ong's reviews
107 reviews

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Go to review page

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

5.0

[re-read] What is there to say that haven’t been said about this book. Peak dystopian-fantasy. Incredible.
Charming Your Dad by Sarah Blue

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.
i tried. really not my cup of tea. this is just porn with a plot.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling

Go to review page

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

4.75

This definitely best the first book for me. Checks every one of my boxes for a romance + low-fantasy. Chef’s kiss, incredible, 10/10 would absolutely recommend. Also whenever they do the deed it took everything in me to not break my e-reader in half. Absolutely love everything them.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Go to review page

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

0.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Witch, Please by A.J. Macey, Jarica James

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
the tropes were super intriguing. but i should’ve known a book was going to be bad when it’s all written on the last paragraph of the blurb as bait.
just too cringey. badly written. feels like a bad first-time fanfiction author’s writing and that’s just not worth anyone’s time.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

The beginning was a bit hard for me to read through. Just something about it was making me put down the book again after reading just a couple of paragraphs. It might just be the fact that I’m still trying to get out of a reading slump, though.

But after the first few chapters, holy hell. I couldn’t stop reading. It didn’t even feel like reading. The story flows so smoothly, it’s immersive, cozy, relatable, heart-warming, and has its gut-wrenching bits. The author’s language was sometimes hard for me to follow as I am not a native English speaker, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Also the book definitely made me go on trips to bakeries & cafes more often.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

As a fantasy, it did it’s job. I just read this book because it’s been floating around and ofc on my radar as a fantasy + romance + fae stories enjoyer. 

edit [7/11/23]: Too bad the author is a fucking zionist.
Changing Beauty by C.M. Owens

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

i hate self depricating MCs so starting this book was definitely hard for me. i get it if she just wants to focus on college or whatever, but after reading the sentence “no sense in torturing myself over someone who doesn’t find me all that appealing” because he called her sweet and not-for-him, and knowing it’s thad he’d say it not in a bad way, irks me. like UGH fine here we go. but i should’ve known a cocky confident character would be paired with an insecure one.
i  love her character development (redevelopment?) though.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Dark Beauty by C.M. Owens

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

the moment i read “”But I bet she doesn’t know who killed her parents, does she?”” i wanted to gauge my eyeballs out. if i have to go through another ‘oh no the love of your life is actually guilty of all your pain and suffering, and they kept that from you! don’t you feel SOOO betrayed now?’ trope i will actively resurrect c.m. owens and make her rewrite the whole thing, respectfully. but thank god it was just his evil mom.
throughout the deadly beauties trilogy, i don’t know how many times i highlighted something and wrote ‘bitch you better be joking’. probably more than 20 times each book. of course, it’s the same with this one.
before i found out this addition to the deadly beauties trilogy exist, i was going to dip my toes into the fanfic-writing pond. i even wrote the prompt already. it was gonna be a self insert oc who’s fated with gage. so when i found this, a scream was scrumpt. it’s like the author wrote this for me. i love her so much and she will be missed everyday.
i kinda hate how gage somehow became even more emo. the line “…let’s face it, i’m cursed. i apparently canmt be with anyone because shit always falls apart at the seams.” irks me so bad. i hate those type of boys so much. like boo hoo cry me a river now just accept the girl who clearly fucking loves you so much and you love so much and just be fucking happy and work ur ass off maintaining that happiness. like it’s really not that hard / complicated ffs. when kimber said her little speech, i feel like she is me. i am her. good for her. he needed to hear that right in front of his face.
also gage being only around 2 centuries old surprised me. i thought he’d be at least 5 centuries old by the way he kept talking of his past and ‘how old’ he is.
as usual, the fighting scenes are amazing even tho they’re a bit confusing for me to follow at times.
the ending of this book is too anticlimactic for me; gavin didn’t die (and gave some of his powers? or all of the one he got from ‘his master’? to zee), and the mysterious cloaked super-powerful figure who’s been leading this from the shadows (quite literally) is still just a cloaked figure with another dark user henchman. i was hoping we’d have more clues to their identity but oh well.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Go to review page

3.5

dnf’ed twice. couldn’t remember the first 30% of the book. just bizarre.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings