bookedbymadeline's reviews
907 reviews

Thank you Caitlin for the eARC! She has doen it once again with such a cute as hell romance 🥹😍

Looove the banter! I was laughing and cheering on Rhys and Paige. I related so much to them both especially Paige, she made me feel so seen as someone with ADHD!

This is my first CEO romance and it’s something I didn’t know I liked until this book 🙊 The character development is well done as we watch them grow as individuals and also as a couple! Their relationships was so cute and light, YAY FOR NO THIRD ACT BREAKUP. 

I highly recommend this book and the rest of the series if you love found family, neurodivergent and mental health rep, and don’t want third act breakups or miscommunication 😍

TW/CW: death of parent (off page), sexual content

Rep: ADHD and anxiety, biracial MC (white and Japanese)

Tropes: CEO/billionaire, found family, he falls harder, workplace romance 

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the eARC!

Intriguing start that pulled me in right away! Those Opulent Days is a historical murder mystery set in 1920s French colonial Vietnam (often referred to as Annam because of the French colonization of the region). We get switching POVs told in third person narration, mainly following the 4 friends Duy, Phong, Minh, and Edmond. But we also get some chapters from the perspectives of the women in their lives; Tattler, Hai, Marianne, and Madame Nuhr. Because of all the switching chapters it could be confusing at times- there’s just too many POVs for my taste 😅

The mystery kept me engaged as we follow the characters from the night of the murder and flashing back to the few days leading up to the tragedy! Pham creates an atmospheric drama filled with glamour, violence, and wealth. It was difficult to read at times due to the unlikeable characters, especially with how cruel Minh and Edmond could be. And two of the twists I could see coming from the beginning but it was an interesting, unique story nonetheless!

This was a strong debut novel and taught me a lot about Vietnam during the French Colonial period! I can’t wait to read more from Pham in the future.

TW/CW: death of parent, murder, animal death, colonialism, physical abuse, classism, rape, starvation, vomit, death, grief, racism, blood, self harm, alcoholism, infidelity (brief mention), medical trauma, pregnancy, childbirth 

Atmospheric setting and perfect for autumn! It could be a little slow and being at times as well as repetitive. I felt like Merricat read as being a child as opposed to 18, her voice sounded very young and immature (maybe because of the trauma?). Overall it was an interesting, unique story but I kind of wanted more since not much happens and most of the pages are just repeating things! 

Writing style isn’t for me-too much telling over showing and overly descriptive details. The final straw was the way women are being written “[she had] no hips or breasts to write home about, no junk in the trunk” 🤢 like please stop writing women like this 

The first few chapters are about how Abby and Gretchen became friends, which made for a slow start to this novel. Hendrix is always so creative though! This has a fully planned out yearbook with photos and notes to the students/quotes as if it’s a real yearbook. Plus newspaper articles, photos, cards-loved the mixed media! I also loved that the chapters are 80s song titles ☺️

Now what I didn’t like and why it’s not rated higher:

1). Very dragged out with the event that makes Gretchen possessed not happening until about 100 pages in and then only the last 100 pages have any action.
2). Overly descriptive with telling over showing at times-the book could’ve been 100 pages shorter-plus it got to be repetitive. I got to the point where any super detailed paragraphs I would skim and I couldn’t wait for this book to end 🙊
3). I finally understand when people say his female characters aren’t well written 😂 these FMCs were soo weirdly written at times and they almost don’t feel real. We get to know Gretchen but that’s it, our narrator Abby we don’t really know as well, even though we’re following her journey.
4).

Honestly with how hard core Christian Gretchen’s parents are and the fact that it’s during the Satanic Panic I don’t know how they didn’t jump to the “she’s possessed” or a satanist conclusion at all

Hendrix’s books are hit or Miss for me since I didn’t like this one very much and DNFd We Sold Our Souls, but I loved Horrostör and Final Girl Support Group. So we’ll see how I feel about his others 🙊

I loved the mythology infused with a classic love story set during WW1! I laughed and cried throughout the novel, flying through this story to see how things ended. Such a beautiful, moving story of love, loss, sacrifice, and prejudice!

The characters came to life and I loved following their journeys! I don’t have many words for this one, it was just…perfect 🩷

I started crying at the foreword by ASP 😭Loved learning about bishop’s career and childhood! Of course I mainly picked this up because of Gilmore Girls, a staple of my adolescence ❤️. And although I loved those sections, I loved getting to show Bishop even more!

I laughed, gasped, and cried-a beautiful, inspiring memoir of Bishop’s life and career in show business. I’d highly recommend especially if you’re a Gilmore Girls fan or if you enjoy celebrity memoirs getting an inside look at show business behind the scenes!

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane for the eARC!

The podcast and social media stuff feels like it doesn’t contribute to the story and as if it’s added as an afterthought. I love mixed media in books but these added no new info and just repeated what we already knew. Also I hated the podcast, which we are supposed to, they’re a parody of My Favorite Murder and just how low true crime podcasts can stoop to be more about entertainment as opposed to inform and bring awareness/justice 

The social commentary about true crime and how unethical it can be at times is not there. It’s alluded to in the synopsis but it’s surface level and doesn’t dive deep or make you think like I Have Some Questions For You (the comparison is so far off because Makkai executes it well whereas TLOLG barely scratches the surface of true crime podcasts, police incompetence, and grooming so for the “for fans of” just skip this one because Makkai does it way better and this doesn’t measure up by a long shot)

Slow paced with too much telling over showing, minute overly descriptive details (I don’t need to know why Lindsey drives a Toyota). The writing feels more like women’s fiction mixed with some romance the way the men are being described 😒 there’s no tension or suspense for a mystery?! 

Lindsey and Jessica’s POVs sound exactly the same, both are one dimensional. Lindsey constantly talks about how she doesn’t want to be treated as just the sister of a missing girl and yet she doesn’t give us anything else to her character. We don’t get any info about her OTHER than her sister’s case and how she feels about it?!

I was so bored and annoyed that I just decided it wasn’t worth it to keep reading just to find out the twists/killer but instead will skip ahead to find out if my prediction is right. Especially after reading other reviews expressing exactly how I’ve been feeling and seeing it brought up that it’s actually two authors writing this (and although I’ve seen it executed well before)  ends up with plot inconsistencies 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

I’m stuck between giving this 3 stars or 2.5 stars so for now it’s a 3. Strange writing style at times, occasionally telling over showing and the attempts at humor felt so out of place I ended up rolling my eyes.

Feels less like horror and more like fantasy in the beginning because of the fake country and  language, with Alex going on monologues about Gallacian pronouns. But it’s too short and not enough world building to be fantasy as the MC assumes we know things “as I’m sure you read in the Galician periodical” LIKE NO WE HAVENT BECAUSE ITS MADE UP TELL US?! While also not being scary enough for me to consider it horror-it is creepy but only for a very short time. I’d say it’s less horror and more gothic mystery as most horror I’ve read give me genuine nightmares and this was just eh 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Made it feel like the book was trying to do too much in such a short amount of pages. I think if the made up country and language was abandoned while keeping the queer rep, instead using the already established they/them pronouns, it could’ve been more focused on the mystery (or horror for some I guess)!

I didn’t love it or hate it, it’s a story that was engaging enough while reading it, and despite my initial desire to DNF it did get better by the 3rd/4th chapter. I didn’t have any strong feelings while reading most of it nor any strong opinions after finishing feeling like “that was it?” by the end. so for that it lacked in execution trying to juggle too many things making it a forgettable read as a result.

If you want something in a similar vein but that actually executes it well, I’d recommend reading Mexican Gothic instead. The author herself mentions it and why she set this book aside feeling like she couldn’t do a better job…she was right. She also mentions in the authors note that she hated how in the OG Fall of the House of Usher there weren’t explanations for things AND YET SHE ALSO DOESNT GIVE EXPLANATIONS! So much potential for this retelling but alas 

Love and Fury is the story of Mary Wollstonecraft’s life as she tells it to her newborn daughter, Mary Shelley. The novel is told in switching POVs between Mary Wollstonecraft and her midwife, Mrs B.

They have very distinct voices with Mary’s told in first person since she’s telling the story of her life to her daughter. And Mrs B chapters are told in third person POV. Mary W’s chapters are also told using different language/word choices which can be harder to understand at times. Silva is very talented in being able to write in two such distinct voices and use the language typical of Wollstonecraft’s time, through the dialogue. Although it was hard to understand at times and made me feel confused or overwhelmed 🙊

I did enjoy Silva’s crafting of our two main characters and watching them develop throughout the book! She also does a great job of building the historical world/time period without bogging it down with too many details; it’s just enough to feel fully immersed without being overloaded/bored.

Because I read on my phone I was often distracted so it took a lot longer to finish this than I normally would have for such a short book! Fell off a bit in the second half especially as it got to be more philosophical and meandering at times, which caused the novel to drag especially during Mary W’s chapters as they were much longer. I was also disappointed that we don’t get the story of how Mary and William Godwin (Shelley’s father) fall in love! Although it did have a decent ending line, even if I wish we got a bit more of Wollstonecraft’s life story prior to Mary being born.

This is a Historical literary fiction but the historical aspect is more the time period, I’d argue it leans more towards lit fic in terms of the writing style! I’d recommend it for literary fiction lovers and say historical fiction fans will only enjoy it if they also like literary fiction. Also recommend if you want a story about motherhood, womanhood, and strong women fighting to reclaim their power and make their mark on the world!

Many are comparing it to Hamnet which I haven’t read yet but hope to at some point! Overall it was a beautiful, moving story that made me really excited to read Wollstonecraft’s work!

TW/CW: childbirth, medical trauma, blood, infertility, child abuse, rape, animal death (brief mention), animal cruelty, alcoholism, chronic illness, child death, death, grief, bigotry, colonialism (brief mention), violence, depression, suicide attempt, sexism