mcdermottcecelia's reviews
327 reviews

Wow! Emily Thiede has blown it out of the water in her fantasy debut This Vicious Grace. The book follows Alessa, the Finestra, who is supposed to marry her partner (each called the Fonte) and use their power to fight the impending doom. The problem is the Finestra killed the last three Fonte as soon as they were wed through a single touch alone. When the island is reliant on Alessa using her combined power to save them all, this begins to present a problem both for our main character and her people who are losing faith in the chosen one. This distrust leads Alessa to hire Dante to be her temporary bodyguard until she can find a surviving Fonte, and the majority of the novel takes place once the two have come together.

This was a fantastic debut to a new fantasy series. The way Thiede writes is really beautiful, and the book really starts to ensnare the reader once you get through the beginning worldbuilding section like any fantasy novel. The characters were lovable and dynamic, and it was clearly intentional how they were developed in a way that can really connect with the readers. I found myself really rooting for the main cast, but there was also the perfect balance between characters and plot, which is especially important in fantasy novels to me. The plot's pacing was great, and it felt like the story really progressed forward rather than circling around since the Finestra has gone through the search for a new Fonte multiple times before. The worldbuilding was easy to understand, and it wasn't too difficult to grasp the political complexities of being a leader in the island's capital. I felt like the main conflict was believable, and the conclusion was well-paced. The story felt pretty complete despite being the first of multiple in this series, but Thiede's writing and characters leave the reader wanting to hear what comes next. It took me a little bit of time to get immersed in the story initially, so I was a bit taken aback when I later realized this is on par to be one of my favorite reads of the year. I'm looking forward to reading what comes next!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Hookup Plan by Farrah Rochon takes you through the relationship of Dr. London Kelley and Drew Sullivan as they reconnect at their 15-year high school reunion one night in Texas. London swears Drew is her archnemesis after being co-valedictorians over a decade ago, but this doesn't stop her from settling on a no-strings-attached hookup plan. The only problem with kindling a new flame with your old rival connection is strings might start to cross when you suddenly have to work together for the next few weeks...

This book was the perfect rom-com when you're in need of a pick-me-up read. I love medical drama TV shows like Grey's Anatomy or the Good Doctor, so reading about a romance that takes place between two hospital staff (sort of??) was so entertaining to me. I wouldn't call it enemies-to-lovers since it's more of a former academic rivalry, but the banter between the two characters is definitely up-to-par for fans of the trope. The pacing was good, the plot felt mostly realistic, and the characters felt well-developed. I sped through this read in an afternoon, and I really enjoyed it. While I haven't read the other two books associated with the Hookup Plan, it was still easy to follow and definitely makes me consider picking up the earlier reads at some point. Such a fun, quick story!

As far as things I didn't connect with, I did find myself hoping for a bigger conflict at the end of the book. It felt a bit repetitive or cyclical at times towards the middle, so I was hoping for a bigger bang towards the end. It's not like the characters didn't face their fair share of challenges throughout, but I wanted to see a bit more of a pressure point for the final conflict. The book wrapped up pretty quickly, and I wished the epilogue was just a bit longer to be able to talk more about London and Drew while still covering the content that it did. This is such a little thing, but I always find it weird when characters refer to each other by their full names more than a couple of times, but that is more of a personal preference thing. I definitely enjoyed this book, so my rating is probably closer to a 4.25 out of 5, as the things that bothered me weren't that major.

Thank you Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I know I already said this in the title, but wow does this book feel like a nice hug. The Godparent Trap follows our two nemeses Colby and Rip as they navigate becoming parents overnight as their mutual friends (/Rip's family member) are killed in a car crash on their way to vacation. Despite this book being full of raw grief and sadness, there's so much light and joy in watching Colby and Rip navigate their new roles as co-guardians.

I'm not sure if enemies-to-lovers is quite the right tag, but Colby and Rip definitely start out at odds in this romance novel. Their journey to work together in order to make life easier for the two children is engaging and a total page-turner. The dialogue is great, and I loved the witty banter between the two. They really strive to figure out ways to work together and have intentional communication, so this novel does a great job at avoiding some common miscommunication tropes that are popular in the genre. I felt like the pacing was perfect, the structure was spot on, and the characters were well developed. This is totally a book you pick up and don't put down until it's finished (and that's certainly what I did).

My overall rating is probably closer to a 4.5 out a 5 stars. I did find the third act conflict to be a bit late, and I would've liked to see a couple more additional chapters between that point and the epilogue. I was excited to see the ending didn't follow one of my least favorite tropes in this genre, but it still felt a bit too quick to resolve. Maybe I just like to see the characters sweat a little bit more before things wrap up. 

This book's premise isn't anything new, but it sure was well written. This is the first novel I've read by Rachel Van Dyken, but I'm looking to pick more up after having finished this one. If you're looking for a quick pick, I would totally recommend reading The Godparent Trap or adding it to your TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Uh oh! I feel like I should start this off with a disclaimer. There are some great reviewers who have spoken about the harmful representation in this novel, including on the other edition's cover, and I urge you to read those before deciding whether or not you're okay supporting this author. I hadn't done that research when I requested it, and I would not have picked this up if I had. The cover of this book shown on the eARC I requested was very different than the one shown on most editions, so I expected this book to feature mainly chronic illness representation. The critiques of a white disabled author writing a disabled WOC main character are worth reading before you decide to pick this up.

Now onto the text itself! Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a modern contemporary style novel that follows our main character Priya as she discovers her internet friend Brigid is a werewolf. This novel exposes the reader to the world of online community and chronic illness as a young adult/professional through Priya's history with Lyme. This book seems to be written to be a humorous, lighthearted read on what can tend to be a more personal subject matter (referring more to disability/chronic illness here). As someone with a chronic illness mentioned in this book, it was awesome to see how the author captured some of the online chronic illness community's group dynamics, and there's something special about seeing your condition mentioned in a paranormal book. I myself am a part of several group chats, and even the way the chat was named felt like it was pulling straight from my life. On the other hand, that was about where my enjoyment of this book plateaued. This book is incredibly dialogue-heavy. There were so many pages where it felt like the text was exclusively line after line of straight quotations (omitting even the "he said, "they remarked," etc.). Since the characters interact so frequently online, this dialogue was paired with even more pages of texts sent back and forth or pages of Discord messages. As much as I wanted to enjoy it, that's just not something I enjoy reading in books. The writing style definitely felt very younger-YA despite being marketed as a NA book, and I think the author could've done a lot more to build out the side characters, setting, or inner thinking of our main character. Because it was so difficult to connect with this style of writing, this book felt very slow and the plot wasn't all that engaging. The premise sounded very interesting, but I wished the book lived up to that. I really wanted to like this novel because it connected with such important elements of my life, but it ended up just falling short. On the other hand, if you're a reader who likes a lot of dialogue or text-like conversations, this may be a great choice for you! It all comes down to personal preference, but this certainly isn't mine.

Thank you to Quirk Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Such Big Dreams is a stunning debut from Reema Patel that takes you straight to the streets of Mumbai as you follow the young Rakhi's life. Rakhi is a young woman who works in an office role at an NGO called Justice for All. Earlier in her life, Rakhi experienced a traumatic series of events that led her to meet Gauri Ma'am, who later helped her land a job at Justice for All. This book follows Rakhi's life now in this office role with sprinkles of flashbacks to her earlier life. It explores the ways in which one's lived experiences and personal histories impact their relationships–both personally and professionally–while also depicting a fictionalized journey of a true, historical event in Mumbai.

I really enjoyed reading Such Big Dreams. It felt like a different choice than I'd normally pick up, but the cover is what initially drew me into wanting to learn more about this debut. I think the worldbuilding in this book helped paint a clear picture of what Rakhi's world is like, and it was easy to follow despite the different cultures followed in this book. The writing style definitely fits in with the typical contemporary depictions of things, as it tends to lean towards saying how things were instead of relying on the reader to make great inferences from the text to understand the passages. I say this not as a critique and more as an observation that some readers may or may not connect with. Another element I enjoyed about Such Big Dreams was the flashbacks, which is something I usually don't like to read in books. I think the flashbacks featured in Rakhi's story really helped the reader connect with our main character, and they were relevant, well-timed, and at the perfect length to keep the reader engaged while providing new context to help set the scene. I think Rahki was the perfect character to follow in this book, and her story was one I kept wanting to learn more about. On the other hand, sometimes it felt like the side characters were less developed, but I think this could also reflect the isolation and solitude Rakhi experiences in her character's journey. Patel did an artful job of leading the reader to envision Rakhi's life, and little elements like word choice and sentence structure made the character's voice shine through. At times, I did find myself wishing for a glossary for some of the terms, but it was usually easy to follow without one. My only main critique of this novel was the pacing. It felt very slow, especially in the beginning half of the book, so it took me a while to really become invested in the plot since it was so character-driven. If slower-paced, character-focused stories are your type of read, I'd definitely recommend this.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group's Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a cute, quick read! The Charmed List by Julie Abe is a young adult, urban fantasy romance that follows Ellie and Jack on their magical road trip to a convention center. When a prank goes wrong, Ellie is forced to take the drive down to the magical convention with her friend-turned-enemy Jack as they make short stops on behalf of their family businesses. Ellie had a plan to spend her summer with her best friend completing an epic summer bucket list, but her plans are quickly upended as the plot ensues. 

This is such a fun story. I went into this book thinking it would be a cutesy YA rom-com based on the cover, but the added magical elements were a fun twist to the novel that makes it stand out from many others being released right now. The writing style was easy to follow, the character relationships were dynamic, and the premise of the novel itself combined many of the fun tropes I enjoy reading. It felt like I was watching a Disney Channel original movie or something as it combined the perfect elements to have a funny, lighthearted, urban magical journey. I really enjoyed this story, and it was the perfect book to read in between some of the longer epic fantasy books I've been reading. It's definitely more character-centric, but the characters seem well-developed and realistic. At times, Ellie felt just on the line of almost too awkward, but I was (and probably still am) just as awkward myself at her age. I think the conflict of the novel was realistic, and the plot pacing overall felt just right. I really loved reading this, and I would totally recommend this to other YA readers looking to step into urban fantasy!

My only critique of the novel is I felt like the flashbacks were sometimes a bit oddly placed. I really enjoyed seeing what Jack and Ellie were like when they were younger friends, but I might've preferred for those sections to be brief snippets in between chapters or in chapter breaks rather than mid-chapters straight from present to past to present from one paragraph to the next. It wasn't too difficult to follow by any means, but I just would've appreciated it more with other placement/formatting!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow. Just wow. The Ghosts of Rose Hill is everything I needed and then some. This book is written lyrically and beautifully as it follows Ilana's summer stay with her aunt in Prague. Ilana is a talented violinist that encounters Rudolph Wassermann's promise of music when her family had taken her music from her. Through Wassermann and his cohort of young followers, Ilana is exposed to new relationships, old tales, and the magic of music. 

I usually have a hard time connecting with books written in verse, but The Ghosts of Rose Hill was the best exception. R. M. Romero blew it out of the water with this book. The characters were dynamic and wonderful, the plot was well-paced, the worldbuilding was phenomenal, and each page pulled the reader further and further into the story. It's nostalgic, beautiful, and haunting. I'm at a loss for words to try to encapsulate just how The Ghosts of Rose Hill made me feel in the best way possible. This is a must-read (and maybe even re-read) for all those looking to experience the power of masterful writing. I have no critiques apart from wanting this story to never end. There are so many great lines to take with me. It's emotional, it's dark, and it's unlike any other. Just wonderful.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House/Peachtree/Pixel+Ink for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.