alibookedup's reviews
266 reviews

Honestly, I read this mainly for all things gardening, but also found the poetry enjoyable! I liked that the anthology included poems, stories, and recipes. I'm excited to maybe try out some of them! I also found the drawings to be super cute! Definitely a read if you enjoy poems, cooking, and/or gardening!

I absolutely ADORED this! Starting it, I wasn't sure how I felt about it because it was just so different from what I expected with its writing style, genre, and characters. I'm so glad it proved me wrong! I know this is a book I will think about for a very long time. 

The characters were so raw and flawed and insecure and broken. It made me love them even more. They drive you crazy with their high standards and make you pitty them for their acknowledged pain. I loved that Sam and Sadie's relationship teetered back and forth on the edge of romantic. It made you want them to date and never date simultaneously. I loved that dynamic way more than I ever thought I would. I loved the trio's relationship as well. Marx was not a "Sam" or a "Sadie", but he fit in perfectly nonetheless. He was our Hector, our Tamer of Horses, and was such an interesting character to throw into the crazy mix of Sam and Sadie. They all broke my heart and put it back together again. 

I don't think this story and these characters would have worked well at all if it wasn't for Gabrielle Zevin. Her knowledge and nerdiness about all things programming and gaming is another factor that I feel brought everything to life. She herself WAS Unfair Games creating a gaming world to immerse us all in. It made my gamer-self so so SO happy. I've never read of characters like this, especially female characters, and was grateful to finally see a normalization of female gamers in literature. It also made me IMMENSELY nostalgic. I grew up playing Pokemon on my Gameboy and being introduced into console gaming when the very first Halo game out. It was love at first play and reading this brought back all those feelings. I still love playing video games to this day and I loved that reading this made me want to re-play every game under the sun. It took me longer to read this book because several times I would stop to play video games!

I also loved Zevin's writing style. It smoothly transitioned between what felt like reading a character's POV to reading a biography to a news article back to POVs. At first, I thought it might be weird and jump around to much, but it wasn't. It was exactly right -- I never felt pulled out of the story. It was quite the opposite really.

I will read anything else Zevin has to write and I highly recommend this to any reader, but especially my gamers out there.

Wow I was surprised I gave this 5 stars because the beginning and middle felt a bit slow for me (I was leaning towards 3.5/4 stars. Don't get me wrong there was a good slow burn, but something about it made it subpar. Maybe because Ellie fell in love with Jack so fast and it was hard to personally relate to that. However, the last 25% of the book was so so so good and really brought everything all together. 

It was super cute and queer. I wish it didn't have to be another girly girl meets a butch lesbian, but I didn't think it was overly focused on Jack being butch. Just FYI that is not to say I don't love the different LGBTQIA rep when having butch lesbians, it's just a common queer trope that I feel gets overplayed to play more into heteronormativity. The characters and their relationships were well-rounded and written. I loved Ellie and Jack's banter and how Jack was so loud and just stomped around. It was a really funny thing to imagine compared to anxiety-ridden Ellie. 

I ended up falling in love with all the surrounding characters too from Andrew to Dylan to the grandmas to Kathertine and Ari (Alan Kim-Prescott and Linds however can suck a huge fat one).

It was also good to see the main protagonist struggling with failure and the fear of failure. I think it's something we all go through to some extent in one way or another. There was good character development in finally having Ellie realize she is failing herself and working to become healthier and happier. Additionally, it was nice to see her messy relationship with her parents, specifically her mother, and that even after standing up for herself the relationship doesn't just get fixed. 

Definitely a great queer read for the holiday season but also whenever you want!

Any Harry Potter fan will love this memoir! It's filled with amazing behind the scene tidbits and adorable writings about the relationships Tom Felton made with his fellow cast members. 

I listened to the audiobook and I did not regret that choice one bit. Tom Felton reads with his humor and his heart on his sleeve. His writing is very funny and quick-witted and he unabashably reads it the same way. I loved hearing him narrating his book - it really felt like he was sitting next to me telling me a swash-buckling adventure. It was just so FULL of everything and I adored listening to every minute of it. It made me remember how much I appreciate the HP movies and brought back memories of rushing to the theater to see each movie release growing up. Remembering filled me with so much nostalgia and warmth.

I also commend Tom for writing about the tough stuff too in order to help himself and others struggling with mental illnesses. In his memoir, he is very open about his feelings and where things started to turn upside down for him. Even though he is very clear that his substance abuse was never as bad as many people struggling, I think he beautifully hits the point home that everyone struggles. It doesn't matter how much or to what degree...just that we all do in some way or another that affects us mentally. Mostly, that it is okay to ask for help.

Wow...I was stunned by this novel. The synopsis grabbed me from the beginning, but I definitely can say I was blown out of the water. The writing is so mesmerizing and descriptive and poetic. Reading this felt like I was literally watching someone paint each individual brush stroke of Ranita's life that would undoubtedly come together into a painting of a magnificent, bleeding pomegranate. More so, the topics that this book covered were so tragic and hopeful and heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. It truly takes you on her highs and lows of successes and failures much like the everyday high and lows of someone struggling with addiction. Watching Ranita fight with her past, present, and future while facing society's injustices against being a black, queer woman and addict is truly a sight to behold. This book did a beautiful job of getting you inside her head and almost tangibly understanding what addiction and prison really is.  Watching her also fight to better herself for her children and love was remarkable. It's a super tough story to read, but one that brings such important light to living with addictions, trauma, racial injustices, and the repercussions of choice.

Please note the trigger warnings posted! 
(Addiction, alcoholism, emotional abuse, toxic relationship, sexual assault, rape, drug use, drug abuse, sexual content, death of parent, child abuse, confinement, racism)

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review!

To be honest, I was extremely and pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I was worried based on the synopsis, that the story would spin out of control because it seemed like a fantasy book tackling something big. However, it was quite the opposite experience and, in fact, the fantastical concepts it promotes are what you hope for when picking up a book. It's an epic fantasy with incredible world building and characters that are written with careful development. I really enjoyed the side characters and always love when a book doesn't just focus on the main protagonist(s) the entire plot. The magic is completely unique and like nothing I've ever read before. The two main POVs, Arcady and Everen, play off of each other so well and have a bit of anti-hero that you have to love. As weird as it sounds, Arcady and Everen were such a cool ship and the slow burn was everything! They had such a complex bond and the progression of their relationship is so well-written.  I even really enjoyed the addition of the third POV, Sorin. It never felt like too many characters and made the collision of all the characters in the end more worthwhile. The ending was full of plot twists and leaves you hanging on the end of your seat...I cannot believe I'll have to wait for the next book to come out. It's definitely a trilogy I am excited to keep up with.

Extra points to the author for all the representation regarding gender!

The one small flaw I would say is that at first, the writing style was a bit hard for me to get into. The POVs are written differently, but once you realize who the characters are, the styles match them perfectly and help the story flow. If you can get over that hump in the beginning, you are in for a wild ride!

Thank you to Netgalley and DAW Books for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review!

This book started out a bit rocky for me, only because I felt like things were progressing somewhat slow and a lot of the plot seemed trivial. Then, it became SO MUCH MORE. I sped through the second half of the book and my mindset turned from "ugh young people problems" to "my sweet queer babies". It went from me feeling like things were silly high school problems to realizing the author was actually hitting very important topics.

First, I just want to go over a bunch of things that I loved! Obviously, front and center, is going to be LGBTQIA representation. It's such an amazing thing to read a YA book from the POV of a young girl who identifies as bisexual and is struggling with her identity. To jump off of that, not only is she a queer girl, but a queer Asian girl  growing up in London. Not only are we hitting what it's like to live through these two separate identity crises, but also how those two identities also are very much tied together. It still awes me to read books diving into topics like this as an adult...my generation had no books close to this and it makes me happy to know future generations will grow up seeing themselves in media. I also really appreciated that it did not just stop there, but expanded a lot of queer and non-white cultural commentary to the surrounding characters as well. 

Another favorite aspect of the book was the author put real effort into explaining a lot about Elsie's culture through her family, her language, and food. I loved that Cynthia So put different Cantonese phrases and words into the story to really envelope you in Elsie's life and identity. Same thing with queerness and explaining things like how different people do or do not identify based on their personal preferences. I just loved that it was also educational!

 As much as Elsie, the main character, sometimes drove me crazy with her rationalizations, I ended up loving every minute of it. She struggles through real problems that drive her to making unusual decisions and explaining why she is the way she is. Yes, some of them are "very high school" like her falling for her crappy boyfriend Leo -- I feel like most of us had that relationship we now look back on and become sad knowing what we put up with thinking "why did this ever feel like real love"? However, most of her problems, are HEAVY and REAL. You slowly watch her work through all of her issues and get closer to accepting her queerness, her family. and her past. Joan is also the perfect match, NOT because she is a butch lesbian meeting a girly bisexual, but because she emotionally pairs well with Elsie. Joan is a quiet, yet solid anchor for Elsie who feels like she is constantly lost in who she wants to be vs. who people expect her to be. Elsie on the other hand brings out Joan's bravery and courage. It's a lovely pair. Of course shout out to Ritika and Felix for being the cutest friendies ever!

Overall, I really liked this book and felt wrapped in a cozy YA romance and coming of age story. I would compare it to "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" so if that is a series you liked, you will definitely like this. It reads very much the same and has cute YA vibes for an easy, yet surprisingly profound read. I will definitely buy this to add to my shelf. 

Okay so a lot of cool things about this book. The magic and the world building was so interesting and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It was a bit confusing at times but I get that it’s because we are learning through the main character who knows absolutely nothing either. The idea of The Arcs and how the world was split by ‘an act of God’ is also super interesting, but again I didn’t feel like I got enough details so hopefully it dives in deeper later. Same thing with the Ancestors - super interesting concept that I hope is explained more in coming books.

I was a bit disappointed to be honest. The first half felt super slow and the main character, Ophelia, felt really bland. She spends most of her time in her head and barely talks the entire book. I was glad I got a female protagonist who’s not the super tough fighter trope, but did she have to be so clumsy and did her glasses have to be the biggest component of her personality? However, I will say I enjoyed her character development and think it was actually done well in conjunction with the slow plot.

Eventually, and luckily, things picked up and it got more interesting regarding the intricacies of court. The “romance” however did not. I kept getting excited that something, anything would happened. Thorn’s icy exterior cracks and Ophelia begins to trust him and all is well. Except not so much. Words of endearment like “I’m beginning to get used to you” convinces Ophelia all of a sudden that Thorn is madly in love with her. Not sure how we jumped to that full blown conclusion, but I love some romance so I’m onboard I suppose? Unfortunately that’s pretty much the extent of everything between these two. I guess it doesn’t help that they quite literally only have 7 total interactions the entire book and each interaction is a teeeeny tiny baby step towards something resembling them maybe being acquaintances?

The writing is a bit wacky due to the French translation, but definitely still readable and enjoyable. You can just tell it’s a translation, but again I don’t think it’s fair to critique the prose  of something I’m not reading in its original language. 

Overall, I ended this book feeling a bit iffy, but even so I feel interested enough to read the next one.

I would say this is a pretty lovely great close to the duology. Just like Anatomy, this book was the perfect amount of mystery, gore, and romance stitched together (pun intended) that made it a very enjoyable adventure. The author's bending of history/historical figures made it fun and I especially adored her addition of Princess Charlotte of Wales. I don't want to give any spoilers, but her ending was much lovelier than in real life and I appreciate who her romantic partner was.

As sad as it made me, I loved that whether Jack died or not is a mystery for a good deal of the book (you'll have to read it to find out), especially since you assume that he lives at the end of book one after writing Hazel a letter. Well, Dana Schwartz will flip that all on its head, because did Jack actually write that letter? I was surprised at first that the author decided to do that, but it really made Hazel's journey and grief that much more unique and engaging. It also welcomes the possibility for new relationships in Hazel's life.

I loved Hazel and Eliza's easy camaraderie. They were such fast friends and a happy dose of female friendship. I also adored Simon. He was so sassy, yet classy, and the biggest cinnamon roll. I would marry that man in a heartbeat. I really enjoyed that the author did not make him overbearing or aggressively manly. He was intelligent and caring and didn't feel threatened by Hazel being a female physician. I loved him and Hazel together so much I was torn between wanting them to be together and feeling guilty I wanted them to be together because I was holding out hope for Jack! Honestly, best part of the book for me! I also have to give a shout out to the Companions of Death - such a cool addition for a historical fiction junkie like me! I wish I could say more about them, but wanted to leave a spoiler free review as always!

I didn't get the full 5 stars for me for the same reason I gave in my review of Anatomy. I didn't feel like Hazel felt the consequences of a lot of her actions of being a well-known and unmarried woman of the ton (wandering around by herself, being with men without a chaperone, etc.) It was just so unheard of regarding a lady of her class. She faces more consequences in this book, but for smaller parts of the story that historical reality falls at the wayside. However, it's not enough to take you out the story and I appreciate that Schwartz did put more stress on Hazel "acting correctly" in society this go around. 

Overall, fantastic YA read and cannot wait to buy the hardback to join Anatomy on my shelves! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

Secretly Yours is such a cute book and while it didn’t have the same magic as It Happened One Summer, it’s pretty dang close! Hallie and Julian play the “opposite attracts” trope perfectly with a bit of grumpy sunshine sprinkled in as well. I love how exasperated Julian would get at her chaos and how she knew it drove him crazy. Let me tell you the sexual tension was pretty much IMMEDIATE and did not fail me the ENTIRE book (thank you Tessa Bailey). I also really enjoyed the aspect of the story of dealing with one’s issues and perceived weaknesses (in this case grief for Hallie and anxiety for Julian). Their problems don’t go away and it was nice to see them working on it, not just for each other, but themselves as well. The anxiety-rep in this one is there and no joke so just be aware if panic attacks are a trigger. 

*Also I appreciate Tessa Bailey for the body-rep in this book too!

I thought the secret admirer letters were cute and different for a contemporary romance story, but for me ended up falling short. I felt like they were a big point in the first half and then don’t really do much in the second half besides pushing the miscommunication narrative. I’m not a big miscommunication romance gal so once it turned into that, I was a bit dumbfounded by the whole thing. Especially because Hallie doesn’t use it for malice or deceit, but a healthy release of feelings that helps Julian as well. And they already really like each other from getting to know one another in person, so why would it really matter? Don’t worry though - it isn’t a dumb angry man reaction when Julian finds out that it’s Hallie so don’t let that deter you from enjoying this book!

Overall, loved this book and will definitely recommend this to any romance fan!