readerlatte's reviews
236 reviews

My Review: This was such a cute little book. I loved it so much but did have a few issues with it. I have to say that it was a little off putting to read about a set of parents that didn't get their daughter the glasses she needed. Many times during the story Mei talked about how she couldn't see something because of her bad eyes. If this is the real way this culture is for those families that are I fear for these children. How are they supposed to get this amazing education if they can't even see right?

Ok so my rage for glasses is now over. Other than that these parents were so in this story that it kind of makes up for all the other stories out there where the parents are not there. The other characters were great to. I really wished that Mei would have taken a hold of her own life and just told her parents how she really felt. There comes a time at an age where you just need to do what you want. You are almost an adult or you are one and its time to cut the cord.

The story itself was really good. There were a few parts that were kind of stagnate and I think this one could have been a little shorter. But all in all it was still a very cute story.



Go Into This One Knowing: Slight Child Abuse, Family Relationships, Overbearing Parents, Light Insta-Love

My Review: First off this is totally a book for those who love hacking. It brought back memories of that old movie Hackers that I fell so in love with I think it was in the 90's. It also is a great story about sex education and how important it is. I think this one would be an amazing story for teens of high school to read. It is just so important especially in our day and age for this story to be told.

Schools need to get away from thinking of sex as evil. Telling kids just don't do it and start accepting it for what it is. Sex isn't the enemy miss information and people being to embarrassed to ask questions is the issue. I love the parts in this where Amber is talking to her mom. They are open and honest about sex and they are both better for it. Have an open policy with your kids about this topic (really any topic). I love that my daughter's know that they can come to me and talk about sex and anything else. It's not taboo, or shameful, or nasty, its part of life and more people need to accept that. Your kids will be safer if they can come to you with their questions.

Another part of this book is about rape. So be warned, Amber goes through a lot of PTSD (lightish vs. other books about this topic.). But I think the author did a wonderful job with the micro flashbacks and Amber talking about it. Another great message in this story is that it doesn't matter if you are a girl or a boy rape is rape and no means no. My best advice about going out and parting is to always make sure your drink in moderation (if you drink at all). Know your limits!! And always do the this rule of thumb! It might sound lame but it will keep you safe.

Drink Rules: 1 Alcoholic Drink, 1 Glass of Water, 1 Snack or some kind of food, wait a minimum of 1 hour before you repeat this cycle. This gives your body enough time to to start breaking down the alcohol in your system.

One letter that Amber answered in this story is about a girl who is forced to change her shirt because she is showing to much skin. However the boys are allowed to go shirtless. This reminded me of an issue that was going on at a local high school here a few years ago. Girls were singled out and told that they could no longer show their collarbones. Which is so stupid. I totally agree with what Amber told the girl to do that to use her social media and her voice. Because we as women and girls are NOT a distraction.

The story itself was great. With all the elements it had the only one I kind of had an issue with was Dean. Don't get me wrong he was an awesome boy but I found myself just not enjoying his chapter as much as Ambers. By the end of the book I did warm up to his part of the story and it really started to unfold and made more sense since it gave us information that we wouldn't have known. So when it all went down we already knew who knew what.

There is just so much to say about this important novel. But I just do not have the words to say it all here. This is just one of those stories that you need to read. Buy it for your daughters and sons and your schools and libraries!! Get it into the hands of teens because that is where it will do the most good.


Go Into This One Knowing: Dual POV, Sex Education, Hacking, Attempted Rape (PTSD Flashbacks), Doesn't Shy Away from Hard Topics,

My Review: I wanted to love this one so much. I mean the cover was just so pretty and I love stories about sisters, magic, and magical creatures. But I have to say that this one started out pretty well with some info dumping but the author started out with this being done in a way that I wanted to learn more. But the closer I crept towards 60 pages I just found myself wanting to skim the pages because it was just dragging so bad. After that I was just kind of done. The dual POV wasn't right for this story if you ask me. I would have much rather had the story all in Veronyka's as I was really interested in her part of the story and really didn't care about the other guy who I have to say wasn't even in the description of this title. So that was kind of weird.

For me I really just wished that this book would have been faster.


Go Into This One Knowing: Dual POV, Slow Plot, InfoDumping

I really wanted to love this. It starts out with a girl who was a tree who turns into a girl and I was like YES PLEASE!! This is like totally new and fresh. But, shortly after that this book started going downhill. I could get behind her going to where she was being pulled to and I really loved all the characters but the story/plot itself just wasn't working for me. At one point they have to put their trip on hold because all of a sudden there is a plot twist that really just made this one fall apart.

This is the issue that I have with indie books some are really good and then you get the ones that failed to really work. I think that if the author went back and did some major edits and just cleaned up the pacing etc. That this could be an amazing title. But as it sits for at least me it just failed to give me what I was looking for.

My Review: In this gripping story about a girl recovering from an abusive boyfriend finds herself living in a haunted house.

Man I knew that Vega wouldn't let me down with this one. It was so good!! I love how she can take 250 pages and turn it into such a vast story with so much emotion. The only thing I did feel was left out was Hendrick's ex boyfriend. We learn a lot about how he was so obsessed with her and he only lives about 4 hours away. So why didn't he show up? I think that would have added just one more aspect part of this story. Without it that the story felt a little less important at least on the side that Hendricks was always afraid that he was going to show up.

The rest of the story was so amazing!! We get this awesome cast of characters that are spunky and nice and then the lone boy that has a bad past. I loved everyone but this does have a bit of insta-love. I'm not sure how long Hendricks really speaks to Eddie in this one as we don't get a lot of time line related things. But by the end he is professing his love for her and it just feels like its been about a month or so. And they didn't really spend all that much time together. I do think that if the story would have been just a little longer so they could have spent more than a hot second together that this would have made more sense. So for me the romance in this one was a little over the top but what are you going to do?

The twist in this one was out of this world. Like REALLY!! It deals with ghosts and a little girl who had been killed a few years prior and how her killer was found, released, and then he killed himself. I really enjoyed how this one started. It really got the story moving in a very suspenseful way. And by the end when its revealed where and who the ghosts are I was just like wait WHAT!! Because I really didn't connect something that had happened earlier in the story with the ghosts. So that was so awesome! Thinking about this now there was one other thing that wasn't tied up by the end of this story. I won't put it here as I don't want to spoil anything but the real killer who was still around. The story never said what happened to them. Were they prosecuted? Did they get off Scott free? I would really like to know.

All in all this was one spooky story with ghosts, young love, recovery, and friendship.



Go Into This One Knowing: ghosts, young love (insta-love), recovery, friendship, PTSD, Abusive Relationship mentioned (happened in past)

My Review: Wow just WOW I really thought I wasn't going to love this book as it was not in the same POV as book one. But I learned really quickly that I loved this character just as much or more than book one. I will say that parts of this story took me by surprise. I was shocked when a certain thing was told and it really really shocked me. You can find out the spoiler here.

Spoiler

I am horrible at names. But its the guy that wants to force the Duchess to marry him. Anyway, he kills Sybella's baby girl by snapping her neck and this was very shocking to have in this title. I mean it fit but it was still very disturbing for me to read.

Other than that one part in the book this one broke my heart and then put it back piece by broken piece. I really felt for Sybella and what she was going through. Because, although she was trying to keep her sister's safe as well as the Duchess etc. She was torn on what she should do and what choice she should make. She was more like a mother to these girls than an older sister and it just made me feel so much for her. I know that I would go to the ends of the Earth to keep my girls safe.

I will say that this one felt like it had just a little more depth just because of everything that she had been through. Unlike in Grave Mercy with Ismae, Sybella has lived in this horrible world and has done unspeakable things. This story really went from an innocent character in Ismae to this world-worn character Sybella and I loved every second of it.

I am now very excited to read the last book as again we get a character change but this time we have Annith who has never left the convent EVER.

My Review: This book took me a little longer to finish but I finally did it and it was totally worth the journey it took to get to the end. I could not put this one down and every chance I could get I picked it back up to read a little more. This story is so much more than just a story. Its where the tide turns for all of the characters and you read this one at the edge of your seat. It is full of twists, some gore, and depth and as I reached the end was why this is an epic fantasy!! I really loved how we got more than one story in this title. The introduction of Manon Blackbeak was brilliant and exciting and gave this book the edge to make it amazing.


Go Into This One Knowing: Twists, Very Light Romance, Multi POVS/Stories, Cliffhanger Light

My Review: I really wonder if any of these titles won't make me cry. This book shocked and delighted me to no end. There were a lot of times where I would scream out either to say NO or YES!! Where the last book left me with a feeling of so much hope. This one left me feeling very scared of how it was all going to end. We get revolations on what has to happend for these people to save the world and its so much worse than I could ever have imagined.




Go Into This One Knowing: Griping, Twists and Turns, and ONE Killer Ending!!