wanderingcurls's reviews
483 reviews

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

🐤 Lover Birds Review 🐤

Highlights: 
🐤 Enemies to lovers 
🐤 Sapphic teen romance 
🐤 Sixth form (HS senior year) setting
🐤 Pride & Prejudice-inspired 
🐤 ADHD rep 
🐤 Tutor-tutee dynamic 
🐤 Classism 
🐤 Misunderstandings galore 
🐤 Importance of friendship 

Thanks to @scholastic and @netgalley for the eARC. Lover Birds reminds me of everything I love about Becky Albertalli and Alice Oseman. It captures the messy, sweet, and relatable emotions of sixth-form life with an engaging enemies-to-lovers arc. I appreciated the story’s authentic ADHD representation and  exploration of classism and how they affected the characters’ relationships and lives. Misunderstandings and the importance of friendship play central roles in the story, making it as much about personal growth as romance. It was exactly what I needed to break my reading slump. 

Content warnings: sexual harassment, homophobia, classism, emotional abuse (side character), drinking (note: drinking age in the the UK is 18). 

Publication Date: February 4, 2025 

🏷️: #LoverBirds #LeanneEgan
Darkly by Marisha Pessl

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medium-paced

4.0

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible by Margaret Eby

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funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

  • The author is hilarious.
  •  She's well aware of ableist and classist assumptions around cooking, food insecurity and deserts, cultural nuances, and the diet industrial complex and acknowledges this in the introduction.
  •  Divided into convenient sections: open something, assemble something, microwave something, blend something, and cook something.
  • This book has A LOT OF TEXT! Like a lot. It's not bad, but not what I expected as it wasn’t a standard cookbook structure.
  • It reads more like a food blog that leads into recipes than a straight recipe book. If narratives bug you, this might not be for you.
Also, if you have many dietary limitations like me), you may pick up tips here and there but not be able to adapt many of the ideas because of those restrictions. I did enjoy picking up some tips and the humor and creativity. 
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Look on the Bright Side by Lily Williams, Karen Schneemann

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informative lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Go with the Flow by Lily Williams, Karen Schneemann

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informative 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? No

4.75

Love at Frost Sight by Torie Jean

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lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Daydream by Hannah Grace

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe Liese

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hopeful lighthearted 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

4.25

🪻Once Smitten, Twice Shy ARC Review🪻

Highlights:
🪻Learning to love again
🪻Recovering from a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship (referenced but off-page)
🪻Practice dating
🪻Twelfth Night reimagining
🪻Green flag boyfriend 
🪻Neurodivergent rep (autism)
🪻Chronic illness rep (Celiacs, connective tissue disorder)
🪻Adapting to limitations and slower living
🪻Bisexual rep 
🪻 Cane user
🪻 Overprotective family

Thanks to @berkleypub and @netgalley for the eARC. Once Smitten, Twice Shy is the third in the Wilmot Sisters series, and I relished getting to see Juliet front and center in her own love story after the pain she went through in Book One. I definitely recommend reading the preceding books, Two Wrongs Make a Right and Better Hate Than Never, first, as they’ll help center you in the Wilmont universe. As someone who has also had to adjust to slower living and making accommodations for a later-in-life diagnosis, I found Juliet relatable as she strives to find the balance between accepting and adapting to her diagnosis while also not wanting it to define her or having others treat her with kid gloves. I also adored Will. He was a walking green flag, and I appreciated his growth and self-confidence during his journey to finding love.