feliciaclark's reviews
720 reviews

Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Nic Stone is an incredible young adult storyteller. Each novel is just as important as the last. While I absolutely loved Justyce in the first of the series, “Dear Martin,” this story covered a group of youth that were missed in the first book.

The boys in this novel, especially the main character, LaQuan aka Quan, reminded me of the teens I spent time with at a residential facility a couple years ago. My job at the time was to interview them and hear their stories. It gave me an entirely new perspective on their lives. The poverty, generational trauma, and racism existing in our world collide head first in this powerful story. 

These characters will live within me for a very long time. Thank you to the author for creating such riveting, gut-wrenching, and authentic stories about our so-called “troubled” youth, where it is they come from, and what it means to survive and attempt to find happiness in this unfair world.

Follow me to forever by Everalda Ocampo

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Everalda Ocampo is a prolific romance novella writer!

This spicy story follows Daisy Lopez, a hospital social media manager from Pilsen in the heart of Chicago. Michael Coppens is an influencer and videographer who meets Daisy when his brother, Anthony, is in the hospital for a diabetes complication.

They are quick to fall but slow to commit. Together, they make their own relationship rules.

I enjoyed these characters and wish I had more time to follow them through there forever!

Also, I love the playlist Everalda created for readers to listen to before each chapter. It really helps set the mood throughout the piece!
Paper Girl and the Knives that Made Her by Ari B. Cofer

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book of poetry, written by the incredibly brave and talented Ari B. Cofer, is filled with alternations between a fragile existence and strength to heal. 

It was everything I needed and more for my Escapril 2024 writing challenge this year. Her powerful words and imagery gave me the push to be more courageous with mine. 

I am so grateful she stayed alive to share her story with us and became a mental health advocate for others. She’s truly an inspiration.
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King, Owen King

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 4.0

The Kings came together to tell a feminist, post-apocalyptic story. This is a horror fantasy book about what would happen in our modern world if every woman who went to bed never woke up. Instead they ended up in a manless world where they no longer had to fear for their safety or fight for their rights. The men are left in today’s world scrambling to survive in a society without women’s leadership. 

I wish this book would have dove more deeply into the women’s perspective but it was a fascinating read nonetheless.

Owen and Stephen King dedicated this book to Sandra Bland, whose death under the surveillance of police at a Texas prison made national news. Say her name.  
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

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informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

This is a much needed reminder that the winter months are meant to slow down and get comfy. Don’t patronize yourself for listening to your body when it wants to hurkle-durkle. I loved the ties to nature throughout this book as well.
Better Hate than Never by Chloe Liese

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I always enjoy a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew storyline. This is a modern day, SPICY version! It is the second in the Wilmot Sisters series and my favorite of the two so far.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

“We’re all going to die, Johnny. Hit the iron bell, like it’s dinner time.”

Before Wild, there was Sugar. Cheryl Strand came forward to say she was working as the columnist, Dear Sugar, answering real people’s problems with advice from a woman who’s “been through it.” 

This was a beautiful and healing book about our humanity and the kindness or motivation we need to me the decisions that are truly at our core. I held my breath at few times in anticipation of some of her answers to these deeply troubling situations. Impressive she could always relate it back to her life in a relatable, intimate, and eloquent way.

“The sketches of your real life and your sister life are right there before you and you get to decide what to do. … I’ll never know, and neither will you, at the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life is, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.”
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Delilah Green is an aspiring photographer recovering from heartbreak who returns home to photograph her estranged stepsister Astrid’s wedding. 

Claire Sutherland is a bookstore owner trying to raise her 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, alongside her unreliable father who has yet to prove himself. She is also one of Astrid’s best friends. 

When Delilah and Claire meet, all the chemistry clicks and what was once two teens growing up in the same town has now blossomed into a small town romance. I was very attracted to Delilah’s hard on the outside, soft on the inside personality and Claire’s heart of gold and desire to keep the peace unless someone she loves is in danger.

I really enjoyed this spicy queer love story from the characters to the conflicts to the resolutions. I’m also excited that this is the first book in a series and can’t wait to read the others for Astrid and Iris!
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir by Kristin Newman

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective

3.5

“Trading awesome for awesome.”

I thought I would connect with this book so much more, and I think I would have more in my 20s. Still, I respect and appreciate the single gal, childless woman sharing her story without shame. And good for Kristin Newman for finding a career that allowed her to truly live up her single life, traveling around the world and diving into any experience thrown her way!

Her story ends with finding her own little family and life lessons—trading awesome for awesome that just happened to include the single life longer than all of her friends!
Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

At the start of this book, we find Yasmen and Josiah have been divorced for two years and are still trying to figure out how to co-parent and move on from their failed marriage.

This story is about how unhealed, back-to-back traumas can ruin relationships, even a marriage as strong as Josiah and Yasmen’s, and the great lengths we must take to begin healing and understanding why we make the choices we do when we are at our lowest. 
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