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pinesandpages's reviews
582 reviews
Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell
5.0
Among the best books I’ve ever read, and so essential.
Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher
3.5
Wild that this could be summed up as “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.” A fine conclusion to the series - the first was quite good, but the second and third were a little less compelling for me.
It's Elementary by Elise Bryant
4.0
This was fun!! As a resident scaredy cat, I thoroughly enjoyed this one - not scary except for bits and pieces and that was mostly pretty concentrated at the end!
The premise was very fun, I enjoyed the commentary on race and how people of color are roped into doing even more labor for things like DEI committees. I enjoyed the addition of the hot school psychologist 👀
I certainly didn’t guess the ending - very unexpected!
The premise was very fun, I enjoyed the commentary on race and how people of color are roped into doing even more labor for things like DEI committees. I enjoyed the addition of the hot school psychologist 👀
I certainly didn’t guess the ending - very unexpected!
Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
4.0
For the first 100 pages, I wasn’t sure if I liked this or not, but I was at a park and had nothing else to read so I kept going and I’m glad I did. I def shed a few tears when the difficult interactions happened with her grandmother with dementia 😭😭 As someone who listens to a lot of romance audiobooks, this was a fun peek behind the curtains.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian
4.0
I quite enjoyed this overall, probably my second favorite out of the three I’ve read so far. I could’ve used more character development from Alex, he didn’t grow as much as Daniel did.
Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer
Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
The writing was so straightforward and plain that I could tell the entire plot from the first two chapters. I kept going for a bit more just in case there might be more than I anticipated, and there didn’t appear to be. Even tho I picked this up bc I wanted I wanted a simple romance to shut off my brain, it was still too basic for me. I also don’t enjoy the dynamic of “he’s mean to her bc he likes her so much” and “she doesn’t know why he’s means but accepts it all with a smile” which was the entirety of the first 30 pages.
I did skip forward to read the spicy scenes - they are frequent and detailed, dang!!
I did skip forward to read the spicy scenes - they are frequent and detailed, dang!!
Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.
Emma is not my favorite Jane Austen plot but I’d recently seen a movie adaptation and figured I’d give this book a shot. Alas, I was let down!! The writing style made Kamila come across as a condescending, somewhat controlling busybody. She wasn’t irredeemable by any stretch, but the first 70 pages were a fairly close facsimile of Emma so I was a bit bored by that and Kam was just kinda a know it all that I wasn’t rooting for.
I skipped ahead bc I wanted to get to the iconic line of “if I loved you less…” bc that line alone is mostly why I picked up the book. Boy was that a big disappointment!!!!! I was aghast. It at least seemed like a fair amount of interesting things were happening around page 275 (not interesting enough for me to keep going but still I’m glad I skimmed that portion) and then the iconic line was buried in the midst of a long apology speech from Rohan about some of his actions that deeply hurt Kam and he said “If I loved you less, I’d be able to explain myself more.” Which simply does NOT hold the same weight or romance of the original. After that I angrily DNFed.
I skipped ahead bc I wanted to get to the iconic line of “if I loved you less…” bc that line alone is mostly why I picked up the book. Boy was that a big disappointment!!!!! I was aghast. It at least seemed like a fair amount of interesting things were happening around page 275 (not interesting enough for me to keep going but still I’m glad I skimmed that portion) and then the iconic line was buried in the midst of a long apology speech from Rohan about some of his actions that deeply hurt Kam and he said “If I loved you less, I’d be able to explain myself more.” Which simply does NOT hold the same weight or romance of the original. After that I angrily DNFed.
Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable
3.0
As other reviewers have noted, this was not the fun lighthearted queer story that it was marketed as. Much heavier themes. A VERY quick wrap up that left many things unresolved, so I was surprised when I got to the end.
Also Cat was terrible the entire length of the book, and thenwhen the group just suddenly stopped being friends and never spoke again, I was surprised, esp Laura. Laura also didn’t seem like the type to tell the whole school that Amanda had kissed her, so that felt very out of character. Also, I was absolutely shocked Amanda ended up having sex with Adam!!!! Especially when she kept pushing when he said a few times they should wait. Also Amanda was not a great friend to Laura for most of the book and that never got addressed.
All in all, I found this book underwhelming.
Also Cat was terrible the entire length of the book, and then
All in all, I found this book underwhelming.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Transphobia, Lesbophobia