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Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 19, 2025 - ★★★★☆

Wow, an enemies to loves where they're actually enemies and lovers! Imagine that!

Rune and Gideon are constantly at odds with not only each other but themselves, making for a wonderful external and internal conflict that rarely feels too forced or unpleasantly melodramatic. It was especially nice to find some nuance and interesting theming in a book that's so popular right now.

And I while the plot is rather predictable, I often found myself very drawn into every scene Rune and Gideon had together. Their chemistry was extremely believable and rewarding and it's what will get me coming back once the second book is out.

As I mentioned above, though, the plot really is by the numbers even if the characters, relationships, and internal conflicts are not, and that's what brought the book's rating down for me.

And even though I like the relationship between Rune and Gideon, the relationship between Rune and Alex is so tired and overdone, as is the love triangle. It all felt a little too reminiscent of Powerless (and therefore Red Queen, oop) and I just could never buy into it. I liked Alex himself well enough, but especially when he wasn't a POV character, I knew he never stood a chance as a suitor.

That all being said, I liked this one and I felt pleasantly surprised by it. Like I already said, I'll definitely be back for the sequel in February!

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Hold Still by Nina LaCour - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 16, 2025 - ★★★★☆

I know, if I had read this back when it was published in 2009 or, at least before I graduated high school in 2012, I would have been besotted with this book.

It hits on the head the ennui of being a teenager in those times as well as the black hole that is the grief of losing someone to suicide.

I've only read one other book of LaCour's, We Are Okay, but between that book and this one, I think LaCour's prose is simple yet dreamy, and she wields it like a weapon, each word cutting, precise.

Time also passes in a way that hurts in this book, the seasons passing both quickly and slowly, each month without Ingrid in Caitlin's life painful, yet time seems to pass by in a single, numb blink of the eyes, the monotony of life without Ingrid felt.

This also was a nostalgic book for me, as I was a teenager in 2009, when this book was written as a contemporary, and there's just something about it and its writing style that reminded me of so many of my favorite contemporaries from when I was younger, like David Levithan, John Green, Rainbow Rowell. Like I said, I would have eaten this book up when I was young.

I also really enjoyed all our characters. Caitlin was very well-realized, her grief so palpable at every turn. Dylan was such a good friend while still being written as a good example of a friend who doesn't always know how to understand or cope with their friend's grief. And man, Taylor! What a guy! So caring, sweet, and understanding. He easily would have been book boyfriend material when I was younger, too.

This was an achingly accurate and heartbreaking portrayal of grief, of growing up when you know your best friend will be forever young and I know I won't forget it. I liked it a lot now, at age 30, but knowing I would have loved it more as a teenager leaves this at an extremely solid 4 stars. Definitely going to read more of LaCour's work after this.

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Gallant by V.E. Schwab - blurrypetals reviw

originally posted jan. 16, 2025 - ★★☆☆☆

Man, I did not care for this. It felt like this book was always on the verge of starting to get good, but then it was over.

I really loved The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but I ended up not wanting to finish A Darker Shade of Magic, so I don't have a great read yet on whether I love her work or not, but she's coming to my hometown in June to promote her upcoming book, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and I absolutely have to get my copy of Addie LaRue signed, so I'm going to try to read as much of her work as I can before June 10th!

And since I already had this one, I figured I'd start here and...well, I probably shouldn't have, since I did not vibe with it. It initially had my interest, as I enjoyed Olivia as a main character and I love a good spooky mystery.

But every single time something started to pique my interest, it didn't go anywhere, especially not quickly. It clearly had inspirations from stories like Coraline, Crimson Peak, The Nutcracker, but even though I love all those things, it never succeeded in being its own thing, nor in having much of a plot, either.

I also didn't care for any of the characters, never felt attached to any of them or wanted anything for them. There's a line late in the book where Olivia remarks that she finally knows what family feels like and I was genuinely struck by that line because it didn't feel like Olivia knew these people or connected with them at all.

The lore and magic didn't strike me or my imagination, either, and that paired with the lack of any clear direction and lovable characters, I just couldn't find anything but the writing style to love here.

I'll definitely be continuing to read more of Schwab's work these next 6 months, but this one definitely wasn't for me. Hopefully I have better luck with the next one, which will probably be Vicious!

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Pretty Furious by E.K. Johnston - blurrypetals

originally posted jan. 14, 2025 - ★★★☆☆

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is one of my all time favorite books, one of my favorite stories of grief, of trauma and working through it was a treat, even in spite of the heavy subject matter. The friendship at the center of it it was particularly fantastic.

So, when I saw this billed as, "a perfect companion to Exit, Pursued by a Bear," I was pretty excited to see some awesome female friendships, perhaps some good female rage. This book certainly has those things, but I think with the framing of the marketing, I was expecting a whole lot more.

Nothing in this book made me feel anything anywhere near as deeply as Exit, Pursued by a Bear did and, on top of it all, most of the wishes ended up feeling a little toothless compared to others. It would just feel like a wish would be made and the plan would go off without a hitch every time.

I also didn't buy into the friendships the same way I did with Polly and Hermione's bond in Exit, Pursued by a Bear and I wish I had been able to love these girls even a fraction as much.

Really, it seems like I just should have read Exit, Pursued by a Bear again instead of expecting another book as good as that to be able to strike twice. Maybe another time, Johnston.

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Never Lie by Freida McFadden - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 13, 2025 - ★★☆☆☆

I didn't hate this book, but I really didn't care for it. It was at least thankfully quite short.

I talked with a friend about McFadden last fall when I read The Housemaid, which I didn't care for due to how predictable its twist was. When my friend said she was a fan, I asked for McFadden's most unpredictable book, since I was tired of guessing just about every thriller I read, and she recommended this one.

And I'll give it to her, I definitely didn't guess the twist, so my friend's recommendation succeeded there, but unfortunately, despite being unpredictable, it just didn't land for me. I still may read more of McFadden's work yet, but I can't say I'm too excited at the prospect.

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The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 11, 2025 - ★☆☆☆☆

This is gonna have to be a big old "oof" from me, dawg. My god this book was rough. Armentrout is clearly spreading a tablespoon of butter across an entire loaf of bread here and I found myself nothing but bored and frustrated for its entire runtime.

It's the longest book in the series to date, not counting the Flesh and Fire books, but now more than any other book I've read before, this book would have been twice as good if it had been half as long, but even then, it still would only have been 3 or 4 stars, it still wouldn't have been as good as the earlier books in the series.

I think the part that bogged me down the most was the writing. Now, Armentrout has never been the most talented wordsmith. I've been reading her books for a long time and, beyond a couple of outliers, she's never been able to stumble her way into what I would call "great writing." That said, she has written many books I enjoyed a lot, never because of her subpar craft, but rather in spite of it. I've always compared her writing to the literary equivalent of a bag of Doritos: they have no nutritional value and you shouldn't live off them, but they're fun and good for a dopamine hit.

While this was true of the first two Blood and Ash books, I do remember finding them a lot more mature than her previous works and finding that she'd grown as a writer since writing The Dark Elements and the Lux series. I didn't love The Crown of Gilded Bone, which is why I took a years-long break from the series, but its writing at least felt on par with the other two books, even if it was boring and slow compared to A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, which I'd consider to be Armentrout's best book (that I've read, at least).

With this book, however, it feels like Armentrout backslid to where she'd started all over again. Any semblance of careful plotting feels like it went out the window along with any willpower to build good romantic tension or ability to have any decent exposition or prose. Not only was the writing poor, but the editing was abysmal. It feels like Poppy had no personality beyond "grr stabby stabby", wanting to fuck Casteel and Kieran all the time, feeling ether, and tasting others' emotions. She repeats those characteristics over and over again and, on top of that, it's poor writing. I lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes over the way she described sensing everyone's emotions; it was so goddamn groan-worthy and disgustingly overabundant. I don't need to hear about the nutty taste of resolve every other conversation. This is the reason this book is too damn long and it absolutely should have been edited down or, even better, cut out completely.

I remember a time where I enjoyed Poppy as a main character, how she had a lot more depth and character to her than Armentrout's other heroines, but I don't know what happened to that Poppy. She certainly didn't grow to this point. Instead, she seems far more like a caricature of other badass romantasy heroines, copying others' homework without understanding why it works with those characters instead of using the building blocks to make Poppy her own character, the way she was in the first two books. Again, this is not growth, this is personality transplant.

This is also the first book where we get Casteel's POV and this would normally have been pretty interesting and exciting, but it only served to be a boring way to further inflate this book's already horrendously bloated word count. Apparently the next book, A Soul of Ash and Blood is 100% from his POV and I can't say I'm terribly excited for that prospect after what we got in this book, and that goes for more than just the chapters from his perspective.

I also felt like his arc was so underserved here. He went through so much in this book due to his recapture, but it feels like he recovers from his experience so easily and quickly. It really feels like Poppy fucks him a couple of times and everything is all hunky dory again. Why not have their sex life affected by this in some way? Why not have their relationship affected at all because of this? What was the point of his recapture if it doesn't impact him as a character at the end of the day? Just for the cliffhanger at the end of The Crown of Gilded Bone? It's so ridiculous, a total waste of everyone's time.

And speaking of the boys, just to briefly touch on this, I am really disappointed with how lackluster and forced the romance with Kieran is. Now, I love a good throuple. Polyamory is a great way to add a little romantic tension for a romance series that has gone on this long, but it sincerely feels to me like Armentrout was scrambling for romantic tension after fumbling getting any tension from Cas's recapture and subsequent rescue and so she needed to sloppily toss in some scenes of Poppy and Kieran flirting for what must be the first time in the entire series (though I can't confirm that since it's been 4+ years since I read the other books) in order to add...something?

In the end, however, Armentrout sums up this plot point perfectly herself: she states everything and nothing has changed in their relationship. Truly, nothing really changes between them all and the love scene between them was so boring I actually fell asleep while listening to it.

I really am so disappointed in this book. I really enjoyed the first two books and, while the third wasn't my favorite, it was nowhere near as terrible as this book was. I enjoyed them so much, already have the rest of the Flesh and Fire books and A Soul of Ash and Blood on Audible, but I'm definitely going to need a break if I'm going to continue getting caught up on these. This was a truly difficult book to get through and my poor husband had to hear me complain about this book a whole lot in the 5 days it took me to read it.

The craft is poor, the characters are completely different from the ones I was used to seeing in previous installments, it's overstuffed, far too long for its own good, and it simply did not work. I took a massive break between books 3 and 4 but I feel even less excited to continue this story than ever before. I felt like this not only was unexciting and disheartening as an installment in the Blood and Ash series, it also felt like it spoiled plot points of the Flesh and Fire books, which I not only have not finished, but also were not all out when this book came out.

Cannot recommend. Maybe one day I'll come back, but that won't be too soon.

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Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 7, 2025 - ★★★☆☆

[read for my book club, Prose and Cons]

I think this had a lot of good elements to it. The romance was sweet, the worldbuilding was decent, but in the end, I really did not connect with the writing style.

And I'm really torn on how important that is to me! A big part of me was pretty bored while reading, but then something cute or interesting would happen and I would start having a good enough time to want to keep going.

This did feel like it had a lot of elements from other YA novels I've read, like if Lee took pieces of Renegades by Marissa Meyer (though this does predate that series), Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, and a dash of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, but most of the time I found myself wishing I was just rereading one of those instead...well, maybe not Uglies.

I did enjoy the romance between Jess and Abby a lot and it was definitely the highlight of the whole book. I didn't know this was sapphic going into it, so it was a nice surprise. I also enjoyed the way queerness was treated in the story in general, like it was just as normal a thing as anything else.

Honestly, my biggest gripe with it is just that damned writing style! The sentences were so plain, there was little to no style or substance to it. The audiobook narrator, Emily Woo Zeller, is usually a favorite of mine, but her performance was so robotic here, but the text didn't give her much to work with, there was no way she could have given a very lively performance with the text given here.

In the end, this wasn't a bad time, but I think with more style added onto the substance, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. I probably wouldn't read another book from this series, but might keep an eye on Lee's future work someday to see if she's grown since writing this book.

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A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout - blurrypetals review

originally posted jan. 6, 2025 - ★★★★☆

It's been a bit, Jennifer! I hit a reading slump just after I read The Crown of Blood and Bone in spring of 2021 and, because I wasn't super impressed by that book, I wasn't jumping up and down to dive into this book.

At first, this did feel a little derivative of From Blood and Ash in many ways. Sera and Ash are almost a carbon copy of Poppy and Casteel, especially at first, with the girl being a badass maiden who secretly knows how to defend herself and the guy being a snarky vampire with golden skin who's keeping his identity from the main character for a good deal of the book.

And the plotline with Ash keeping his identity a secret was thankfully not as drawn out as the whole Hawk-Casteel situation in From Blood and Ash, but it was painful nevertheless. I understand the purpose it served in the story but it was still extremely derivative and drawn out.

That all being said, I did really enjoy Sera and Ash's relationship. It was refreshing to have the roles flipped a bit in that Sera was the more experienced one and Ash the one who'd never been with anybody, and I also felt like Armentrout handled his lack of experience well; it never felt like more than just a fact about him, not this black mark of shame.

These books are an absolute guilty pleasure for me. I recognize they're pretty poor on a craft level, the lore is pretty shoddy and confusing, and the modern way characters speak in this medieval fantasy setting is jarring, but Armentrout has this way of hooking me in with these sweet relationships that keep me wanting to find out what happens next.

I'm excited to see what happens next with Sera and Ash, but next I'll finally be catching up with Poppy and Casteel in The War of Two Queens almost 3 years later! Until then!

Unrelated addendum: The titles and covers for these books have gotten fucking ridiculous. I sincerely cannot tell most of them apart on sight, and I'd be hard-pressed to list all the titles from memory. Some of them just read like absolute fantasy book title word salad and, honestly, it cracks me up. Take a shot every time Armentrout uses the words Blood, Ash, Flesh, Fire, Flame, or Bone in any of her titles.

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An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld by Cassandra Clare & Cassandra Jean

originally posted dec. 30, 2024 - ★★★★★

[This is a review of the 2024 Seasons of Shadowhunters edition]

Christmas arrived early on my doorstep this year when my second Seasons of Shadowhunters book showed up just two days before Christmas!

And really, this book is a little gift in and of itself no matter what time of year. It's filled with gorgeous art by the inimitable Cassandra Jean and, because of the updated nature of the book, you get to see the improvement of her art through the years when you see, for example, an portrait of someone like Brother Zachariah compared to a newer character like one of the cohort.

I will say, I was a little disappointed it wasn't quite as complete as I'd hoped. There were definitely some omissions like Jon Cartwright I was confused to see missing while we got kelpies and faeries we barely know. I'm sure it's just an oversight, but it would have been nice to really see everybody.

That said, though, this was an absolute treat to get an updated version of and it made me so excited to see where some of the characters we don't know so well yet go in these last few Shadowhunter Chronicles books!

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The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

originally posted dec. 29, 2024 - ★★★★☆

This is my (very nice) 69th book of 2024! Despite the fact that I am not working these last 2 weeks of the year, I just had to get one more audiobook in under the wire so I can get to 70 books read in these past 12 months! I've got one more I'm going to blast through in the morning, so I think I'll be able to make it no problem!

So, to get into the book at hand, man, this book was so cute and cozy. It's kind of funny to me that I got this from the library so shortly after I read Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, which, as I noted in my review, is overly sold as a cozy sapphic fantasy when it's really not that cozy at all. This book, by contrast, doesn't really push the cozy angle in its marketing but is way more suited to be billed as a cozy fantasy than the other book.

I digress a bit, though. This was really just a nice time. The town was so charming, the people were so warm and feel so real, and the magical creatures and phenomenon Kiela encounters. The worldbuilding was incredibly solid. Kaz was also a really fun character.

I also really loved Kiela's love interest, Loren. His acts of service really remind me of my own love. He's so deeply kind, selfless, endlessly sweet and lovable in every way.

In the end, while I enjoyed this a good deal, I didn't get very emotionally invested beyond Kiela and Loren's romance. That said, I did enjoy it more than I expected to! The strong worldbuilding, sweet, soft romance, and rootable characters all added up to make for a good time. I'll definitely keep my eye out for any of Durst's future work, that's for certain!

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The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 21, 2024 - ★★★☆☆

I don't exactly know why it took me an age to get around to reading this. Even considering my reading slump the year this came out, it doesn't make any sense why it took me 2 years to get to it.

In the end, I was pretty disappointed with it. When hearing that this would be a prequel to They Both Die at the End, I definitely expected this would help us learn more about Death-Cast, how it works, maybe even have one of the founders be the one to get the first call.

Instead, we get just about no information on Death-Cast beyond the hiccups of this first day. How does it function? Why does it work? Is this actually making the world a better place? These ideas would have made this book thematically distinct yet harmonious with and linked to the first book, but instead this book is, at the end of the life-changing and life-ending day, the same book as the first, just with only one of the boys dying this time.

It's been 7 years now since I read They Both Die at the End, but I remember Rufus and Mateo's romance blooming gently and naturally. Romance and heartache are typically two of Silvera's greatest strengths, but here it felt so awkwardly inevitable, like ticking things off a laundry list, being instantly in love with no friction, no buildup.

I'll definitely still read the third book, but this really wasn't what I was hoping for. They Both Die at the End moved me so greatly, as did so much of Silvera's other work, but this one really missed the mark for me. I was hoping for some kind of twist by the end, not necessarily because I wanted Valentino to live, but more because I just wanted to be surprised by the end...but instead, it's just exactly what it says on the tin.

Here's hoping this next (and maybe last?) Death-Cast book will blow me away! Fingers crossed until then!

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Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

originally posted dec. 17, 2024 - ★★★☆☆

[read for my book club, Prose and Cons]

I think this was far more a laundry list of things that were cozy than it was an actually cozy story. It wasn't a bad time, just a bland time.

One of my first issues with this was having a really hard time keeping straight which girlfriend was which. Was Reyna the mage or was that Kianthe? Which one had the dark hair? The accent? I don't know why I struggled so much with this, but I did. The girls did not have distinct voices (beyond one of them having an English accent in the audiobook and the other having an American one) in their thoughts or narration, despite the chapters allegedly jumping between the two POV's the whole book.

I honestly liked the girls' relationship, but I wasn't really prepared for an already established relationship here. I have an easier time rooting for a couple I see starting from square one, rather than playing catch-up with their relationship the whole book.

And, as I said at the top of this review, this didn't feel like a cozy fantasy. It felt like a fantasy with cozy things in it. The stakes were very much not cozy and when there were cozier moments, the emotional stakes felt very low. We always knew each woman was okay, they were never in any danger of breaking up, and their business was always totally fine and successful. It was all way too easy.

This lacked a lot of polish and didn't even capture the vibe it claimed to have. It had some interesting concepts and I liked the town they lived in and most of the people in it, but unfortunately I just couldn't buy into the main characters or the actual main plot. It was pretty boring all around and I can't say I had a very good time with it.

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Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 17, 2024 - ★★★★☆

Man, sometimes I just need to say I don't know how to start a review in order to just start it. I have, indeed, been sitting here looking at this blank review since I got home from work several hours ago, unsure where to begin. Do I rate it 4 stars? 3 stars? Or was it a 5-star read all along? Honestly, I'm not sure, so let's hopefully find out through this review

I think the reason I'm struggling so much to start is I know I just didn't like this as much as I liked—and really, loved—the first book, but I'm torn on how big that gap in quality is for me.

While I wanted to know what happened, I felt very disconnected from the plot at hand, just as Elspeth was disconnected from her body, from Ravyn, from her own life and story. Things moved very slowly and it felt like we got very little from Elspeth, Ravyn, and the Nightmare's side of the story, instead focusing much more on Elm and Ione's romance, which felt like a much slower, more traditional and predictable romance story than anything in the first book.

And while I liked Elm and Ione's story, I couldn't help but feel like these two books should have been structured completely differently. I really would have preferred we had the entirety Elspeth, Ravyn, and the Nightmare's story contained to one or two novels, letting their ending breathe a bit if it needs to be two books, and then let Ione and Elm have their own book, their own conflict. Basically, let Elspeth's story be its own duology and then let Ione and Elm have their own spinoff. Instead, as it stands, I think this book does a bit of a disservice to both stories by switching back and forth between the two. I wish both sides had been given their due.

Also, this is just a pet peeve of mine that doesn't apply to just this one book, but why are we so often starting a series told from the first person, then adding on new POV's in the third person perspective? I don't even mind adding on a new POV in the new book (so long as it serves a good purpose) but why in the hell are we switching from one type of perspective to another? It really annoys me.

That said, I did really love the ending. It was very gripping, intense, nail-biting all throughout the climax and the ending is fitting, poignant, and suits the story very well.

I didn't dislike any of my time with this book, really, which is why I've decided to rate this 4 stars, but in the end, I just didn't love it the same way I did the first. I think Gillig still nailed the atmosphere, romance, and magic, but the structure and switch in POV really brought this down from being a great thing like its predecessor. However, I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for whatever Gillig writes next; whatever it is, I'm already looking forward to it!

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One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

originally posted dec. 13, 2024 - ★★★★★

I really wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did! I have classically struggled to understand why most books that are so popular on BookTok are popular at all, but with this book, I absolutely get the hype. It's nice to be able to board the hype train every once in a while.

The atmosphere was brilliant, the worldbuilding and magic system with the cards was inventive and original, the characters were interesting and fleshed out, and the romance was rewarding and rootable. Just all-around a strong effort.

I loved the relationships in this book. The way Elsbeth dealt with and spoke to her Nightmare was extremely interesting, the give and take, the constant power struggle in every last word, I loved it. I've always loved a good possession story and this had all my favorite parts of that trope in Elsbeth and her Nightmare.

And man, the romance was so lovely! I've really struggled with romance the last few years because of the sort of books BookTok typically goes bananas for. Even if I do enjoy some of them like Fourth Wing or From Blood and Ash, the genre that is romantasy has become oversaturated, paint by numbers, the same book over and over. Frankly, if I wanted the same thing over and over again, I'd reread the same thing over and over again!

But here, Ravyn and Elsbeth build a real, believable bridge of trust between them. That trust is not always honored, but then the two of them talk about it, they come to understandings, they build a relationship carefully, reluctantly, and it's absolutely lovely. This is the way I want my romance in books! I want people to form a real connection due to shared circumstances and then fall in love, I don't want people fantasizing about fucking within minutes of meeting one another.

As I write this review, I've already begun Two Twisted Crowns, but upon finishing this book, I was more than eager to find out what was going to happen after that absolute banger of an ending. I'm so impressed with so much of this book and I'm so excited to finish the duology!

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House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 9, 2024 - ★★☆☆☆

Oh no! This was so boring! I almost can't believe this is the same author who wrote The Thirteenth Child. It's not all so bad, but it's so bland and robotic and there's nothing really in this book that I can bring myself to care much about.

Which is such a shame! I think Craig's atmosphere and lore really had a lot of potential here, not unlike The Thirteenth Child and its early acts, but unfortunately it read as untapped potential here, even after I read some spoilers to try to cash in on some of that setup, even if my search for something to latch onto was in vain.

I know a lot of people love this one, but there were too many characters to keep track of, the atmosphere wasn't enough to bear the weight of the muddled and uninteresting plot, and speaking of the plot, the mystery was so paper thin, there was nothing to carry me through it.

This was a massive disappointment, unfortunately, but I'm not giving up on Craig's work; I'll definitely still keep an eye out for her future work! I already know from The Thirteenth Child that she improved after this, so I have faith that will be true of whatever she writes next!

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10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 6, 2024 - ★★★★☆

While I didn't like this book as much as Boyfriend Material or Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, it's a nice return to form after I DNF'd Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble last year.

I really love Hall's sense of humor, and every time I've finished one of their books, I keep telling myself I'm going to dig into their backlog. Maybe I'll actually do it this time! The things Jonathan and Sam say to one another, Jonathan's family, and Sam's coworkers all had me chuckling to myself throughout. It's not as funny as Boyfriend Material, but it's still so charming and funny.

I also was very fond of the romance in this. It felt somehow softer and more precious than that of Luc and Oliver or Rosaline and Harry, and those relationships are very soft and precious! Jonathan was so fragile despite how utterly prickly he was, and Sam was so gentle and caring, like he was the one nursing Jonathan back to health and not the other way around.

Definitely a super fun read, I (almost) always love Hall's work!

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The Champions by Kara Thomas - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 3, 2024 - ★★★★☆

While I don't remember every detail of The Cheerleaders, it was definitely one of the best books I read back in 2018, which was the year I read 235 books, so when I say it stood out, it actually means something.

I've been really craving an unpredictable thriller lately, too, and I remembered The Cheerleaders having a good twist and an excellent ending, so I was extremely pumped for this new book as a follow up.

For the most part, this book hits a lot of the same beats as its predecessor does, but it's done in a way that's still fresh and doesn't spoil a thing too early, only doling out information at the exact right moment. It delivers on an unpredictable reveal, too, as I hadn't guessed the whodunnit by the time the book finally revealed it all.

In the end, though, the reason I didn't love this one as much as the first book came down to the main character. She reminded me a lot more of Pip from A Good Girl's Guide to Murder instead of Monica from The Cheerleaders, and while it was a little nice to see some variety, I vastly preferred Monica's dark, brooding mindset as she dealt with her own tragedies instead of Hadley's nervous, anxious disposition.

I did also feel like the story was a little on the nose at times, but I still enjoyed this a lot. I really need to get around to reading more of Thomas's work because between this and The Cheerleaders, she certainly knows how to write a good, suspenseful time, something some adult thrillers can't even manage sometimes.