mcgbreads's reviews
1125 reviews

Nothing to really write home about, but after a long break from Ali Hazelwood, I had a good time with this one. It was a fun little read but since it's so short, it was just that, fun. It didn't have much depth to it, but I liked the way these characters vibed and got together. 

Ooooo, things are getting juicy. I'm liking that the music plot is taking more of a front seat, it adds something of interest to this otherwise slice-of-life, feel-good, relaxing manga about being a cat owner. A little drama is welcome and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. 

Siento que aprecié este libro hasta cierto punto, pero que no logré conectar a nivel emocional ni entenderlo a profundidad. Lo que sí entendí es que explora la comunicación y la capacidad que tenemos de comunicarnos de muchísimas maneras, no solo a través de la palabra hablada o escrita, sino también a través de nuestros cuerpos y nuestra presencia. Ese aspecto me gustó muchísimo. 

Ahora, cuando vamos a los personajes y las tramas de sus vidas, debo admitir que uno me pareció más interesante que el otro. Pero, en general, no conecté con ninguno de los dos y tampoco sentí ninguna conexión entre ellos aunque el libro me plantea que la hay. 

Dejando eso de lado, que es pedir mucho porque la historia se enfoca en los personajes, me parece un libro muy bien escrito que te invita a pensar sobre muchas cosas. Una de las cosas que más aprecié fue la perspectiva del personaje masculino. Sentí mucha empatía hacia él y pude ponerme en sus zapatos. La manera en la que la autora presenta la pérdida de la visión y cómo la vive este hombre me dejó una impresión muy grande. Esto y la exploración de la comunicación es lo que más me queda de este libro y, aunque me hubiese gustado haber sacado más, quedo conforme. 

This was a cute, short read. The audiobook is very nice and I enjoyed my time with it. I really liked what T. Kingfisher did with this Beauty and the Beast retelling. The characters had good chemistry, the story was interesting, and it had some creepiness to it that I thought was really nice. It kinda threw me off that he stays in his beast form by the end of it, but if you're one of the people who think Belle was disappointed when the beast turned back to human in the 1991 animated movie, (I mean, the face she makes is so funny in that moment), then this will feel canon and perfect to you. 

I don't know what's happening with the books I'm choosing lately, but I think I'm going to love them and I just DON'T.

This is an overly sweet, fluffy, no-stakes book, and I understand why it’s loved by so many, it just didn’t do anything for me. 

They meet, they have a one-night stand, she gets pregnant, he’s a perfect man and steps up, they get to know each other throughout the pregnancy, fall in love, and have a happy ever after. Everything was PERFECT, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it was mostly boring to listen to and I didn’t feel like I had a reason to care.

A lot of this didn’t feel realistic to me at all; there are no bumps on the road and there's nothing to overcome. It's hard to believe that two people who don't know each other and are about to have a baby together love everything about each other, have no issues at all, and the only problem is the FMC's fears and made-up assumptions, which are basically based on nothing because Bo is perfect, so of course they don't bear any weight.

More importantly, I developed no emotional connection to these characters, so I wasn’t moved to even gush or kick my feet. Not only nothing of substance was happening, IMO, but I wasn't invested in the romance. Overall, I didn’t hate it and didn’t love it, it’s just an audiobook I listened to.

Another lovely buddy read with my beautiful, gorgeous book bestie Katey! <3 

Forget Me Not didn't quite reach the standard that Not Another Love Song set for me, but it was still an extremely easy read and I enjoyed most of it. 

One thing Julio Soto can do is write a man who's so fucking pathetic for the woman he loves, it's insane, and I eat that shit up. This MMC is no exception. Also, she can write smut. That said, I don't think the relationship fully worked for me in this one. And if I had to read one more fucking time about how "rock hard" this man got, I would've screamed. Julie really abused that phrase in this book, I fear. 

The miscommunication or rather lack of communication, the FMC's reluctance to behave like a normal person and have consideration for this man, the lack of character or even self-respect this man had just cause he was in love, the lack of self-reflection of the FMC, and the way that things wrapped up just weren't entirely up my alley. 

I had a lot of issues with the FMC in particular and that's not to say I disliked her, I just didn't agree with the way she behaved, and didn't like the way the MMC just took her shit even though it hurt him. I wish the relationship developed a little differently and I wish the ending was actually good. 

Other than that, lol, I had a good time with this. The wedding planning was a good profession for this FMC to have and the drama around that was entertaining, I loved that the MMC was passionate about his work as a florist, his tattoos and their meaning were a nice touch, the smut was nice overall, and these characters had good interactions despite the fact I didn't 100% feel like they worked together for most of it.  

STUNNING. This was dramatic, tragic, moving, beautiful, and just delicious. I loved what Olivie Blake did with the elements from Romeo and Juliet, and how she created her own world and story. It feels very unique. 

I wasn't immediately into it, it took me a little while, but from one moment to the next, I was fully immersed. I thoroughly enjoyed the juicy drama between the families, the plotting and twists, the intense romances, and how things played out in the end. 

The writing is BEAUTIFUL. Like, holy shit! I highlighted so much and I'm pretty sure I would highlight and underline so much more on a reread. I loved this. Finally, a good book after a few duds back to back!

I'm truly loving this manga. It's so dark and tragic but also... fun? Can I say that? lol

It seems I'm on a bad streak... I really didn't like this to the point where I feel like all the booktubers I usually align with who loved this book lied about how great they thought it was. 

The way that you have to suspend disbelief for this story to work at all is what got me. I just couldn't do it. The idea of a 6-year-old kid (no matter how fucked up he may be by his abusive and psychopathic father) being able to easily murder a couple of adults and hunt down all the kids in his class and murder quite a few of them in gruesome ways was so ludicrous to me. 

And, hey, I've been down the true crime rabbit hole. I know kids are capable of doing awful things to other kids and the odd adult. But at 6? Give me a break. If they were at least 10 years old and the deaths were a little more plausible, I think that would've worked much better. 

Another issue I had is that the writing wasn't my cup of tea at all. The way sentences were built and the way it was narrated was very strange to read. It felt... generated. It might have been the translation, and that's a shame cause I'm not rereading this book in French to find out if it's any better that way. 

Even if that wasn't an issue, the way that the story switches POV often from one paragraph to the next was messy. Worst of all, these characters were just words on a page and that's unacceptable. I should care about them cause they're small children dying in awful ways, but I couldn't have cared less cause they didn't feel like people. 

I just... no. This didn't work for me and it was a 5-star prediction based on what I had heard about it. 

ARC review; thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Mar 25, 2025. 

"Mare of Easttown meets The Outsider" is GENEROUS, in my opinion. This was okay, but it didn't reach the level of either of those references. Not at all. 

There were some really creepy and tense moments here and there, but overall, I can't say this made a huge impression on me. We have a small, backward little town, a family in turmoil for quite a few reasons (mainly the tragic loss of a son), a gruesome murder, kids that went into the woods at night and didn't come back the same, etc. All the makings of a fine horror story. 

I liked that this draws from Appalachian folklore because I find Appalachian folklore to be extremely unsettling and creepy, but I gotta say, I've been more scared by TikTok videos about Appalachian folklore than I was by this book. So this didn't really hit the mark for me. I wanted more. 

The family drama was also a bit lackluster for me. Maybe it's because I didn't actually care about these characters and their relationship. I could empathize with the loss of their son, but I don't feel like I was made to care about them as people. Overall, this isn't a bad book, it just felt very middle-of-the-road.