imme_van_gorp's reviews
697 reviews

This poem is really pretty. I mean that in the sense that the words and the rhymes that were used all sounded really pretty. The meaning of a lot of them, however, is quite lost on me. 

There is a man who has lost his lover, he misses her, and seems to have thought up a raven to deal with his grief. The overall thought of the poem is clear. 
Unfortunately, there are a lot of references to myths or other intellectual stuff that I am unable to follow. This took me out of the story/poem too often for me to feel fully emerged into the emotion of it all. And so, no matter how pretty it all sounded, and no matter how awesome this poem must be for someone who did get all of these references, my enjoyment level was rather low and I didn’t like it that much. 

Maybe I’ll give this poem another shot some other time. Then again, maybe I won't.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. I was expecting a sweet and romantic chick-lit, but, although the characters were all sweet as can be and there was definitely love involved, the story somehow felt like it wasn't really about that. There seemed to be something else going on, a deeper meaning of some sorts. I found this to be quite beautiful and I think this is an interesting novel for sure.

A driving force of this story is Christianity, and, as an outspoken atheist like myself, you'd think this wouldn't really appeal. And normally it wouldn't, but for some reason, it didn't necessarily seem to matter what belief system was being followed; it was more about the morals and hope in life that was being portrayed. I could get behind that, and so I wasn't bothered or annoyed by it.

Jamie and Landon's story is without a doubt a sad one. I felt for them, I really did. The actual end should have been done a bit better though, as it didn't quite hit me as hard as it could have. There was something missing, maybe some depth, which actually could be said for some other parts of the story as well.

[[SPOILERS]]
I really have to wonder at the very last line of this novel:
"I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen."
It made me question everything as I am now not sure if Jamie survived or not. The rest of the novel had me convinced that she would die, but this last line makes me think that she might not have. What else would Landon have been talking about with this? Her survival is after all the only miracle we have heard him repeatedly wish for. Perhaps he just meant that Jamie, as the angel he sees her as, was a miracle in itself. This could be it. I don't know, and I guess I never will for sure.

This book started off really promising. The set-up is very intriguing with a lot of potential. I most of all loved the email exchanges between Landon and Jacqueline: they were cute and well executed.

Unfortunately, the story never really picked up and became rather boring. At a certain point I was convinced nothing else would happen other than Lucas and Jacqueline constantly staring at each other from across the room. Like come onnn, can something interesting between these two happen already? I mean, they never seem to be in an actual relationship with each other, and neither is there ever any real conflict or drama between the two of them. None of the revelations made between them (like for example Lucas being the same person as Landon) ever had any true impact. Their whole thing is just them… staring. 
However, there is of course drama going on outside of their relationship (i.e. rape), but it definitely needed some more depth, in my opinion.

I honestly think this novel could have been so much better if Jacqueline and Lucas would have switched POV each chapter or so, rather than the entire novel being narrated by Jacqueline. Their whole relationship felt a bit empty without knowing what was going on inside his mind (the chance of finally figuring this out might be the sole reason for me possibly picking up Breakable. Added, Jacqueline’s narration and emotions weren’t that profound or outspoken anyway. Therefore, I couldn’t seem to connect with and care much for anything in this novel. It fell flat and was dragged out.

This had all the right ingredients to make a gripping and swoon-worthy romance novel.
Kiara and Carlos start out not being all too fond of each other, but eventually go from this good-natured banter to a slow-burn romance. Carlos is a bad boy, who grows to have a soft spot for this one girl. Who doesn't love that?
Unfortunately, there was never really a moment where they truly seemed to connect. I guess, at some point, they sort of just decided that they were perfect together, but it's never really shown as to how, when and why they got to that conclusion. This kind of threw me off, and I found it difficult to take their feelings all that seriously. If we had just gotten those moments in which their compatibility shines, then I would have felt very differently about their love. Maybe I would have even swooned. I think there would have been a high possibility of that, actually. 
Regardless, this was a fun and cute novel, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. If I could have just maybe felt a bit more emotionally involved, it could have been really great instead of just fun.

This book was extremely cute. I could really see the connection between River and Anastasia, and they do seem perfect for each other. I would have preferred a little bit more drama with a swooning amount of groveling, but I guess it was also sweet to see them work out so well without much trouble.

This book doesn't really offer anything special or noteworthy. To be honest, it was kind of boring and even frustrating at times. None of the characters are particularly likable and neither did I care much about their relationships with one another.

The two romantic leads, Hazel and Crew, have known each other since they were kids, and they were apparently very close, until Crew just randomly decided to not talk to her for four years. Does he have a good reason for this which will be revealed later? Nope. He just one day decided to 'ghost' her: His reasoning is that he just felt like he had better things to do. Oooookay, not a great start to a romantic love story if you ask me.
Which follows is a week in Germany in which these two apparently fall madly in love, ready to risk it all for each other. Lovely. Great. I don't care. Their trip was boring and I didn't see their connection. I feel like the only reason they even got together is because they are both freaking obsessed with Crew's grandfather. I swear to God, that man got on my damn nerves. He was incredibly manipulative. Therefore none of the many scenes regarding him resulted in an (undoubtedly intended) emotional reaction, if anything it just led to one of my far too frequent eye rolls. 
Oh, and if my annoyance towards the grandfather wasn't enough, Hazel and Crew got on my nerves plenty of times as well. Their communication was so bad, and they, especially Hazel, were so goddamn insecure all the time. I wanted to scream: “Just talk to each other! Just be clear about what you want and have trust in each other. Stop with all the angst. Jeez.” Unfortunately, though, one cannot scream at fictional characters. Or well, you can try, but it's not going to do anything. So, of course, they did not get better at their communication, and a lot of insecurities and crying by our so called bad-ass female lead, Hazel, came out of it as a result. Ugh. 

I am kind of disappointed with this author when it comes to this book. I expect humour from her. I expect lovable characters that I end up really rooting for. I expect my heart to flutter at an adorable and swoon-worthy romance. But nope, she apparently lost all of her usual writing skills this time around and produced something that makes me question if the amazing series I read by her before was a one-time thing and if maybe I shouldn't bother reading anything by her again. Because seriously, this was so bland. So incredibly bland.

This book really surprised me in a good way! I was kind of afraid I was not going to like it, as there seem to be so many people with very loud opinions on this series, plenty of them not particularly positive.
However, there is of course also an enormous fandom who does love these books with a fiery passion, so in some way it should not come as that much of a surprise to me that I turned out to really like it as well. I mean, do not get me wrong, it isn't a masterpiece by any means, and neither is it one of my favourite books by a long mile, but I do think it is a great start for a world I could see myself getting lost in.

The plot was interesting with more than enough twists, and I generally like and already somewhat care for the characters. Not all of them are fleshed out as well as I would like (namely: Alec, Isabel, and Magnus), but they all have plenty of potential and so I am hoping their character development will come with the later books.

Anyway, long story short, I am really glad I gave this book a (long overdue) chance, and I am even more glad that this book has made me so very excited to continue reading with City of Ashes!

I find it hard to really pen down my exact opinion on this book as I certainly do love the Shadowhunters world Cassandra Clare is creating and she sure knows how to write an interesting plot with plenty of twists, but her characterization is seriously lacking.

I am intrigued with what will happen next and what everything means because of the actual story, but my heart isn't really in it (yet, I hope) because all the characters feel flat and empty. I do find it promising that we started to read more consistently from other perspectives than only Clary's near the end as this is one of the best ways to give the other characters some well-needed depth.

For example, I truly think the Lightwood siblings could be so interesting if only they would be more developed. I also think Magnus could be such a cool characters, especially when paired with Alec. I wish we'd see more of their romance, since it is obvious that it is there and that there is stuff happening between them, but we just never get specifically told what that is. Super frustrating, because I really want to see more of them.

Despite their sparse appearances, I honestly already find Magnus and Alex together more interesting than the love triangle going on between Clary, Jace and Simon, that's for sure. I mean, Jace and Clary together are fine, you know, kind of sweet, but it gets annoying when Simon is thrown into the mix. There is literally zero, absolutely zero, chemistry between Clary and Simon and their romance just felt forced and awkward. Their relationship felt even more uncomfortable than Clary and Jace together, who think they are literal siblings, so that's definitely saying something.

Anyway, I got a bit carried away there, but the main problem is basically that there isn't enough focus on more interesting and emotionally gripping characters and scenes, which made the novel to become a bit boring at times, even when there isn't anything remotely wrong with the general plot. Therefore, this should be an easy fix, and I hope City of Glass will be better in this department. I have high hopes for it.

This was cute, but it didn't exactly sweep me off my feet. It's obviously a cliché premise, although that never really bothers me. If anything, it's more that there wasn't much that really stood out: it was all sweet, but not something that made my heart flutter uncontrollably, if you get what I mean. 

Also, the overall writing style wasn't really for me. There isn't anything wrong with it in general, but it just did not seem to fit with the story all that well. It was a bit too serious and stiff for a rom-com and made some parts slightly boring.

Lucy and Josh are both likeable characters in my opinion, but I think I liked Josh more. However, I do have to wonder at his abilities to make a girl like him, because I can 100% understand Lucy being confused about what his feelings were. I guess I'll never really get the "I like you, but I'll act like I hate you" thing. It makes little to no sense to me, but oh well, some people are just different I guess. 
I do like the way Lucy and Josh went back and forth in this book though; they seem like an even match. I didn't find their banter particularly funny or anything, but it was entertaining nonetheless because of their chemistry.

We eventually find out Josh did all his little annoying things out of fascination and love for Lucy, but it's a shame we don't get to hear those true feelings until so much later in the book (even if we had already guessed the jist of it): it's one of the main flaws when romance books like this aren't dual POV. 
I mean, some might say the not-knowing helps with the tension, but I am not one of them. I like knowing when the other person is enamoured with the other, especially when it's at that moment still unrequited. I am a sucker for pining.

Oh, what to say, what to say? What can I say to explain why I did not love this book, even though I did like it.

I think it mostly comes down to this: this book is a mixture of sadness, humour and philosophical musings, which resulted in a book that was never really any of those. They conflicted with each other too much to make each of them reach their full potential.
Especially the philosophical stuff made it harder to feel the sadness of it all, because it made the novel feel unreal. Whenever the characters spoke, they sounded not only like 70 year olds whereas they're supposed to be teenagers, but also like characters who can only exist on paper. No one would speak like this in real life. No one would have conversations like this, not if they couldn't think long and hard before speaking. And even then, I doubt anyone's talks would sound remotely as they did in this book. It's too.. distant. 

That’s not to say I didn’t like the characters though, because I absolutely did. I admired Hazel’s strength and I adored the way Gus loved. They had well-developed and lovable personalities. Their romance was also just very sweet and I did feel connected with them.

But, for a book that is supposed to be heart-wrenching, it is a bit of a problem when the writing style makes it hard to feel any emotions. 
However, the story itself was so incredibly heart-breaking, that I did end up feeling sad enough to cry like a little baby, but my point is, that it could have been way better. The incredible sadness of the story was right there, if only the writing would have been a little more suited to it. 

Before reading this novel, I knew what was going to happen. As in, I knew how it was going to end, which would have otherwise probably been very shocking. This prior knowledge, of course, made my reading experience extremely different from someone without that knowledge, and I can't say how I would have felt during this book, had I not known. Therefore, my judgement isn't completely objective, and cannot be viewed as such.