Tag: Charlaine Harris

January 2023 Reads

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Was not really a fan of the style this book was written. Definitely not a fan of Part 2. Baby death is something I wish I knew about going in, I would have skipped the book. I didn’t read the last twenty or so pages. The first part was really interesting with the societal commentary and internet culture though.

3 Stars

While I feel her first memoir is better, I still really enjoyed this one. My favorite essay this time was “Mochi.” It was deeply personal and vulnerable. I think that essay made me love her even more. The rest of the book alternated humor with poignancy.

4 Stars

What a book to start off 2023. So. Good. The book was almost poetic with its prose. The characters were vibrant and three dimensional. The mythology was so rich. There was nothing I didn’t love about this book. I immediately started the second book once this was finished.

5 Stars

What a great romance to kick off the year reading. Loved Natalie and Tom and their slow burn friends to lovers. I think what I loved most was Tom never pushing Natalie, never being openly jealous of Jason. He let Natalie decide in her own time. the relationship was smooth and full of palpable chemistry. I loved this book.

5 Stars

This series has not been disappointing, and the books have been consistently good. The characters are rich, and have shown growth. Vasya is going to be one of my favorite heroines of all time. I love Morozko and can’t wait to see what happens next.

5 Stars

Dark romance with Hook as the lead. I read this book really quickly. The characterizations were good, even if the plot was a bit predictable.

4 stars

I was worried I wouldn’t like the series once it switched to Felicia as the lead, but it turns out I needn’t have. This book was just as good as the others. It set up a lot of interesting threads so I really hope Harris continues the series.

4 stars

A slow burn that never felt slow, there wasn’t anything I didn’t love about this book. The characters were all three dimensional, and Ellerie and Whitaker had so much chemistry it was palpable. The book had just enough suspense to make me feel tense and want to keep reading. Once the action really started taking place, it was impossible to put the book down.

5 Stars

Do yourself a favor and listen to this one on audio. With all the press and leaks and speculation surrounding this book, I expected huge revelations and all the tea being spilt. What I got was a very personal story told by a very hurt man. A man who saw what the British Press did to his mother and when history began repeating itself with his wife, he stood up for himself and got his family out of a dangerous situation. This is not a book written to take down the monarchy. It was written to take down the British Media, which good. The media needs to be taken down. And I hope he’s successful in his crusade. Read this book. It is eye opening.

5 Stars

This year I am reading twelve books recommended to me by twelve friends. This is the first one. This book started off slow, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, especially since it was also coupled with no quotation marks. However, the farter in I got, the more invested I became in Hig’s survival. I read it pretty quickly, only so I could make sure everything would work out in the end.

4 Stars

Why, yes, I did read an entire trilogy in one month. And let me tell you, this trilogy was amazing, and it is now one of my favorite series’ of all time. Full of Medieval Russian history and fantasy elements, these books tie together wonderfully and tell a complete story. Vasya was amazing. I loved watching her grow. Morozko was also amazing to watch grow and change throughout the series. It’s rare a series ends and I’m not looking for fan fiction to fill the void of an unsatisfactory ending. This one ended the best way it could, and I felt it was complete. Highly recommend.

5 Stars

May 2021 Reads

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I look forward to every Black Dagger Brotherhood release each year, and I’m never disappointed. In Lover Unveiled, I really liked the new couple, Mae and Sahvage, but I felt like their story isn’t complete. I have a feeling their story is going to bleed into the next book, which JR Ward is not spilling the beans on yet.

I also am super intrigued by Balz and the detective. I have a strong feeling they are going to be the new book, and their story is going to intertwine with Mae and Sahvage.

I think the best part of this book is the HUGE reveal for Lassiter at the very end. I love Lass, and I know he’s getting a book, and I’m just so anxious for it.

5 Stars

Second First Impressions was so cute. I loved this book so much. I absolutely fell in love with Teddy. I read a lot of romance, but Teddy stood out amongst all the male love interests. He was hilarious, and cute, and just *sigh*. Not be outdone, I also loved Ruthie. I wanted to be here friend.

Their relationship just felt so organic, moving from acquaintance, to best friends, to lovers. There was not one thing I didn’t love about this book. I wish I could go back and read it a first time again.

5 Stars

There are some books that you read that will stick with you forever. The Death of Vivek Oji is one of those books. This is a powerful story about an important topic that needs to be told and read. I can’t really say much more than this, since I don’t want to spoil anything about the book. This is definitely a book that will be read for generations. (BOTM)

4 Stars

Man Enough was written for men, but it can be read and enjoyed by anyone. Justin Baldoni wrote his truth and a book that gives men to be themselves and not what society expects them to be. The book really gave a lot of insight into adolescent boys, which will be useful for me to reflect on as my son gets older.

4 Stars

A Longer Fall is the second of the Gunnie Rose books, and I actually enjoyed it better than the first. A lot less worldbuilding. A lot more character development. I love the characters of Lizbeth and Eli so much, and I love their relationship building.

This book took us to a new section of the old United States, and it was really cool to see the difference.

4 Stars

The Gunnie Rose series just gets better and better with each book. I loved The Russian Cage the most. It’s probably because I’m a huge fan of romance. But in addition to the growing romance of Eli and Lizbeth, there was a lot more action and mystery. I really enjoyed the new setting of The Holy Russian Empire.

4 Stars

Picked to read with my sisters, I really enjoyed this book. The first half was very slow, but then the haunting started and the second half flew by. I found myself sitting in my car long after arriving home just to read a little bit more. If you’re a fan of Shirley Jackson, you’ll enjoy this book.

4 stars

Ever since I knew they made this a real book, I had been looking forward to reading it. However, I was super disappointed once I read it. I know in the show they made a big deal about it being Jane’s story, but I didn’t expect it to be a complete word for word retelling of the first season of the show. I was a little annoyed with it. Not my favorite book.

3 Stars

My kids and I have started reading together every night again, and our first book was Fortunately the Milk. And it was so funny. We alternate who reads, and we couldn’t stop laughing. It’s a quick read, and I think everyone should read it, young or old.

5 Stars

This book was a very uneven read. The first 3/4 of the book was so good. I loved reading about the victims and their lives, and about queer New York. However, where the book fell flat for me was when you learned that while the killer was caught, he never confessed, they never found the place he was killing these men, and there was never a clear motive found. I know the case is very recent, but the part I love most about True Crime is learning the why and how. And this book was missing this. The book ended so abruptly, it left me me feeling like the book was incomplete.

4 stars

The second book we picked to read as a family, if you like cat puns, this is the book for you. This was a short fun graphic novel, that was the third time my son read, however, he was so excited to read it with me, his excitement rubbed off on me.

4 stars

This was a cute book. And one that was hard for me to put down. The characters were fun, the romance was believable, and I wanted to be friends with Kara. As a fellow romance author, I loved the breakdown of what makes a romance novel. A fun book to read while camping.

4 Stars

Christina Lauren are quickly becoming my favorite RomCom authors. I have read three of their books in the last six months, and I have read each of them in one day.

My favorite thing about The Souldmate Equation was how swoony the romance was. Jess and River’s chemistry was palpable. The addition of Juno took the story to the next level.

What I appreciate about Christina Lauren is that their characters fall in love doing the mundane, and they know how to write a love story.

4 Stars

April 2021 Reads

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Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay is a thriller that delivers. From the minute it starts, the plot does not slow down. Finlay is really good at keeping the reader in suspense, and while some of the plot was slightly predictable, it didn’t detract from the story at all. I read this book in two sittings, and stayed up way too late at night reading.

4 Stars

After reading Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds last month and loving it, the next logical step was to read The Grapes of Wrath. A classic that I had been meaning to read since high school, I’m glad I waited to read this as an adult. I think I could appreciate it better.

I loved the alternating chapters, one which told the stories of actual refugees from the dust bowl, and one which told the story of the Joads. The book was a grim window into the realities of the Great Depression and the Dust bowl, and the discrimination “Okies” faced trying to find a better life for themselves in California.

My only complaint is I wish there was more story to tell. I want to know what happened to the Joads. I like to imagine things got better for them, and they were able to reunite with those they had to separate from.

5 Stars

Pretty Things was my book club’s pick for April. At first I didn’t think it would be a book I would enjoy, but in the end I thought the book was pretty good.

A thriller, it took about half of the book to really become what I would define as a “thriller.” Once I passed the halfway mark, I didn’t want to put the book down.

My one complaint would be there just seemed to be too many twists to make sense. I think with so many twists you were really expected to suspend your disbelief a little too much, and it really made Nina and Vanessa seem dense and oblivious most of the time that they weren’t able to see some of these situations before they arose.

4 Stars

I had been really looking forward to reading The Paris Library, and while it was a good book, I felt slightly let down by it.

Odile’s story was really the part of the book I cared the most about. I loved hearing about her life in Paris both before and during the War. However, it took a very long time for it to get to the war, and I guess I was expecting her to play a bigger role in things. But as my husband pointed out, sometimes it’s the stories of people who do mundane things, or the small things that need to be told, and that was Odile’s story.

Lily’s story was one that I really didn’t understand why it was there. I found myself struggling through her portions. It wasn’t until the final chapter that the inclusion of Lily made some sort of sense.

The story took a while to get into, but once it picked up, it was hard to put down.

4 Stars

Accidentally Engaged tells the story of an arranged engagement, but with the twist that the two characters meet before their parents can introduce them and they fall in love on their own terms. In this case, around baked goods.

I loved Reena and Nadim, and their whole story. They were cute, and nothing about the plot felt overly contrived. It seemed to move at a realistic pace. And it made me really hungry, especially for sourdough.

4 Stars

After being burned by Charlaine Harris with the end of the Sookie Stackhouse series, I’ve been very hesitant to support her or read anything else by her. However, for the PopSugar Reading Challenge, I needed a genre hybrid, and An Easy Death came highly recommended, so I gave it a try. And I’m glad I did.

I really like the characters of Lizbeth and Eli. I like their chemistry, and how they work together. I enjoyed the mystery, and the pace in which it was told. I was super bothered by the time line. No matter how much I mathed, there’s no way Eli could be the age he is if the events really unfolded the way Harris laid them out.

Overall the book was entertaining enough that I have the second book sitting in my TBR.

4 Stars

Recommended by a friend, A Deadly Education took a minute to get into, the narration was really hard to breath through, but once you’re in, you need to figure out what happens next.

Set in a magical school that is out to kill you, El is just trying to survive, but she’s a magnet to all the Mals in the school. Orion likes to rescue people, and the two clash often throughout the book, until they don’t. The book is a little heavy with world building and exposition, but the plot really does shine through.

I enjoyed the book enough that I will probably read the next one. Who am I kidding? With the last paragraph of this one, I’m intrigued enough that I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series.

4 Stars

I really wanted to love The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, and on paper it seems like the perfect book for me. However, the pacing of the book, and just the way the story was told really just fell flat for me.

I felt like the book was trying to do too much at one time. I wish it had chosen one thing to focus on, either Nina’s discovery of this whole family she had no idea she had, or the romance with the rival Trivia Team Captain. By trying to fit in both, the story just felt super rushed, and none of the characters felt very developed.

3 Stars

Another book that I really wanted to love, but fell flat, We Could Be Heroes just didn’t resonate with me the way I had hoped it would.

I don’t know if I wasn’t in the right mood, but this book felt like a struggle to get through. It didn’t hold my interest at all. Which is unfortunate because I really liked Zoe and Jamie. And I was really interested in their story. I just walked away from the book feeling very “meh.” (BOTM)

3 Stars

Slowly making my way through the Dune series, and Children of Dune found me saying out loud, several times, “What is going on? This is so weird. They are NINE.”

I have really enjoyed this book, and this series, but I have a feeling as I continue to the next book, things are just going to get weirder, and things were also really weird in this book. I’ll never fully understand the pre-born, and some of the situations the Atreides twins were in made me understand why the mini-series aged them up significantly. My favorite character is still Duncan Idaho.

4 Stars