expecto_padronum's reviews
135 reviews

Eye opening to everything that was going on behind the scenes. This woman has been through so much unfair treatment at the hands of horribly greedy people. The audiobook was great. The writing was straightforward, sometimes a tiny bit cliche, but she was out to tell her story not write the next great American novel and she definitely accomplished that.  

This was a delightful read. I did not really have any expectations but was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It had some mystery, some politics, some romance, and some lovely characters and friendships. Highly recommend if you’re in the mood for a light fantasy!

This book is perfect. No notes.

I don’t normally like stories that involve addiction, but this story is so well told. I felt like I learned so much about the opioid epidemic and life in rural Appalachia. Reading (and listening to) this book felt similar to watching Forrest Gump for me. It is long so you really settle in to the story, the central character goes through so much, and the writing is incredibly compelling. The audiobook is fantastic. 

Whenever we got a tiny glimpse of the romance it was very sweet but overall it was really repetitive and I double checked to make sure it wasn’t YA bc it felt like it was. I wish the romance and her career stuff was more fleshed out because it felt like she kept complaining about the same things without giving us much info. I guess that’s an accurate portrayal of anxiety spirals but I was hoping for a little more story.

I started playing bingo in my head each chapter to see if she would mention 

1. Grace’s hair 
2. Sea salt & herbs
3. Rosebud cheeks
4. What it means to be a “Porter”
5. “lonely creatures” 

And she pretty much mentioned all of them every chapter. 

would not have picked this up (or finished it) if not for book club. Overall it wasn’t bad but I’m pretty apathetic about it. There were a handful of sexy vampire scenes which were fun, and a few lines here and there that were thoughtful. The POV switch didn’t bother me as much as it seemed to bother other people, I was kind of glad to have more straightforward/modern writing. Some lines really bothered me, like when the vampire said that “she was a widow too, in a way”….. bitch no you’re not. For something to work as a metaphor it has to make at least a little sense. Choosing to kill a guy you had sex with one time for sport does not make you a widow in any sense of the word. Also the ending was a truly wtf moment. I had a hard time sympathizing with either protagonist. 

the plot thickens! While also kind of staying the same because the ending leaves us in pretty much the same situation as the last book

This was fun enough that I’ll probably read the sequels. The footnotes were annoying at times, like I actually do wish your editor didn’t let you keep them all! I do not need to know what B list celebrity each of your characters most resembles. I also didn’t think it was cool of her to spoil 3(!) Agatha Christie novels. Thankfully they were the ones that I read but I would’ve been pretty annoyed if I hadn’t read them yet! Additionally, this was the first time I’ve EVER correctly guessed the killer. Which I think is a combo of me reading more mysteries and this one being a little predictable.  

Cute and fun. Josh was too good for her but I guess that was kind of the point!

Beautiful reflection on her relationship with her mother 

It was fine. Not sure I would’ve finished it if it wasn’t for book club. I struggled to relate to the narrator because what do you mean

you find one guy in the town who knows the town is fictional and you just??? Don’t follow up on that?? I would have annoyed the hell out of Anders and not let the subject rest until I figured out how tf he knew he was in a book when no one else did!!  And you don’t go back to the graveyard, the ONE place you got service, for days???

there were also a couple places where the grammar / sentence setup wasn’t quite right or she straight up contradicted herself a paragraph later and it took me out of the story a little bit.