nerdyprettythings's reviews
495 reviews

I originally started reading this with an eye toward impressing my new bosses, but I really enjoyed(!) the read. It's over 600 pages, so audio saved me, but I learned a lot, and if you're interested in the history of lobbying or the sort of inner circle names you've heard around Clinton and Trump, you'll find something interesting here. Like that Paul Manafort was especially fine with Trump because he was used to working for warlords?? There's a lot of shady stuff that was happening on both sides, and lots and lots of money is at the center of it. Also the moral of the story is that both sides being less excited about big corporations is driving a change. Very interesting thoughts!

It’s great! It’s really concise, easy to read, and well-written non-fiction. As with pretty much all the non-fic in this genre, some of the facts and figures are really sad, like the biphobia that comes from both sides, and the negative outcomes that still exist in the workplace for our bisexuals. But this book also celebrates bisexuality in a way that feels really joyful and hopeful, and I loved the way it balanced being cultural history/commentary and stats-focused.

I hate to do it, but I had to DNF. Still, very grateful to Netgalley for a chance at an early read of this one. I don’t know exactly how to explain, but the story is just doing nothing at all for me. Technically it’s a second chance romance, where two friends meet up in their hometown and realize they’ve had feelings all along, etc. But from the very start, they’re a combination of already besties again and flirting and touching a lot, and like? Where’s the story? Where’s the tension? One of the characters is a famous tiktoker and the other is an *EGOT* at the age of 31. There’s some potential for story - the actress’s backstory is alluded to, but whatever is really happening there hasn’t been fleshed out by this point. So instead these characters who don’t really know each other anymore are… driving around. I’m sure some people will really enjoy this, but I couldn’t make myself keep going. 

I had a really good time with this one. The MC is tasked with finding a book of spells for sex magic, and her quest to find it (and to perform the acts) takes her all over the place and to some really interesting characters. I couldn’t help laughing a bit at the number of references to “the most precious substance” and how difficult it is to obtain etc etc, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty good time, somewhat erotic, fantastical, but with a narrator that always seemed very practical and matter of fact (and the audiobook narration is so perfect for her)

Thank you so much @toallthenerdygirls and @faykarelia for the opportunity to read Second Night Stand early! I absolutely adored it. I lovedddd the MCs, and in reading this you will definitely want to be a part of their found families as well. The book gets very steamy several times, and oh my gosh the chemistry between the MCs! I loved Lillian and Izzy, and I wanted them to be happy in a way that had me really invested in how they would resolve some dilemmas and stay together. Did I cry at the end? While I was on a plane? MAYBE! But it was worth it. This comes out May 21 and you should absolutely check it out. I’m already looking forward to Fay and Karelia’s (who had their own HEA IRL) next novel collab!

This shouldn't be classified as a mystery. It's really not interested in interrogating the story as a mystery at all, and basically slams the door shut on that. It's a family drama, lit fic, and (as with Kim's Miracle Creek) a fictionalization of life as a family taking care of a nonverbal autistic son. There's no real resolution, so if an ending that doesn't have the answers is a no, steer clear.
If that's what you're up for though, I think it's pretty well written. The perspective being from one of the family's children, rather than one of the parents, was really interesting to me. I wavered the whole time between loving and hating the MC, which is a feeling I tend to enjoy while reading. She's 20, so she's technically an adult, and she's very smart, but she's so frustrating throughout.

This was SO CUTE! I really enjoyed The Neighbor Favor from Kristina Forest last year (and that one is book-nerdish, so continue to highly recommend), but if you’re in the mood for a second chance romance, this is a good one. These high school sweethearts reuniting had me kicking my heels (and their chemistry is so great). All the peripheral characters are so good, and this book (and a lil setup for the next!!) connects three sisters - Lily, Violet, and Iris, and their mother Dahlia (there’s also some good mom relationship boundary issues in these that provide a background for the family dynamic). Also hello you will definitely want the men in these books to be your new book boyfriend. An author (book 1) and a former-basketball-star high school teacher (Xavier in this book) and they’re so adorable (and X gets his own narrator in the audio!)

Got to read an arc of this one that's coming out in May! I read this author's Bad Summer People and had a great time with it last year, and this one was the same. I don't remember much about Bad Summer People other than the MCs playing tennis, and the details of this one probably won't stick either - but it bounces between perspectives of a bunch of super shady tech executives and their exploits, which made for a really good time. As with the last one, there's a mystery-ish happening here, but it's not central to the story (even though it could have been a lot bigger in this one if the characters could see past their noses)

This was my first book from this author and I really liked it! Toward the middle I nearly DNFed - the characters were acting really ridiculous and I thought it was going to go too far off the rails. But I recommend pushing through! I loved the setting at the long term stay motel, and I really liked the ending, things wrapped up nicely and didn’t have anything that annoyed me, which (perhaps says a lot about me) is pretty uncommon for this style thriller. My only beef is with the publishers and this title - there is no room 10! They’re all 100 or 200 something like a real motel would be, and it’s really not about any particular room.

I didn’t enjoy this. I really liked Cultish, and I feel like Montell is billed as a journalist and researcher. But this book just read like she took her own journal about random things and added a research study or two per chapter. There was a lot of “my opinion is” and then just… stuff that is widely believed. I didn’t even feel like there was a throughline between the chapters. Also, for the audiobook, she does the narrator-is-smiling-and-laughing sound that I cannot take.