katiedid404's reviews
68 reviews

pls I can never look at a PSL the same ever again

SABAA STRIKES AGAIN. this book was everything I could have wanted after the original series concluded. the old characters, the new characters, the plot that is so poignantly paralleling current events. I felt such an extreme range of emotions reading this and I YEARN for the next book given how this one ended. 100000/10 I love love loved this book.

3.5 ⭐️ - I waited so long for this book to be available and sooo badly wanted to love it. And for the first half I did!!! Very much so!! Josh is so lovable and funny and I love him!! But the events that transpired in the middle kind of took me out of it. Very *what happened to the original plot of the movie??* I don’t even really know how to explain it, but it just felt like I’d been dropped in a totally new book. Maybe it’s just me? I don’t know. But aside from that, I did also feel like a lot of the dialogue was unnecessarily explanatory and sometimes unrealistic. I don’t know, I really really really wanted to love this book and went into it with such high hopes. I still enjoyed it!! But not enough to bring it up to 4 stars, which truly pains me because I very much was on board with the concept.

I wish I could go back in time 7 years so I hadn’t read this book yet. IN A GOOD WAY. I wish so badly that I could go back and read this again for the first time. It was such a beautiful story about love and loss and CHANGE and how life is scary but we do it anyway. I fear this one will stay with me for a while. TIME TRAVEL BOOKS HURT.

3.5 ⭐️ - I want to start by saying overall, I enjoyed this book!! There were a lot of relatable moments/themes, and the millennial humor had me quite literally laughing out loud at times. Not to mention, Dec and Phoebe are so cute and funny and I loved those chaotic bisexuals. I am yearning for a romance with a local bartender now.

However, I am very much a person that prefers show don’t tell, and I just felt like the beginning of this book had a lot of tell. And it’s not lost on me that the title of the book is “Educated,” and it makes sense in the context of the story that what’s what’s happening, but I almost felt like it was a bit too much education to the point where it took me out of the story. But I think that might just be a preference I have. Others may feel differently!

I do feel like it moves past that and into some really great plot, and makes a lot of good points around boundaries and fear and SEIZING THE DAY (my Newsies heart soared). And that it’s ok to be greedy sometimes

I would like to award this book infinity stars. I wasn’t sure what this story would look like after the incredible original duology. I wasn’t sure what Mische would have in store. Whatever I thought it could be, boy was I WRONG. and boy was I in for a TREAT.

This book took me on an emotional journey I did not anticipate. One about shame, guilt, forgiveness, love. About how faith can be manipulated and exploited, how it isn’t worth anything if you have to sacrifice yourself for it.

I appreciated the dedication to world building given we were in a new House for this book, and learning about the infrastructure of the underworld. I loved all of the spooky wraiths and soul eaters. MOST IMPORTANTLY I LOVED LUCE. I thought the pace was really good, and the slow burn felt realistic and *right* for these characters, who are mirrors of each other both living with pasts they find shameful.

I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure for the next one but, like Asar, I will be patient. I will wait.

I was told this one would be Emotional Damage, so I put it off for as long as I could but I finally decided to pick up and oh my god. Yes there was pain, but it was the best kind, and I can safely say that this is my favorite Emily Henry book to date (I still need to read Funny Story so who knows).

What I love about Emily Henry’s books is that yes, there’s romance, but there’s always something more. Something else that the main character is going through that the romance is just part of. A journey, if you will. And Harriet’s journey was just so realistic and relatable. Something that I think a lot of us go through or feel. It was honestly a relief to read something that expressed certain feelings, knowing that someone was able to put it all into words.

It also helps that a lot of the healing and learning done by Harriet in this book is via the navigation of her relationship with precious baby angel Wyn, who I think may also be my new favorite EmHen man. I love him very dearly

This book may start as a Mulan retelling, but it QUICKLY and EXPERTLY pivots into its own unique fantasy plot.

HEAVY in the theme of female rage, this book tells the tale as old as time of a woman with ambition and the audacity to dream of more in life than the hand she’s dealt, but faces a patriarchal society that oppresses women at every turn.

Our FMC, Meilin, is a BADASS. Skilled in kung fu, intelligent, and willing to put in the work to become the best. She embodies what women are capable of when up against seemingly insurmountable circumstances, and shows us just what she’s capable of

This book was SO MUCH FUN!!! So much of Romantasy is dominated by fae and vampires (which I LOVE, don’t get me wrong), so it was nice to see a story involving a different type of magical being.

Our girl Maren lives on an island where mostly everyone mostly her, thinking she’s a witch and a seductress. Her only friends are two naiads she meets with at the little deserted island on which she feels most at peace. One day, she saves the life of a mysterious (and handsome

WOWEE. when I tell you I sat on my couch for 6.5 hours reading through this book. after the end of the first book, I NEEDED to know what happened next.

this book is ACTION PACKED from the start. PIRATES!! evil pirates whom I LOATHED. Maren and Kye are on the run alone together for most of this book, facing the evil pirates and other enemies, so there really never was a dull moment. Also, this little honeymoon of sorts (