yourbookishbff's reviews
606 reviews

The first 75% of this felt like it was perfectly crafted with every one of my favorite romance microtropes. I was effervescent. Then the final quarter happened and I rage spiraled. You can see the conflict coming from 5000 miles away, and it's a testament to Peckham that it still felt like a gut punch. This man's knees aren't nearly bloody enough by the end, and god I wanted a longer epilogue for Thais (that Rakess epilogue was just so stunning and I needed that level of assurance for our girl). But alas.

This was a perfect teaser to the series (though I read it after completing the full-length installments) and I loved seeing how these two came together (it's heavily hinted at through the series, but seeing the start of their affair is so gratifying). Short and sweet, with classically KJC attention to character development in a handful of pages. And hot! It's hot. I almost want to reread the entire series just to fully appreciate each time Francis calls him "Gabriel." Whew!

A fascinating and action-packed speculative story from NKJ, and while this didn't emotionally level me like The Fifth Season/Broken Earth, I really enjoyed this almost comic-book-esque avatar battle for the city of New York. Even as someone unfamiliar with the unique cultural histories of the boroughs (as an Ohioan who has only experienced New York in a few visits!), I could appreciate how well-drawn these characters were and how nuanced this allegory became through their comradery, competition, conflict and outright collision. Looking forward to the second book/conclusion!

Another gutting collection of poems from Mosab Abu Toha. It's hard to describe how urgent and desperate these poems feel. Where Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear felt more reflective and processed, Forest of Noise is raw in every way.

From "For a Moment:" The girl I carry / is dead, / I know that. / The pressure of the explosion / tore apart her thin veins. / I know she is dead, / but everyone who sees us / runs after us. / You are alive / for a moment, / when living people / run after you.

From "After Allen Ginsberg:" I saw the best brains of my generation / protruding from their slashed heads.

From "Gaza Notebook (2021 - 2023):" At fifth grade, I visit the school library, / On a wall by the door, a poster claims, / "If you read books, you live more than one life." / Now I'm thirty and whenever I look at faces / around me, old or young, on each forehead I read: / "If you live in Gaza, you die several times."

His poetry speaks for itself - it's a necessary collection.

There was a lot I loved in this - Karthik, women getting writing credits they deserve, Karthik, nuanced exploration of family trauma, Karthik! But the distance between the MCs - literally, geographically - meant a lot of state hopping and time apart, and this made the pacing feel inconsistent at times. I wanted more time with the MCs together. I also loathed Seth to a degree that made that entire sub-plot a maddening experience - very intentional (he's an excellent villain), but again, more time with Karthik, less time with Seth, and I would be a happy camper. There were also a few moments that felt a bit out of character for both MCs - times they jumped to conclusions that didn't really track with their deepening friendship or their personalities. All in all, though, this was a lovely debut, and I really enjoyed Kumar's writing style.

I worried this might feel too similar to We Do This Til We Free Us, and I was delightfully wrong. I loved the focus in this particular collaboration, drawing on organizing stories and reflections to specifically inform and uplift current and future organizers (vs. describing a politics of abolition, etc.). There were several moments that deeply resonated with where I've been in the *10 days* of this new administration, calling us to relentlessly believe in a better future while we recognize that a lot of things are really, truly awful right now. Once again, it's a reminder that the racism, classism and fascism we face are not new and not specific to the Republican party, and we're called to continue our work in every administration. This really does feel like a capsule of the conversations you have "on the drive home," and I would highly recommend it to others who desperately want to learn more from those who have committed their lives to abolition and community care. 

This is a short, linear memoir, recounting the author's teenage years and the onset and progression of her OCD during this time. I have been diligently looking for books about OCD that center compulsions other than/beyond hygiene compulsions, and I was so grateful for Bailey's focus on "invisible" mental compulsions. This covers a lot of really helpful territory for OCD nonfiction - giving insight into mental compulsions, "just right" obsessions, and magical thinking, in particular. I appreciated the window Bailey gives into the workings of her mind and how visceral her thoughts feel. It's an incredibly vulnerable approach to her own story and emphasizes the ways in which OCD can be invisible to others until its severity impacts a person's day-to-day life. Her experiences in various inpatient and outpatient treatment programs also underscore just how misunderstood OCD often is, how challenging it can be for people to get an appropriate diagnosis and CBT, and how often people with OCD end up lumped into talk therapy treatments for generalized anxiety (which is not typically recommended for OCD treatment, for reasons Bailey explicitly evidences in her own account). This is written while she's still fairly young, so it isn't far-reaching, but it's a first-person account I'm grateful for (and wish I had had when I was younger, frankly). 

I held off reading this for months - renewing my Libby loan over... and over... and over... because The Rakess was SO STRESSY and I wasn't sure when I would be in the right headspace for another installment in this series. And then this was... sweet? And actually pretty low angst? With a golden retriever MMC who is just an absolute goner for the FMC from page one? This wasn't at all what I expected after the asylum break-outs, protests, kidnappings, etc. etc. in book one, and I was grateful for the reprieve. 

Peckham tries to pack a lot into a single book, and to be honest, I really felt like the Duke-undoing-the-dukedom storyline was a little too on the nose and over-simplified to be very memorable. I wish that Rafe's secret identity was actually a point of tension, or perhaps that his double life was less an info-dump at the start and more a gradual discovery? It was underwhelming. I did, however, really enjoy the dual timeline on the romance and felt the push-and-pull between these characters was well-balanced. This is a decent age gap (16 years, and she's 18 in the initial timeline - 38 in the current timeline), but the FMC's clear desire, agency and experience makes it feel far less ick than it may have otherwise. These two are both polyamorous and explicitly discuss their desires for an open relationship, and the HEA ultimately felt really true to how they love and what they want from the relationships in their lives. I enjoyed this (and I LOVE seeing a bi MMC in a historical romance!).

Salt Houses is one of my all-time favorite reads and somehow I struggled to really get into this one at all. I think it's partially the structure that makes the emotional arcs feel more broken for me? The family dynamic has just not felt as compelling and the pace feels too slow. Setting this aside for now.

How to even review this. I absolutely love the premise - gay MMC and bi/pan and aromantic FMC mutually abduct each other into marriage of convenience that becomes more. It is a stunning reminder of how many shapes a happily-ever-after can take, and it is the only romance I've ever read with an aromantic lead. The queer platonic partnership is honestly breathtaking! And the satire! I would argue that this is more regency satire than regency romance, and I'm a-ok with that, because it feels like both a love letter to historical romance and a middle finger to cis and heteronormative stories. 

But will anyone aside from the Hall superfans and ARC readers make it to the 50% mark?! This is 400+ pages and felt (to me) like it could have been 200 pages shorter. The inner monologue detours, the dialogue detours, the freaking DETOURS, I was pulling my hair out. I love Hall's humor but when it's overdone and repetitive it becomes tedious to read. I almost DNF'd multiple times in the first half, despite beautiful prose and moments of really compelling emotional insight because the story arc felt buried under zany asides. The second half had more emotional heft (and felt more linear?), but ultimately it still took several detours to revisit characters from previous books that I wasn't invested in (I read this as a stand-alone, and if the other two in this series feel as disjointed as this one, I will probably call it one and done on this series).

I'm so grateful characters like this have on-page HEAs, and I just wish this had felt more intentional all the way through.

Thank you to the publisher (Montlake) and Netgalley for a complimentary ARC.