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surelyshirley7's reviews
211 reviews
A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Cozy fantasy tends to either wildly hit or wildly miss with me but I loved this. It’s cozy with a good plot, bonus that I felt like I got to stick around and spend enough time with the characters to make it worth it.
Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison
adventurous
medium-paced
4.0
What a great book, and so unique too! I love mixture of "real world" and "magic" and the author did a very good job combining the two. Plus the story was fun, sad in some places, riveting, and makes you want to read more asap!
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Even though I had been seeing this book everywhere, in discussions of how good it was, I didn't read it until last month around the holidays. I am not kidding, it made me cry. It was that good. It made me think about my own life and all the things happening in the world but wasn't doom and gloom, in fact, it was very inspirational.
Hotel Laguna by Nicola Harrison, Nicola Harrison
emotional
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I think this might be my favorite read of the summer, or at least June through July, which is surprising because I don't usually go for historical fiction! Hotel Laguna feels a lot lighter than I would have expected but it still is a good depiction of war era and it feels legitimate and true. It was way more engaging than I thought and I'm pleasantly surprised.
Autumn's Tithe by Hannah Parker
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The idea here was awesome-sauce. The writing....wellllll, not so much. I found it a little bit young sounding. I liked the action scenes better than character interactions which is actually not typical for me, I tend to like it the other way around. I think it might have been because the dialogue and character interactions are where things felt "young", and not because the characters felt young for their age but just because it felt like a young writer wrote it. Maybe it would be better to say inexperienced. Whatever it was it just didn't appeal to me and I don't think I'd have enough motivation or excitement to keep on with the series.
Hidden Beneath The Embers by Fay Bec
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Is there anything better than dark fantasy romance with fated mates who are enemies at first?!?! Even though it's been done a thousand times, Bec brings new life to all these tropes with Davyna who goes on just the most heart-wrenching journey and has a oh-so-satisfyingly character arc. Even though there were a looooot of parallels to popular romantasy books like ACOTAR and those characters, I felt like there was enough to make it fresh enough to keep my attention and not make me feel like I was reading the exact same kind of book all over again. It was a little cookie cutter at parts but I do adore this genre of fantasy and I liked this one more than I like most dark romantasy books (I actually liked it more than acotar itself because that book actually made me a little bored and this one was just more exciting all around)!!
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
4.0
This book utterly enticed me as a high schooler and continues to entice me now! The illustrations are great and the story line totally makes you laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time). Also, as a gal who grew up with terrible teeth and tons of problems along the way, this is totally relatable -- I wasn't the only one going through crazy appointments and headgear!
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson
5.0
I'm a sucker for some adventure with magic/powers involved, and this book delivers! Been a favorite of mine for a while.