Review for "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett

What a journey... 

This book had me flying through pages at certain points and absolutely fuming at characters at others. I have never hated a fictional character like I hate William Hamleigh, but I felt fury at lots of the male characters which probably lends credibility to the story's faithfulness to the time period more than anything else. I also had such a respect for Aliena as a heroine, mostly because of her growth throughout the novel. Watching Aliena go from spoiled to destitute to an independent businesswoman was fantastic, and sweetened all the more by William's incessant attempts to destroy her. The characters in the novel are distinct and compelling and I had a great time rooting for their success or demise. I didn't dreamcast most of this but on god Philip would be played by Martin Freeman and the bishop of Canterbury would be Cary Grant and that's all I have on that.

The book's obvious main struggle is with conciseness. I think it's highly impressive when a book can say what it wants to say, make important points, and drive a plot along within a reasonable page count. This book does not do that. It makes important points and has a great plot but it has to spend 976 pages doing so. It would have been much more compelling if the story could have been whittled down to 500-600 pages. Along with that, the plot points became a bit repetitive at a certain point. I knew what to expect by the 2/3 point. Waleran and Hamleigh would cause some reason to hurt Kingsbridge, then Philip would come up with a clever way around it and/or hurt Hamleigh/Shiring in return. It was still entertaining but it became predictable. Also, the ending with the murder of the bishop was very unexpected, so that was definitely an exception to the rule.

Final verdict: The characters and story are compelling, but they would have been better served with a more concise book.

Review for "Lady Tan's Circle of Women" by Lisa See

The challenge that historical fiction books face is the same as that of high fantasy. When you're writing about a time period that is foreign to the majority of your readership, you essentially have the same burden of world building like a fantasy novel would. I don't have a lot of knowledge on 15th century China, and I feel like I have more now after reading this book. However, it came at the expense of the narrative. The book has a lot of info dumping like you would find in a fantasy book. There were often long torrents of telling-not-showing and just explaining the background of certain practices. The upshot was an extremely clunky narrative that put me at a distance from connecting to the characters.

One of the highlights of this book was Yunxian's friendship with Meiling. It was a very Princess and the Pauper friendship that was difficult to read at times, but overall it's what allowed me to connect to the characters. I loved that the concept of this book revolved around a woman doctor (which wasn't even allowed at the time), but I almost wish we had gotten to see more of her doctoring. It seemed that the details of her treating patients was glossed over in order to make room for the aforementioned period info-dumping. The part at the end where Yunxian removes the worms from her mother-in-law's throat was the most thrilling part of the plot by far. I was also excited at the prospect of the smallpox outbreak and I believe it had great potential, but Yunxian is just like "you don't treat smallpox, people either survive or they don't" which is probably accurate but not very satisfying for the reader.

The book was obviously well-researched and I was moderately intrigued throughout, but there just wasn't enough personality in the book for me to love it.

Final verdict: The book is interesting but suffers from consistent info-dumping.

Review for "Ravensong" by TJ Klune

More gay werewolves :))

I did rate this book 4 stars whereas Wolfsong got 5 from me... I know this is an unpopular opinion but I actually do prefer Ox as a narrator over Gordo. I know any Gordo hate is considered slanderous, and I by no means hate him, but I don't think I love him as much as other readers seem to. I liked how the plot of this book circled back to the hunters. TJ Klune was just very smart in the first book by setting up so many characters and villains that the sequels could settle into. I thought Elijah was a perfectly hatable character, and I almost wanted more of her messed up ideals throughout the book to really sell it.

This is a very slow burn childhood friends to lovers to enemies to lovers story... I love that the dynamic is a bit more complicated than the typical romance tropes, but I needed them to get to the romance a little bit sooner. This wasn't as much of a problem in the first book even though the romance heated up equally late in the story, likely because we were distracted by the whole world being set up and being introduced to everything at the same time Ox was. This book did not have the benefit of being able to postpone the romance by spending time on world-building. It just felt like the romance was unnecessarily delayed.

That being said, I absolutely ate it up once it started. Mark is an absolutely precious character, and the grumpy/sunshine dynamic is highly engaging. I don't know if I can say I ship Mark and Gordo more than Ox and Joe but it is close. Also, the plot leading up to the romance is still entertaining. The politics involved with Michelle Hughes and the wolves' desperation to protect each other was great and this is one of the few stories where I like the extreme overprotectiveness that everyone seems to have over each other.

The last little issue I have with the story is the repetition. The book was probably 50-100 pages too long because of what I would like to call literary dilly-dallying. So many themes and motifs were just discussed over and over again and it became a bit tedious. More literally, Gordo actually repeats certain themes/lines at several points. The "wolves don't love you, they use you" line from Gordo's mother was repeated so many times. I understand that it was for emphasis and that would have been fine except Ox did the exact same thing in the first book when he would think about his mother and repeat the motif of the soap bubble on his ear. If either one of the characters had narrated with this habit I would be fine with it (which is why Wolfsong shamelessly received a 5-star rating from me), but when both characters do it it just serves to muddle the two people together and undermines the author's credibility when it comes to writing from different characters' perspectives.

Still though... the vibes are immaculate. I love the atmosphere, I love how the town got involved in this one, I love Bambi. Very solid TJ Klune book.

Final verdict: Although there were some slipups with the pacing and narration, the atmosphere and characters make this book an excellent read.

Review for "Cleat Cute" by Meryl Wilsner

This book had so much promise...

This book has a really cute premise: a girl gets drafted for a professional women's soccer team where she gets to play with her childhood idol, and the two start to have feelings for each other. I really don't have much to say about this book. I want to give it props for being atmospheric and engaging, I was really envisioning the world and the story as I read. However: the characters were painted as two-dimensional pictures. They explained their whole backstory and personalities and opinions in the form of their internal monologues/narration. I would have loved to get to know the characters by just watching them interact and think and then deciding their personalities based on that. Similarly, their histories could have easily been woven into their budding relationship. It would have been real cute to have Phoebe gush about Teddy and his situation to Grace as part of them getting to know each other instead of just listening to Phoebe refer to Teddy in her own mind.

The romance was... fine. It was not swoon-worthy, but it also wasn't insta-love. I wish the characters had shown a little bit more chemistry or passion (outside of the extremely steamy scenes). I just don't know if I believed that they really liked each others' personalities, but that might be a problem branching off of the fact that I couldn't get a good feel of their personalities. Some aspects of the plot were a bit cliche (i.e. Phoebe being the one to out Grace about her injury, the entire subplot between Grace and Kelsey, etc.) but overall the plot was entertaining enough.

Final verdict: The book is engaging, but the characters lack satisfying development throughout the story.

Review for "Love, Theoretically" by Ali Hazelwood

I really need to stop listening to negative Nancy booktubers. For some reason, I was led to believe that Ali Hazelwood's work was shallow or "cringe" and I take full responsibility for letting that hold me back from reading any of her books in the past. But no longer... This was thoroughly enjoyable and pleasantly reminiscent of Christina Lauren's contemporary romance novels.

As a woman who works in the medical science field and has a brief background in academic research, this is a book that intrigued me straight away. I have to say I am a fan of the new trend where authors adequately address the issue of sexism and misogyny without overdoing it (most recently in Carrie Soto Is Back and now again in this book). In some primal way I felt the immense satisfaction of being heard and understood even if my circumstances are considerably different than Elsie's. Overall I thought the discussions of the climate of academia to be appropriate and perfectly rage-inducing.

This is how enemies-to-lovers should be done. Both Elsie and Jack had legitimate reasons to "hate" each other (Elsie's being Jack's delegitimization of her field and Jack's being his belief that Elsie was being dishonest with his brother). While both were misunderstandings, this book didn't read like the typical miscommunication trope. I was extremely content with Elsie's refusal to out Greg to his brother and even more so with Jack's reaction to finally finding out about Greg's asexuality later in the book. I was also fond of the twist that Dr. L was the physicist that ruined Jack's mom's career; for some reason I didn't see it coming even though the clues were probably there the whole time. That being said, I was slightly unsatisfied with the way that he immediately turned Cliche Bad Guy as soon as Elsie starts questioning him. I felt like there was a slight missed opportunity to make him more manipulative and gaslighting but instead he immediately starts saying outright "I want you to do what I want" which is just not as fun and provides less of a payoff when Elsie finally storms out of there.

My other qualm with the book that prevents me from going full five stars is Elsie's mom/family situation. I just did not buy into it at all. Elsie's mom calls so much through the book, and I just thought that side of the plot was so contrived and implausible. It was so obvious that it was meant to reinforce Elsie's people-pleasing problems, but it just didn't work for me. I wouldn't be so annoyed by it if it had not been a constant running thing throughout the book. And then to top it off, Elsie tells off her mom in a very short phone call rant and they never cycle back to repairing that whole relationship. That part of the plot was just a mess.

Onto the good stuff... the romance. The ROMANCE. I bought into this romance so hard. Jack's whole "I was into you the whole time" paired with Elsie's love epiphanies were just so cute. The pacing of the book was interesting because when it became clear the main plot was about Elsie trying to get this job at the place Jack was already working I thought that that would be the vast majority of the story, but then the interview is over at like 50%. This was actually brilliant though because we got to savor Elsie falling for Jack and then them beginning their relationship and just being in the honeymoon phase. Beyond that, this book had the perfect about of tension for a fluffy contemporary romance.

As for Elsie and Jack themselves, Elsie was immediately an engaging narrator and character to me. Her people-pleasing obsession was a little heavy-handed (do people pleasers really not even tell their best friend they don't or do like certain movies??), but I thought she was witty and fun without being a MPDG. And yes, I chuckled at "towered like a towering tower". The line was clearly supposed to be ironic and I loved it and all Elsie's other silly depictions of her life and her perceptions of Jack. Jack was definitely a grower on me; since this is a first-person narration from Elsie's POV it was hard for me to get to know him at first. Once the job interview section of the book is over and Elsie and Jack start spending more time together outside of the professional aspect I really appreciated Jack. I found him to be that perfect "I'm better than everyone except this one girl who is my entire world" boyfriend type (I'm sure there's a better term for that vibe that I just can't think of right now). It was slightly cringe that there was the cliche he's-super-tall-and-muscular-while-she's-tiny-and-dainty trope, but honestly that was the only cringe for me; everything else about this book that other people may have labeled as cringe was only ever silly in a way I had fun with and thus appreciated.

Final verdict: This is a very cute romance with well-fleshed out characters and interesting discussions that is only slightly hindered by an annoying family subplot.

Reivew for "Carrie Soto Is Back" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 Never thought I'd read a book that would make me want to get into watching professional tennis, but here we are.

Read: 01/14/2024

As we all know, TJR is a master storyteller. She excels at creating characters and relationships, whether they be friendship, family, or romantic. One aspect of her craft that I think is really on display in this novel is her ability to bring in really original characters. The characters don't act the way you expect them to which makes the book both more entertaining and more realistic. The latter I attribute to the inclusion of non-stereotypical characters. For example, I expected Nicki to be more hard and less humble and friendly for being the best tennis player in the world. But no: TJR always subverts expectations and gives us more depth that we expect.

I also want to commend the book on its thoughtful discussion of gender and race in professional sports without being super heavy-handed about it. The things Carrie went through with the press and her reputation was very reminiscent to me of what Taylor Swift goes through in modern times (the lack of considerable improvement is indeed disheartening). I was reminded of Taylor's song "Sweet Nothing", but rather than it being in a romantic context, I really saw it from the point of view of Carrie's relationship with her father who was always supportive of her and demanded nothing in return.

I liked Bowe as a romantic match for Carrie; I appreciated how they both had a lot of personal growth to go through and they supported each other throughout it. I didn't completely understand why Carrie was so reluctant to trust him when she was the one who cut things off the first time they dated, but we can sacrifice a bit of logic for the sake of the story. On the whole I related so much to Carrie, to her desire and need to win. It goes beyond ambition; it's your personal pride on the line, and the idea of losing this single match is like losing all the work you've put in. I appreciated that Javier was so gentle as Carrie was so hard on herself, and I thought the two of them together made a good balance between ambition for the sake of winning versus self-improvement.

I wish the story had been a bit broader, but that's just me being greedy because I'm used to TJR's books having such a wide scope (enormous cast of characters/perspectives, large amount of time covered, etc.). The story is pretty self-contained, but it was still well done for what it was. There were times that I thought the plot was strangely scant. For example, when Carrie heads off in the semifinal against Cortez, it is over so fast. I feel like there was a missed opportunity to really stretch that out and take advantage of the suspense. I also felt like I was missing a bit of emotional damage when Javier dies. I just thought their relationship was so special, so I expected to feel more from Carrie's internal monologue after he died; I can't help feeling like there was something missing from it.

Side note: Of course, I loved the nod to Daisy Jones & The Six.

Final verdict: Carrie Soto is an immensely compelling main character, and TJR's mastery at weaving relationships and creating good social commentary were exemplified.

My ranking of all her books (that I've read):

1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
2. Daisy Jones & The Six
3. Maybe in Another Life
4. Carrie Soto Is Back
5. After I Do
6. Forever, Interrupted

I promise to get to One True Loves and Malibu Rising soon!!

Review for "Then She Was Gone" by Lisa Jewell

 What an absolutely revolting reveal :))

Read: 01/14/2024

Then She Was Gone had me gripped right from the beginning. We start out knowing that this woman Laurel's daughter disappeared ten years ago and the police finally find evidence of her death after over a decade. I was confused at first at why the very first chapter had Ellie narrating her abduction, but it soon becomes clear that this disappearance is not the main focal point of the story. At least not yet. Fast forward ten years: Laurel has a new boyfriend whose precocious young daughter has uncanny similarities to her own late daughter. This is when the plot really gets good.

After we meet Poppy, I really thought it was going to be one of those The Bad Seed stories where the child is evil, but I couldn't make the timings work. After approximately nine times of being told how similar Poppy and Ellie are, I did end up figuring out the plot twist. It's completely disturbing in a can't-look-away-from-a-car-crash type of way, and I was very invested in Laurel's mission to uncover the truth.

This is the third book I've read from Lisa Jewell and I do notice a pattern. She is very good at sucking you into the mundanity and suburbia of the characters' lives. As the perspectives change and information is revealed, I find myself anxious for the characters' reactions, and I genuinely want them to succeed. That is a writing skill that not every mystery/thriller author has, so I will give her massive props for that. Also, despite being able to guess the plot twist, I did find the plot to be very unique and interesting.

All that being said, I will say that the negative aspects of the author's writing are also consistent. The main (really, the only) critique I have of this and her other books is that she gives away the twist too early. In this case, I was able to easily guess that Ellie was Poppy's birth mother and that Noelle abducted her for that sole purpose because it was revealed much earlier that SJ had seen Noelle without a baby bump. If that fact had been hidden for a little bit longer it would have made figuring out the twist more satisfying. This is almost identical to the problem I had with Watching You. For that reason, None of This Is True is still my favorite of the three books I've read by this author, but this one is still very engaging and overall entertaining.

Final verdict: The intrigue, unique plot, and atmosphere of the book are only slightly dampened by the plot twist being given away too early in the book.

Review for "Wolfsong" by TJ Klune

 It's been said: GAY WEREWOLVES. Need we say more? I shall...

Read: 01/10/2024

Okay okay I get the glaring problem of this book, so let's just address the elephant in the room first thing: the age gap is problematic. It definitely could be worse, but I think the story and relationship would have been equally as powerful and slightly less creepy if Joe was just like two years older than he is (so the age gap is 19 and 23, not 17 and 23). I think the romance is still done tastefully because it's obvious that Joe and Ox's relationship and love is rooted in friendship and family first and foremost. Also, we have the benefit of Ox's internal monologue so we know there wasn't anything predatory about his feelings of Joe (i.e. he only was physically attracted to him when he was an adult.)

So now that that's out of the way... these characters are so special to me. This is what the Cullens should have been: a family that understands each other so well and just authentically want the best for each other. That being said, the werewolf aspects that are brought into this otherwise-normal family dynamic are fascinating. The idea that Elizabeth basically switched packs away from all three of her sons was baffling to me, but I really leaned into the werewolf reasoning of it. It's the same reason I felt that the physicality and closeness of the family was endearing rather than awkward/slightly creepy. I definitely started out with the latter, but Ox really explains how primal the connections are and that it is a distinctly non-human type of bond and feeling, which makes sense because they are actually not human. The fact that humans are later added to the pack(s) just leans into the idea that humans are more capable of love and affection than we are usually willing to show.

I was just so sucked into this story. The small-town atmosphere was perfect, and I felt the perfect amount of rage (a lot) for the villain. The book was intentionally set up with sequels in mind and there is so much room to grow the story with all of the side characters. Overall, I found Ox's narration unique, engaging, and heartwarming, but also beautifully and almost lyrically sad. TJ Klune can do no wrong.

Final verdict: Gay. Werewolves.

Review for "Once There Were Wolves" by Charlotte McConaghy

 A five-star read!!! On January 6!!! I'm very excited about it.

Read: 01/06/2024

This just perfectly satisfied some reading craving that I didn't know I was having. It was dark, intriguing, heartwarming, and twisty at all the perfect moments. Based on the blurb, which I only skimmed a long time ago, I thought the basic premise was about reintroducing wolves into an area where they had once roamed but became extinct. While this is the beginning plotline, the story unravels into so much more. There's murder (or is there?) and dark pasts and tension and romance.

Inti was a compelling narrator, but the side characters really made the book. Nobody was black and white, everyone had a moral greyness that at times had you rooting for one person's revenge plots and at another time not being super sorry that this other person kicked it. The relationship Inti had with the wolves and her understanding of them was beautiful, and I thought the subtle references to feminism in biological science fields were pointed but not overdone.

Final verdict: The vibes, atmosphere, plot, characters, and relationships in this novel are impeccable. The perfect rainy day read. Chef's kiss.