cathy_acasefullofbooks's reviews
2258 reviews

This is my third Taylor Jenkins Reid book and I'm seeing a pattern. The drama contained within the books is always highly addictive, but for me the plot often falls short and I find the characters pretty unlikable.

Nina and Kit were more likable in this for me than characters in her other books have been, but I don't know if I'll continue trying other books by Reid at this point.

I begin my review like many others I've seen. By clarifying that I read this book because I needed a title starting with X for my A to Z reading challenge. 😂

When the main plot point of this book was all about collecting gas from flatulence to build a bomb, it just confirmed what I'd been thinking all along. This book is not for me.

The tone of the book was all over the place. At times it was almost slapstick and goofy, and then it would shift to dark and violent and gory. It was like getting whiplash. It was also far longer than it needed to be with time spent on things that could have been shorter or left out entirely (see also: endless pages about "fart club" and the "fart bomb.")

And the "twist" that came in the penultimate chapter. Well, it was obvious from the start of the book that that was how it would go. It was not as tricky as I think the author intended for it to be.

Anyway, I'm very glad to be done with this book.

Reread in 2024

Oh, I love Flavia and her trusty bicycle, Gladys. I'm so excited to reread this series in audiobook form over the coming months.

If you're looking for a good mystery featuring an 10-11 year old girl with a lot of moxie look no further. This book is set in the 1950's, is such a great cozy mystery, and provides some excellent entertainment.

Even though the protagonist is a child, this is technically an adult book, although there is not any reason I'd keep my children from reading it.

I loved this book! I'm fascinated by face blindness, and that was a huge plot point in this one, which was very interesting. And even though I caught onto the twist immediately, it was still a delight to go through this book with Sadie trying to navigate her life after such a big change.

Basically, Katherine Center writes a great romance and I'm always here for it.

This was a lot of fun, kind of weird and quirky, and pretty drawn out and overly long. While the characters were lovable and endearing, I often felt too much time was spent on things that didn't actually matter to the plot.

This was a great adult debut for Ally Condie. It felt like a modern Agatha Christie mystery and I loved it. The cast of characters was great and the mystery kept me guessing. I hope Condie writes more mysteries in the future because I thought she did a fantastic job.

While the poems in this book are a lot of fun and really creative, I found the whole thing a bit lacking.

Advertised as a way to discuss feelings with children in a natural way, I expected the poems to address handling the different emotions. Instead, they were about kids (or creatures) who were experiencing feelings like fear or temptation or kindness, but all felt like they ended too soon because none of them went on to talk about dealing with or processing the feelings. Like, instead of one poem saying "this kid is angry and this is how he deals with it," it just stopped at "this kid is angry." I don't know if any of that makes sense, but those were my feelings. As a parent, I definitely would have appreciated poems about feelings that addressed more than just the beginning of the feeling. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Regardless, kids will enjoy these silly poems by Jolie Taylor and delightful illustrations by Brandon Dorman.

*Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing for sending me a review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*