Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]>
I'm convinced anyone who gives this five stars is not sane. It contains the typical ~I don't do marriage~ love interest, but somehow, he magically wants a committed relationship and kids with our lucky lady after a few interactions. We love being the only exception. It ends with us contains a lot of dark elements such as abuse, toxic relationships, and attempted rape with no trigger warnings. I guess Colleen Hoover thinks that trigger warnings are spoilers. I understand this novel is based on the author's experience, but that doesn't mean it's good, nor am I obligated to like it. There's absolutely no justification for abuse, and why Lily continues to stay is beyond my comprehension. Her first meeting with the love interest, Ryle, has him being aggressive and kicking chairs on the rooftop at night. While any normal woman would instinctively feel fear and leave, she's too distracted by how hot he is and how his biceps are rippling through his extra-small shirt. Like, girl, get a grip. Throwing away your morals just because someone is hot has got to be the stupidest thing ever.
The author added numerous poor book decisions; I'll list some of them here:
1) The main character’s full name is Lily Blossom Bloom, and she runs a florist shop. Do I even need to say more? She’s the reigning champion of cringey book character names.
2) Lily is obsessed with Ellen Degeneres to the point where Ellen becomes the 4th main character of the story. She writes to Ellen in her diary, which is a way for Hoover to dump Lily's background story on us.
3) Ryle knocked on 29 apartment doors simply to find Lily and proceeded to beg on his knees for her to fuck him. That is so embarrasing, especially since he's only met Lily two times at this point.
4) Lily's bedroom light turned on at the exact perfect moment, just as Atlas was about to commit suicide. Wow, what a coincidence. He thought she was an angel beaming in the light. He said, and I quote, "I ~felt~ something." Apparently, that was enough to stop him from wanting to end his life. That's not exactly how mental health works, but okay. Portraying it this way risks downplaying the seriousness of mental health struggles and the ongoing effort required to heal from them.
5) Ryle secretly took a picture of Lily the first time they met, then immediately framed it and hung it on his wall. Was this supposed to be attractive?
6) The classic "I'll bring my gay best friend as my date to make Ryle jealous," only for the gay best friend to never to show up again. I smell a plot device. It's funny how, in a book full of rich, white characters, the one minor character is the stereotypical gay best friend who only exists for few pages.
7) The quote “There's no such thing as bad people, just people who do bad things." Saying this can be damaging because it suggests that harmful actions, like abuse, are just mistakes rather than deliberate choices. It can make it harder to hold people accountable for their actions. It might excuse or downplay serious harm they’ve caused, ultimately protecting those who need to take responsibility for their behavior.
8) Atlas slept with Lily when he was 18. Interestingly, they slept together on the exact day Lily turned 16, which is typically considered the age of consent. I don't understand why she couldn't make them the same age.
9) Lily's daughter is named Emerson, and I don’t understand why she would choose to name her daughter to honor Ryle, her abuser. It’s also confusing that Ryle even has custody of their child after everything that happened.
10) Lily is overly obsessed with Finding Nemo, constantly referencing the "just keep swimming" quote, even naming her daughter's middle name after it. Repeating it so often comes off more as a gimmick than a meaningful message.
11) Hoover has the most unhinged sentences: ”When he was wiping that cow shit on me, it was quite possibly the most turned-on I have ever been." This is even worse than when the main character in Verity got turned on because the love interest touched her driver's license.
12) Worldwide, millions are struggling to find a job, yet Lily hires a wealthy woman to work for free instead of hiring a broke college student. Allysa even says she doesn’t need the money and wants to do it because she’s bored. Ugh, classic rich people problems! What a coincidence—she's also Ryle’s sister! And, of course, Lily’s only friend. Why is Lily’s only friend her abuser's sister? When Allysa finds out that her brother is abusing Lily, her first reaction isn't to tell Lily to leave him or try to comfort her, but to tell her some sob story about his childhood trauma. It feels like an attempt to excuse his behavior rather than address the real issue.
13) Ryle didn’t want Lily to leave until she asked how he would react if their daughter told him her husband had hit her and pushed her down the stairs. That’s when he finally starts to understand the seriousness of his actions. It’s so frustrating how some men only learn to respect women when they imagine their daughters, mothers, or sisters in the same situation.
Despite the many cringe scenes in the book, I understand the valuable and worthwhile message the book tries to convey. It sheds light on how difficult it is to leave someone you love in toxic situations, which are often complex and hard to navigate. It’s so challenging that you make excuses or convince yourself that the truth isn’t what it is. That being said, I still don’t understand why Lily stayed with Ryle after the first incident of assault. I couldn’t see the emotional foundation of their relationship; it mainly seemed to be based on physical attraction, which was evident from their first meeting. Lily claimed she stayed because she loved him too much, but that never felt convincing, especially since the story only told me she loved him without showing me why.
What’s even more puzzling is how Hoover introduces so many heavy topics—homelessness, guilt, infertility, abuse, suicidal thoughts, sexism, gaslighting, gun violence, death of a parent, and self-harm—without diving deeply into them. It almost feels like they were thrown in to make the book more emotional without exploring the complexities of each issue. Some readers use the excuse “mental health is different for everyone� to justify Hoover’s confusing writing choices, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of depth in these themes. The portrayal of mental health could have been much more nuanced and thoughtful rather than simply using these issues to make the plot feel more dramatic.
Furthermore, I was not too fond of the plot and didn't connect with a single character. I don't understand why Ryle didn't get help, especially when he could do things similar to their daughter or another partner. That man better stay the hell away from me, or I will seal him up in a trash bag and hit him to the moon with a baseball bat. In conclusion, I will never touch another Colleen Hoover book.]]>
author: Colleen Hoover
name: vicky
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2022/01/29
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: romance
review:
”I want you so, so bad, and I swear, once you have sex with me, you'll never hear from me again. I promise."
I'm convinced anyone who gives this five stars is not sane. It contains the typical ~I don't do marriage~ love interest, but somehow, he magically wants a committed relationship and kids with our lucky lady after a few interactions. We love being the only exception. It ends with us contains a lot of dark elements such as abuse, toxic relationships, and attempted rape with no trigger warnings. I guess Colleen Hoover thinks that trigger warnings are spoilers. I understand this novel is based on the author's experience, but that doesn't mean it's good, nor am I obligated to like it. There's absolutely no justification for abuse, and why Lily continues to stay is beyond my comprehension. Her first meeting with the love interest, Ryle, has him being aggressive and kicking chairs on the rooftop at night. While any normal woman would instinctively feel fear and leave, she's too distracted by how hot he is and how his biceps are rippling through his extra-small shirt. Like, girl, get a grip. Throwing away your morals just because someone is hot has got to be the stupidest thing ever.
The author added numerous poor book decisions; I'll list some of them here:
1) The main character’s full name is Lily Blossom Bloom, and she runs a florist shop. Do I even need to say more? She’s the reigning champion of cringey book character names.
2) Lily is obsessed with Ellen Degeneres to the point where Ellen becomes the 4th main character of the story. She writes to Ellen in her diary, which is a way for Hoover to dump Lily's background story on us.
3) Ryle knocked on 29 apartment doors simply to find Lily and proceeded to beg on his knees for her to fuck him. That is so embarrasing, especially since he's only met Lily two times at this point.
4) Lily's bedroom light turned on at the exact perfect moment, just as Atlas was about to commit suicide. Wow, what a coincidence. He thought she was an angel beaming in the light. He said, and I quote, "I ~felt~ something." Apparently, that was enough to stop him from wanting to end his life. That's not exactly how mental health works, but okay. Portraying it this way risks downplaying the seriousness of mental health struggles and the ongoing effort required to heal from them.
5) Ryle secretly took a picture of Lily the first time they met, then immediately framed it and hung it on his wall. Was this supposed to be attractive?
6) The classic "I'll bring my gay best friend as my date to make Ryle jealous," only for the gay best friend to never to show up again. I smell a plot device. It's funny how, in a book full of rich, white characters, the one minor character is the stereotypical gay best friend who only exists for few pages.
7) The quote “There's no such thing as bad people, just people who do bad things." Saying this can be damaging because it suggests that harmful actions, like abuse, are just mistakes rather than deliberate choices. It can make it harder to hold people accountable for their actions. It might excuse or downplay serious harm they’ve caused, ultimately protecting those who need to take responsibility for their behavior.
8) Atlas slept with Lily when he was 18. Interestingly, they slept together on the exact day Lily turned 16, which is typically considered the age of consent. I don't understand why she couldn't make them the same age.
9) Lily's daughter is named Emerson, and I don’t understand why she would choose to name her daughter to honor Ryle, her abuser. It’s also confusing that Ryle even has custody of their child after everything that happened.
10) Lily is overly obsessed with Finding Nemo, constantly referencing the "just keep swimming" quote, even naming her daughter's middle name after it. Repeating it so often comes off more as a gimmick than a meaningful message.
11) Hoover has the most unhinged sentences: ”When he was wiping that cow shit on me, it was quite possibly the most turned-on I have ever been." This is even worse than when the main character in Verity got turned on because the love interest touched her driver's license.
12) Worldwide, millions are struggling to find a job, yet Lily hires a wealthy woman to work for free instead of hiring a broke college student. Allysa even says she doesn’t need the money and wants to do it because she’s bored. Ugh, classic rich people problems! What a coincidence—she's also Ryle’s sister! And, of course, Lily’s only friend. Why is Lily’s only friend her abuser's sister? When Allysa finds out that her brother is abusing Lily, her first reaction isn't to tell Lily to leave him or try to comfort her, but to tell her some sob story about his childhood trauma. It feels like an attempt to excuse his behavior rather than address the real issue.
13) Ryle didn’t want Lily to leave until she asked how he would react if their daughter told him her husband had hit her and pushed her down the stairs. That’s when he finally starts to understand the seriousness of his actions. It’s so frustrating how some men only learn to respect women when they imagine their daughters, mothers, or sisters in the same situation.
Despite the many cringe scenes in the book, I understand the valuable and worthwhile message the book tries to convey. It sheds light on how difficult it is to leave someone you love in toxic situations, which are often complex and hard to navigate. It’s so challenging that you make excuses or convince yourself that the truth isn’t what it is. That being said, I still don’t understand why Lily stayed with Ryle after the first incident of assault. I couldn’t see the emotional foundation of their relationship; it mainly seemed to be based on physical attraction, which was evident from their first meeting. Lily claimed she stayed because she loved him too much, but that never felt convincing, especially since the story only told me she loved him without showing me why.
What’s even more puzzling is how Hoover introduces so many heavy topics—homelessness, guilt, infertility, abuse, suicidal thoughts, sexism, gaslighting, gun violence, death of a parent, and self-harm—without diving deeply into them. It almost feels like they were thrown in to make the book more emotional without exploring the complexities of each issue. Some readers use the excuse “mental health is different for everyone� to justify Hoover’s confusing writing choices, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of depth in these themes. The portrayal of mental health could have been much more nuanced and thoughtful rather than simply using these issues to make the plot feel more dramatic.
Furthermore, I was not too fond of the plot and didn't connect with a single character. I don't understand why Ryle didn't get help, especially when he could do things similar to their daughter or another partner. That man better stay the hell away from me, or I will seal him up in a trash bag and hit him to the moon with a baseball bat. In conclusion, I will never touch another Colleen Hoover book.
]]>
author: Chris Claremont
name: vicky
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/08
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: read-for-school, comics
review:
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author: Greg Pak
name: vicky
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/20
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: comics, read-for-school
review:
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author: Cormac McCarthy
name: vicky
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at: 2023/09/30
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: thriller, read-for-school
review:
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A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]>
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: vicky
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/15
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: read-for-school, science-fiction
review:
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Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from N.D. Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.
Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.
But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit.]]>
author: N.D. Stevenson
name: vicky
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/19
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
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author: Charles Portis
name: vicky
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/05
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: read-for-school, historical-fiction
review:
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Ini dia Mare Barrow, pemimpin Barisan Merah. Seorang Pembunuh, teroris, musuh besar kerajaan kita. Dan, sekarang, dia berlutut di hadapan kita.
Darahnya yang mengucur menjadi bukti akan identitasnya.�
Gadis berkekuatan petir dari Kaum Merah—Mare Barrow—tertangkap saat memberontak dan ditahan dalam sangkar cantik Kerajaan Norta. Maven, sang Raja Kaum Perak, terobsesi membalas dendam kepadanya. Dia menjadikan Mare boneka yang tak berdaya menolak perintahnya.
Namun, pemberontakan belum selesai. Percobaan pembunuhan terhadap sang Raja terjadi dan perang pun berkobar. Mare diselamatkan. Kini dia harus berlatih keras untuk menyempurnakan kekuatannya demi pertarungan puncak nanti. Di tengah situasi yang semakin panas, hubungan Mare dengan Cal—Pangeran Perak yang terbuang—pun semakin dalam.
Perang menjanjikan dimulainya Era Baru. Namun, benarkah semua perbedaan bisa bersatu dan perdamaian bisa tercipta? Bagaimana jika untuk mencapai itu semua, Mare harus melepaskan hal terpenting dalam hidupnya?]]>
author: Victoria Aveyard
name: vicky
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: currently-reading, dystopian
review:
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When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.
But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter claim their happily ever afters by defeating Levana once and for all?]]>
Stars above, this book was fantastic and a thrilling conclusion to the series. It could have been a mess with so many storylines coming together in Winter and the impending revolution. Still, Marissa Meyer managed to pull it off. She did a phenomenal job balancing out the fairy tale retelling with her original story. She strikes the perfect balance, switching up situations just enough to maintain the element of surprise while still allowing us to find parallels to the original fairy tales. I checked, and this is one of the lengthiest books I have ever read, clocking in at over 820 pages. The massive spine initially intimidated me, but I glided through it. Most of the book was action-packed, but plenty of romance and some seriously swoon-worthy moments were sprinkled throughout. My only complaint is that I want more.
�
~ The rampion crew ~
Cinder + Kai ]]>
author: Marissa Meyer
name: vicky
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/31
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: science-fiction
review:
All the stars in the galaxy for Iko!
Stars above, this book was fantastic and a thrilling conclusion to the series. It could have been a mess with so many storylines coming together in Winter and the impending revolution. Still, Marissa Meyer managed to pull it off. She did a phenomenal job balancing out the fairy tale retelling with her original story. She strikes the perfect balance, switching up situations just enough to maintain the element of surprise while still allowing us to find parallels to the original fairy tales. I checked, and this is one of the lengthiest books I have ever read, clocking in at over 820 pages. The massive spine initially intimidated me, but I glided through it. Most of the book was action-packed, but plenty of romance and some seriously swoon-worthy moments were sprinkled throughout. My only complaint is that I want more.
�
~ The rampion crew ~
Cinder + Kai
]]>
But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Etienne, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he’s taken � and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-missed end with the French kiss she’s been waiting for?
Magical…really captures the feeling of being in love.� � CASSANDRA CLARE
“Very sly. Very funny. Very romantic. You should date this book.� - MAUREEN JOHNSON]]>
Etienne St. Clair is a cheater who pursues the protagonist despite already having a girlfriend. He’s an American boy with a British accent and a French name. If that still hasn’t turned you away from this book, let me continue..
Meet our idiotic main character
� Anna Oliphant is forced to attend boarding school in Paris and spends the first part of the novel complaining about it. Boo hoo. Wealthy white people and their first-world problems.
� She’s an egocentric American who doesn’t know basic French terminology.
"The only French word I know is oui, which means “yes,� and only recently did I learn it’s spelled o-u-i and not w-e-e."
We can blame that on the terrible U.S. educational system.
� Anna’s dream is to be the nation’s greatest female film critic (her email is [email protected], and her car is named after her fav director, Sofia Coppola), but this girl goes to Paris and is surprised to find there are cinemas. How do you not know Paris is the capital of film appreciation in the world? Especially for someone who claims to be obsessed with film and believes her cinematic tastes are sophisticated.
� What does she watch when she finally goes to the movies? American films. She is in home of film and watches American films. Great job, girlie! I have no doubt your cinematic tastes are anything but sophisticated.
� She avoided ordering food at the cafeteria for a week because she is afraid of ordering food in French even though she attends an English-speaking school.
� She got upset with St. Clair because he had fallen into depression as a result of his mother's illness and refused to cheer up despite her efforts. I really couldn’t believe that. If your parent is on the verge of death, why would you owe your friend anything? It was selfish of her to expect him to act happy amid a stressful ordeal.
� She dated another boy, who she has no interest in and doesn't enjoy spending time with, solely to make St. Clair envious. I wouldn't say I like Dave, but she drags this poor child along for no apparent reason.
� She’s a whiny hypocrite who has very different ideas about who she’s allowed to date/kiss and who everyone else is allowed to date/kiss. It’s simple: she can kiss and flirt with anyone, even if they have a girlfriend; no one else can do the same.
� Anna is different, unique, and special because she has a bleach strip on her hair and a gaped tooth.
She’s not like other girls
� Throughout the novel, she constantly speaks and thinks about St. Clair because he is lovely and could do no wrong. Her entire world orbits around him. She doesn’t like phone calls with Meredith cause it’s boring in comparison to calling St. Clair; she wishes Josh would leave so she could have alone time with St. Clair; she wants to be back in Paris with St. Clair, even though she hasn’t seen her family in 4 months, she wishes Ellie would leave St. Clair so he could be hers..
ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR!
Can she shut up? This girl is so obsessed that she even tallied the evenings he spends with her versus the evenings he spends with his girlfriend.
I’m also tired of female main characters being incredibly sexist towards other women over a guy, especially a jerk like St. Clair. Readers love to override that issue since ‘he’s so hot.� The book is littered with girl hate and slut shaming messages which contradict Anna’s supposed lovely, innocent girl image. Could we put these cliche tropes to bed already? It reinforces ugly stereotypes about women and teaches us that we should fight instead of supporting each other while the bad guy gets away with everything. I’m sick of it.
Example one
We have Meredith, who has a massive crush on St. Clair and is only ever present in the book when it’s shown that she gets jealous. Her character is only there to make St. Clair even more off-limits and help turn up the teenage angst.
Meredith discovers St. Clair and Anna kissing in one scene and runs away crying. St. Clair immediately chases after her, and not surprisingly, Anna’s first thought is, ‘Oh my god. He’s choosing Meredith over me. He’s rejecting me in front of everyone.� she is more concerned that he left her than the fact she just kissed someone else’s boyfriend and has hurt her best friend. Her biggest concern is only herself.
Example two
We have Ellie, St. Clair's girlfriend, who, for Halloween, dresses up as a slutty nurse, complete with a bit of button-up dress and red crosses over the nipples. She simply cannot compete with Anna’s pure, virgin self.
"I fantasize about their breakup. How he could hurt her, and she could hurt him, and all of the ways I could hurt her back. I want to grab her Parisian-styled hair and yank it so hard it rips from her skull. I want to sink my claws into her eyeballs and scrape."
Anna, sweetie, Ellie hasn’t done anything to you. She’s getting emotionally cheated on, but that’s justified because she dresses like a hoe. Send help.
Example three
Amanda is a typical popular girl who arches her back to show maximum cleavage and periodically pops up to tell Anna to back away from St. Clair. Of course, as the mean girl, it’s her job to be a slut and an attention whore.
Example four
Cherrie is currently dating Anna’s ex-boyfriend. We know nothing about her except that she is annoying, has a lifeless laugh, and delights in Anna’s downfall. I love how Anna is always so much better than any other girl.
Example five
Next, there’s Bridgette, who is supposedly Anna’s best friend, but she has been dating Anna’s Atlanta crush for a month and never told her. The guy even announces that they’re screwing in front of everyone at the bowling alley. The girls scream at each other, with Bridgette saying, ‘Go to hell.� I agree that’s a shitty move, but Anna did the same thing to Meredith.
What a ~ h y p o c r i t e ~
Example six
We have Emily, who deliberately dropped an eraser so she could lean over to pick it up. When she realizes Dave isn't staring at her but at Anna, she glares at her. She also claims to have returned to school with a hair stripe similar to the main character's.
-
The point here is that this book has no good female characters. Half of them are just described as cleavage-showing monsters, and the other half are obstacles for Anna to stomp on to achieve St. Clair’s love. It’s like the author unconsciously says that all girls are wrong and that you need a guy to be happy. It’s not a fluke that all the other girls are skanks and like to dress provocatively. I don’t understand how Anna can dance all up on someone who has a girlfriend, and it’s okay, but god forbid someone wears a low-cut top; they are automatically the bad guys. That has been a recurring theme. What’s up with that?
Furthermore, no book with a cheating trope should be given five stars. Seriously? They slept in the same bed multiple times when one was in a relationship. Stephanie Perkins also forces the love interests to have these weird, pointless fights to create a wedge in their relationship. I don’t understand the hype surrounding this book at all. People are claiming this as a light read with the sweetest romance. By the end, I had to resist the urge to rip my hair out.]]>
author: Stephanie Perkins
name: vicky
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2010
rating: 1
read at: 2022/05/16
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: romance
review:
"I cheated on her every day. In my mind, I thought of you in ways I shouldn’t have, again and again. She was nothing compared to you."
Etienne St. Clair is a cheater who pursues the protagonist despite already having a girlfriend. He’s an American boy with a British accent and a French name. If that still hasn’t turned you away from this book, let me continue..
Meet our idiotic main character
� Anna Oliphant is forced to attend boarding school in Paris and spends the first part of the novel complaining about it. Boo hoo. Wealthy white people and their first-world problems.
� She’s an egocentric American who doesn’t know basic French terminology.
"The only French word I know is oui, which means “yes,� and only recently did I learn it’s spelled o-u-i and not w-e-e."
We can blame that on the terrible U.S. educational system.
� Anna’s dream is to be the nation’s greatest female film critic (her email is [email protected], and her car is named after her fav director, Sofia Coppola), but this girl goes to Paris and is surprised to find there are cinemas. How do you not know Paris is the capital of film appreciation in the world? Especially for someone who claims to be obsessed with film and believes her cinematic tastes are sophisticated.
� What does she watch when she finally goes to the movies? American films. She is in home of film and watches American films. Great job, girlie! I have no doubt your cinematic tastes are anything but sophisticated.
� She avoided ordering food at the cafeteria for a week because she is afraid of ordering food in French even though she attends an English-speaking school.
� She got upset with St. Clair because he had fallen into depression as a result of his mother's illness and refused to cheer up despite her efforts. I really couldn’t believe that. If your parent is on the verge of death, why would you owe your friend anything? It was selfish of her to expect him to act happy amid a stressful ordeal.
� She dated another boy, who she has no interest in and doesn't enjoy spending time with, solely to make St. Clair envious. I wouldn't say I like Dave, but she drags this poor child along for no apparent reason.
� She’s a whiny hypocrite who has very different ideas about who she’s allowed to date/kiss and who everyone else is allowed to date/kiss. It’s simple: she can kiss and flirt with anyone, even if they have a girlfriend; no one else can do the same.
� Anna is different, unique, and special because she has a bleach strip on her hair and a gaped tooth.
She’s not like other girls
� Throughout the novel, she constantly speaks and thinks about St. Clair because he is lovely and could do no wrong. Her entire world orbits around him. She doesn’t like phone calls with Meredith cause it’s boring in comparison to calling St. Clair; she wishes Josh would leave so she could have alone time with St. Clair; she wants to be back in Paris with St. Clair, even though she hasn’t seen her family in 4 months, she wishes Ellie would leave St. Clair so he could be hers..
ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR! ST. CLAIR!
Can she shut up? This girl is so obsessed that she even tallied the evenings he spends with her versus the evenings he spends with his girlfriend.
I’m also tired of female main characters being incredibly sexist towards other women over a guy, especially a jerk like St. Clair. Readers love to override that issue since ‘he’s so hot.� The book is littered with girl hate and slut shaming messages which contradict Anna’s supposed lovely, innocent girl image. Could we put these cliche tropes to bed already? It reinforces ugly stereotypes about women and teaches us that we should fight instead of supporting each other while the bad guy gets away with everything. I’m sick of it.
Example one
We have Meredith, who has a massive crush on St. Clair and is only ever present in the book when it’s shown that she gets jealous. Her character is only there to make St. Clair even more off-limits and help turn up the teenage angst.
Meredith discovers St. Clair and Anna kissing in one scene and runs away crying. St. Clair immediately chases after her, and not surprisingly, Anna’s first thought is, ‘Oh my god. He’s choosing Meredith over me. He’s rejecting me in front of everyone.� she is more concerned that he left her than the fact she just kissed someone else’s boyfriend and has hurt her best friend. Her biggest concern is only herself.
Example two
We have Ellie, St. Clair's girlfriend, who, for Halloween, dresses up as a slutty nurse, complete with a bit of button-up dress and red crosses over the nipples. She simply cannot compete with Anna’s pure, virgin self.
"I fantasize about their breakup. How he could hurt her, and she could hurt him, and all of the ways I could hurt her back. I want to grab her Parisian-styled hair and yank it so hard it rips from her skull. I want to sink my claws into her eyeballs and scrape."
Anna, sweetie, Ellie hasn’t done anything to you. She’s getting emotionally cheated on, but that’s justified because she dresses like a hoe. Send help.
Example three
Amanda is a typical popular girl who arches her back to show maximum cleavage and periodically pops up to tell Anna to back away from St. Clair. Of course, as the mean girl, it’s her job to be a slut and an attention whore.
Example four
Cherrie is currently dating Anna’s ex-boyfriend. We know nothing about her except that she is annoying, has a lifeless laugh, and delights in Anna’s downfall. I love how Anna is always so much better than any other girl.
Example five
Next, there’s Bridgette, who is supposedly Anna’s best friend, but she has been dating Anna’s Atlanta crush for a month and never told her. The guy even announces that they’re screwing in front of everyone at the bowling alley. The girls scream at each other, with Bridgette saying, ‘Go to hell.� I agree that’s a shitty move, but Anna did the same thing to Meredith.
What a ~ h y p o c r i t e ~
Example six
We have Emily, who deliberately dropped an eraser so she could lean over to pick it up. When she realizes Dave isn't staring at her but at Anna, she glares at her. She also claims to have returned to school with a hair stripe similar to the main character's.
-
The point here is that this book has no good female characters. Half of them are just described as cleavage-showing monsters, and the other half are obstacles for Anna to stomp on to achieve St. Clair’s love. It’s like the author unconsciously says that all girls are wrong and that you need a guy to be happy. It’s not a fluke that all the other girls are skanks and like to dress provocatively. I don’t understand how Anna can dance all up on someone who has a girlfriend, and it’s okay, but god forbid someone wears a low-cut top; they are automatically the bad guys. That has been a recurring theme. What’s up with that?
Furthermore, no book with a cheating trope should be given five stars. Seriously? They slept in the same bed multiple times when one was in a relationship. Stephanie Perkins also forces the love interests to have these weird, pointless fights to create a wedge in their relationship. I don’t understand the hype surrounding this book at all. People are claiming this as a light read with the sweetest romance. By the end, I had to resist the urge to rip my hair out.
]]>
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.
The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.
But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.
Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.]]>
Mare's narrative was so tedious and dull that I had to force myself to finish reading.The prose is bland, and the plot contains a lot of meandering between places and constant repetition. Only a few chapters contain any significant action or plot development. The author fails to create thought-provoking scenarios; everything feels choreographed around the extraordinary Mare. Every character feels like a chess piece, with no feeling of individuality, and solely exists to serve Mare's mission.
Mare got me ragingthroughout this book; she is so immature, failing to recognize her arrogance and only seeing her power and objective without caring for the others. Mare kept wanting to slapothers when she got upset; I feel the same temptation, but it's directedat her. I don't see howKilornis still putting up with her. He's her supposedclosestfriend, but Mare constantly dismisses him, even calling him useless because he lacks abilities. I mean, come on, you were unaware of your abilities just a few months ago. I like how, in the beginning, Mare kepttalking about the unfair divide between Reds and Silvers because of their abilities, and now that she's "special" with her lightning powers, she thinks she's better than everyone else. Graveyard alsoomitted so many details, such as how the queen died. I was baffled when it simply stated she was the corpse, like, huh? The entire series had potential, but it wasn't executedproperly.]]>
author: Victoria Aveyard
name: vicky
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: dystopian
review:
The world-building and plot of Red Queen caught my curiosity, so I automatically wanted to read the sequel. Let's say things went downhill from there...
Mare's narrative was so tedious and dull that I had to force myself to finish reading.The prose is bland, and the plot contains a lot of meandering between places and constant repetition. Only a few chapters contain any significant action or plot development. The author fails to create thought-provoking scenarios; everything feels choreographed around the extraordinary Mare. Every character feels like a chess piece, with no feeling of individuality, and solely exists to serve Mare's mission.
Mare got me ragingthroughout this book; she is so immature, failing to recognize her arrogance and only seeing her power and objective without caring for the others. Mare kept wanting to slapothers when she got upset; I feel the same temptation, but it's directedat her. I don't see howKilornis still putting up with her. He's her supposedclosestfriend, but Mare constantly dismisses him, even calling him useless because he lacks abilities. I mean, come on, you were unaware of your abilities just a few months ago. I like how, in the beginning, Mare kepttalking about the unfair divide between Reds and Silvers because of their abilities, and now that she's "special" with her lightning powers, she thinks she's better than everyone else. Graveyard alsoomitted so many details, such as how the queen died. I was baffled when it simply stated she was the corpse, like, huh? The entire series had potential, but it wasn't executedproperly.
]]>
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.]]>
Now, onto my thoughts.
Obnoxious writing that makes you rip out hair
“His fingers felt good in my hair, and his tongue felt good in my mouth. I felt good to him, too. I could feel how good I felt to him in the way he kissed me.�
This is, without a doubt, the pinnacle of literature. Instead of trying to embellish your writing description with metaphors or fundamental details, you say something is good repeatedly.
Revolting sex scenes
"My eyes are pulled to the headboard —specifically to the teeth marks bitten into the top edge of the headboard in the center of the bed... I'm wondering which one of them had to bite the headboard to keep quiet during sex. Have I ever had sex that intense?�
What did I just read? I didn’t realize there was a beaver in this book. Perhaps someone needs to send Verity to a dentist to check up on her messed-up teeth.
"I’m compelled to lean forward and stifle the sounds of my climax. I bite down on the wood in front of me. I can feel Verity's teeth marks beneath mine. Different. Unaligned with my own. I bite harder into the wood as I come, determined to leave deeper marks than she ever did.�
Here comes our second beaver of the book. That headboard has been through so much that it can't even go up on eBay to sell. Lowen should also make a dentist's appointment as soon as possible.
Mommy milkers
"He runs his thumb over my nipple, and I feel some of my breastmilk ease out with the contact…he lowers his mouth to my breast and closes his lips gently over my nipple. He starts to suck, and it's both odd and exhilarating.�
Ugh! Please take this book away from me. This is the woman we turned into a best-selling author? Every day, I lose faith in the world.
Cringy wattpad sex saga continues
"No one heard me when I moaned. No one cared when he pulled his hand away and whispered that he wasn’t going to give me an orgasm in a steak ‘n shake. I wouldn’t have minded.�
“We ate Chinese takeout. We fucked. We ordered pizza. We fucked. We watched TV. we fucked.�
“I congratulated him with a blowjob. It was the first time I swallowed.�
“When I let him come into my mouth, I had no idea how much there would be. How long would I have to continue swallowing? Keeping my composure was tough while his dick was in my throat, drowning me.�
“It’s not hard looking at him and not thinking about sex now.�
“He didn't even touch me-he touched my fucking driver's license-and it turned me on.�
Ain’t no way his dick could be that amazing. Jeremy is not much of a catch for both women in this novel, who are acting this delusional and losing their sanity. Hello? This book was a thriller the last time I checked. However, I’m reading nothing but repetitive mediocre sex. Shouldn't the publisher market this book as romance if that's the case? I resent authors who use sex as a technique to fill up the gaps in their characters' storylines when those moments could have been used to give Jeremy more personality and explore other elements of their relationships.
After reading this and it ends with us, it’s clear that Hoover is lousy at expressing tragedy and trauma. Lowen’s mother died of cancer recently, and while it's discussed at first, it's quickly forgotten because Lowen is too horny to remember her later. What about the pedestrian who tragically died right in front of her? There was no follow-up on the trauma. It was only a means for her to get acquainted with Jeremy. Hoover uses these heavy plot themes to build drama, but she never does them justice. Stacking distressing events on top of one another is unnecessary to add substance. A well-written protagonist can be created without the need for trauma. If the goal was to have us sympathize with Lowen, it failed because she was a pain to read about.
The hot mess that was the ending
The final letter was atrocious. This is an excellent example of how authors attempt to guide the reader through the twist to ensure it lands by gaslighting. According to Verity’s letter, the entire manuscript was a writing exercise. Verity’s editor advised her that antagonistic journaling was the best method to improve her writing skills. Verity wrote that she needed to get inside a villain's head, and she opted to do it by imagining herself as an evil character with wicked internal ideas. However, there were so many plot holes; for example, how could Verity fake her brain scans? There was no way she could pull off being unconscious for this long.
Also, can we talk about how Lowen ate Verity’s letter at the end because she didn’t want Jeremy to discover its existence? This book was just two grown women thirsting for the blandest piece of bread ever.
This book leaves you wondering if Verity was indeed a murderous psychopath or if she was just a writer processing her grief. This led to everyone picking sides like TEAM MANUSCRIPT ]]>
author: Colleen Hoover
name: vicky
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: thriller
review:
This book is about a writer named Lowen who is experiencing financial difficulties. Fortunately, she is offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work as a ghostwriter for a famous novelist. Verity cannot write because she was just involved in a car accident, preventing her from finishing her series. Verity’s husband, Jeremy, requested Lowen’s assistance in completing the novels, allowing her to stay at their house to read through all of Verity’s notes to aid the writing process. Lowen eventually discovers a manuscript that turns out to be Verity’s unfinished autobiography. As we progress through the novel's present-day events, Lowen reads this manuscript chronicling Verity’s life while living in her house and feeling attracted to her husband.
Now, onto my thoughts.
Obnoxious writing that makes you rip out hair
“His fingers felt good in my hair, and his tongue felt good in my mouth. I felt good to him, too. I could feel how good I felt to him in the way he kissed me.�
This is, without a doubt, the pinnacle of literature. Instead of trying to embellish your writing description with metaphors or fundamental details, you say something is good repeatedly.
Revolting sex scenes
"My eyes are pulled to the headboard —specifically to the teeth marks bitten into the top edge of the headboard in the center of the bed... I'm wondering which one of them had to bite the headboard to keep quiet during sex. Have I ever had sex that intense?�
What did I just read? I didn’t realize there was a beaver in this book. Perhaps someone needs to send Verity to a dentist to check up on her messed-up teeth.
"I’m compelled to lean forward and stifle the sounds of my climax. I bite down on the wood in front of me. I can feel Verity's teeth marks beneath mine. Different. Unaligned with my own. I bite harder into the wood as I come, determined to leave deeper marks than she ever did.�
Here comes our second beaver of the book. That headboard has been through so much that it can't even go up on eBay to sell. Lowen should also make a dentist's appointment as soon as possible.
Mommy milkers
"He runs his thumb over my nipple, and I feel some of my breastmilk ease out with the contact…he lowers his mouth to my breast and closes his lips gently over my nipple. He starts to suck, and it's both odd and exhilarating.�
Ugh! Please take this book away from me. This is the woman we turned into a best-selling author? Every day, I lose faith in the world.
Cringy wattpad sex saga continues
"No one heard me when I moaned. No one cared when he pulled his hand away and whispered that he wasn’t going to give me an orgasm in a steak ‘n shake. I wouldn’t have minded.�
“We ate Chinese takeout. We fucked. We ordered pizza. We fucked. We watched TV. we fucked.�
“I congratulated him with a blowjob. It was the first time I swallowed.�
“When I let him come into my mouth, I had no idea how much there would be. How long would I have to continue swallowing? Keeping my composure was tough while his dick was in my throat, drowning me.�
“It’s not hard looking at him and not thinking about sex now.�
“He didn't even touch me-he touched my fucking driver's license-and it turned me on.�
Ain’t no way his dick could be that amazing. Jeremy is not much of a catch for both women in this novel, who are acting this delusional and losing their sanity. Hello? This book was a thriller the last time I checked. However, I’m reading nothing but repetitive mediocre sex. Shouldn't the publisher market this book as romance if that's the case? I resent authors who use sex as a technique to fill up the gaps in their characters' storylines when those moments could have been used to give Jeremy more personality and explore other elements of their relationships.
After reading this and it ends with us, it’s clear that Hoover is lousy at expressing tragedy and trauma. Lowen’s mother died of cancer recently, and while it's discussed at first, it's quickly forgotten because Lowen is too horny to remember her later. What about the pedestrian who tragically died right in front of her? There was no follow-up on the trauma. It was only a means for her to get acquainted with Jeremy. Hoover uses these heavy plot themes to build drama, but she never does them justice. Stacking distressing events on top of one another is unnecessary to add substance. A well-written protagonist can be created without the need for trauma. If the goal was to have us sympathize with Lowen, it failed because she was a pain to read about.
The hot mess that was the ending
The final letter was atrocious. This is an excellent example of how authors attempt to guide the reader through the twist to ensure it lands by gaslighting. According to Verity’s letter, the entire manuscript was a writing exercise. Verity’s editor advised her that antagonistic journaling was the best method to improve her writing skills. Verity wrote that she needed to get inside a villain's head, and she opted to do it by imagining herself as an evil character with wicked internal ideas. However, there were so many plot holes; for example, how could Verity fake her brain scans? There was no way she could pull off being unconscious for this long.
Also, can we talk about how Lowen ate Verity’s letter at the end because she didn’t want Jeremy to discover its existence? This book was just two grown women thirsting for the blandest piece of bread ever.
This book leaves you wondering if Verity was indeed a murderous psychopath or if she was just a writer processing her grief. This led to everyone picking sides like TEAM MANUSCRIPT
]]>
“Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise..�
“He looked even smaller and skinnier than he was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.�
“Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel -- Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.�
�..They watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley..�
“Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot…�
“Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.�
“The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat ɰ..�
“Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.�
“Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do.�
We are not expected to think of Dudley as a human being like Harry is, and the primary way that J.K. accomplishes this is by repeatedly comparing him to an animal. An adult should not describe a child in that manner. I can't wait to read about how Dudley is referred to as a whale in the following volumes. Yay!]]>
author: J.K. Rowling
name: vicky
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/27
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: fantasy
review:
There is no denying Harry Potter’s cultural impact or widespread popularity, but the series contains some very harmful themes, such as fatphobia. It appears to me that J.K. Rowling is hyperaware of fatness and fat bodies in a way that is just bizarre. Here are some direct quotes from the book..
“Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise..�
“He looked even smaller and skinnier than he was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.�
“Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel -- Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.�
�..They watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley..�
“Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot…�
“Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.�
“The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat ɰ..�
“Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.�
“Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do.�
We are not expected to think of Dudley as a human being like Harry is, and the primary way that J.K. accomplishes this is by repeatedly comparing him to an animal. An adult should not describe a child in that manner. I can't wait to read about how Dudley is referred to as a whale in the following volumes. Yay!
]]>
A TikTok sensation! Sparks fly when a competitive figure skater and hockey team captain are forced to share a rink.
Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.
Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins.
Nate’s focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team—including Anastasia, who clearly can’t stand him.
But when Anastasia’s skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.
Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn’t worried…because she could never like a hockey player, right?]]>
PLEASEEE ]]>
author: Hannah Grace
name: vicky
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2024/05/20
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: romance
review:
"Nathan Hawkins is a man who was most definitely written by a woman."
PLEASEEE
]]>
Chain of Thorns is a Shadowhunters novel.
Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few short weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter.
After fleeing to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, Cordelia hopes to forget her sorrows in the city’s glittering nightlife. But reality intrudes when shocking news comes from home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped the Adamant Citadel, and London is under new threat by the Prince of Hell, Belial.
Cordelia returns to a London riven by chaos and dissent. The long-kept secret that Belial is James and Lucie’s grandfather has been revealed by an unexpected enemy, and the Herondales find themselves under suspicion of dealings with demons. Cordelia longs to protect James but is torn between a love for James she has long believed hopeless, and the possibility of a new life with Matthew. Nor can her friends help—ripped apart by their own secrets, they seem destined to face what is coming alone.
For time is short, and Belial’s plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind. Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial’s deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city—and their families—they will have to muster their courage, swallow their pride, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they may lose everything—even their souls.]]>
I brush my teeth
Don't tell anyone
- Thomas
]]>
author: Cassandra Clare
name: vicky
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/19
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: fantasy
review:
Dear Alastair,
Why are you so stupid
I brush my teeth
Don't tell anyone
- Thomas
]]>
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).]]>
“I don’t have a picture of her,� I say to Theo.
“So she’s ugly?� I toss the box of glass into the dumpster.
“She’s gorgeous and way out of my league.�
“Ugly would still be out of your league,� he deadpans.
12-year-old Theo, who talked like he was going on to 50, was my favorite character in the book. And you want to know why? Because the little kid was pretty much bullying Atlas every time they interacted, and I loved it. Some adults deserve to be bullied. Especially for the CORNY “just keep swimming� lines, Colleen Hoover is still putting in the second book.
� We finally reached the beach, my little whale.�
“It is my wish for you to be my fish.�
We love sassy Theo ]]>
author: Colleen Hoover
name: vicky
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: romance
review:
I can’t believe a tree was cut down for this atrocious monstrosity of a book.
“I don’t have a picture of her,� I say to Theo.
“So she’s ugly?� I toss the box of glass into the dumpster.
“She’s gorgeous and way out of my league.�
“Ugly would still be out of your league,� he deadpans.
12-year-old Theo, who talked like he was going on to 50, was my favorite character in the book. And you want to know why? Because the little kid was pretty much bullying Atlas every time they interacted, and I loved it. Some adults deserve to be bullied. Especially for the CORNY “just keep swimming� lines, Colleen Hoover is still putting in the second book.
� We finally reached the beach, my little whale.�
“It is my wish for you to be my fish.�
We love sassy Theo
]]>
But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.
Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive...]]>
� Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."
"He’s the sun god," I said.
"That’s not what I meant.�
Because Apollo is one of my favorite gods, I have to agree with Thalia. I loved that he was a recurring character in the book and that he served as comic relief. I may or may not have also written a haiku to accompany his haiku phase.
Dear Blackjack, my love
You deserve every donut
In the universe ]]>
author: Rick Riordan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/06
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: fantasy
review:
The humor in this book is unmatched.
� Wow," Thalia muttered. "Apollo is hot."
"He’s the sun god," I said.
"That’s not what I meant.�
Because Apollo is one of my favorite gods, I have to agree with Thalia. I loved that he was a recurring character in the book and that he served as comic relief. I may or may not have also written a haiku to accompany his haiku phase.
Dear Blackjack, my love
You deserve every donut
In the universe
]]>
When she was chosen to compete in the Selection, America never dreamed she would find herself anywhere close to the crown—or to Prince Maxon's heart. But as the end of the competition approaches, and the threats outside the palace walls grow more vicious, America realizes just how much she stands to lose—and how hard she'll have to fight for the future she wants.]]>
Also, America: “I can’t imagine my life without you, Aspen. Let’s make out in dark rooms even after what happened to Marlee. You’re the only one who understands me.�
Me: Screams bloody murder]]>
author: Kiera Cass
name: vicky
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/09
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: romance
review:
America: “Why does Maxon hang out with the other girls when he swore he only has feelings for me?�
Also, America: “I can’t imagine my life without you, Aspen. Let’s make out in dark rooms even after what happened to Marlee. You’re the only one who understands me.�
Me: Screams bloody murder
]]>
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.]]>
This story isn't realistic. Adam, the professor, doesn't report Olive when she impulsively kisses him and even agrees to fake date her. This scenario definitely happens in real life! the fact that this happens in graduate school heightens the absurdity even more because none of this was professional. The main character gave me second-hand embarrasement so many times while reading this book. GIRL, don't you have a thesis to write or something?
]]>
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: vicky
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/25
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: romance
review:
This novel follows Olive, a graduate student in STEM researching pancreatic cancer but still finds the time to fake date a professor. This happens because her friend, Anh, falls in love with Olive's ex but refuses to date him due to the girl code. Olive convinces herself that if she pretends to date someone else, Anh will realize she has happily moved on and will freely date the guy she likes. That approach totally makes more sense than simply sitting down and talking with Anh about it. Instead, we'll go out of our way to pretend to date a random dude instead of communicating.
This story isn't realistic. Adam, the professor, doesn't report Olive when she impulsively kisses him and even agrees to fake date her. This scenario definitely happens in real life! the fact that this happens in graduate school heightens the absurdity even more because none of this was professional. The main character gave me second-hand embarrasement so many times while reading this book. GIRL, don't you have a thesis to write or something?
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Juliette Ferrars.
Ella Sommers.
Which is the truth and which is the lie?
Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong—between Ella and Juliette—blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.
The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on.]]>
Seriously, what happened to the original plot of the story? My expectations for this book were already so low, but this finale still disappointed me. Life would’ve been fine if this series ended at ignite me. Warner was insufferable without Juliette, which wasn’t cute and frustrated me deeply.
The characters, the world-building, the plot, and the romance were all such a step down from her prior books. I’m glad Warner loves Juliette (not calling her Ella), but why make that his only redeeming quality? I might be in the minority, but bad boys who hate everyone and only have a soft spot for one girl ain’t a cute trope. Adam was non-existent and useless throughout the story, while the children of the supreme leaders were helpful at some points, but mostly just.. there. Let’s not talk about how unnecessary it was for the author to add to the Juliette Anderson attraction situation.
The ending was confusing, and it felt rushed and didn’t even resolve all the problems. I had to mentally push myself to keep reading, as Kenji’s existence was the sole reason I managed to continue. His back must be so sore from carrying this book.]]>
author: Tahereh Mafi
name: vicky
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2022/03/22
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: dystopian
review:
I wish this book ended as a trilogy, but readers insisted on more, so we now have three additional books that aren’t as good as the first half.
Seriously, what happened to the original plot of the story? My expectations for this book were already so low, but this finale still disappointed me. Life would’ve been fine if this series ended at ignite me. Warner was insufferable without Juliette, which wasn’t cute and frustrated me deeply.
The characters, the world-building, the plot, and the romance were all such a step down from her prior books. I’m glad Warner loves Juliette (not calling her Ella), but why make that his only redeeming quality? I might be in the minority, but bad boys who hate everyone and only have a soft spot for one girl ain’t a cute trope. Adam was non-existent and useless throughout the story, while the children of the supreme leaders were helpful at some points, but mostly just.. there. Let’s not talk about how unnecessary it was for the author to add to the Juliette Anderson attraction situation.
The ending was confusing, and it felt rushed and didn’t even resolve all the problems. I had to mentally push myself to keep reading, as Kenji’s existence was the sole reason I managed to continue. His back must be so sore from carrying this book.
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The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.
Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.
Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other's arms.]]>
“Cassian lay buried in her, and it felt so good, so right, that she wanted him always this deep in her, his seed spilling down her legs, forever.�
“Cassian went still, but he gently extracted himself from her in a long, long pull. He dragged his seed with him, and another rush of it tickled down her thighs.�
“She stared at the door, puzzling over his exit, so swift that his seed still leaked out of her.�
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author: Sarah J. Maas
name: vicky
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2022/04/21
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: fantasy
review:
“Cassian roared, the sound echoing through the room, and he became utterly wild as release found him, and he spilled into her with such force that his seed ran down her thighs.�
“Cassian lay buried in her, and it felt so good, so right, that she wanted him always this deep in her, his seed spilling down her legs, forever.�
“Cassian went still, but he gently extracted himself from her in a long, long pull. He dragged his seed with him, and another rush of it tickled down her thighs.�
“She stared at the door, puzzling over his exit, so swift that his seed still leaked out of her.�
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She has left the Night Court - and her High Lord - and is playing a deadly game of deceit. In the Spring Court, Tamlin is making deals with the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees, and Feyre is determined to uncover his plans. But to do so she must weave a web of lies, and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.
As mighty armies grapple for power, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords - and hunt for allies in unexpected places.
BUT WHILE WAR RAGES, IT IS HER HEART THAT WILL FACE THE GREATEST BATTLE.
THE THRILLING THIRD BOOK IN #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FANTASY SERIES FROM SARAH J. MAAS.]]>
“Lower. Rhys’s hands slid into my hair as the rest of his clothes vanished.�
“I stroked my hand over him once, twice—luxuriating in the feel of him, in knowing he was here, we were both here. Safe.�
“Then I echoed the movement with my mouth.�
“His growls of pleasure filled the tent, drowning out the distant cries of the injured and dying. Life and death—hovering so close, whispering in our ears."
“But I tasted Rhys, worshipped him with my hands and mouth and then my body—and hoped that this shard of life we offered up, this undimming light between us, would drive death a bit further away. at least for another day.�
-
Me when Feyre gave Rhysand a blowjob in the middle of a war to the cries of wounded soldiers:
I loved how Feyre’s internal monologue talked about how the power and magic of their sexy time would bring life and healing to the camp. I was dying when reading that scene. Girl, just admit you want to get dicked down, and you don’t care where. I honestly can’t tell if this is worse than Rhysand wanting to fuck Feyre at the library where he provided shelter to sexually assaulted victims. This whole series is a big red flag ]]>
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: vicky
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2022/04/10
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: fantasy
review:
Read at your own risk:
“Lower. Rhys’s hands slid into my hair as the rest of his clothes vanished.�
“I stroked my hand over him once, twice—luxuriating in the feel of him, in knowing he was here, we were both here. Safe.�
“Then I echoed the movement with my mouth.�
“His growls of pleasure filled the tent, drowning out the distant cries of the injured and dying. Life and death—hovering so close, whispering in our ears."
“But I tasted Rhys, worshipped him with my hands and mouth and then my body—and hoped that this shard of life we offered up, this undimming light between us, would drive death a bit further away. at least for another day.�
-
Me when Feyre gave Rhysand a blowjob in the middle of a war to the cries of wounded soldiers:
I loved how Feyre’s internal monologue talked about how the power and magic of their sexy time would bring life and healing to the camp. I was dying when reading that scene. Girl, just admit you want to get dicked down, and you don’t care where. I honestly can’t tell if this is worse than Rhysand wanting to fuck Feyre at the library where he provided shelter to sexually assaulted victims. This whole series is a big red flag
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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.]]>
I also love the title of this book. Evelyn did marry seven men. However, this story highlights that there’s always more to a situation than what meets the eye. People are complex beings, and you will never truly understand their stories unless you experience them. Evelyn Hugo is one of the best literary characters I have had the pleasure of reading about. She has made many controversial decisions during her career, but I love that she knows it, and she’d probably do it all over again. This is a spectacular book well deserving of 5 stars ♛]]>
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: vicky
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/17
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: historical-fiction, hall-of-fame
review:
Excuse me, I may crawl under my covers and cry. I feel so honored that I had the opportunity to read this book; it deserves every single ounce of hype. Evelyn Hugo’s story was so compelling that I desperately turned pages to discover more about her seven husbands. I had to know who her greatest love was. It delves into her life as a Cuban movie icon in Hollywood. The exploration of her heritage and sexuality, as well as how she dealt with misogynists, was intriguing. Evelyn is one of those characters who implants in your mind for the rest of eternity with her strong will, independence, and ambition.
I also love the title of this book. Evelyn did marry seven men. However, this story highlights that there’s always more to a situation than what meets the eye. People are complex beings, and you will never truly understand their stories unless you experience them. Evelyn Hugo is one of the best literary characters I have had the pleasure of reading about. She has made many controversial decisions during her career, but I love that she knows it, and she’d probably do it all over again. This is a spectacular book well deserving of 5 stars �
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Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.
Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties.
A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.]]>
This is my favorite duology of all time. I wish I could erase this duology from my memory so that I reread it. Crooked Kingdom's theme of hope was written beautifully. It's not about healing their wounds or repairing the trauma; it's about learning to cope with what you've been dealt. I love how the crows have grown to rely on one another while still acknowledging that their pain is something they have to overcome on their own. Such a heartwarming story :)
-
You might wonder who my favorite character is. Well, when there are six character points of view, there's bound to be at least one that you enjoy less than the others, but that wasn't the case. All the crows are fantastic. Each one is intricately crafted and flawlessly integrated into the overall story. They all have flaws, but it makes them more endearing and likable.
Kaz Brekker]]>
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: vicky
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/09
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: fantasy, hall-of-fame
review:
How does one properly review this masterpiece?
This is my favorite duology of all time. I wish I could erase this duology from my memory so that I reread it. Crooked Kingdom's theme of hope was written beautifully. It's not about healing their wounds or repairing the trauma; it's about learning to cope with what you've been dealt. I love how the crows have grown to rely on one another while still acknowledging that their pain is something they have to overcome on their own. Such a heartwarming story :)
-
You might wonder who my favorite character is. Well, when there are six character points of view, there's bound to be at least one that you enjoy less than the others, but that wasn't the case. All the crows are fantastic. Each one is intricately crafted and flawlessly integrated into the overall story. They all have flaws, but it makes them more endearing and likable.
Kaz Brekker
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You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.]]>
“What?� I can barely think.
“That you hate me,� he says, his voice hoarse. “Tell me that you hate me.�
“I hate you,� I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. a litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.�
He kisses me harder.
“I hate you,� I breathe into his mouth. “I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.�
-
Side effects of reading The Wicked King are but are not limited to shortness of breath, heart palpitations, nausea, weak knees, thirst, dizziness, lightheadedness, heartache, persistent sweating, elevated blood pressure, and heart failure.
Jude is hot. Cardan is hot. And they are both a million times hotter together; I will die of a terrible heat stroke. I need some water, quick.
Read this book if you ever want to see my true desires on paper. This novel is magical, quickly making it one of my top reads. Not only is Holly Black the queen of fae, but she’s also the queen of eloquent writing. One of the most appealing aspects of this book is that none of the characters are flawless. They aren’t excused from their wrongdoings and must learn to deal with the consequences of their actions. It acknowledges and reflects that while also emphasizing growth and development. This is why I fell in love with reading in the first place.]]>
author: Holly Black
name: vicky
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/06
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: fantasy, hall-of-fame
review:
“Tell me again what you said at the revel,� he says, climbing over me, his body against mine.
“What?� I can barely think.
“That you hate me,� he says, his voice hoarse. “Tell me that you hate me.�
“I hate you,� I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. a litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.�
He kisses me harder.
“I hate you,� I breathe into his mouth. “I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.�
-
Side effects of reading The Wicked King are but are not limited to shortness of breath, heart palpitations, nausea, weak knees, thirst, dizziness, lightheadedness, heartache, persistent sweating, elevated blood pressure, and heart failure.
Jude is hot. Cardan is hot. And they are both a million times hotter together; I will die of a terrible heat stroke. I need some water, quick.
Read this book if you ever want to see my true desires on paper. This novel is magical, quickly making it one of my top reads. Not only is Holly Black the queen of fae, but she’s also the queen of eloquent writing. One of the most appealing aspects of this book is that none of the characters are flawless. They aren’t excused from their wrongdoings and must learn to deal with the consequences of their actions. It acknowledges and reflects that while also emphasizing growth and development. This is why I fell in love with reading in the first place.
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With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn't know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won't keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that's not all he wants with her.
The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks."
Don’t miss Restore Me, the electrifying fourth installment of this New York Times bestselling series, available now!]]>
author: Tahereh Mafi
name: vicky
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/06
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: dystopian
review:
Aaron Warner is so fine.
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author: Sarah J. Maas
name: vicky
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2022/04/15
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: fantasy
review:
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Told in a series of vignettes � sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.]]>
author: Sandra Cisneros
name: vicky
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/13
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: poetry, read-for-school
review:
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author: Anne Frank
name: vicky
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1947
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/30
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: read-for-school, biography
review:
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James L.W. West III to include the author’s final revisions and features a note on the composition and text, a personal foreword by Fitzgerald’s granddaughter, Eleanor Lanahan—and a new introduction by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,� it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]>
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: vicky
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at: 2022/04/19
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: classics, read-for-school
review:
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Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."
"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times."It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.]]>
author: Lorraine Hansberry
name: vicky
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at: 2022/03/03
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: read-for-school, historical-fiction
review:
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In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view "the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity" she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion.
Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
From the Hardcover edition.]]>
author: Julie Otsuka
name: vicky
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at: 2022/01/28
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: historical-fiction, read-for-school
review:
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The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.
That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.
But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance—Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.]]>
author: Victoria Aveyard
name: vicky
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: dystopian
review:
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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.]]>
author: Rick Riordan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/29
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: fantasy
review:
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But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.]]>
author: Chris Colfer
name: vicky
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:
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Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.
The adventure continues in this fresh fairytale retelling that combines elements of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.]]>
author: Marissa Meyer
name: vicky
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/23
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: science-fiction
review:
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America is desperate for more time. But the rest of the Elite know exactly what they want—and America's chance to choose is about to slip away.]]>
author: Kiera Cass
name: vicky
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/06
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: romance
review:
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Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.]]>
author: Cassandra Clare
name: vicky
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/16
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: fantasy
review:
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Sepetys (writer of 'Between Shades of Gray') crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks.]]>
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: vicky
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: historical-fiction, hall-of-fame
review:
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Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone...
A convict with a thirst for revenge
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager
A runaway with a privileged past
A spy known as the Wraith
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.]]>
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: vicky
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/28
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: fantasy, hall-of-fame
review:
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what it looks like from the dance floor.
This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER
This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.
Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.
(back cover)]]>
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: vicky
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2023/08/09
shelves: contemporary
review:
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Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography--and fate--introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War--as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.
Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.]]>
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: vicky
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:
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While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it's up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.
In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.]]>
author: Rick Riordan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/21
date added: 2023/07/21
shelves: fantasy
review:
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The night of the fashion show for Tsukimi and Kuranosuke's Jelly Fish brand has finally arrived. They pulled out all the stops to make Amamizu-kan into an enchanting wonderland--even Mayaya has transformed into a chic model!! The show brings some much-needed attention to the retro building, but will th exposure be enough to save the Amars and their home? When their fashion line becomes a hit success, the girls scramble to satisfy their customers. With the help of their new colleague Nisha, a savvy Indian expat who knows all about the textile industry, they just might make it work! ...But is Tsukimi ready to leave her quiet life behind for good?]]>
author: Akiko Higashimura
name: vicky
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves: manga
review:
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author: Rupi Kaur
name: vicky
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/13
date added: 2023/07/13
shelves: poetry
review:
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In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]>
author: Rick Riordan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/12
date added: 2023/07/12
shelves: fantasy
review:
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The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It's the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.
The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion--but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection.
When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.]]>
author: Fonda Lee
name: vicky
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:
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Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…]]>
author: Axie Oh
name: vicky
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves: fantasy
review:
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Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]>
author: T.J. Klune
name: vicky
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:
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In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]>
author: Michelle Obama
name: vicky
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:
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Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.
With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.]]>
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: vicky
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2022/04/06
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: fantasy
review:
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It is split into four chapters, with each chapter dealing with a different pain. Healing a different heartache. Milk and Honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them -- because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.]]>
author: Rupi Kaur
name: vicky
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/28
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: poetry
review:
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Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.]]>
author: Adalyn Grace
name: vicky
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:
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King Harristan was thrust into power after his parents' shocking assassination, leaving the younger Prince Corrick to take on the brutal role of the King's Justice. The brothers have learned to react mercilessly to any sign of rebellion--it's the only way to maintain order when the sickness can strike anywhere, and the only known cure, an elixir made from delicate Moonflower petals, is severely limited.
Out in the Wilds, apothecary apprentice Tessa Cade is tired of seeing her neighbors die, their suffering ignored by the unyielding royals. Every night, she and her best friend Wes risk their lives to steal Moonflower petals and distribute the elixir to those who need it most--but it's still not enough.
As rumors spread that the cure no longer works and sparks of rebellion begin to flare, a particularly cruel act from the King's Justice makes Tessa desperate enough to try the impossible: sneaking into the palace. But what she finds upon her arrival makes her wonder if it's even possible to fix Kandala without destroying it first.]]>
author: Brigid Kemmerer
name: vicky
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:
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Chiaki Ogawa has never doubted that he is a boy, although the rest of the world has not been as kind. Bound by his mother’s dying wish, Chiaki tries to be a good daughter to his ailing father.
When the burden becomes too great, Chiaki sets out to remake himself in his own image and discovers more than just personal freedom with his transition—he finds understanding from the people who matter most.
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author: Oto Toda
name: vicky
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/06
date added: 2023/07/06
shelves: manga
review:
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In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.]]>
author: Rick Riordan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/05
date added: 2023/07/05
shelves: fantasy
review:
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When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.
Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.� Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.
But no one has ever survived.
With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.
From bestselling author Lynette Noni comes a dark, thrilling YA fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, and Sabaa Tahir.]]>
author: Lynette Noni
name: vicky
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:
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Inari, the aggressive vixen of redevelopment, ramps up her efforts to buy out Amamizu-kan, where Tsukimi and her friends live. But Kuranosuke has a fabulous plan of attack--turn Tsukimi's jellyfish designs into a reality! Will becoming real fashion designers be more than Amars can handle? Meanwhile, Shu's interest in Tsukimi drives Kuranosuke to confront some feelings he's never dealt with before...]]>
author: Akiko Higashimura
name: vicky
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/02
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves: manga
review:
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author: Akiko Higashimura
name: vicky
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/27
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves: manga
review:
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Tsukimi Kurashita has a strange fascination with jellyfish. She’s loved them from a young age and has carried that love with her to her new life in the big city of Tokyo. There, she resides in Amamizukan, a safe-haven for girl geeks who regularly gush over a range of things from trains to Japanese dolls. However, a chance meeting at a pet shop has Tsukimi crossing paths with one of the things that the residents of Amamizukan have been desperately trying to avoid—a beautiful and fashionable woman! But there’s much more to this woman than her trendy clothes! This odd encounter is only the beginning of a new and unexpected path for Tsukimi and her friends.]]>
author: Akiko Higashimura
name: vicky
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/22
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves: manga
review:
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Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways—there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.
Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.
A NOTE ON THE JACKET
The gold veins on the cover represent the Japanese art of kintsugi, "golden repair," in which pieces of broken pottery are mended with powdered gold and lacquer, rather than treating the breaks as blemishes to conceal. The technique shows us that although an object cannot be returned to its original state, fragments can be made whole again.]]>
author: Chanel Miller
name: vicky
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:
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Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape.
Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.
But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:
A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.
***
Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember.
But despite her broken past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world...including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.
Her brother's best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.
Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen-but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both...and everything they hold dear.]]>
author: Ana Huang
name: vicky
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:
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author: Jordan Ifueko
name: vicky
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:
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Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]>
author: Tara Westover
name: vicky
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:
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"Every cell in my body is filled with the code of generations of trauma, of death, of birth, of migration, of history that I cannot understand. . . . I want to have words for what my bones know."
By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD—a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years.
Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD.
In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma—but you can learn to move with it.
Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body—and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.]]>
author: Stephanie Foo
name: vicky
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/28
shelves: to-read
review:
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Shiori'anma, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted. But it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes. She warns Shiori that she must speak of it to no one for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and uncovers a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in a paper bird, a mercurial dragon, and the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she's been taught all her life to forswear--no matter what the cost.
Weaving together elements of The Wild Swans, Cinderella, the legend of Chang E, and the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.]]>
author: Elizabeth Lim
name: vicky
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/28
shelves: to-read
review:
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Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.
As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.
The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous � and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.]]>
author: Krystal Sutherland
name: vicky
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:
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It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.]]>
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: vicky
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:
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All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he's worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he's all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn't take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn't going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.]]>
author: Elle Kennedy
name: vicky
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:
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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.]]>
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: vicky
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:
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I'm sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.
In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.
It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket]]>
author: Lemony Snicket
name: vicky
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:
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In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?]]>
author: Renée Ahdieh
name: vicky
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:
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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...]]>
author: Stephanie Garber
name: vicky
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:
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Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret--she's a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt.
But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead--her gumiho soul--in the process.
Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl--he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to humans. He's drawn to her anyway.
With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon's.]]>
author: Kat Cho
name: vicky
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:
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Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Charlie's beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.
Nick's been feeling the same, but he's got a lot on his mind - not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.
As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.
Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.
This is the fourth volume of Heartstopper, which has now been optioned for television by See-Saw Films.]]>
author: Alice Oseman
name: vicky
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/23
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
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But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is discovering all kinds of things about his friends, his family ... and himself.]]>
author: Alice Oseman
name: vicky
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/22
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
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Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn't been too great, but at least he's not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He's heard a little about Charlie - the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months - but he's never had the opportunity to talk to him.
They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner...]]>
author: Alice Oseman
name: vicky
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/22
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
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Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem� rather close�?]]>
author: Alice Oseman
name: vicky
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/23
date added: 2023/06/23
shelves: graphic-novels
review:
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On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person - a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, gripping novel from a bright new voice.]]>
author: Monica Hesse
name: vicky
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:
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He's a machine - Abandoned in space for years, utterly alone, Abel's advanced programming has begun to evolve. He wants only to protect his creator, and to be free. To the people of Genesis, he's an abomination.
Noemi and Abel are enemies in an interstellar war, forced by chance to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they're not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they're forced to question everything they'd been taught was true.
Fast-paced, romantic, and captivating, Defy The Stars is a story about what it means to be human, about deciding what you truly believe in, and about finding your place in a dangerous world.]]>
author: Claudia Gray
name: vicky
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:
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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.]]>
author: Rebecca Ross
name: vicky
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:
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The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.
Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.]]>
author: Marie Lu
name: vicky
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.
Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.]]>
author: Nina LaCour
name: vicky
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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author: Naomi Alderman
name: vicky
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.
Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.
Listening Length: 9 hours and 55 minutes]]>
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: vicky
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.]]>
author: Adam Silvera
name: vicky
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who's played Carnegie Hall, he's a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that's before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who's already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.
Thirty years after these four lovers' fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.
A sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II.]]>
author: Julie Berry
name: vicky
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.]]>
author: Lori Gottlieb
name: vicky
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.
2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?
Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]>
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: vicky
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why--or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.
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 con-woman, 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.]]>
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: vicky
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.]]>
author: George M. Johnson
name: vicky
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]>
author: Emily Henry
name: vicky
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art� of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]>
author: Neal Shusterman
name: vicky
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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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.]]>
author: Stephanie Garber
name: vicky
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility. Marriage into a brutal kingdom awaits, and she will not let a small matter like waking up in the middle of the desert in the company of an extremely impertinent (and handsome) kidnapper get in the way of her royal duty. But life outside the palace walls is wilder and more beautiful than she ever imagined, and the witches she has long feared might turn out to be the family she never knew she was missing.
Two sisters separated at birth and raised into entirely different worlds are about to get to know each other's lives a whole lot better. But as coronation day looms closer and they each strive to claim their birthright, the sinister Kingsbreath, Willem Rathborne, becomes increasingly determined that neither will succeed. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown?]]>
author: Catherine Doyle
name: vicky
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/19
shelves: to-read
review:
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“Epic, romantic, and enthralling from start to finish.”—Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series
“An all-consuming work of literary fantasy that is breathtaking both for its beauty and its suspense."—BookPage, starred review
A captivating and romantic debut epic fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.
Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.
To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.]]>
author: Sue Lynn Tan
name: vicky
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:
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author: Brandon Sanderson
name: vicky
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:
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Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.
With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.]]>
author: Elizabeth Acevedo
name: vicky
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/16
shelves: to-read
review:
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Cordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.
But Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. These monsters are nothing like those Shadowhunters have fought before—these demons walk in daylight, strike down the unwary with incurable poison, and seem impossible to kill. London is immediately quarantined. Trapped in the city, Cordelia's friends discover that a dark legacy has gifted them with incredible powers—and forced a brutal choice that will reveal the true cruel price of being a hero.]]>
author: Cassandra Clare
name: vicky
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/14
date added: 2023/06/14
shelves: fantasy
review:
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The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies � humans with extraordinary abilities � who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone... except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice � and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.]]>
author: Marissa Meyer
name: vicky
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:
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