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deepbutdazzlingdarkness's reviews
350 reviews
One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke
4.0
This was fantastic! I predicted one of the reveals, and none of the other ones were totally unexpected and yet instead of feeling predictable, I liked seeing everything fall into place perfectly. The setting was so lush; all the descriptions of the food, the scenery and everything made me desperately want to visit Greece, and it was a great end of summer read for me. Even though it was over 400 pages, it didn’t drag, and I thought the tension built really well. I liked getting so many different POVs and relationships between the women, and the way things played out was very satisfying to me. Highly recommend, and I’m interested to see if the author has other books that work as well for me.
Bright and Tender Dark by Joanna Pearson
2.5
There were individual passages that were gorgeously written, but otherwise this felt very disjointed and incomplete/unfinished. I also read about half of it and put it down for a month before I was able to get ahold of it again from the library, and jumping back in like that made things very confusing. I did like the cover a lot.
Hot Summer by Elle Everhart
3.5
This was super fun! I’ve watched like 1½ seasons of Love Island US, and I loved seeing a book with a more queer version of it. The whole thing about how “anything goes” but most of the couples are still m/f totally tracks. And I like the social media posts, I definitely was thinking some people would recognize Cas if the app is big enough, so I’m glad they addressed that right away, and it makes sense that that ends up being the major conflict of the story.
Cas and Ada’s relationship was nice, I loved the relatable “oh but does she REALLY” like me aspect of it, and this is a story where the third act breakup totally makes sense. I also really like that Cas went into the show wanting a friend couple and came out with several friends AND a girlfriend :’)
Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the digital ARC in exchange for my review. I’ve been wanting to read this since like February and I got approved for the ARC in June so idk what took me so long to read it, but I’m glad I finally did!
Cas and Ada’s relationship was nice, I loved the relatable “oh but does she REALLY” like me aspect of it, and this is a story where the third act breakup totally makes sense. I also really like that Cas went into the show wanting a friend couple and came out with several friends AND a girlfriend :’)
Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the digital ARC in exchange for my review. I’ve been wanting to read this since like February and I got approved for the ARC in June so idk what took me so long to read it, but I’m glad I finally did!
I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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
This was wonderful! I picked this up because I saw that is a queer trans YA regency graphic novel and it gave me exactly that and I’m happy for it.
I know it was described as a mashup of Jane Austen novels, but it’s almost entirely based on Emma, which I am NOT complaining about, as that’s my favorite Jane Austen story. The reimagination of Emma and Knightley’s relationship was great; I loooved the friends to lovers storyline with George and Eleanor. The pining between them was so good and I love that Eleanor is the taller one. For some reason the scene of Eleanor teaching George to dance made me TEAR UP. And her realization scene?? Oh my god 🥹
I liked that it addresses Eleanor’s privilege and made that part of what she needed to work through, and although the author didn’t need any justification to include non-white and non-cishet characters, the history corner at the end was a great touch, fact checking what happened in the book and including references!
I loved the funny, slightly meme-y at times tone and the art was very cute and funny; the part where Eleanor tells George about Philip’s proposal made me literally laugh out loud. The chapter intro pages were also especially gorgeous and I’m seriously considering buying a copy of this to own once it comes out!
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I know it was described as a mashup of Jane Austen novels, but it’s almost entirely based on Emma, which I am NOT complaining about, as that’s my favorite Jane Austen story. The reimagination of Emma and Knightley’s relationship was great; I loooved the friends to lovers storyline with George and Eleanor. The pining between them was so good and I love that Eleanor is the taller one. For some reason the scene of Eleanor teaching George to dance made me TEAR UP. And her realization scene?? Oh my god 🥹
I liked that it addresses Eleanor’s privilege and made that part of what she needed to work through, and although the author didn’t need any justification to include non-white and non-cishet characters, the history corner at the end was a great touch, fact checking what happened in the book and including references!
I loved the funny, slightly meme-y at times tone and the art was very cute and funny; the part where Eleanor tells George about Philip’s proposal made me literally laugh out loud. The chapter intro pages were also especially gorgeous and I’m seriously considering buying a copy of this to own once it comes out!
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.