oomilyreads's reviews
163 reviews

If I had to choose my favorite book of the trilogy, I’d choose this one. While Peter Kavinsky is the popular, athletic kid that most girls swoon over, I was kind of in love with John Ambrose McClaren – intelligent, thoughtful, ambitious. He had more in common with Lara Jean too! Peter & his ex Genevieve were so obnoxious in this book, if anything Peter remains annoying in all 3 books but he was the most irritating in this book. So, who will she end up with? It’s cute, sweet and brings back memories of high school all over again. As Stormy would probably say, a girl should always have choices.

This is book #3 in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I’ve been following this family grow over the 2 years that spans the 3 books, watching little Kitty grow, their dad finding love again, their older sister feeling left out when she returned to visit from college, new family dynamics but also finding new love, and of course, following Lara Jean’s uncertainty regarding college, new into the right college. My young self definitely related to Lara Jean. Her innocence, her awkwardness around boys. I loved her relationship with her sisters, one of them being in college, another younger than her. But the real MVP of the 4 books is truly, Lara Jean’s daddy. He was loving, firm when necessary, open with his children. He had such a great relationship with all his daughters and I absolutely adored that. I love that these books did not feel the need to pressure her into doing anything she wasn’t ready for. This book was a great ending to a wonderful series, it brought a little teenage drama, love, warmth, joy and for me, nostalgia of my high school and college days.


PS: I want a spin-off on John Ambrose McClaren!

The world in 2045 is a dystopian hell. But the virtual OASIS created by Halliday and his estranged bestfriend Morrow is a wonderful utopia. You can pretend to be whoever you want to be, you don’t even have to look like yourself, sound like yourself and you can get married and never even be on the same continent with your significant other. In the real world, Wade Watts is living in complete poverty, he sleeps in his aunts trailer after his mother OD’d and died. His only real-life friend is a 70-yo lady who lives below him. Mind you, they live in the “Stacks” which is basically trailers stacked upon each other rising into the sky. But in the OASIS, he’s Parzival who is basically a low level “wimpazoid” that skyrockets to fame after he finds the 1st key and enters the 1st gate of the massive contest to win $240 billion left by one of the creators after his death.

Competition against the antagonists in the book gets fierce and downright dirty and it’s a race to survive. Wade meets some friends along the way although they were all competing against each other. Wade has so much integrity, bravery and compassion for others despite his own traumatic upbringing. He can be cunning, intelligence and perseverance as well. This character is so very relatable and likeable even if you couldn’t imagine plugging in 24/7 to a virtual world. I just absolutely adored him and his friends.

The cons of the book: the boring first 5 chapter of straight technology dumping and pacing can sometimes be really fast while other times slow. But when the action is going, it’s fast paced with many twists making it difficult to put the book down. The ending was undeniably satisfying. I am not a big 80s fan so knew nothing but that didn’t stop me from loving this book! Cline always loops back around and answers all of my questions. What a fun and exciting book!

Chanel Miller is one force to be reckoned with. Justice is SO hard to obtain for sexual assault victims. For years Chanel Miller was Emily Doe in the court system and was silence Her character dragged through dirt, told that her powerful victim statement wasn’t written by her, battling depression/anxiety and having her career on hold and watched her family get threatened. But she wins. This book can’t get any better. Where is Judge Persky who only gave Brock Turner 6 months (he got out in 3), the friend who is Brock’s friend that said this wasn’t rape (despite obvious witnesses), & all his supporters & Brock Turner himself? She even called out Stanford for failing to put things in place to protect future women from sexual assault. This young man wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon & Olympian swimmer. He “lost” it all and people blame Chanel. Excuse me? How about not be a sexual predator?

She said in her victim impact statement “Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrollment. My damage was internal, unseen. I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”

I KNOW YOUR NAME, CHANEL MILLER! Your voice is heard well and clear & your voice is the voice of others. Thank you for your bravery & honesty.

This sci-fi, biopunk dystopian won accolades, winning both The Hugo & Nebula awards. This was a #bookclub pick and out of 9 women, we could not for the life of us understand why this book won so many awards. It depicts a dark, grim dystopian future, set in Thailand in which it has closed it’s borders to surrounding and failing countries. The world has run out of fossil fuels and powerful rich calorie companies are peddling genetically modified food that are sterile and countries have to keep buying GMO seeds from the companies in order to escape food-born pathogens which are likely bio-engineered plaques. Thailand has discovered a way to bring back natural food that is resistant to the new diseases.

There are several POV, all of which I hated. I did not like any of the characters and could not related to any of them. Their stories come to intertwine with each other. The title of this book, The Windup Girl is referring to one of the POVs Emiko. She is artificial intelligence, created to please and serve. However, she has a mind of her own and has her own opinions and desires and needs. She is one of the POVs. Her story was incredibly weak and even after reading the epilogue, I wondered why the author didn’t use this title as the sequel to the book (one of which I will NOT be reading). Additionally, this white American author wrote about Thailand and in an unpleasant manner. This did not sit well with me. In order to escape western dominance, you had to be practically GMO yourself.

This book was a big disappointment. It gets 2 stars because of the writing style and the ability to set the tone of the book except I did not appreciate the random Asian words sprinkled throughout. It did not add to the story whatsoever. You may have majored in Chinese studies and spent time there, does not make you in fact Chinese or Thai or any more Asian.

“The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”

This penetrating & powerful memoir is infuriating, eye-opening and imperative for EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. to read! I read it in written form & audiobook which is narrated by Stevenson and it is BRILLIANT! I read this with my book club and we also watched the movie afterwards and it had touched us all.

This was an extremely hard read and while I give it 5 stars, I did not leave it feeling good. The abuse against children, women, and innocent poor people. Overly harsh punishment for nonviolent crimes, or punishing children for crimes they did when they were kids – forcing them to be abused while in prison with adults. Putting children and mentally disabled people on death row is cruel and inhumane.

“The death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?”

Attorney Bryan Stevenson has dedicated his career and uses his gift to help the poor, incarcerated & the condemned. Mercy, Justice & Redemption is what he’s been fighting for his entire career. Stevenson, you’ve changed my perception, my heart and me as a person.

“Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.”

White Ivy written by Susie Yang is a debut contemporary slow-burn thriller. For a long time, I thought I was just reading a twisted romance with themes of race, privilege and power but it quickly became darker around 70%. Main character Ivy Lin who initially steals and lies because of her upbringing and feeling the pressure of being poor in a white and privileged community but she eventually becomes detached from reality and from her own feelings & thoughts. It becomes clear to me that she is a sociopath with a mental illness. She is vengeful, cruel and a true opportunist. She craves self-destruction and destroys her own happiness to obtain what will elevate her status & image.

Some readers may consider this novel #ownvoice as author Yang paints Chinese culture – education and success-oriented, but also image-oriented, violent, manipulative, judgmental, and conniving. Yang infuses multiple Chinese migrant stories using other characters into her book that are different from Ivy’s yet all show that the Chinese aim to flaunt their success both in money & in image. Ivy’s family is dysfunctional and depraved in so many ways that Ivy thought she could not relate to. In a warped appreciation of her family, she comes to realize this is how she became a stronger version of her mother & grandmother. The vast characters in the book are just as unlikable.

Three generations of Lin women that all have secrets, and each have no reservations about doing what they need to do including murder to survive. The systematic racism, sexism, harsh family upbringing that is the motive for the Lin women to alter themselves to get what they need in life. As Lins’ mother said, she willed it. She wants it, she’ll have it. This is the bloodline of Ivy Lin who lacks empathy, is a pathological liar, petty, corrupt and ultimately an immoral sociopath. She projects her own mental flaws onto others to justify her actions. Ivy is never satisfied with what she has and will do anything to get what she wants.

“…her need to destroy, escape, remake was a darkness the combined Meifeng and Nan hadn’t been able to fumigate”.

Thank you Netgalley & Simon and Schuster for this sending me this ARC!

Dr. Parker H is a compassionate, idealistic but overconfident new psychiatrist at a mental asylum in the early 2000s. In 2008, he chronicles his time there in a series of online posts on a public forum, specifically his experience in trying to cure an “incurable” and apparently very dangerous patient who has been there for decades since he was 6 years old. This particular patient has indirectly caused multiple suicides in other patients, staff & several psychiatrists. The ones who survive are severely traumatized or driven into insanity. This patient is able to elicit their inner most fears and his symptoms and abilities seem to evolve & get stronger over time. Will Dr. Parker be able to resist the manipulation of a psychopath or is there something much sinister going on?

This horror book is really creepy and quite difficult to put it down. It is unclear what the ending meant and makes me wonder if there will be a sequel.

This is a mournful look at how drug addiction, heroin & opioids can cause suffering not only for the individual but extends to the family and community. Long Bright River is a crime mystery that alternates between “Now” & “Then”. Two sisters close in age and who were once protective of each other and tied deeply due to emotional damages as children but ended with different trajectories.

Mickey, a police officer who always tries to keep an eye on her sister, despite not having spoken to her in 5 years. Suddenly her sister, Kacey disappears during a time when a series of murders was happening in the area. Moore is able to make me feel for both sisters and the choices they each had to make in order to survive. The love that remains between them despite the mistakes each made.

During the last scenes of the book that depicted methadone addicted babies going through withdrawals, I was reminded of my own memories of the hospital in Philadelphia where I worked. Some of my tiny patients had their own methadone schedule to prevent severe withdrawals. I was heartbroken every single time. But this book portrays the view from the other side. The side of the mother, how hard it was and why they ended up in that position in the first place.

I wondered why the author called her novel, “Long Bright River” and it refers to the long bright river of departed souls from opioid overdoses in Philadelphia. This is a story that will prod at my soul because at the heart of it; it’s about two sisters & their love for each other.

My favorite go-to genre are psychological thrillers and this one blew my mind! Michaelides writing is gripping and fast paced, kept my on my toes wanting more. Alicia Berenson is the “silent patient” who hasn’t spoken in 6 years after she murdered her husband executioner style. She’s completely mute. None of the characters are unreliable & all with secrets of their own. The book flips PoV between Alicia Berenson’s voice via her diary entries leading right up to the murder and psychotherapist, Theo Faber. Theo is determined to help her and get her to talk.

I recently read The Patient by Jasper Dewitt and thought this would be a very similar story and while it’s similar in that both are in an asylum and both based in the UK and the therapist or psychiatrist wants to “save” the patient, it ends there. This thriller is enthralling & gripping. is definitely one of my favorite thrillers right up there with Gone Girl.

“But why does she not speak?” – Euripides, Alcestis