially with Weston's character, whose personality is so lively that seemed to come out of the page.

However, everytime I read I am looking forward to learn something, and I didn't agree with the overall message of this book. The point of view is quite bland and black and white, leaving no room for nuance. Tessa shifts from completely ignoring her mother to hugging, crying, and asking her to stay. It's not subtle and it makes no sense at all.

Weston and Tessa's relationship feels a little forced, with too much being said, but not the same being shown. They are physically attracted to each other, they get along sort of okay, and that's pretty much it, but the book keeps trying to push this idea that they're madly in love and are a perfect match.

Overall, it is a nice book, with captivating charactets that kept me engaged and interested, but it's nothing extraordinary.

Before anything, I would like to thank Kathryn Trattner, the publisher, and BookSirens for providing me with an ARC. I received it for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The book contains a total of 5 short stories, the first one being the shortest and the last one being the longest. Although the lengths of the stories vary quite a bit and the themes feel different, I can see why this collection was put together. All of the five stories bring what was promised starting with the title: magic and myth. It's nice to see the author explore the supernatural and the fantasy in different ways and I enjoyed most of the stories, although some were better than others.

I don't think this book was cohesive enough. Maybe if it had more stories, they could help to fill in the gaps and make it feel more whole. Some stories weren't as good as they had the potential to be, and some were very good. Overall, it was a nice book that with a little bit more could've been great.

Tornado: It was a nice introduction and set the theme and tone of the book well enough. I would have taken it out though. It felt too cliche, a little empty, and wasn't a good opening to set the expectations for what was to come. The other stories were much better.

Blackberry Baby: Detailed descriptions, giving a high sense of space, though sometimes it felt more descriptive than needed. It was a beautiful story, easy to read, and the ending was bittersweet exactly as it should be, bringing a lot of reflection.

The Deer Woman: Interesting story but very weird. The romantic aspect of it feels a little forced as I don't believe in love at first sight. I'm not the kind of person to enjoy revenge plots, so it wasn't really my thing. But I also love seeing toxic men going down, so it was kinda my thing?

Fire Watch: It was such a lovely story that I wished it was longer. I wanted to see the build up of the romance and get butterflies in my stomach. But it was enough as it was. Sweet and hopeful, with a very funny ending phrase.

The Black Cat: I liked how this story is divided in parts and evolves with perfect pacing. In the beginning, I love how caring and understanding the mother is and how, despite the words being way too complicated for a child, you can see how the point of view would made sense coming from someone younger. As each part goes by, the bond between the main character Maria and her cat Onyx is established and portrayed in a way that shows instead of telling. He's a part of her life and would do anything for her. Maria's growth and life changes are clear, as is the way she sees and treats Onyx, the way she slowly understands and accepts his nature. The story is mysterious and a definite page turner, I had to keep reading until I knew the ending.

Before anything, I would like to thank Kathryn Trattner, the publisher, and BookSirens for providing me with an ARC. I received it for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The characters of this book were interesting, especially Chinook, the descriptions of scenery were nice and detailed, and the plot was interesting at most times. My biggest problem with it was the time taken for some plot points. It could have been paced a lot better.

The reading started engaging and exciting but there was too much rushing with the characters feelings, then at around 50% the story started dragging and I hoped things would happen faster, and finally the ending was way too rushed with the final confrontation happening with less than 5% of the pages left. With some balance it would have felt a lot nicer.

Positives:
* I love that the reader gets to figure out the world along with the character, with the same feeling of unknown and curiosity.

* The descriptions of the world and scenery are detailed and vivid. I was able to picture everything that was being described in my head.

* Chinook is a lovely character, caring, funny, and full of personality. He made me giggle or feel the desire to cry from cuteness multiple times.

* Most of the book was entertaining and kept me wanting to read it and find out more about this world and these characters.

* I liked that Astrid kept all elements from her journey and used them to her advantage in the final scenes, showing that they weren't entirely meaningless.

* The world and location building was done wonderfully. Even the places where not much of the story happened felt well thought of and deep.

Negatives:
* A lot of the narration was repetitive, saying the same things or giving the same description three times in less than three pages.

* The romance could have been better built and given more time to grow during part 1 of the book. It was hard to picture real feelings besides the obligation between the characters. It felt like both of them just had a desire for finding love and it was a convenience to try to find it with each other.

* Astrid's journey on part two of the book became daunting to read and boring, especially after the ship scenes.

* The ending felt way too rushed, with the final confrontation happening way too fast and feeling too easy after all the difficulty with previous smaller battles. I was hoping that there would be a smart way to win. There was also an opportunity missed where Astrid could be faced with a situation resembling her previous mistake but this time asking for Tyhr's input and showing that she's grown and learned her lesson. It would have ended in a very satisfying manner, tying everything together and bringing the element of surprise when outsmarting the villain. However, it was just bland and fell flat.