booksandbraids's reviews
1861 reviews

I absolutely love Sara Goodman Confino. Her books never disappoint. Her characters are always the best. I’m so glad I stumbled across her first book when I did and randomly decided to give it a chance just because it was there. I love how this book brought in some characters from a previous book as well- a subtle connection that is fun surprise if you have read her previous books but not at all necessary to know to enjoy the story. 

My commentary from while reading:

I really love Elle Kennedy and her characters and writing and romances... but I am getting tired of having every single MMC be a playboy manwhore. On principle, I do not like manwhore MMCs. I find them trashy. I find the fact that they have all been with half the female student body disgusting. Sure, they change their ways for the FMC- the one person who they have ever felt the desire to settle down for- but I still find them trashy and gross. 

If I ignored his history and just focused on the current, this book was good enough. But I am never able to truly love a MMC as trashy as Dean. Sorry, Dean. 

Yet another great Jane Austen! I think it is my second favorite (that I have read so far) after Emma

1. Emma
2. Persuasion
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Pride and Prejudice (although I had to read P&P for school, so that probably negatively influenced my opinion so I should probably reread it)

Movie reviews…
1995 Adaption (watched 7/26/22)- they did a good job with this one. My only complaint is that it is from the 90s so it looks old. 

2022 Adaptation (watched 7/27/22)- the cast, costumes, and filming locations/sets were so much nicer but they destroyed it by changing the story a bit. I didn’t like the changes they made. And they changed Anne’s personality. If only they had taken the same exact screenplay from 1995 and just redid it with the modern filming (better costumes, locations, etc). I will say I really enjoyed all of the casting/characters other than Anne. I don’t mind who they selected to play Anne, but they changed her personality. And the whole “talking into the camera thing” just made me think of Enola Holmes which Netflix also produced not too long ago— it felt like they were just reusing that same idea/method/style.

I spent 90% of this book thinking it was the worst book in the world.

What sort of idiots would not immediately go to the police to report a murderer?! I was completely prepared to give it half a star and trash it. But then that twist at the end... I did NOT see that coming. That brings everything else into a whole new light. That was great.

I really liked this glimpse into Filip’s life after The Expanse ended. I really want to hear more about him on this planet. It could be a full book. Why can’t it be a full book?!?

I don’t know what to say about this book. The idea was great. It actually was a pretty good book until things went so catastrophically wrong.

As soon as Lester went in his uniform to speak to them, I was unhappy. And then it just kept getting worse. I DID like when she tried to kill herself (as awful as that sounds) but WTF Lester… he really ruined the book for me. I disliked everything he did. I would have preferred a story where they continue the fight legally and it somehow got resolved. I know how it was actually written has more drama and is probably more interesting, but just felt like too much. Kathy just had such poor miserable luck in life- first the luck with her husband, then the tax/house business, then the poor luck to get involved with Lester who was a nut…

MOVIE UPDATE July 29, 2022:
I actually really liked the movie. They did a wonderful job. The casting/filming locations/etc was much better for the movie than it was in my mind while reading the book. My only complaint is that they changed the ending slightly.

Behrani didn’t strangle and try to kill Kathy. I didn’t like how Kathy had to find them dead. And who is to say that the police don’t accuse her of murdering them? We didn’t see him write a note. Also, the fact that Behrani wrote a note for his daughter not to take less then xxx amount for the house sort of showed that he cared more about the house/money even at the end… which sort of had a big impact on me when I read the book. It feels like they changed his character at the end to make him seem more victim less jerk. Not that he was a total jerk. It was a bad situation for everyone all around.