lauraleafromthelibrary's reviews
166 reviews

Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions by Greta Thunberg

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

If you live on planet earth, you should read this book.
Normal People by Sally Rooney

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

April 2023 book club — millennial problems (sigh).
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
An Impossible Impostor by Deanna Raybourn

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

Go to review page

dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Interesting mystery but not a great overall narrative. I appreciated the mental health (schizophrenia) discussion as well. The magic system was underdeveloped — it was never fully introduced, just rather thrown at us. Honestly, I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

Go to review page

adventurous challenging funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Man, this book. So many good things. I enjoyed it immensely. The audio narration was 10/10 flawless. Loved the aside dual-narrative perspective — scribe and protagonist combined. Raksh was my favourite character and worth every page he appeared on.

The GOOD:
  • The narration — told through two characters, a scribe (Jamal) and protagonist (Amina).
  • The feminist vibes — she’s a badass pirate captain.
  • The Middle Eastern culture and setting (Indian Ocean) was so fascinating to live in.
  • Raksh — what a dude (he better be in the next book).
  • A trans character.
  • The found-family type crew.
  • Payasam, the scrawny ship cat.

The BAD:
  • I didn’t love the constant religious (Muslim, Christian, Hindu) influence — not being religious myself, it was hard to stomach. It was in an overwhelmingly large part of the story.
  • The mythical creatures — weren’t my favourite. The bird (peri) people especially. The giant sea octopus leviathan was DOPE tho.
  • The fade-to-black moments — like, you can swear and fight and do all crazy amounts of things but when it comes to writing a little smut, this author was like nope, not for me — which is sad because Raksh is just so very, very GOOD. Moment lost.
Garlic & the Witch by Bree Paulsen

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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? No

5.0

Vegetable perfection.
The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel

Go to review page

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

First and foremost, I am not the target audience for this book; that being said, I still enjoyed it for these reasons:
  • Cozy found family trio of friends
  • Creepy school setting in England
  • Soccer / football (British) included
  • Interesting mystery
  • Canadian author

I found the comparisons to HP blindingly obvious for most of the book. No, it’s not about wizards but so many plot devices are the same. Maybe that’s just middle grade writing? I’m not sure. Still enjoyable though. Annoying AF parents all around too.
The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen

Go to review page

adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I can’t believe it took me this long to finish this book. I didn’t love it as much as the first Bridge Kingdom book but it was still pretty good.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-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

3.0

The final thoughts:
  1. I would have hated this book if it was set in America. British slang and lifestyle is so much more likeable. The setting between England & Scotland made this book.
  2. I really never want to be a seventeen year old again. The teenage years are an angsty mess I want to leave behind — YA contemporary usually isn’t for me but see above.
  3. Talia Hibbert is lovely and hilarious. I want to devour anything she writes.
  4. The OCD rep and character diversity were enjoyable additions.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings