sony08's reviews
677 reviews

Celestial Academy: Essence by Olivia Pharos

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adventurous funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

What can I say.

True story of nine women, working for various resistant groups in France,  surviving number of prisons and camps, the death March and escape through worn torn German countryside and all to find their freedom again at the end of Secind World War. 
Šikmý kostel 3 by Karin Lednická

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

5.0

The Registration by Madison Lawson

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 This was ok. The concept is excellent, the story line great overall, there are just bits that let it down and big part of the let down are the dialogs and the ease with which the ending was formed.

The dialogs were very young in language and the ending was too abrupt and too easy after all the build up in the book. 
Verity by Colleen Hoover

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

4.0

Definitely one of the stranger thrillers I have read, but I liked it. It leaves you wondering and doubting everything you have read and has a very clever ending. 
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

What a gem of a book, I am so happy I finally picked this up. Genius move to write a book entirely in form of letters and give reader insight into occupation and life after WW2. Julie is a lovable character and so are all her new and old friends.
Just pure, sometimes heartbreaking, joy of a story
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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

5.0

Fabulous. What can I say, such a different concept but written so well. Dealing with depression, suicide, choices and regrets and kind of showing that grass might look greener on the other side but for how long. 
The Girl In The Basement by Eoin Dempsey

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is frustrating. The full plot of the book only happens in about 20% of the book, the rest is filled with high school American football and Ellie's dramatic inner voice.

The book starts of well, telling us Ellie has clearly been kidnapped. It then jumps back six month and goes through her meeting Josh Thomas, the new school football star and quarterback and the start and progress of their relationship. The reader certainly learns a lot about football and fanatical parents.

The concept is brilliant, Ellie get's kidnapped and twenty years later the same happens to her daughter - coincidence? I think not. I just feel so much of the book was wasted on teenage drama that wasn't actually necessary for the reader to experience. And the interesting bits i.e. Ellie's capture, was very short lived and almost skipped over.

I read it so 3*, but not the thriller I thought this would be - most of the book reads more like a young adult genre. 
Moonstone by Laura Purcell

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

 
Reading this as an adult I can see the simplicity of the story, however, thinking about reading this as a young adult, which this is targeted too, I would have loved it. 
The pace goes between slow and fast as the story progresses. The ‘secret’ seems quite obvious from the start, but the development of the story is presented really well. I enjoyed this book even as an adult. It’s a bit of an escapism into a world of YA fantasy. 
I liked Camille as the main character, she had her human flaws like naivety, but she was brave, head strong and not afraid to get stuck in. She was also kind and understanding and I felt she questioned things for all the right reasons. Lucy was clearly trapped in a very sad world her mother Rowena and Bridget created for her to keep her safe and Camille became the one bright star in the darkness. 
I would certainly recommend this to any budding young adult reader, who would like to delve into mystical creatures fantasy genre, it’s a great start into this world and a thoroughly enjoyable read.