carefulfearanddeaddevotion's reviews
155 reviews

The Rom Con by Devon Daniels

Go to review page

funny 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? N/A

4.0

i guess this whole review is mildly spoilery

need to stop dating men who fall out of love with me and start dating men who are Jack Bradford. annoyed at how quickly i fell in love with him. he was honestly kinda perfect to a fault, so much so that his reaction to finding out the truth just didn't seem believable to me.
he didn't seem like the kind of person who would react angrily and make a scene. not talking to her for a month and a half? more believable.
very confused how Cassie and her sister managed to blame Jack and Greg, instead of Cassie herself ? 

the writing was funny and conversational, which i enjoyed, but could have done without the two pages of physical description at the beginning of the book. 

this was very much How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days repacked, but I love that movie so im not complaining. however, the message of the book was really confusing??? couldn't tell if it was supposed to be feminist and fell short, or if it was supposed to be an argument against the "independent, headstrong, career-minded modern woman." whatever her point was, it didn't come across clearly. Like, ok, Jack pushed back against her "Betty" antics, especially that cringe-ass "sure a career is good, but that wont matter once i have kids" but it is still not easy (or possible) to ignore that she bagged a 10/10 millionaire once she stopped having sex on the first date, or any of the other more regressive 1950s tips (i am not talking about, "make him feel needed" "be complementary" "show him you're thinking of him" etc). and the grandma's "i cooked for your grandpa and wore makeup for your grandpa not because it was expected, but because i wanted him to know he was worth the effort" was all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that it WAS (and maybe, is) expected for a woman to cook and to "make herself pretty" for her man. idk, these are all things that gave me pause as I was reading but didn't really deeply consider until writing this review.

that being said, i enjoyed Cassie and Jack's natural dynamic (whenever Betty didn't rear her ugly head), adored Jack, and i had fun reading this book. when i picked it up, i was kinda preparing myself for the worst but i was pleasantly surprised! definitely one of the most fun and least cringy romances ive read.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron

Go to review page

1.5

This Savage Song by V.E. Schwab

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I do not want to get ahead of myself, but this might go (a healthy distance) under TRC and SOC as one of my fav book series. stayed up until 5am to read it. Ms Schwab, you've outdone yourself (though I guess Addie LaRue came out after this one)

i adoreeee both August and Kate, they're so funny and charming and sweet and i just wanna cup em in my hands. was giggling and kicking my feet every two pages. the supporting cast was maybe a tiny bit flat, but idrc because i just <3 A&K soo much.

I love a good R&J-adjacent story (basically just two kids from rival families making googly eyes at each other. do not like the "everyone dies" part of R&J - i'm a sucker for a happy ending idc), and now you've gone and added MONSTERS to it?? omg yes. lovee the parallel of August struggling against his nature and wanting to be human the whole book
, and then finally, grudgingly giving in "for the greater good"
and Kate wanting to prove she's a Harker and that she belongs beside her father and in V-City, in a way struggling to become a monster
and then finally realizing that her father is not someone she should want to look up to or emulate, allowing August to reap Harker, and willingly leaving V-City and Verity
. finally, some good fucking food

the one and only thing that made me "hmmmm🤔": I don't really understand why self-defense makes you a "sinner". like, i get "for the plot," or whatever
, that Kate had to stop being an "innocent", but the man was attacking her and she didn't really know he was human (? or did she?) so wtf
. but also i get that maybe it's to make the point that, despite the fact that they possess more nuance, Sunai are still monsters and also have trouble making that distinction between good and bad (though, obvi, in a less malicious way than Corsai or Malchai)🤷‍♀️

anyway, two thumbs up



ooohhh also very intrigued by the fact that
Sloan is still alive at the end: he doesn't have a heart (can't be killed????) and didn't die when Harker was killed (it was my understanding that killing the sinner also killed the sin -- but then i guess it was the characters' assumption that Harker created Sloan, it was never actually confirmed iirc
. book two already on my nightstand, can't wait to start reading!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

biiiiig fan of Stevie. what a cutie nerdy little weirdo <3

the writing annoyed me at the beginning, felt like she was trying too hard with the flowery language. if i've said it once, i've said it a million times, not everything needs to be a danged metaphor, people!!! i liked everything else about the writing, though. not sure if i just got used to it, or if she stopped trying to make everything a metaphor, but it def got better as the book went on.

i love a fun little mystery, and this was def that. already picked up the next one!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Go to review page

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

These little assholes were sooo annoying omg. God, I get you're Shakespeare acting students but damnnn I could really have done without every other line of dialogue being a Shakespeare quote. Same goes for the author. This is my only complaint about the writing, but it's a very large complaint. And, ok, I get it "Rebecca, you picked up a book about Shakespeare students, what did you expect?" but I am still allowed to complain. And complain I will. I rolled my eyes so much I feared they would get stuck like that. Otherwise, I think the characters and their relationships had a lot of potential, but I just wished the author would go deeper. Like yea there's this homoerotic best friendship between
James and Oliver
, but you're telling me more than showing me. Same with
Meredith and Oliver
, like I didn't really buy that. And also that whole "Oliver, you're so good" thing, sure he wasn't a terrible person, but I couldn't really see what they were talking about. Like, yes, we come into this group 4 years into their friendship, so I get that there's history, but it's the author's job to convey that and it fell a bit short. 

I guessed the killer immediately. Clocked that shit right away.
"I'm not drinking tonight" *throwing up in the bathroom 3 hours later* "yea I just drank too much" am I some sort of idiot??? James, my darling, I do hope you're still alive but c'mon. Also, fuck! how tragic. Bro, if I was Oliver and I went to jail to save my friend and then he killed himself because the guilt was too much, I'd jump off a cliff fr.


IMO, this book had a fair bit of overall unrealized potential, even though it was enjoyable.

Hm. I think I don't rate books harshly enough.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Having read two V.E. Schwab books now, there is just something about her plots/characters/writing that's hard to describe. Just like with ADSoM, there was something missing. Unlike ADSoM, it didn't really matter. This book should have been boring, there is basically zero plot besides "girl lives 300 years of a slightly different day." If you asked me why I gave it 5 stars, I'm not sure I could answer in any logical way. It just did not feel like 400 pages. I think the concept of two timelines is a really interesting literary device, but it's really hard to make the two timelines equally as interesting. Schwab was really clever to make the switches between timelines as often as she did. It made it difficult to choose a point in the story to put the book down because I always wanted to know how the story in the other timeline would continue.

I hate to say this because
he literally traded his soul for one year of being loved
, but I really think Henry was my least favorite part of this book. Sorry bro.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Go to review page

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

4.25

 The start (and by that I mean the first 3rd of the book) was a bit slow, but it def got exponentially better once Kell and Lila's paths crossed.

I liked the characters (even though they felt kind of empty at times--maybe because so much of their past was unknown). I thought the plot was interesting enough, but it wasn't anything earth shattering. I did enjoy the book, and will most likely continue with the series, but after finishing the book and thinking "wow, I liked that" the immediate next thought was "wait what even happened?" 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

OMG!!!! My fav book of the year so far! (sorry Seven Husbands)

Very very few issues, to the point where I can't even verbalize them. 

Absolutely adore the characters. They're just the kind I like: a l(ot)ittle damaged, sassy, a little bitchy, magical, charismatic. Israel Lee, I wish you were real so I could kiss you on your mouth<3<3 Clara Johnson, you're cool too, don't get me wrong, but he's so so perfect <3 I love him and Clara together: confident, kind-hearted ladies man falling for the grumpy closed off girl? sign me the fuck up. The rest of the cast is really cool too, the villains aren't extremely fleshed out, but it works cause they're sprits.

The plot was also really up my alley, urban magic? a heist?? a ragtag group??? yes yes yes. I really loved exploring 1920s DC, and how the black people who lived there managed to carve out their own space despite Jim Crow. I also liked that besides
the cop Clara killed before the start of the story
and passing mentions (usually when discussing racism), white people were casually absent from the story. 

Highly highly recommend. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book has been on my TBR since high school. The concept/plot sounded really cool. And it is really cool. I love fairytale retellings. I love love urban fantasy. The execution, however, left a little to be desired.

I was so so confused the whole book. While I do think some things were explained, it was done so gradually or so vaguely that I am still not sure why or how they happened (how's this review for vague, lol??) I do not like being spoonfed lore/plot, but this book was too far to the other extreme. It was too frustrating for the little payoff we got. I am still unsure if the magic of the world is an open secret, an obvious fact of life, or completely hidden from everyone except a select few. At different points in the novel, any of these could be true.

The characters were interesting, but I'm not sure I liked Vassa. No offense, but she was so stupid. I don't know if I found the book so confusing because she was so confused the whole time or because it was just confusing. Like, I get that we had slightly more bg as the reader, but I feel like certain things were really obvious and she just didn't get them. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Saw this book on a B&N shelf early last year, didn't buy it because my library had it, then didn't check it out until last Friday. I had no clue that it was a retelling (?) of The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky (at the risk of sounding ignorant, I'd never even heard of this book before).

I've started using the CAWPILE rating system (I love formulas) and was surprised that I rated this as highly as I did. I think we all know that I prefer characters over plot, and these characters were so insufferable and weird for a large majority of the book. Still, they, and the plot, were really interesting and I could not put this book down! The writing was at times confusing and hard to follow. Leo Chao, and to a lesser extent, all of his sons, skeeved me out. Annoyed at James
for letting O-Lan (or should I say, Chao Ru) get away and letting his brother go to jail. But, I believe in my heart of hearts, that Dagou will be exonerated
. Ming was a little weirdo, and most of my confusion around the writing was because of his scenes. Though I feel this might have been intentional. 

Still, there was something so captivating about this book and these characters and I couldn't look away.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings