inkerly's reviews
457 reviews

This book left me feeling a wave of emotions for Spears. If one thing is for certain, it's that she has suffered a lot. Her life has been picked apart and scrutinized since the fame, and her supposed  family members, partners and friends all indirectly or directly lent a hand in her 13-year long suffering that we the public now know was truly sinister. It feels even weird listening to this audiobook years later, knowing the people involved are still out and about living their lives without having to suffer the consequences of their actions. It angers me to the core. In my eyes, these people are no different than the abusers of kidnapping survivors like Elizabeth Smart, Amanda Berry, and Michelle Knight. But this book was powerful and I'm proud of Britney for sharing this with us and finally being able to step into her truth.

This book is written chronologically, from the beginning of her life as a little girl to the present year 2023. I believe Michelle Williams did a fantastic job narrating the audiobook. At first I was initially skeptical of the decision to have another person tell her story, but Britney has her reasons and she clearly knew Williams would do a great job of capturing her essence. I felt like it was Britney herself talking to me. Like many victims of abuse, she clung to her Love & Faith in God, her kids and her fans and I found that admirable. It truly reflected the theme of her trying to find the "woman in her" and stand up for herself.

For all of what Britney went through, I admit that this memoir did feel very short, and the ending felt vague. She chooses not to bring up certain things - her bipolar diagnosis, her healing process in rehab, and her relationships with her kids & life partners - which I respect.  She is still navigating her trauma and exploring the new chapter of her life as a free woman. But I'm left with so many questions.  I wonder if she's ever shared her experience with other people who had similar stories to share , like her '00s friends: Paris Hilton & Lindsey Lohan. I wonder if she made any lifelong friends from  rehab  and her reflection on her time there. If she feels her late-diagnosed mental disorder played a part in her spiral. What she thinks caused the breakdown of relationship with her family before the conservatorship . And how the conservatorship has affected her relationships and identity as a woman today.

I didn't expect this book to have all the answers, but I have a feeling that another book will be in the works much later in her life after she's properly healed to discuss things like this.

The title I read was “Happy Valentine’s Day, Corduroy” but my review is the same. Just cute childrens fun. I liked that he helped his owner Lisa put together the cards and when the other little kids and their stuffed toys gathered round that was cuteness overload.

Not to be that adult who leaves THAT review on a children’s book but this wasn’t a story🤣🤣 This was Corduroy enjoying Halloween by doing Halloween things. And how is he even able to do all these things without his owner (he is a stuffed bear after all, is anybody not noticing that a stuffed 6-inch bear has wheeled off with a grocery cart full of items?) sry lol… the best Corduroy books are with Lisa

Never read or listened to her poetry but i see the hype now. If i had to describe it - " short flowery poetry written by a millennial feminist".  lot of quotable lines about the patriarchy and the need to leave love for ourselves. Simple and powerful

Plot 4/5. Spice 3🌶️/5 
Wow not what I was expecting!
Kudos to my fav reverse harem author Smauggy for putting me on Teal Rose. 
This story was cute and fun while at the same time navigating some dark topics. 

I relate to Jasmine a lot in the sense of 
being a people pleaser but also loving some freak me time for myself. Her life brightens up when the trio enter in her life. The Club Celeste scene where she walked into their room was funny. My fav moments were in Part Two where Gabe Wren and Tony were putting the pieces together about Jasmine and fighting to win her back. This was a good Second Chance love story and by the end I was fully convinced the four lovers were meant to be together.

 The book also markets itself as a Fake Dating love story, which I don’t think it should, 

Jasmine and Greg have an “arrangement” for the sake of her kids but very much a real albeit 5+ year loveless relationship 😂

What I’ll say is I wish we got more foreplay and 4-play. 
I feel the book could’ve done better showing why they were in love. 6 months and most of it was lustfucking so when was the pivotal moment they realized  “I-love-you”? Why her and not anyone else in the 6 years they weren’t together? That would’ve made the spice more enjoyable to read. And for the love of me I like Gabe-Wren-Tony but at times I couldn’t tell them apart. For me there’s not enough physical or mental description of how they differ. Tony is pierced but so is Wren, Gabe is alpha but shy but so is Tony and so on… it would’ve been nice to explore that realism (either with more smegxy scenes or regular scenes).
Speaking of realism,  Jasmine being a retired singer at 24 and  a multi-billionaire at 30 was just unrealistically laughable. How did Momager not realize this? The trio also become billionaires, s’like everyone gets their billionaire card before 30. How wouldnt they been able to find out her identity in those 6 years ? And Mom gets off a little too easy, talking about “I’m sorry for  almost ruining your  life  pls forgive me.” She would gotten an earful from me! Low key needed the same treatment as

Greg.

😂
Overall, for an indie author this was pleasant to read with a HEA and had very few technical errors if any. I’d recommend

Continuation of Hancox’s memoir of his trans life. 90% of this was him being an anxiety brat and worrying about meeting society’s expectations of what a man should be , 10% coming to terms with what a man - or becoming one - actually means. The moral of the story  was cute but almost 300 pages of someone being so self conscious and self absorbed and being rude to their friends/mom/gf in the process was cringe to read. Glad it ended on a positive note 

Sigh… I have to learn not to give into booktok hype. 

This was a hard read . This feels like something I would enjoy 10 years ago if I were still obsessed with Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey. But this was just cringey to read. Zade reads as a creepy toxic guy with an inflated ego and Adeline is unnecessarily horny and naive. And I don't know how to feel.

Contrary to other reviewers, I'm not opposed to noncon/dubcon as I've seen it executed well in novels with complicated characters. This is not the case. Zade's character is shallow and written horribly. He never explains why he is so obsessed with Adeline in the first place, let alone to the point that he would kill for (and to spite) her. He just taunts her with the idea that he is her stalker and can have her anytime.  It felt like abuse marketed as kink with quotable “spice” for TikTok .

The gun rape is still burned in my brain unfortunately

The plot was not much better. The murder mystery around Adeline’s great grandmother was pointless and disappointing. But the pedophile ring plot truly irked me. I strongly believe that if a book is going to center sexual abuse/child abuse, it should have the nuance and sensitivity needed to discuss it. This just felt like the book needed some way to redeem Zade for his torment of Adeline and putting “pedophile-killer” in his backstory was the way to do it. Everything about it was so 2-dimensional and Disney-villainish I can’t. There are so many times Zade says something along the lines of  “I won’t rest until every pedophile is dead”, like he’s some Ex-Machina war assassin , and then in the same breathe kills/decapacitates anyone who even breathes in Adeline’s direction. It’s giving - “I don’t really care too much about innocent kids as much as I like to kill for the sake of it”. 

This book in my eyes isn’t “bad” in the sense of the writing is bad (the writing is definitely descriptive and keeps the story going), but the story and the characters are just juvenile and unlikeable. I probably would’ve been more interested if *author-mode* Adeline's stalker was actually a ghost "haunting" her to get her to solve the mystery of her great-grandmother's murder and then-surprise surprise ended up falling dangerously in love with her. What a much better story that could've been. *Sigh*.


**Additional Spoilers**

Side note : The book has a dual POV-switch between Zade and Adeline. Zade is nicknamed "The Shadow" and Adeline is nicknamed "The Manipulator". I have no idea why Adeline is named “The Manipulator” . She does absolutely no such thing. There’s a brief mention that she “manipulates” people with her words because she’s an author but if that’s the reason she's a "The Manipulator" that is such a laughable reach considering we don’t even see her write/do much of that in this book. Again another example of marketing fluff for TikTok

I liked it! A lot of events happen in this novella and keeps you engaged, while providing that “short story” feel that has a lesson at the end. I didn’t expect the end where *spoiler* Binti possesses okuoko tentacles like the Meduse.

This memoir was very insightful and I'm glad for folks like Teeges who use the wrongs of history to spread awareness and hope. She was understandably shaken by knowing that her grandfather was a Nazi, and her unpacking that trauma in this memoir, and using that to not repeat the mistakes of the past with her maternal relationships and her relationship with her heritage is *chef's kiss*. It also put into perspective how what's happening in Israel/Palestine is history literally repeating itself. I wish more people would dig up their history and piece things together like this.

Loved it! Can we give a round of applause for the graphics of Naomi and her hair/outfits/black girl superhero magic? The visuals are getting more and more stunning. I think the plot was a little hard to follow because it does not start where season one left off but somewhere different. Did I miss a volume where Naomi joins the Justice League? Nevertheless the ending was satisfying to read