moonlightjuju's reviews
110 reviews

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


This book gave me so many emotions from start to finish.  Audrain writes gripping story of motherhood, mental health, and adultery.

This book provides a jarringly accurate portrayal of the thoughts/feelings women often go through after traumatic pregnancies/births and the effect this has on their family and the bond with they have with their child. 

This book follows the shame, self-doubt, and isolation that comes with regretting motherhood, which became heavy at some points. This book does a beautiful job at encapsulating the negatives that can come with motherhood. This book does the rare job of exposing this

Now with characters 
Fox was so unsupportive and seemed to only want a child,
then cheating on his wife after the lost of a child was horrible in more ways then one. 

This book does a great job handling the first person POV. It was interesting reading from a first person‘s point of view that included the character being an , unreliable source. Readers are left questioning whether or not the daughter Violet is truly evil or if this is all overly exaggerated due to the underlining issues, the main character is going through. I absolutely LOVED the name Violet for as long as I can remember from The Series of Unfortunate Events to Ultraviolet, but this Violet made my stomach turn
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

Go to review page

adventurous 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

4.0

Took me a while to get into just because I did not like Chaol (still not really a fan of him but I can tolerate him a little more now). I do feel like Sarah has a bad habit of always needing to make couples out of characters, not allowing characters to be on their own once they have grown, it's like their reward is just jumping straight into a relationship. Choal also treats a lot of the women in his life like objects, he lusts after them and then once he gets what he wants he figures out he never really likes them.
For example, When he said he never loved Nesryn and when he went on a whole rant about not being happy that Aelin found Rowan. Chaol is just a very selfish character and to me, he started off a 1/10 and ended off being a 3/10. He is not a character that I can ever find myself respecting due to his treatment of many of the women in the series


Anyway, I was REALLY invested in Nesryn's character development and storyline. TOD does a great job at exploring her WITHOUT Chaol and I am happy with where her story left off.

One thing I was not expecting was the twist with who the villain was, however, I am VERY tired of Sarah "killing" characters just to bring them back to life 2 pages later, tbf it's getting old and it no longer keeps me at the edge of my seat because I KNOW she won't let that character REALLY die.

I'm looking forward to finishing the story and I can't wait to see all the characters brought together again.
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Go to review page

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

3.5

Beautifully written and I really couldn't put it down. The sister is an unlikeable character, maybe that's why I didn't give it 5 stars. Would make a great movie.
Romanov by Nadine Brandes

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

I love reading about the revolutions and historical fiction and this was a very interesting take on what happened with the once two missing bodies of the Romanovs. Loved the mix of magic, I will look into more stories written by this author.
Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Go to review page

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

4.0

I really did like the multiple POV's, beautifully written, and full of tragedy due to many misunderstandings with the main characters and those around them. Saint never misses the mark with these retellings.
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Go to review page

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

4.0

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

Go to review page

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.0

This book started off, fairly slow for me compared to the others in the series. However, I did enjoy it as it started to pick up pace and the action was AMAZING.  I love the character development of each character that we become attached to however, one thing that did irk me while reading was the amount of sex that was in some chapters. Some of the sex scenes just didn’t seem to make sense due to characters being in the middle of war or something drastic happened in their lives, and then switching over to a sexual scene. The romance in this series is a plus, however, I do personally read and love the Throne of Glass series because of how action-packed it is and how brilliant Sarah is at world-building. I found this to be very similar to ACOTAR in A Court of Silver Flames, where it seemed like the unnecessary sex, plot points took away from the work as a whole, which is why I do not give this the full 5 stars. 
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Wow. This book blew me out of the water, I could not put it down and NOT think about it. Growing up watching Jennette McCurdy daily, watching everything that went down on social media, and reading it through Jen's POV was just wow. This book is divided into the first half which describes the abused experienced by her mother to the second half (after), which describes the after-effects. Jennette's journey through fame and adulthood is a tough one, yet beautifully written and I am so happy she has been able to find her voice and tell her story.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black

Go to review page

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

This story doesn't add or take away anything from the series, which is why I give it a 3, however, it was nice being a part of the Elfhame world again and reading through the characters I love.
The River of Silver by S.A. Chakraborty

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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

Wasnt as strong as the books before it, however I did enjoy the read.