thattheatrekid's reviews
121 reviews

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

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

3.5

Didn’t love this book, didn’t dislike it. The concept was interesting.
Things I didn’t like:
- world building - things were taken for granted that made me go “huh??” such as the North just making people forget random stuff
- pacing - very very weird. Would have dragging scenes (like the crypt scene), then a day-by- day pace, then randomly skip months or weeks. 
- attempted romance- obviously there’s an enemies to lovers plot going on, and usually I’m a sucker for that, but I didn’t like the love interest. He was selfish and anytime he and Eva had a “moment” it was him being manipulative
- Eva is naive and dense. Like yeah she’s a teenage girl but some of her decisions were extremely naive
- the ambassador thing didn’t make a lot of sense since we never hear from the people she’s representing again. Politically what does this mean for her hometown if she’s marrying the king???
The good:
- interesting mystery storyline
- elements of intrigue and fantasy 
- the Fates thing 
- the stepsister side plot 

Overall decent read and I’ll read the next one, but it could be better
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Maryanne Vollers, Yeonmi Park

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Beautiful memoir. The trafficking situation in China is absolutely heart shattering and I can’t imagine the amount of people in despair as I write this. NK has always been on my heart since I was at least 12 and the stories of defectors will always inspire me. I thought it was so cool how Yeonmi did a DTS! I hope a door opens in the future for me to help advocate for North Koreans.
Do Not Be True to Yourself: Countercultural Advice for the Rest of Your Life by Kevin DeYoung

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informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.0

Eh. Nothing remarkable. Read like a lecture from a well-meaning pastor. When you go to college, go to church and read your Bible or you’ll lose your faith. It wasn’t necessarily wrong but it also was nothing new; I’ve had dozens of these lectures already. In any case I read it in like 20 minutes and it was fine
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

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adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! Similar to Rumpelstiltskin and Persephone. The world building was phenomenal.
I liked the POVs but the end wasn’t satisfying. I wanted to see the rest of Irina’s story!! And the tsar’s character arc.  I was most invested in their story and then the end was unclear. I didn’t like how Wanda was never really fleshed out. She seemed naive and childish even though her childhood forced her to grow up fast. Sergey could have used development too. This book wasn’t what I was expecting but it was a good read. Just could have had less going on because it seemed too complex for the amount of pages it got.
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The first part of the book was quite promising. It was adventurous, the characters were likable, and there were some great motives. I LOVED part 2 where it expanded more on the magic system. It gave me Starless Sea vibes, which is another of my favorite books. But then the plot got jumbled to me in part 3 (it felt like a too-long movie action scene), the magic was almost never used even though one of the characters had access to it, and some characters were introduced that ended up not being in the story again (like the prince Evelyn was supposed to marry, or Xenobia). I also think the ending was ambiguous…what happens to Rake and Alfie? 

Also, I think Flora and Evelyn fell in love way too fast but more time passed than were shown so it’s possible.

I liked this book and it had the perfect air of adventure I was in the mood for, but it also lacked something big and I can’t pinpoint what.
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She Gets the Girl by Alyson Derrick, Rachael Lippincott

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Decent read! I needed something light after a lot of heavier books so this was perfect. 
The characters were heavily relatable and realistic. Molly annoyed me sometimes but I can’t really be mad because I used to struggle with severe social anxiety and was just as irritating. The chemistry was cute. But
it was weird how Natalie at the beginning seemed to just be an in love girl who felt hurt, and at the end she gets turned into an utter villain. It’s a little too convenient. But also I know our perspective of her shifts with Alex’ so that might explain it.

Other thing, the whole internalized racism thing on Mollys mom was random and did not seem realistic to me. It felt thrown in there as a talking point and the execution was poor.

I also liked Alex’ story with her mom. It gave her motives and a life outside of Molly and was exceptional, not to mention realistic. Sadly I have a friend who was in a similar situation and it looks a lot like this.


Something I did appreciate was the author’s constant description of what the characters were wearing/looked like. I didn’t realize how much this helped bring the story to life. A lot of authors leave that stuff to the imagination but with these descriptions I was able to vividly imagine the characters. 

Overall a nice light read but probably won’t read again. This did help me get into romcom books though, which I never thought I’d like.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a beautiful, moving, heartbreaking, masterful book. This told the story of WW2 through the eyes of the French and was an insightful glimpse into how slowly but insidiously the Holocaust progressed. There were some scenes that were graphic and I cried a lot through the book, but the character and story arcs were immaculate. The pacing was also very smooth, despite covering long periods of time and even jumping into the future for some chapters. 

The only pitfalls of this book were that it was hard to get into because it started rather slow, and it got a little preachy in its feminist messaging at times. But I truly loved this story.
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The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
I just ran out of time to finish this. Interesting concept and maybe I’ll pick it up again someday.
The Names of the Dead by Kevin Wignall

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.
Murder mysteries really aren’t my thing but I tried
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.
Had to return to the library and was way less engaged. I hope to try again sometime though.