Tiffany's Updates en-US Sun, 04 May 2025 19:39:27 -0700 60 Tiffany's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Rating854204592 Sun, 04 May 2025 19:39:27 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany liked a readstatus]]> / ]]> Rating854204560 Sun, 04 May 2025 19:39:22 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany liked a review]]> /
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
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Review7537111469 Sun, 04 May 2025 14:28:35 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany added 'The Lighthouse Keeper of Anglesey']]> /review/show/7537111469 The Lighthouse Keeper of Anglesey by Caroline Young Tiffany gave 1 star to The Lighthouse Keeper of Anglesey (Welcome to Anglesey #4) by Caroline Young
bookshelves: romance
Seren has no clue about who her parents are, or why she was left to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Every time she tries to approach the topic she's brushed off and made to feel ungrateful for even asking. After surviving breast cancer, a mastectomy, and escaping an abusive relationship with her young child, she's decided she deserves to know about her family history, at minimum to know medically if anything else has the potential to arise.



I really wanted to like this novel. It sounded like it had some mystery, even a bit of suspense that would draw me through her journey of uncovering her past and finding a happy future. Unfortunately, no one who is supposed to care about Seren actually supports her. This is instead a story of how a woman continues to let everyone treat her terribly, decide her life for her, and lie to her for decades, until she eventually settles for a man who barely shows up for her.

For a shorter novel, this one drags on with an incredibly slow pace and meandering conversations and scenes that progress at a snails pace. So many main characters were just so incredibly unlikeable. Her dad was awful to her when his wife left, and continued to be secretive, quick to anger and meddlesome when she returned as an adult. Seeing her walk on eggshells to navigate conversations with him to keep him content, and him informing her how she could act with Jamie felt so off. Together they had a weird obsession with Dylan Thomas poetry to the point it was quoted twenty separate times in the book, which became annoying fast.

Her new friends and their mothers were secretive, and chose to hide things from her and speak about her instead of giving her a shred of truth about a woman that had passed away decades earlier. Choosing instead to make her feel ostracized from the small community she was trying to find a home in. Everyone refusing to speak directly, and nudging around pitfalls of conversation throughout the entire story was exhausting. Her aunt was the biggest villain of the story. She knew exactly what her mother did and why, and chose to not only not tell her grieving husband to give him peace, but steal his child and refuse to allow him contact - which was in no way the mothers directive before she passed. She refused father and daughter to have any relationship, nor granddaughter and grandfather. Then continued to talk bad about her mother to her for years until finally telling the father decades later when he's on his death bed. None of this was redeeming. She whined about Seren's ex contacting them instead of supporting Seren in moving on, was annoyed she wanted to find her roots, and consistently pushed back against her happiness to the point I was stunned she let her back into her life at all.

The entire novel was ridiculous when you hear the secret they kept for Seren's mother for so long, at the detriment of the two people that were closest to her. It made no sense to keep mum for decades, especially when she returned to her hometown and put down roots. It felt very much like everyone would rather see her and her father suffer than to give them any peace, in order to honour a ghost. It was unnecessarily cruel.

Also the love interest? Should have fallen into the sea, never to be seen again. There was no chemistry. He went from avoiding her - while also telling her very young child she and her grandpa were his only friends (RED FLAG) - to disappearing for a good month for an absolutely ridiculous reason. Then they're in love?? Or have the potential to be?? He say's he'll be back soon and disappears for months while saying her loves her then absolutely abandoning her and her daughter to the point she's depressed and trying to move on. He returns to admit he realized after a week he could have come home but chose to stay away. Then shows up to tell her how her life is going to be now (focused around his career and wants and needs - which destroyed his last marriage), and elevates their relationship to the next level out of nowhere? None of this makes sense. Then he says he'll be gone for three months starting tomorrow and AGAIN is gone longer while being secretive. While she deals with her father having two massive medical issues, discovering the truth about her mother, struggling with childcare for work, and he's still off galivanting around. When his previous "closest friend" finally passes he deigns to return and again inform her that he's made another massive change in her and her daughters life - that him and her father chose to keep from her. While avoiding being present during her current pregnancy - which he's proud to be responsible for, but again, hasn't helped her with at all. She isn't even a fan of what he's already chosen for their new life change, but agrees anyway because he's already done it. She literally changes her whole life multiple times at the whims of this man who she's slept with twice, and barely seen in the past 7 or 8 months. Nothing about this relationship is believable other than its a trauma bond. He wants to replace his family, and she wants a man who won't beat her. Her consolation prize is that she gets to do her art.

I genuinely thought the story would end with her seeing her worth, cutting off Jamie and her other toxic ties, and living a happy life with her and her children, and doing what brings her joy. Instead I felt horrible for her, which isn't the vibe for a conclusion of a Women's Lit Romance.



Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the digital ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ]]>
ReadStatus9384608124 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:41:56 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'My Name Is Emily Ray']]> /review/show/7541240337 My Name Is Emily Ray by Michele Domínguez Greene Tiffany wants to read My Name Is Emily Ray by Michele Domínguez Greene
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ReadStatus9384584631 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:27:27 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'Come As You Are']]> /review/show/7541224093 Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler Tiffany wants to read Come As You Are by Dahlia Adler
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ReadStatus9384580531 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:24:50 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'Not Safe for Work']]> /review/show/7541221213 Not Safe for Work by Nisha J. Tuli Tiffany wants to read Not Safe for Work by Nisha J. Tuli
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ReadStatus9384580289 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:24:40 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'Playing with Fire']]> /review/show/7541221035 Playing with Fire by A.J. Ranney Tiffany wants to read Playing with Fire by A.J. Ranney
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ReadStatus9384573681 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:20:26 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'In the Blood']]> /review/show/7541216442 In the Blood by Kate Wiley Tiffany wants to read In the Blood by Kate Wiley
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ReadStatus9384571025 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:18:47 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'If It Makes You Happy']]> /review/show/7541214613 If It Makes You Happy by Hannah  Logan Tiffany wants to read If It Makes You Happy by Hannah Logan
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ReadStatus9384569519 Sat, 03 May 2025 23:17:55 -0700 <![CDATA[Tiffany wants to read 'The Demons We Hide']]> /review/show/7541213624 The Demons We Hide by Lucy Smoke Tiffany wants to read The Demons We Hide by Lucy Smoke
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