mayastef's reviews
175 reviews

I think every other F1 book i’ve read has been so criminally bad this rating is artificially inflated by my previous poor experiences. Character development was weak for most of the book for characters with such intense backstories. I’m also glad the sports part wasn't super duper high-pressure bc real F1 stresses me out enough.

Grand gesturing at mom's funeral is CRAZY like what the actual fuck.

 Its interesting that a book two can be so successful without the main character main charactering. Shes still in there but still we dont get any fun ravyn and elsbeth yearning and smooching so im really glad we had Elm and Ione. All of the side characters had such depth it was awesome. Just the right amount of stress pressure and tension to want to keep reading not stop bc you get stressed. Having everyone have to eventually face their fears and get through it basically via the power of friendship is so fun. Loved it. I’m afraid i dont have a ton of in depth analysis since its a book 2 and there wasnt world building in the same way. Every dog gets their day type book. 

 I liked the playing trading card aspect of the magic system; i think my Alice in Wonderland Heart always wants to lean heavily into a playing card-based system. It reads like a YA book that should not have been placed in YA re: light sexual content and gore/cruelty, meaning that it has that YA story type feel but less teen cringe/angst. I think there could be a bit more push-and-pull tension between Elspeth and Ravyn. (Those being the names of the two main characters say everything about the vibes of the book) The royalty/families system being tree-based is cool and unique, but I will say the tree names get a bit wild after a while. The voice in Elspeth’s head is very intriguing as a story device and i think makes her character particularly unique. She knows she is special and has been trying to hide it where usually the chosen girl discovers she is special and gets launched into a whole new world with *special status*. 

Such a fun book and such a lovely author! I had a great time reading this book, and my only complaint is that I wish I could've gotten to know the characters and the world better, but there simply wasn't enough space for that in this book.
If I was describing this book like a perfume I would say:
top notes

zombie apocalypse horror

friendship/guilt/ trauma

sapphic YA romance

This is my first book of theirs that I have read and I am looking forward to reading more.

 

If you are interested in the development of the Indycar safety team I highly recommend the podcast "Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys" specifically this episode:
The stunning rise of IndyCar's groundbreaking safety team
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Nh8FOhCWccNNeA91L9Jbn?si=0ef14ff78d7048c4
This episode hits a lot of the high points from this book without having to slog through this authors poor writing style and lots of personal details. 
Even if someone has a cool story to tell, that doesn't mean they should be an author. This book walked the unfortunate line of being too medically/science-heavy to please the reader looking for a biography and too personal life-heavy for those looking for a medical/science book. I came in being a lot more interested in his career than his life, so a lot of the details about his life were very *eye roll* to me. Also, this book does not necessarily age well in terms of how he speaks about women. It is very reminiscent of the general attitude towards women in motorsport/other male-dominated fields in general, so it is not surprising, especially for a book published in the early 2000s. Overall, I think it felt like a victory lap over an actual educational book about his miraculous career and achievements in his field. 

Lots of cool facts and tidbits in here but not worth the boringness of the other pages which is a shame because Dr.Olvey truly had an astounding career. 

I will say that although I didn't enjoy all of the personal chatter it was cool to get to see the personalities of some motorsport legends through the eyes of someone close to them. 

I originally didn't realize this was connected to previous books in this Glimmer Falls universe. I still read and enjoyed it without the previous books holding me up. I think the details in this book are so well thought out. A period cycle app that is also for werewolves to track the full moon? Hilarious and genius. It’s fun to read about fantastical creatures in a somewhat ordinary contemporary setting. Ben and Eleanor just have insane raw sexual tension which is unique to other romances where they tiptoe around it a bit. 

I wasn’t being drawn in by the plot or characters of this book enough for me to tolerate the writing style or the clunky worldbuilding. 

I think this is Casey McQuiston's best-executed book yet. I love all of their work, and while this book isn't my favorite book of theirs, I do believe it is by far the best-written. Theo and Kit really feel like robust characters and them being a bit older than McQuiston's other protagonists really aids in them having more fleshed out personalities. Also, the side characters in this book really get to have their own personalities and help drive the plot; they aren't just there to be there. 
This is Casey McQuiston's horniest book yet, it's great, and a hook-up competition is central to the plot, so it makes sense. Highly recommend. 
My gripes with this book are entirely personal in the fact that I don't like Theo and Kit very much as people, so it's a bit harder to root for them as characters. Also, a significant pet peeve of mine is when a foreign language is used in the text and is not translated. I understand that context clues can aid in understanding, but this book had French, Spanish, and Italian. It is a little wild to me to just hope the reader understands. It did not hinder my reading experience but I am someone who can speak/read fairly well in these languages. I know that this is a weird hill to die on. 

There definitely are valid criticisms of this book but it is a fantastic debut and I had a great time reading it. It could’ve used a bit more meat on its bones as a book, but it had a great skeleton. Mainly I think the fleshing out of the characters has a lot of room for improvement but these characters very much fit perfectly into the YA genre as a whole. The intrigue of the story was so great to me, and I think fleshing out the characters further could make the story even better by adding depth to the overall plot via the characters interacting with this complex world. I will be reading the next book this author writes, I look forward to watching her skills grow. 

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had previously read and loved Gwen and Art are not in Love by Lex Croucher so when the publisher offered me an ARC of Not for the Faint of Heart I knew I just had to read it. 

This book did not disappoint, in general I think that readers will enjoy this book if they like reading about a ragtag bunch of queer youths who somehow found each other in this big wide world just to act like a bunch of fools. You will love this book if you have some sort of emotional connection to the story of Robin Hood. Personally, I am just mildly familiar with the tale, so the intricacies were lost on me. My lack of Robin Hood background didn't negatively impact my understanding and enjoyment of the book, but it could've improved my overall experience for sure. 

I loved the main crew of characters in this book so much, I do think that some of the side characters were lacking a bit in terms of personality but they were not a major focus so I am okay with forviving that. While I overall enjoyed the story, I do think there were times when the plot felt a bit directionless, and as soon as a mission/direction was identified, the group went into it so impulsively that there wasn't a lot of buildup with major story events. This impulsivity is part of the characterization of our beloved group of Merry Men but I’m still allowed to feel that it hurt my enjoyment of the book. The very end felt a bit rushed, but that could also be because I was reading at warp speed because I loved the book so much. 

Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it. I won't be knocking down doors and screaming from the rooftops trying to get people to read it, but I will definitely be bringing it up in conversations because I know many people will love it.