readtotheend's reviews
1389 reviews

Quite an adventure and very well researched - I learned a lot about the 1700s and the Grand Tour that privileged young men often took after they finished their schooling. I loved the queer representation and appreciated the insights on race and race relations at the time as one of the characters is bi-racial and we see him encounter racism in their journey.  It's a lot of fun, kind of a queer grown up version of Enola Holmes vibes too.  Lots of hijinks and pirates and adventures!  But again, throughout it all we get a bit of history with it.  I felt it was a touch too long but otherwise think it's a wonderful addition to YA historical fiction!

Wow, there's a lot of characters in this one.  I definitely needed to start this one reading in print to get the characters straight in my head but once I started reading it wasn't hard to do. There were a few times I had to flip back to re-read a section but the chapters are pretty short and it just took a glance through to reacquaint myself. It was quite masterful how all the connections between the characters came together in the end.  Did we need ALL the characters? Not sure we did but it did give a really great job of taking us from the 1850s to present day (2019) which is not an easy task!  Perfect title for this one. The story had me engaged the whole time and there were times I did not want to put the book down.  I love that feeling!  Once I kinda got a sense of the characters, I alternated with audio and print and the audiobook narration was great.

This book is set in 1970s Nigeria and we can see the tensions between the white American missionaries and the community they are there to serve and themes of faith, identity and cultural tensions are explored. I always thought Korean culture and Nigerian culture had a lot in common and it appears a history of missionaries is also something they both have in common.  This felt long at times and one of the main characters, Tebeya and her storyline didn't really seem that necessary for the rest of the story.  I preferred to read this one in print.

Easy to read little friends to lovers hockey romance that flew by.  Almost comfort reading with the yummy pies, hockey players and small town setting. It felt like it could write itself.  Oh yeah and add in the typical characters who are clearly in love but can't get it out thing that often happens. It truly was just comfort reading to cozy up on the couch with. I can't recommend this on audio though because when the narrator took on Jake's voice, I could not stand it!!  I had to switch to print because it grated on me but I realize this is a very personal thing so you may be just fine with it.  But listener be warned! :) 

I really enjoyed diving into Ebby Freeman's family history , learning about the very special heirloom jar that was passed down for six generations. The jar's history includes Ebby's great-great-grandfather, Willis Freeman, who was an enslaved man. We go between past and present timelines and this book explores themes of grief, trauma, racism and heritage. I loved Black Cake by Wilkerson and was really happy to hear her author's voice in this book as well. She has a way of really bringing historical fiction to life. If you love historical fiction and family stories, you should pick this one up! It was equally great on audio and in print.

I had not read much at all about the siege of Sarajevo that occurred from 1992-1996 which was part of the Bosnian War.  I got a small glimpse of what that time period was like in Sarajevo through Zora, a Bosnian Serb artist living in Sarajevo at the time.  The book started out slow for me but then picked up until the very end. For me, I think once I read the reference to what black butterflies were, I just got swept into the story.  There aren't chapters - more like 5 sections which makes it challenging to go between audiobook and physical reading. I'd recommend this one in print. 

This was such a fun YA K-drama read! Although it's not a surprise to anyone who follows Korean entertainment, it definitely shows the pressure in the Korean entertainment industry. I love the childhood friends to lovers trope and it felt natural and not forced. I also really appreciate the audiobook narration having correct Korean pronunciation which hasn't always been the case in my experience. I felt like this really portrayed Korean-American teen life well. Even the church references and the moms all felt familiar to me. Definitely recommend this one for a fun, easy, romantic read!

Overall a perfectly fine romance read but nothing too exciting.  It wasn't even that long but it felt long at times maybe because it felt very formulaic?  I get impatient when two people are so clearly into each other but insist they're not sure how the other feels. Very mis-communication-y and I don't love that.  It was steamy and the audiobook narration was great so I did get through it pretty quickly but again it just felt longer than it actually was.

This is a middle grade novel about a girl's grief journey. Suzy loses someone who was close to her and tries to wrap her head around why her friend, Franny, is gone. I think there were lots of realistic scenes and situations and I'm always glad to see middle grade books hit on topics like grief so that kids can feel less alone.  The audiobook narration was great and this has been adapted into a play that's showing locally so I'm interested to see how it translates on the stage.  

This was kind of ridiculous. Things felt like they were made up to just conveniently help the story along.  This was my first Feeney and it wasn't a very good impression. The audiobook narration was great and there's some extra sound effects that were nice and I thought the cover was amazing but the actual story was weak.  I definitely got influenced to pick this one up because everyone seemed to be posting about it but alas, it did not work for me.