en-US Tue, 25 Feb 2025 04:21:28 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 3.69 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 61246258
Shot through with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is an addictive, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, lovable—if fallible—characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love—all wrapped in a deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class.]]> 304 Jenny Jackson 059349069X ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.49 2023
author: Jenny Jackson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 66087062 A woman risks everything to end her family’s centuries-old curse, solve her mother’s disappearance, and find love in this mesmerizing novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Spells for Forgetting.

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.]]> 320 Adrienne Young 0593598679 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.13 2023
author: Adrienne Young
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61767163 No Exit and Hairpin Bridge.

Emma Carpenter lives in isolation with her golden retriever Laika, house-sitting an old beachfront home on the rainy Washington coast. Her only human contact is her enigmatic old neighbor, Deek, and (via text) the house’s owner, Jules.

One day, she reads a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel by the author H. G. Kane, and posts a one-star review that drags her into an online argument with none other than the author himself. Soon after, disturbing incidents start to occur at night. To Emma, this can’t just be a coincidence. It was strange enough for this author to bicker with her online about a lousy review; could he be stalking her, too?

As Emma digs into Kane’s life and work, she learns he has published sixteen other novels, all similarly sadistic tales of stalking and murder. But who is he? How did he find her? And what else is he capable of?]]> 337 Taylor Adams 0063222892 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.67 2023
author: Taylor Adams
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29779251
«Nos capítulos iniciais de Anna Karénina, somos conduzidos, uma e outra vez, a um sentido de analogia musical. Há efeitos de contraponto e harmonia no desenvolvimento das principais tramas do “prelúdio Oblonski�� (o acidente na estação ferroviária, a zombadora discussão sobre o divórcio entre Vronski e a baronesa Chilton, o deslumbramento do fogo vermelho diante dos olhos de Anna). O método de Tolstoi é polifónico; mas as harmonias principais desen- volvem-se com uma tremenda força e amplitude. As técnicas musicais e linguísticas não podem comparar-se de um modo exato. Mas como poderíamos elucidar de outro modo o sentimento de que as novelas de Tolstoi surgem de um princípio interior de ordem e vitalidade, enquanto as dos escritores menos importantes parecem alinhavadas?»

«Anna Karénina morre no mundo do romance; mas cada vez que lemos o livro ela ressuscita, e mesmo depois de o termos acabado adquire outra vida na nossa recordação. Em cada personagem literária existe algo da Fénix imortal. Através das vidas perduráveis das suas personagens, a própria existência de Tolstoi teve a sua eternidade.» [George Steiner, Tolstoi ou Dostoievski]]]> 963 Leo Tolstoy 1784871958 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.13 1878
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8306857 In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024027 ���������✨️ 4 4.28 2011
author: Veronica Roth
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806734 ���������✨️ 4 3.99 2020
author: Emily Henry
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 29408433 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �� A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship�� (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST �� MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST �� WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE ��

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 723 Hanya Yanagihara 1447294831 ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.36 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 181133 317 page edition

First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:

"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 250 Agatha Christie ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.31 1939
author: Agatha Christie
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 61968777
Avery Soko, a bright-eyed and ambitious do-gooder, is on the cusp of getting her dream fundraising job at the Oceanic Research Organization. Luca Navarro, a former corporate lawyer with an extravagant tie collection and an irritatingly handsome smirk, holds Avery's future in his very large hands. When he calls with the news of her rejection, Luca seems to revel in crushing her dreams.

But Avery will do anything to pursue her passion, even accept a job at a struggling start-up. Her spell of bad luck finally changes when a competition is announced at a grandiose gala that could save her and her new team from going under. Of course, Avery's least favorite person, Luca, also joins the running for the multimillion-dollar prize.

At the height of the competition, Avery and Luca realize they've met their match. Will the tense moments, absurd attempts to out-do each other, and the string of games and bets they've concocted turn into a series of failures, or will it make them into something more than adversaries?]]> Kels Stone ���������✨️ 1 his interest in environment projects... This is not the only one tho, she dropped this in like every paragraph

Merged review:

"Interesting. So he does know how to get his hands dirty. How would those dirty hands feel on my skin?" - I'm SORRY but what? She literally said this after she discovered
his interest in environment projects... This is not the only one tho, she dropped this in like every paragraph]]> 3.61 2022
author: Kels Stone
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves:
review:
"Interesting. So he does know how to get his hands dirty. How would those dirty hands feel on my skin?" - I'm SORRY but what? She literally said this after she discovered
his interest in environment projects... This is not the only one tho, she dropped this in like every paragraph

Merged review:

"Interesting. So he does know how to get his hands dirty. How would those dirty hands feel on my skin?" - I'm SORRY but what? She literally said this after she discovered
his interest in environment projects... This is not the only one tho, she dropped this in like every paragraph
]]> 27424547 New victims. New betrayals. New secrets.

When Cassie Hobbes joined the FBI’s Naturals program, she had one goal: uncover the truth about her mother’s murder. But now, everything Cassie thought she knew about what happened that night has been called into question. Her mother is alive, and the people holding her captive are more powerful—and dangerous—than anything the Naturals have faced so far. As Cassie and the team work to uncover the secrets of a group that has been killing in secret for generations, they find themselves racing a ticking clock.

The bodies begin piling up, the deaths hit closer and closer to home, and it soon becomes apparent that this time, the Naturals aren’t just hunting serial killers.

They’re being hunted themselves.]]> 384 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1484757327 ���������✨️ 3 4.37 2016
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story��

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]> 345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 ���������✨️ 4 3.85 2023
author: Dolly Alderton
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2024/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 58556597 Your ability to change everything - including yourself - starts here.

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.

But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results.

Like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ('combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride') proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.]]> 386 Bonnie Garmus 0857528130 ���������✨️ 4 4.19 2022
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2024/05/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 ���������✨️ 5 4.19 2022
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves:
review:
I can’t write a review without crying again, is that enough?
]]> 24849026
After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code—and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes.

Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds—and impossible choices.]]> 378 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1484716434 ���������✨️ 4 4.35 2015
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves:
review:
Messy plot but still fun like the other books (Cassie has main character syndrome and it was almost enough to give this book just 3.5⭐️)
]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins ���������✨️ 5
(first read) 4.25⭐️

This book was amazing, great ending and loved that we got to see Snows character in depth, his choices and his thoughts about Panem. However this book took me forever to read what may have caused the -0,75, although it was an excellent book I don't think I could actually read this again... The writing was beautiful don't get me wrong but some scenes were kinda overwhelming when many characters were introduced and then his thoughts came all exploding in :( Couldn't really keep up!

But the main characters (like Snow, Lucy Gray, Sejanus...) were so loveable, because we got to see them over and over in the story, they gave us the opportunity to really connect with them what I absolutely loved :)

Overall this book was great, because now I understand Snows mind so much better, but it was just on some parts overwhelming]]> 3.99 2020
author: Suzanne Collins
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/20
date added: 2024/04/11
shelves:
review:
Update April 2024: I can’t stop thinking about this book and all the characters, while I still agree with parts of my previous review I have to give this book 5⭐️, it just feels more right

(first read) 4.25⭐️

This book was amazing, great ending and loved that we got to see Snows character in depth, his choices and his thoughts about Panem. However this book took me forever to read what may have caused the -0,75, although it was an excellent book I don't think I could actually read this again... The writing was beautiful don't get me wrong but some scenes were kinda overwhelming when many characters were introduced and then his thoughts came all exploding in :( Couldn't really keep up!

But the main characters (like Snow, Lucy Gray, Sejanus...) were so loveable, because we got to see them over and over in the story, they gave us the opportunity to really connect with them what I absolutely loved :)

Overall this book was great, because now I understand Snows mind so much better, but it was just on some parts overwhelming
]]> 20409231
But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel.]]> 375 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1423168321 ���������✨️ 5
only thing that bothered me was that Cassie always needed to be the main character even though it was Deans book (It felt like that) but other than that it was fun, exciting and I would 100% recommend ]]> 4.27 2014
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/10
date added: 2024/04/10
shelves:
review:
4.75⭐️!

only thing that bothered me was that Cassie always needed to be the main character even though it was Deans book (It felt like that) but other than that it was fun, exciting and I would 100% recommend
]]> 57693172
Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.]]> 357 Stacy Willingham 1250803829 ���������✨️ 5
This was actually a great thriller. I loved the suspense and the constant “misleading�� because I never knew who it was, always changed my theories, liked the writing, the plot, the twists, the characters, honestly don’t know what’s missing for 5⭐️, but maybe it’s the detailed writing that I didn’t love or that some parts - and I mean SOME - were slow but other than that it was amazing!!

(unsatisfied with the ending though)]]> 3.96 2022
author: Stacy Willingham
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves:
review:
4,5⭐️ rounded up

This was actually a great thriller. I loved the suspense and the constant “misleading�� because I never knew who it was, always changed my theories, liked the writing, the plot, the twists, the characters, honestly don’t know what’s missing for 5⭐️, but maybe it’s the detailed writing that I didn’t love or that some parts - and I mean SOME - were slow but other than that it was amazing!!

(unsatisfied with the ending though)
]]> 195967140 A mind-bending, psychological thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid!

Lesson #1: trust no one

Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except��

Last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye.

Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says.

But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.

From the New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.]]> 379 Freida McFadden 1728296218 ���������✨️ 1
The writing was horrible and unnatural, could not root for any character in this book. The plot was messy and seemed unplanned and just thrown together, so can’t recommend sadly]]> 3.82 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/05
date added: 2024/04/05
shelves:
review:
1,5⭐️ just for the beginning. (DNF)

The writing was horrible and unnatural, could not root for any character in this book. The plot was messy and seemed unplanned and just thrown together, so can’t recommend sadly
]]> 13597723
What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.]]> 308 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1423168232 ���������✨️ 4 4.22 2013
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:
4,5⭐️! Such an easy and fun read
]]> 58684524
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere�� ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

The New York Times bestselling author of Life's Too Short delivers a refreshingly modern fairy tale perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston and Emily Henry.]]> 389 Abby Jimenez 1538704374 ���������✨️ 3
this book went from making me cry to me wanting to finally finish it.

first the good things:
I loved the small town story, how everyone there was a family and cared for each other, the baby goat, Bri‘s character (I will definitely read her love story)

and noooow the things I hated:
the dick pics?? I cringed so hard when Liz pulled out the ring light, like what?
then also the age gap, which would have been fine if they didn’t mention it in every page damn. the book was also way too long, with this story line it could have ended on page 250. I hated the insta love and how half of the book was them just being horny adults, BUT OF COURSE Alexis would never do a one night stand, right? ough this book makes me so angry but so happy in the same way I can’t even describe it

what I would have loved in this book:
more Derek and Bri! These characters seemed so loveable and we NEVER read about them ever again, just on some pages. Then also the small town which was cute and a change to cringy Alexis and (you will all hate me now) but Daniel who sometimes acted like a 17 year old.]]> 4.26 2022
author: Abby Jimenez
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves:
review:
3,5⭐️

this book went from making me cry to me wanting to finally finish it.

first the good things:
I loved the small town story, how everyone there was a family and cared for each other, the baby goat, Bri‘s character (I will definitely read her love story)

and noooow the things I hated:
the dick pics?? I cringed so hard when Liz pulled out the ring light, like what?
then also the age gap, which would have been fine if they didn’t mention it in every page damn. the book was also way too long, with this story line it could have ended on page 250. I hated the insta love and how half of the book was them just being horny adults, BUT OF COURSE Alexis would never do a one night stand, right? ough this book makes me so angry but so happy in the same way I can’t even describe it

what I would have loved in this book:
more Derek and Bri! These characters seemed so loveable and we NEVER read about them ever again, just on some pages. Then also the small town which was cute and a change to cringy Alexis and (you will all hate me now) but Daniel who sometimes acted like a 17 year old.
]]> 18513621 The Son of Neptune, Percy, Hazel, and Frank met in Camp Jupiter, the Roman equivalent of Camp Halfblood, and traveled to the land beyond the gods to complete a dangerous quest. The third book in the Heroes of Olympus series will unite them with Jason, Piper, and Leo. But they number only six--who will complete the Prophecy of Seven?


The Greek and Roman demigods will have to cooperate in order to defeat the giants released by the Earth Mother, Gaea. Then they will have to sail together to the ancient land to find the Doors of Death. What exactly are the Doors of Death? Much of the prophecy remains a mystery. . . .

With old friends and new friends joining forces, a marvelous ship, fearsome foes, and an exotic setting, The Mark of Athena is be another unforgettable adventure by master storyteller Rick Riordan.
]]> 574 Rick Riordan 1423142004 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.49 2012
author: Rick Riordan
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine��editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.07 2020
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38715000 A legendary competition.
A mesmerizing romance.
An unbreakable bond
between two sisters.

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.]]> 361 Stephanie Garber ���������✨️ 3
scarlett’s whining about the wedding was just too much at one point that I couldn’t care about her too much in the end, why are fantasy characters always so annoying damn

i did not like the almost-insta love and where exactly did it make sense when scarlett said to tella that you can’t love someone you just met BUT JULIAN AND HER? bro like you did the same thing]]> 3.97 2016
author: Stephanie Garber
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:
was a quick and entertaining read but I was kinda sad that it was so rushed :( like they found a clue and almost immediately went like I KNOW THIS which took the suspense away.

scarlett’s whining about the wedding was just too much at one point that I couldn’t care about her too much in the end, why are fantasy characters always so annoying damn

i did not like the almost-insta love and where exactly did it make sense when scarlett said to tella that you can’t love someone you just met BUT JULIAN AND HER? bro like you did the same thing
]]> 55710822 In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar - and maybe snag him as a prom date - even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic-comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]> 356 Lynn Painter 1534467629 ���������✨️ 4 romance-without-spice-recs
Wes was just a loveable character the only thing that bugged me was Liz. She was a pain in the a*s and does not derserve the fifth star

but still this is my next comfort read]]> 4.28 2021
author: Lynn Painter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/20
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: romance-without-spice-recs
review:
I loved this. It was an easy read, I LOVED the romcom quotes because often they fitted so well into the story (sometimes they spoil some of the movies so be careful!)

Wes was just a loveable character the only thing that bugged me was Liz. She was a pain in the a*s and does not derserve the fifth star

but still this is my next comfort read
]]> 57932307 The global phenomenon returns with the third book in the One of Us Is Lying series, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen M. McManus. When someone from the Bayview Four’s past resurfaces, history begins to repeat itself—and the consequences are deadly.

The third time’s a charm.

It’s been almost two years since Simon died in detention, and the aftermath has been hard to shake. First the Bayview Four had to prove they weren’t killers. Then a new generation outwitted a vengeful copycat. Now the entire Bayview Crew is back home for the summer, and everyone is trying to move on.

Only, this is Bayview, and life is never that simple.

At first the mysterious billboard seems like a bad Time for a new game, Bayview. But when a member of the Bayview Crew disappears, it’s clear this “game�� is serious—and whoever’s in charge isn’t sharing the rules. Or maybe there aren’t any.

Bronwyn. Cooper. Addy. Nate. Maeve. Phoebe. Knox. Luis. Kris. Everyone’s a target. And now that someone unexpected has returned to Bayview, things could start getting deadly.

The thing is, Simon was right about secrets—they all come out eventually. And Bayview has a lot it’s still hiding.]]> 368 Karen M. McManus 0593485033 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.96 2023
author: Karen M. McManus
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 20652948 219 Emmy Abrahamson 3423650060 ���������✨️ 2 3.09 2012
author: Emmy Abrahamson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.09
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/09
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 50531218 Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions - including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.

Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she's not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture - by any means necessary.

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.]]> 380 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 0241480744 ���������✨️ 3 4.19 2021
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 ���������✨️ 3 4.18 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/03/07
shelves:
review:
again a thriller with so much potential but a rushed plot and disappointed twist
]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 ���������✨️ 3
opening line rating: “Look. I didn’t want to be a half blood.�� - 6/10

It was a fun read with a lot of unnecessary pages of detailed information, but still a fast read. Obviously for kids but I needed to see what I missed as a Harry Potter child ]]> 4.31 2005
author: Rick Riordan
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/03
shelves:
review:
3,5⭐️

opening line rating: “Look. I didn’t want to be a half blood.�� - 6/10

It was a fun read with a lot of unnecessary pages of detailed information, but still a fast read. Obviously for kids but I needed to see what I missed as a Harry Potter child
]]> 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n�� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 ���������✨️ 0 all-time-favs-x1f495 4.20 2019
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495
review:

]]> 17312805
Beutespuren, fremde Gerüche und bedrohliche Träume �� Feuerherz spürt, dass eine neue Gefahr im Wald lauert, doch er kann sie nicht fassen. Hat etwa sein alter Feind Tigerstern die Pfoten im Spiel? Erst in letzter Sekunde erkennt Feuerherz, dass hinter all den seltsamen Ereignissen ein teuflischer Plan steckt.]]> 338 Erin Hunter 3407810555 ���������✨️ 4 4.32 2004
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 16145610
Mit diesen Worten gibt der SternenClan Feuerherz ein dunkles Rätsel auf. Was bedeutet die Prophezeiung? Feuerherz befürchtet, dass Tigerstern dahintersteckt. Steht nun der finale Kampf gegen seinen größten Feind bevor? Zu spät merkt er, dass sich das Verhängnis von ganz anderer Seite eingeschlichen hat: Teuflische Gäste haben den Wald für sich entdeckt. Und die Weissagung scheint sich auf schreckliche Weise zu erfüllen …]]> 338 Erin Hunter 3407810695 ���������✨️ 4 4.45 2004
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 6729680
Feuerherz hat es geschafft! Der junge Krieger ist der neue Zweite Anführer des DonnerClans. Nicht alle Katzen trauen dem ehemaligen ‚Hauskätzchen�� diese Aufgabe zu. Doch dann trifft eine Katastrophe den DonnerClan und plötzlich geht es nur noch ums nackte Überleben. Wird es Feuerherz gelingen, seinen verstörten Clan in ein neues Leben zu führen?]]> 340 Erin Hunter 3407810563 ���������✨️ 4 4.32 2004
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 6214578 336 Erin Hunter 3407810504 ���������✨️ 4 4.33 2003
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 16044054
Feuerherz, das ehemalige ‚Hauskätzchen��, ist ein mutiger Krieger des DonnerClans geworden. Als der Winter kommt, spitzt sich die Situation im Wald zu: Nachdem der WindClan von Katzen des SchattenClans vertrieben wurde, ist das Gleichgewicht der Clans gestört. Hunger und Not, geheime Bündnisse und die Machtgier einzelner Katzen bedrohen den Frieden im Wald. Ausgerechnet jetzt verstrickt sich Feuerherz�� bester Freund Graustreif in eine gefährliche Liebe. Als die beiden Freunde aufbrechen, um den WindClan zurückzuholen, kommt es zu einem schrecklichen Unfall …]]> 344 Erin Hunter ���������✨️ 4 4.23 2003
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/04
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 8967411
Jenseits der Menschen, tief verborgen im Wald, leben die Katzen der Clans wild und ungezähmt. Feuerpfote, der seine Zweibeiner verließ, um sich dem DonnerClan anzuschließen, genießt das stürmische Leben des Waldes in vollen Zügen. Seite an Seite mit den wilden Katzen lernt er zu jagen, seine Instinkte zu gebrauchen, er lernt den Wald zu hören und seine Feinde zu riechen. Doch das Leben stellt ihn auch immer wieder auf die Probe, denn der Platz ist eng, das Futter knapp. Blaustern, die Anführerin des DonnerClans, hat Zweifel, ob es der Clan schaffen wird, bis zur Blattfrische zu überleben. Da erfährt Feuerpfote von der Prophezeiung: „Nur Feuer kann den Clan retten!�� Was hat diese Prophezeiung zu bedeuten?]]> 328 Erin Hunter 3407742150 ���������✨️ 4 healing my inner child era 4.10 2003
author: Erin Hunter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves:
review:
healing my inner child era
]]> 70897
Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.]]> 629 Donna Tartt 0140167773 ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.25 1992
author: Donna Tartt
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 40786297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> Oscar Wilde 8493958360 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.23 1890
author: Oscar Wilde
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1890
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 62969999
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,�� but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.]]> 343 Lisa See 1982117109 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.49 2023
author: Lisa See
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 41150487
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?]]> 448 Casey McQuiston 1250316774 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.06 2019
author: Casey McQuiston
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager ���������✨️ 4
opening line: “The lake is darker than a coffin with the lid shut.�� - 5/10

This book would have been so much better without the first plot twist. Wasn’t fitting to the story and just overall poorly executed sadly

On top of that so many information were repeated so often that it was annoying to read and I catched myself sometimes just reading the quotes.

I mean overall it wasn’t bad. Till the main plot which I don’t want to spoil I was sitting on the edge of my seat, reading this book while walking and guessing who the hell the killer was - just why adding another genre? And the drinking part? Ugh deeply disappointed]]> 3.57 2022
author: Riley Sager
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves:
review:
3,5⭐️

opening line: “The lake is darker than a coffin with the lid shut.�� - 5/10

This book would have been so much better without the first plot twist. Wasn’t fitting to the story and just overall poorly executed sadly

On top of that so many information were repeated so often that it was annoying to read and I catched myself sometimes just reading the quotes.

I mean overall it wasn’t bad. Till the main plot which I don’t want to spoil I was sitting on the edge of my seat, reading this book while walking and guessing who the hell the killer was - just why adding another genre? And the drinking part? Ugh deeply disappointed
]]> 41118857
With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.

But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance.

The sequel to R.F. Kuang’s acclaimed debut THE POPPY WAR, THE DRAGON REPUBLIC combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating effect.]]> 658 R.F. Kuang ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.36 2019
author: R.F. Kuang
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 ���������✨️ 5 4.16 2018
author: R.F. Kuang
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 7767 120 Amy Tan 0194230899 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.41 1989
author: Amy Tan
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 53409245
You know what you did.

They never hear from her again.

Years later, when 18-year-old cousins Aubrey, Milly and Jonah Story receive a mysterious invitation to spend the summer at their grandmother's resort, they have no choice but to follow their curiosity and meet the woman who's been such an enigma their entire lives.

This entire family is built on secrets, right? It's the Story legacy.

This summer, the teenagers are determined to discover the truth at the heart of their family. But some secrets are better left alone.

THE BRILLIANT NEW THRILLER FROM INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ONE OF US IS LYING KAREN M MCMANUS]]> 325 Karen M. McManus 0241376947 ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 3.75 2020
author: Karen M. McManus
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 39280444
"Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say."

From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.

In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

Speak was a 1999 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.]]> 224 Laurie Halse Anderson 0374311250 ���������✨️ 4 opening line: 3/10

this is hard to review as of the heavy topics it discusses. the writing is brilliant. first I was very bored by it but I realized that it reflects Melinda perfectly- everyone sees her as this boring, weird girl who doesn’t speak. I had exactly this feeling reading it.

Originally I choose this book for a book presentation in middle school and now I finally picked it up again, and I realized, like it was with the writing, that this book is so much more than the awful thing that happened to Melinda in the beginning, that it shows the flaws of highschool (especially in America) and the people there.

I give this book “only�� 4.5⭐️ because it was hard to get through, as of the writing AND the topic ofc. I will never read this again. It was great but a book like this can be read one time only (as it is for me) and I just can’t give it the full five.

Nevertheless BRILLIANT, I wished I had finished this sooner]]> 4.13 1999
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves:
review:
4.5⭐️
opening line: 3/10

this is hard to review as of the heavy topics it discusses. the writing is brilliant. first I was very bored by it but I realized that it reflects Melinda perfectly- everyone sees her as this boring, weird girl who doesn’t speak. I had exactly this feeling reading it.

Originally I choose this book for a book presentation in middle school and now I finally picked it up again, and I realized, like it was with the writing, that this book is so much more than the awful thing that happened to Melinda in the beginning, that it shows the flaws of highschool (especially in America) and the people there.

I give this book “only�� 4.5⭐️ because it was hard to get through, as of the writing AND the topic ofc. I will never read this again. It was great but a book like this can be read one time only (as it is for me) and I just can’t give it the full five.

Nevertheless BRILLIANT, I wished I had finished this sooner
]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 ���������✨️ 4
this book put me through all possible emotions and back, I thought it was a cute summer read]]> 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/17
date added: 2023/08/23
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495, need-to-feel-the-pain
review:
4.5⭐️!

this book put me through all possible emotions and back, I thought it was a cute summer read
]]> 55987278 How far would you go for happily ever after?

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings... until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.

Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.

But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy...]]> 408 Stephanie Garber 1250268397 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.06 2021
author: Stephanie Garber
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52439531
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch -- and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.]]> 386 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1368052401 ���������✨️ 4 thriller-mystery-recs
I have to admit that I guessed some things immediately but questioned it always as of the variety of characters. The games, the riddles, the characters (especially certain brothers) were perfect, and finally, the mc (avery) was not a dumb, selfish and annoying character lmao

loved this and I can't wait to continue with the next book

(btw rn I'm rather team grayson]]> 4.13 2020
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/18
date added: 2023/08/17
shelves: thriller-mystery-recs
review:
did I read this in 1½ days? yes. THIS. BOOK. WAS. GOOD.

I have to admit that I guessed some things immediately but questioned it always as of the variety of characters. The games, the riddles, the characters (especially certain brothers) were perfect, and finally, the mc (avery) was not a dumb, selfish and annoying character lmao

loved this and I can't wait to continue with the next book

(btw rn I'm rather team grayson
]]> 18143977
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here]]> 544 Anthony Doerr 1476746583 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.31 2014
author: Anthony Doerr
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50760069 384 Maureen Johnson 0062976699 ���������✨️ 2
opening line: 3/10 rating

i’m so sad that about this. the first book was amazing and this�� it felt rushed. I have so much to say about it:

in this book stevie was just unbearable and stupid. I literally thought of the end of book one that this poem leads to the stairs in minerva and she, who is supposed to be a detective, smartass girl, couldn’t figure this out till halfway of the book - it was literally torture and not exciting to follow her through this.

also david and stevie? - what the hell was the idea of the author with them? this was not just miscommunication or whatever it was supposed to be, it was hey it’s all good now - let’s bring some drama here so that this book can go another 100 pages. i literally couldn’t care less about them together or separated.

there were some really cringy things the characters said that brought me back to 2018 with a mix of gen z - Gotcha? no one says that. and that was definitely not the worst just the one I highlighted. overall the writing, the chapters�� it was all so chaotic and unconnected, like you couldn’t even call it a plottwist because often it was just unrelated to the chapter before.

I loved the chapters of francis and eddie because we got to learn so much about them, more than in two books about stevie. I would have loved the book if the writing and the depth of the characters were exactly like in this chapter.

i’m not sure what I should think about the presentation of stevie’s anxiety. i have anxiety myself and I know it’s different for everyone else but her anxiety was mentioned as a big thing at the beginning of the book and then never again. idk it just felt like a box she could check like okay great that “thing�� was mentioned in my book so now the anxiety reader can relate to her more �� nope not at all here

overall it was okay to read, the writing was not too bad but the structure and characters were pretty blank sadly - I wished that what lacked in book one would be now in book two but i guess not :/]]> 4.09 2019
author: Maureen Johnson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/08
date added: 2023/08/08
shelves:
review:
2,5⭐️

opening line: 3/10 rating

i’m so sad that about this. the first book was amazing and this�� it felt rushed. I have so much to say about it:

in this book stevie was just unbearable and stupid. I literally thought of the end of book one that this poem leads to the stairs in minerva and she, who is supposed to be a detective, smartass girl, couldn’t figure this out till halfway of the book - it was literally torture and not exciting to follow her through this.

also david and stevie? - what the hell was the idea of the author with them? this was not just miscommunication or whatever it was supposed to be, it was hey it’s all good now - let’s bring some drama here so that this book can go another 100 pages. i literally couldn’t care less about them together or separated.

there were some really cringy things the characters said that brought me back to 2018 with a mix of gen z - Gotcha? no one says that. and that was definitely not the worst just the one I highlighted. overall the writing, the chapters�� it was all so chaotic and unconnected, like you couldn’t even call it a plottwist because often it was just unrelated to the chapter before.

I loved the chapters of francis and eddie because we got to learn so much about them, more than in two books about stevie. I would have loved the book if the writing and the depth of the characters were exactly like in this chapter.

i’m not sure what I should think about the presentation of stevie’s anxiety. i have anxiety myself and I know it’s different for everyone else but her anxiety was mentioned as a big thing at the beginning of the book and then never again. idk it just felt like a box she could check like okay great that “thing�� was mentioned in my book so now the anxiety reader can relate to her more �� nope not at all here

overall it was okay to read, the writing was not too bad but the structure and characters were pretty blank sadly - I wished that what lacked in book one would be now in book two but i guess not :/
]]> 34128369 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
**SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES**

"Eerie, beautiful, and devastating." -- Chicago Tribune

"A stealthy hit with staying power. . . . thriller-like pacing." -- The New York Times

"Thirteen Reasons Why will leave you with chills long after you have finished reading." --Amber Gibson, NPR's "All Things Considered"

You can't stop the future.
You can't rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.]]> 288 Jay Asher 0451478290 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 3.57 2007
author: Jay Asher
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/08
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again��

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands �� that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper �� an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 ���������✨️ 5 4.14 2023
author: Rebecca Ross
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/23
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495, romantasy-recs
review:
If I could give this book another star I would
]]> 261240
It is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly during the eighteenth century) and concerns the revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around the possibility of a person being buried alive or enclosed in a small space with not possibility of escape (aka immurement).

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Cask of Amontillado." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on ŷ������.]]> 24 Edgar Allan Poe 1594561869 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.09 1846
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1846
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52831200 A Maiden��

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty��

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom��

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.]]> 622 Jennifer L. Armentrout 1952457017 ���������✨️ 3
This is hard to review so I’ll try my best.

First the good things: I loved the setting and how Poppy didn’t know much about the world as we did. That gave me (who finds it very hard to remember certain facts in fantasy worlds) time to understand everything in a detailed way.

Also I liked the writing, how the author described places and characters etc. But sadly I did not LOVE it :/

That leads to the things that were meh: Every damn chapter someone (especially Poppy herself) had to say “You are the Maiden. The Chosen.�� till it was annoying.

But that is definitely not the worst thing. This book was so predictable, because we got too many hints throughout the story. The plottwists were not the worst but like I said the hints destroyed the suspense kinda.

Sadly I couldn’t connect with the characters at all except for one or two but I think this will be better in the second book as we will learn more about their past :)

Soo I’m excited but also scared for the next one ]]> 4.19 2020
author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/05
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves:
review:
So

This is hard to review so I’ll try my best.

First the good things: I loved the setting and how Poppy didn’t know much about the world as we did. That gave me (who finds it very hard to remember certain facts in fantasy worlds) time to understand everything in a detailed way.

Also I liked the writing, how the author described places and characters etc. But sadly I did not LOVE it :/

That leads to the things that were meh: Every damn chapter someone (especially Poppy herself) had to say “You are the Maiden. The Chosen.�� till it was annoying.

But that is definitely not the worst thing. This book was so predictable, because we got too many hints throughout the story. The plottwists were not the worst but like I said the hints destroyed the suspense kinda.

Sadly I couldn’t connect with the characters at all except for one or two but I think this will be better in the second book as we will learn more about their past :)

Soo I’m excited but also scared for the next one
]]> 40554247 She waited on tables as usual that day, her twentieth birthday. She always worked Fridays, but if things had gone according to plan on that particular Friday, she would have had the night off.

One rainy Tokyo night, a waitress’s uneventful twentieth birthday takes a strange and fateful turn when she’s asked to deliver dinner to the restaurant’s reclusive owner.

Birthday Girl is a beguiling, exquisitely satisfying taste of master storytelling, published to celebrate Murakami’s 70th birthday.]]> 48 Haruki Murakami 1787301257 ���������✨️ 3 rethinking-life-recs the ending?? omg how can a short book like that leave me questioning my entire life, damn. i’m so greatly confused. still too short for a book, I would have loved atleast 20 pages more of context ]]> 3.62 2002
author: Haruki Murakami
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves: rethinking-life-recs
review:
3,5⭐️!
the ending?? omg how can a short book like that leave me questioning my entire life, damn. i’m so greatly confused. still too short for a book, I would have loved atleast 20 pages more of context
]]> 18080923 The Traitor takes place two years after The Son and runs parallel with the early events in Divergent. In this robust story, readers follow Tobias as he uncovers the details of an Erudite plan that could threaten the faction system, and makes plans of his own to keep Abnegation safe. At the same time, Tobias is getting to know a new transfer initiate: Tris Prior.]]> 48 Veronica Roth 006228567X ���������✨️ 4 4.13 2014
author: Veronica Roth
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 17308035
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 388 Haruki Murakami 0099584352 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.89 1987
author: Haruki Murakami
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43263680
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs�� are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.]]> 461 Leigh Bardugo 1250313074 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.00 2019
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 ���������✨️ 4 rethinking-life-recs 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: rethinking-life-recs
review:

]]> 13335037
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024035 ���������✨️ 5 4.13 2011
author: Veronica Roth
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/15
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495, dystopian-recs
review:

]]> 32571395 This is an alternate cover edition of ASIN B01M98J44U.
---
One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.]]> 360 Karen M. McManus ���������✨️ 5 4.00 2017
author: Karen M. McManus
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: romance-without-spice-recs, thriller-mystery-recs
review:

]]> 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller ���������✨️ 4 need-to-feel-the-pain 4.30 2011
author: Madeline Miller
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/29
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: need-to-feel-the-pain
review:

]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ��80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 ���������✨️ 5
Guess what this book has it all]]> 4.39 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495, romance-without-spice-recs, need-to-feel-the-pain
review:
I'll love this book with my whole heart and more. You need a good cry? Here. A little bit drama? Also here. Great writing, to easily get trough? Hmm, ITS HERE. Loveable characters, but flaws? HERE HERE HERE

Guess what this book has it all
]]> 23492661
From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.]]> 342 Taylor Jenkins Reid ���������✨️ 5 romance-without-spice-recs
I loved this book so much, you basically got to read two stories in one book, with such lovely characters, which was genius. The emotions were described so precisely, and realistic, especially with Gabby, who made me cry so much because she was just a wholesome and sweet person

"We were Gabby and Hannah, Hannah and Gabby, one name rarely mentioned without the other in tow."

The friendship between Gabby and Hannah was such a cute and enjoyable one, loved the message of the book which got me rethinking about it over and over.

Overall perfection, would recommend and reread always!!!]]> 3.77 2015
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/09
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: romance-without-spice-recs
review:
Will I ever find a book that is not a 5�� Read by TJR? I guess not.

I loved this book so much, you basically got to read two stories in one book, with such lovely characters, which was genius. The emotions were described so precisely, and realistic, especially with Gabby, who made me cry so much because she was just a wholesome and sweet person

"We were Gabby and Hannah, Hannah and Gabby, one name rarely mentioned without the other in tow."

The friendship between Gabby and Hannah was such a cute and enjoyable one, loved the message of the book which got me rethinking about it over and over.

Overall perfection, would recommend and reread always!!!
]]> 29589074
Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.�� It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.��

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.]]> 416 Maureen Johnson ���������✨️ 4 thriller-mystery-recs
stevie was annoying and dramatic at some points in the book, but overall easy to get trough, GREAT ending and I can't wait to start the next one ahhhh


*spoiler here*


DAVID IS SUCH AN A**HOLE AND A PLAYER, HOW COULD HE FOUL ME IN FEELING BAD FOR HIM?? also janelle deserved SO MUCH BETTER]]> 3.90 2018
author: Maureen Johnson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: thriller-mystery-recs
review:
4.5⭐️

stevie was annoying and dramatic at some points in the book, but overall easy to get trough, GREAT ending and I can't wait to start the next one ahhhh


*spoiler here*


DAVID IS SUCH AN A**HOLE AND A PLAYER, HOW COULD HE FOUL ME IN FEELING BAD FOR HIM?? also janelle deserved SO MUCH BETTER
]]> 44419441
But this is no ordinary Truth or Dare. This game is lethal. Choosing the truth may reveal your darkest secrets, accepting the dare could be dangerous, even deadly.

The teenagers of Bayview must work together once again to find the culprit, before it's too late . . .]]> 375 Karen M. McManus 0241376920 ���������✨️ 5 thriller-mystery-recs 3.88 2020
author: Karen M. McManus
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: thriller-mystery-recs
review:

]]> 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X ���������✨️ 3 dark-academia-recs 4.11 2017
author: M.L. Rio
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/21
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: dark-academia-recs
review:

]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile�� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 665 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 ���������✨️ 4 romantasy-recs
okay LAST time changing this-

I get the hype now]]> 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/23
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: romantasy-recs
review:
4.25⭐️

okay LAST time changing this-

I get the hype now
]]> 9822053
This edition is part of the Penguin Classics Clothbound series designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.]]> 880 George Eliot 0141196890 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.22 1872
author: George Eliot
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1872
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 20893528 816 Louisa May Alcott 0147514010 ���������✨️ 0 currently-reading 4.26 1868
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1868
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 63946934 A young British woman working in a book bindery gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when World War I upends her life in this new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Dictionary of Lost Words.

“Williams spins an immersive and compelling tale, sweeping us back to the Oxford she painted so expertly in The Dictionary of Lost Words.”—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrow boat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press.

Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them—but as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford’s Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. She is extraordinary but vulnerable, and Peggy feels compelled to watch over her.

Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters�� lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can educate herself and use her intellect, not just her hands. But as war and illness reshape her world, her love for a Belgian soldier—and the responsibility that comes with it—threaten to hold her back.

The Bookbinder is a story about knowledge—who creates it, who can access it, and what truths get lost in the process. Much as she did in the international bestseller The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams thoughtfully explores another rarely seen slice of history through women’s eyes.]]> 437 Pip Williams 0593600444 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.95 2023
author: Pip Williams
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins 0439023483 ���������✨️ 5 all-time-favs-x1f495 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: all-time-favs-x1f495
review:

]]> 80830635
Joanne knows how lucky she is. Richard is a wonderful husband, Evie is the most gorgeous baby girl, they live in a beautiful house�� Life couldn’t be better.

Until Richard’s twenty-year-old daughter Chloe turns up. Chloe hasn’t spoken to her father since the day he married Joanne two years ago. But Chloe wants to make peace. She’ll even move in for a few weeks to help Joanne with the new baby.

It sounds perfect, but when things happen that make Joanne feel like she’s losing her mind, she begins to wonder: Is Chloe really here to help? Or has Joanne made a terrible mistake by letting her move in?

And is it too late to ask her to leave?

Perfect for fans of Frieda McFadden, Sue Watson and Shalini Boland, Don’t Let Her Stay is a totally addictive psychological thriller with a twist that will shock you!]]> 288 Nicola Sanders ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.95 2023
author: Nicola Sanders
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61049 Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.

Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.

"A profound love story . . . sensuous and funny, poignant, musical and tender." -- The New York Times Book Review

"A deeply odd and immensely engaging book. . . . [Carson] exposes with passionate force the mythic underlying the explosive everyday."����-- The Village Voice

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

National book Critics Circle Award Finalist]]> 160 Anne Carson 037570129X ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.28 1998
author: Anne Carson
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51035594 In this riotous young adult romp for fans of Recommended for You and A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, a teen girl has the worst Valentine’s Day ever—only to relive it over and over again.

After living through a dumpster fire of a Valentine’s Day, Emilie Hornby escapes to her grandmother’s house for some comfort and a consolation pint of Ben & Jerry’s. She passes out on the couch, but when she wakes up, she’s back home in her own bed—and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. And the next day? Another nightmare V-Day.

Emilie is stuck in some sort of time loop nightmare that she can’t wake up from as she re-watches her boyfriend, Josh, cheat on her day after day. In addition to Josh’s recurring infidelity, Emilie can’t get away from the enigmatic Nick, who she keeps running into—sometimes literally—in unfortunate ways.

How many days can one girl passively watch her life go up in flames? And when something good starts to come out of these terrible days, what happens when the universe stops doling out do-overs?]]> 304 Lynn Painter ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.93 2022
author: Lynn Painter
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61632634 An ambitious wedding planner must work with her grumpy florist ex, whose heart she broke, on the most high-profile wedding of her career, in this spicy and emotional romance from popular fanfic author Julie Soto.

He loves me; he loves me not...��

Ama Torres loves being a wedding planner. But with a mother who has been married more times than you can count on your fingers, Ama has decided that marriage is not the route for her. But weddings? Weddings are amazing. As a��small business owner, she knows how to match her clients with the perfect vendor to give them the wedding of their dreams. Well, almost��perfect��

Elliot hates being a florist, most of the time. When his father left��him the flower shop, he considered��it a burden, but he’s stuck with it. Just like how he’s stuck with the way he proposed to Ama, his main collaborator and girlfriend (or was she?) two years ago. But flowers have grown on him, just like Ama did. And flowers can’t run off and never speak to him again, like Ama did.��

When Ama is hired to plan a celebrity wedding that will bring her business national exposure, there's a catch: Elliot is already contracted to design the flowers. Things are not helped by the two brides, who see the obvious chemistry between Ama and Elliot and are determined to set them up, not knowing their complicated history. Add in a meddling ex-boss, and a reality TV film crew documenting every step of the wedding prep, and Ama and Elliot's hearts are not only in jeopardy again, but this time, their livelihoods are too.]]> 353 Julie Soto ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.10 2023
author: Julie Soto
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 150277206 Torn apart by war. Reunited by love?

Two weeks have passed since Iris returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over.

Roman is missing, lost behind enemy lines, with no memory of his past, or Iris. Hoping his memories return, he begins to write again �� but this time for the enemy.

When a strange letter arrives through his wardrobe door, he strikes up a correspondence with a penpal who seems at once mysterious�� and strangely familiar.

As their connection deepens, the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.]]> 368 Rebecca Ross 1250857465 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.84 2023
author: Rebecca Ross
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57915993 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 527 M.L. Wang ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.44 2023
author: M.L. Wang
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56852407
How about everything...]]> 517 Stephen King 1982173610 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.11 2021
author: Stephen King
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 53138099 Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.]]> 355 Elle Cosimano 1250241707 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.99 2021
author: Elle Cosimano
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56269064 Think you know the person you married? Think again��

Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts �� paper, cotton, pottery, tin �� and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.]]> 294 Alice Feeney 1250266106 ���������✨️ 3 3.88 2021
author: Alice Feeney
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/26
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves:
review:
I am so disappointed. I mean it was good or I would not have given it 3 Stars but�� idk. It felt like the author had too many ideas and wanted to fit them all in one story. Facts about characters were often more than one time listed which I did not get but well, the writing was okay and some plottwists were cool and unexpected but nothing great
]]> 17788401
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.]]> 330 Colleen Hoover ���������✨️ 3 4.01 2014
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/15
date added: 2023/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 12000020
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.]]> 390 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1442408928 ���������✨️ 4 4.29 2012
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2023/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.�� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders�� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.33 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58132544
As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. But with each passing song, it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.]]> 480 Rebecca Ross 0063055988 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.06 2022
author: Rebecca Ross
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30969755
First there was the car accident—two girls gone��after hitting��a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad.��No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.]]> 384 Kara Thomas 1524718327 ���������✨️ 3 3.5⭐️! 3.73 2018
author: Kara Thomas
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/26
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves:
review:
3.5⭐️!
]]> 58658940 Avery’s fortune, life, and loves are on the line in the game that everyone will be talking about.

To inherit billions, all Avery Kylie Grambs has to do is survive a few more weeks living in Hawthorne House. The paparazzi are dogging her every step. Financial pressures are building. Danger is a fact of life. And the only thing getting Avery through it all is the Hawthorne brothers. Her life is intertwined with theirs. She knows their secrets and they know her.

But as the clock ticks down to the moment when Avery will become the richest teenager on the planet, trouble arrives in the form of a visitor who needs her help—and whose presence in Hawthorne House could change everything. It soon becomes clear that there is one last puzzle to solve, and Avery and the Hawthorne brothers are drawn into a dangerous game against an unknown and powerful player.]]> 400 Jennifer Lynn Barnes ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.10 2022
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61387386 In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies... a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she's always longed to become: mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine--the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.]]> 256 Jade Song 0063257602 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.67 2023
author: Jade Song
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18775359 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781476712840.

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.91 2014
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10614 #1, #2, #3, #4

Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.]]> 370 Stephen King 0450417395 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 4.22 1987
author: Stephen King
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]> 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0593356152 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.71 2022
author: Nita Prose
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 63018956 Internationally bestselling author Sophie Irwin brings us another fresh, witty take on a romantic escape led by a deeply lovable heroine determined to start living on her own terms

When shy Miss Eliza Balfour married the austere Earl of Somerset, twenty years her senior, it was the match of the season--no matter that he was not the husband Eliza would have chosen.

But ten years later, Eliza is widowed. And at eight and twenty years, she is suddenly left titled, rich, and, for the first time in her life, utterly in control of her own future. Instead of living out her mourning quietly, Eliza heads to Bath with her cousin Margaret. After years of living according to everyone else's rules, Eliza has resolved, at last, to do as she wants.

But when the ripples of the dowager Lady Somerset's behavior reach the new Lord Somerset--whom Eliza knew, once, as a younger woman--Eliza is forced to confront the fact that freedom does not come without consequences, though it also brings unexpected opportunities . . .]]> 359 Sophie Irwin 0593492005 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.77 2023
author: Sophie Irwin
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61884987 Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary�� condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.]]> 323 Katherine Center 1250283787 ���������✨️ 0 to-read 3.92 2023
author: Katherine Center
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10429045 I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I'm more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war—and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.]]> 338 Tahereh Mafi 0062085484 ���������✨️ 1
Maybe one day I'll come back to it, but rn I don't want to waste my time reading this anymore (if someone can convince me please try)]]> 3.86 2011
author: Tahereh Mafi
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:
I really really tried to get through this book, to the "best book boyfriend" Warner, but I stopped at 35%. I don't get it. The writing was Wattpad like and at LITERALLY 35% NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. For me a "dystopian" book needs to have a catch right at the beginning, a short but clear explanation of what the hell is going on in this damaged world and not to just drop information on me lmao

Maybe one day I'll come back to it, but rn I don't want to waste my time reading this anymore (if someone can convince me please try)
]]> 6584188 The Summer I Turned Pretty from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (soon to be a major motion picture!), Jenny Han.

Can summer be truly summer without Cousins Beach?

It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started—at Cousins Beach.]]> 275 Jenny Han 1416995552 ���������✨️ 3 3.78 2010
author: Jenny Han
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2023/07/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 60393672 Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching�� (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.

Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.

But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.

Switching between the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the “gripping, pulse-pounding�� (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Perfect Neighbors) bestselling phenomenon It Ends with Us left off. Revealing more about Atlas’s past and following Lily as she embraces a second chance at true love while navigating a jealous ex-husband, it proves that “no one delivers an emotional read like Colleen Hoover�� (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author).]]> 323 Colleen Hoover 1668001225 ���������✨️ 0 dnf-for-now 3.80 2022
author: Colleen Hoover
name: ���������✨️
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/12
shelves: dnf-for-now
review:

]]>