readundancies's reviews
1686 reviews

It’s way too long, I’m overly bored and the catalysts of Bibi and Brady are not worth the whole fake dating scheme in the first place.

Imagine if Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos infamy was implicated in a murder scandal involving a disgruntled 'quasher' ex-employee with an overly critical Twitter account alongside a bit of a lost and newly pregnant 'quester' employee whose naivety is easily manipulated. That is the basis of Snake Oil and it executes it all with a sinister aplomb.

We're treated with three female perspectives: Rhoda, the CEO and founder of the wellness company Radical; Cecilia, a Radical employee living with chronic pain who most definitely does not believe in the product she is pushing with an anonymous Twitter account called @radicalidiocy which eventually leads to her firing; and Dani, another Radical employee who wholeheartedly believes in being a Radigal and is taking a part in one of their trials for a new product without informing anyone that she is newly pregnant. Every character is morally grey, every character is truly unlikable yet compelling, and every character has a secret that eventually comes to light.

While it starts off a bit slow, the writing has this sort of menacing tone that slowly took over my brain as the plot unfolded and kept me hooked. I haven't read a thriller in a while that's managed to grip me so expertly, especially when considering the fact that I really didn't like any of the characters at all, but I could understand them and their motivations and that made all of the difference. The pace was consistent, the plot was engaging, and the writing had some really hard-hitting lines that I found myself really enjoying and wanting to highlight and underline in vain since I read off of a library copy.

Now the reason why this wasn't perfect was because I pretty much saw all of the twists  coming - when the initial death happened, the red herring that was placed was not something I believed for an instant, and the tiny clues that cropped up which led to the reveal of the actual villain and killer were obvious even if they never really piqued my interest at first. And the choice of villain was not very inspired at the end of the day, and felt a bit cheap in the sense that it felt like a cop-out to not only implicate the villain in terms of their sex but also off them with no true consequences for the murderer. There really is the whole "getting away with murder" trope right at the end, like literally, but I will say it was juxtaposed with the birth of Dani's child quite nicely to close the story off.

And while I didn't love how this ended, I still really enjoyed my time with this read a lot more than I anticipated, and in a manner that I wasn't quite expecting. Not sure who I'd recommend it to, but if a less than lacklustre ending doesn't deter you from a story, this literary thriller may work really well for you. I'll definitely be looking for more from Kelsey Rae Dimberg in the future.

This is technically a cozy romance, but what it really is, is a soft romance.

And it’s beautiful. I loved the slow burn buildup between Aiden and Lucie; the way Aiden clearly fell first but buried his head in the sand and how Lucie surrounded herself with her love for others until she was so suffocated beneath that love for others that she had to be forced to learn to love herself enough to allow someone else to do it.

I loved the writing, the clear homage to Sleepless in Seattle but kind of a more modern take, the honesty and genuine sense of hope that permeated from each page of the radio show, the nostalgia that felt built into the characters. 

I especially loved how I absolutely adored every single relationship that was in this story. In fact, the only reason I can’t justify a full 5-stars is because I needed a little bit more from the female best-friendship in Patty and Lucie. It felt like the weakest connection in the story because there just wasn’t enough page time to really settle into, but I still liked what I saw.

The pace was slow but sedate, and it never felt like it was dragging. At just under 450 pages I genuinely could have done with more, and that’s rare for a romance with me as I tend to find they can feel bloated when conflict becomes repetitive just for the sake of drama.

I’ve not come across a romance that I’ve enjoyed as much as this one in quite a while, but you can bet I’ll be checking out more of B.K. Borison in the future because I adored this one.

I’ve read a decent number of P&P variations by Alix James, and what I’ve learned about her writing is that she tends to shine with her high plot stories.

This one is the perfect example of that - the characters are true to their original counterparts despite having very different circumstances in which they initially meet with one another and the plot stays engaging without becoming overly dramatic.

The overall lack of Bennets was welcome, Georgiana’s subplot was rather lacklustre considering she only appeared maybe twice, and I enjoyed how Darcy and Lizzy were forced to work with one another in order to become acquainted enough to fall in love, even though it was overly contrived with ease.

I’m not sure how re-read worthy this variation is, but I still enjoyed my time with it and would not deter anyone from picking it up.

This was just pure straight good vibes.

I didn’t connect with the characters but I still liked them. I didn’t love the romance but it made sense. I didn’t completely agree with how things ended, but the ending was everything I needed from the story as a whole. 

The sibling dynamics were solid, the family ones were complicated but still heartfelt and meaningful and the romance between Nami and Jae just worked so well for them as a couple. It was cute as heck even though I didn’t wish it for it myself.

Not sure why this is rated so lowly because this definitely has an audience and I hope it finds it.

There is nothing that makes me madder than stakes that don’t matter in a story. And this story, is basically the epitome of that.

So yeah. I hated this. Like I’m fucking fuming right now about how much I dislike the fact that I decided to pick this up and then finish it.

I should’ve DNF’d it, thought it would maybe make it to the 2-star point but no, I can’t justify it.

This is the cast of Pride and Prejudice set in the plot of A Cinderella Story. Like to a T.

And while I love me a good mashup story, it takes a special combo of stories and the right writer to make one shine.

This one was just okay.

There's no Wickham, Mary plays a very minimalist role to Kitty's somewhat redeemable one, and all in all, it was what I expected. 

Barely enough backstory, far too much gore, and absolutely no rhyme or reason to the h8 that was created, and I love it for that.

Is it just me wishing that the intrusive thoughts had taken Abe over at the end though? I feel like it could’ve perpetuated the myth behind the license plate which would’ve really worked for me.

Other than that, another winner from Nat Cassidy - I’m all aboard this hype train.