vel629vet's reviews
1015 reviews

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

 A romance book that felt very haphazardly put together. As if all of the pieces were plugged in that should together make a whole book, but nobody stood back at the end and said, ‘hmm maybe these pieces come from different puzzles.’ 
At the end of the day, Bailey writes excellent spice and fun characters, but I was very frustrated but the mental health representation (or lack thereof) in this book. Just read it so I can read book 2 which is supposed to be fantastic. 
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She-Hulk by Dan Slott Complete Collection Vol. 1 by Dan Slott

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3.25

I wanted to be more interested in this story and I wasn't. It was quirky and fun but I didn't feel much investment until the last couple of issues when we started to get a glimpse of the 4th wall breaking that has become She-Hulk's token. 
Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe

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dark emotional informative sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Very cool vibe in this beautifully illustrated graphic novel. I'm not super familiar with the Hades/Persephone story (mostly only know peripheral info from Hadestown/Percy Jackson) so I'm excited to have this be sort of an introduction for me. 
Moments of lighthearted silliness, juxtaposed with some surprisingly dark, heavy moments. I'm excited to continue this series! 
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Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3 by Marcos Martín, Mike McKone, Barry Kitson, Roger Stern, Mark Waid, Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, Lee Weeks

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

3.0

This section of Brand New Day is dragging. Uninteresting villains, seemingly low stakes. The new goblin reveal was meh. Only really loved the issue with Spider-Man in the subway with JJJ Senior. 
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

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inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I ADORED this book. I could start it over and read it again immediately. The stakes are so low but the characters have so much heart that it doesn’t matter. It’s cozy and loving and heartfelt and peaceful and I just want to live in this little world. Beautiful writing. I highly highly recommend. 
I Am Stan: A Graphic Biography of the Legendary Stan Lee by Tom Scioli

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2.25

This was surprisingly bad. Stan Lee’s entire life told in tiny, single page glimpses pulled from videos, interviews, and other biographies. All of the highs and lows of his career condensed into a few sentences of dialogue. The art was uninspired and the whole book felt flippant and poorly executed. I would hate to have all of my worst moments presented in this format, and it does absolutely no work to try to give context to many of the major moments in Stan Lee’s personal and work life. 
Very disappointing and I do not recommend. 
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. 
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Wanderlust by Elle Everhart

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lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

After winning a 6 week trip around the world on a radio show (that still happens?), a magazine writer must take someone along that is randomly selected from her contacts. The mystery man is someone she met on one drunken night and never spoke to again, yet he agrees to go on this vacation with her…

A rough start, but this book really grew on me. I didn’t love the premise, but I love travel stories, and enemies to lovers. I felt that a lot of the voicing and especially dialogues between the characters was inconsistent. Jack seemed overly antagonistic from the start but never acted that way again. There was a heavy plot point on a past abortion and doxxing, and it was handled okay. I just never really felt the stakes were quite high enough. 
I did love the short chapters and I wish there had been more details on travel adventures, rather than skipping over entire weeks in certain cities. A lot of the story is told to you rather than letting us bear witness. The romance is super slow burn but I didn’t mind it, other than it just felt like
they both woke up one day and decided to let bygones be bygones and be together.


Overall an enjoyable, lighthearted summer romance with a smidgeon of spice. 
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Stateless by Elizabeth Wein

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Stella North is a teenage pilot representing Britain in a race across Europe in the late 1930s. Quickly after the race begins, she witnesses what appears to be a murder in the sky…
I love Wein’s other historical fiction novels and this was no exception. The story was gripping and thrilling and kept you guessing. I wish the tension and excitement in the last quarter of the book existed earlier on, because I felt like it took a while for the story to take off (see what I did there). 
Highly recommend! 
Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The Complete Collection Vol. 2 by Dan Slott

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adventurous tense fast-paced

3.0

Still enjoying brand new day much more than I thought, but many of these issues were still pretty forgettable.
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was a 2 star book until about 70% of the way through. The voice was all over the place, and it read like very poorly written soccer fanfic. The descriptions of the gameplay and practices were the best part, and I enjoyed learning more about women’s soccer. I just couldn’t get past the lack of character background early on, and the fact that it was mostly dialogue and action, without any basic foundation for the characters. 
I did really appreciate the trans, pan, bi, and general queer representation throughout, and wish the rest of the book had been strong enough to support it.