Month: October 2019

Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover ★★★

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“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.”

I had a VERY hard time deciding how to rate this book. On one level it was so engrossing and compulsively readable, creepy, and twisted – really good! But on the other, there were parts of the book that were actively turning me off from it and ruining my enjoyment, namely the characters and their behavior/choices. I was warring between 3.5 or 4 stars and I think in the end, I am going to settle on 3.5 stars.

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Book Review: Crown of Feathers by Nicki PauPreto ★★★

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“In Pyra, death was celebrated as much as life. Only through endings could there be beginnings. That was the lesson of the phoenix, and it was the lesson of my life as well.”

Oof this book was slow going. It was actually a 2/2.5 read for me up until the ending brought it to a 3. It was strange really, because it had an interesting concept and the author could write. She clearly put a lot of time, effort, and research into this book. But my god, it was a slog for the first 300 pages.

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Book Review: In the Sea There are Crocodiles: Based on the True Story of Enaiatollah Akbari by Fabio Geda ★★★

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“Everyone (including me) is interested in staying alive, and in order to stay alive we’re willing to do things we don’t like.”

This was a very moving story, packed into a unique, powerful little book. I was fully invested in Enaiatollah Akbari’s account of his youth in Afghanistan, and how his life changed forever when he was forced to leave. The story is very engrossing, however it is a little short and I felt that some more time could have been spent on certain subjects. However, who am I to say how his story should be told? As far as the book itself, I give it 3.5 stars.

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Book Review: The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman ★★★

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“Yet what I had learned is that love is a leap of faith. A leap that not only takes you towards the person you love, but also towards the truth of yourself. Whom you love and how you love them will tell you more about yourself than anything else in this world.”

Alright, so the conclusion of the Lady Helen series! I’m glad I read this series so quickly; it was very fun and enjoyable. It was light and did not take much of an investment, honestly, which is absolutely what I look for sometimes. This final book in the trilogy was good, but a little disappointing as a finale: 3 stars.

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Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant ★★

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“What you have to understand about the mermaid legend is that it’s universal. No matter where you go, the mermaids got there first. Even inland, if there’s a big enough lake, I guarantee you there’s a local community with a story about women in the water with beautiful voices who lure men to their deaths. Where there’s water, we find mermaids. Maybe it’s time we started asking ourselves exactly why that is.”

😐 Very disappointed in Into the Drowning Deep, unfortunately. I had heard such great things about it, and I was in the mood for something chilling and scary, so I thought it would be the perfect read right now. I really wanted to love it! However, it just didn’t work for me. At all. It was poorly constructed, repetitive, unintelligent, and very dull. It was basically Sharknado with mermaids. Spoilers ahead.

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