joinreallife's reviews
1379 reviews

Witch Please centers around literal witch Danica who falls head over heels for the nonmagical sexy baker in town, Titus. And chaos and conflict ensue.

I read Grimspace by Aguirre like half a decade ago now and remember really enjoying it, despite having read hundreds of books between then and now. So that always feels like a solid sign! This one was definitely enjoyable, though I didn't love all of the choices. But simply on vibes alone? Excellent. It feels very much like a Hallmark, cozy, small town romance vibes, but with witches and on-page banging. But like, the level of cheesiness in Hallmark movies? Yeah, there's all of that deliciousness here too. Similar to those Hallmark-type movies, there's not a lot of big, exciting plot stuff happening - it's a lot of internal conflicts, in this case especially fueled by Danica's commitment to marry a magical person so she doesn't lose her powers, as the women in her family are cursed to do, and what happened to her magical mom when she married Danica's mundane dad. Titus, the hero, is a cinnamon role hero who BAKES CINNAMON ROLES OH MY GOD. He's also bisexual and a virgin, which like, extremely relatable, my dude. He has a wonderful relationship with his little sister Maya, who lives and works with him following the death of their mom. (Their dad peaced out and married another woman 10 years younger than him who is now pregnant...) He's also just a genuinely sweet and gentle guy? His stepsister is struggling with the big life changes, and often fighting with her mom and Titus' dad, so Titus and Maya invite her to live with them and my precious little heart grew three sizes. I really loved the relationship of Danica's coven as well, which includes her cousin Clem, who owns and operates the fix-it shop with her, and lives with her, and is bisexual too, and is going to be the heroine in book two where she falls in love with the witchhunter...GASP. This is a book that is going to be enjoyed by a lot of people. Titus and Danica talk about getting tested after things get a little hot and heavy without a condom. (Danica explains that witches control when they get pregnant or not, which YES GIRL.) There is discussion of future pegging, but no actual pegging. Still, we'll take it. Overall, there's a lot of casual queerness in this book, which I LOVE.

That all said, there were a few things that didn't work for me specifically. It does feel pretty instalovey, which I know works for some people. It irked me a bit, but even though I usually don't like it, I mostly found it charming in this case. There's not a TON of actual character development but I got over that because of the vibes. Overall, there were what felt like some weird choices about when to spell things out and when to jump cut. For example, at one point, Titus is picking up a friend in his car, and there's a description of the friend getting in the car, and putting on their seatbelt. Do we need that level of detail? But then there were some points where we just jumped forward several hours, and I was thinking, "Wait, what happened there?" There was a point where Titus implies that someone must have a mental illness because they came in his bake shop and were violent and looking for witches (which exist in this world, but Titus doesn't know that), and I don't love that kind of framing of things.

But yeah, it's honestly like popcorn, and I would recommend as we approach the spooky season. 3.5 stars rounded up, vibes only.

CW: toxic relationship with a family member, sexual content, death of a parent

This was an impactful, at times devastating, and hopeful book inspired by the author's father. At first we meet Ming in 1962, when his parents both die during The Great Leap Forward. Then we meet Li and things really get started. Freedom Swimmer tells the story, in dual perspective, of Ming and Li who meet as teenagers in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution in China. They've had two very different experiences and interactions with the ruling Communist party: Li has come from the city and has been fairly well indoctrinated into the good that the party does and the wisdom of Mao, and Ming is from the small poor village where the party's impact has been famine, death, and destruction. When Li's set of the party is sent to Ming's small village to work and "educate," they strike up an unlikely friendship. Freedom Swimmer explores the dichotomy of their different beginnings, and how they get to a point of convergence. It thinks a lot about breaking away from cult-like brainwashing, about how solid ideas can be twisted for the sake of power, of thinking independently, of struggle, and friendship, and the things that we risk for a chance at freedom. The flow of the story was super well constructed, and while I'm not normally a fan of jumps in time, this execution really worked for me. Ditto not usually loving epilogues, but just a beautiful use of one that made me cry a little bit.

I also have a history degree, and I don't believe I've ever heard of freedom swimmers, thousands of young people who, between 195o and 1972, took a chance in the open ocean to attempt to reach British-controlled Hong Kong. I'm grateful to this book for the introduction, but as always intensely disappointed in the cruelty of humans.

CW: death of a parent, drowning, famine/hunger, domestic abuse of a child

A big thanks to Scholastic for the ARC.

I'm going with 4.5 stars rounded up. Tor selections are always top-notch for me, but this was such a delightful surprise. I have no idea how I'm going to explain this book to people to get them to buy in but I'm going to mention some of my favourite things about it: it's a quick, poignant read; it's super weird (big plus for me and lots of readers I know); it features stories within stories; it's queer; it leaves you wanting more when it comes to fleshing out the world which I know can be frustrating for some readers but I honestly love so much.

The story introduces us to Anima, who is part of a network that looks after humans in a kind of omniscient way? Ae can psyche-hop into other animals, and is like the top-tier of guardians of this society that ae lives in. But ae is also literally plugged into a thing called the Gleaming - ae has no life outside of aer job, aer responsibilities, ae doesn't even need to eat. Aer life is just moving right along, until Vessel shows up with a case of mementos, asks Anima for a memento, and when Anima falters, shares the stories of the other mementos in the case.

It's just so deliciously non-"traditionally" structured, and introduces some interesting conundrums about what the human condition. I can definitely see myself coming back to this regularly and taking away different things from it each time. Which is high praise for a book under 200 pages to pack such a punch. Can't wait to see what S. Qiuoyi Lu does next.

CW: suicide, consensual cutting, some violence, blood, mild sexual content

Oh man, I'm so disappointed I didn't love this one more. Both of Beth O'Leary's previous books have been absolute homeruns for me, and I had high hopes because it has a similar narrative structure to People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry which I absolutely adored. And listen, I'm not a person who expects romcoms to not address serious things or just be light and fluffy, or for books with illustrated covers to somehow only be happy and popcorn. But there were several plot points/tropes here that hindered my enjoyment, first and foremost how super angsty it was - that's not my bag. Ultimately, though, I just don't believe in Addie and Dylan, and that's the kiss of death for a romance. The flashbacks to their previous relationship just seemed incredibly toxic, with a complete lack of communication. One of my favourite things about O'Leary's previous books is how great she is at building relationships, and that building of Addie and Dylan's relationship here was like 95% about other people. So I didn't feel invested in the HEA or even an HFN.

I did love Addie as a character, but I loved her sister Deb even more. I enjoyed the female friendships in this book, though unfortunately I don't know that any of them pass the Bechdel test...I liked the narrative structure, of having "then" and "now" moments to go back and see the foundation of how we arrived at the current situation. The anxiety and depression rep was strong, mirroring some of my own experiences. My favourite part was the writing, because I am a sucker for Beth O'Leary's writing. Overall, not a book I'm mad I've read, but not going to the top of the list for me.

CW: stalking, on-page attempted rape, anxiety/depression, alcoholism

Oh man, this book destroyed me emotionally in the best possible way. That last line? Sobs.

I'm a big fan of Little Women, I'm a big fan of Bethany C. Morrow, and I also really enjoyed Clash of Steel, the Treasure Island remix in this same series. So this was kind of perfectly created, in my mind. Folks who are looking for a beat-for-beat retelling are not going to find it here, and Morrow has been explicit about that. (See her Twitter thread here about why here: https://twitter.com/BCMorrow/status/1421860886348697603)

But I'm not one of those people. As a lover of Little Women, this book hit all the right notes for me while presenting an entirely new perspective, of what that same time period was like for Black Americans. It is set in the same time period as the source material, where we encounter the March family at the Roanoke Island Freedpeople's Colony. Which was a very real place! So Many Beginnings thinks about the trauma of the Civil War for Black folks, and the challenges of not only dealing with that trauma but then attempting to establish new lives and families with little resources and even less support. (Basically, imagine the "that's enough activism for today" chat meme as the Union army...) It encounters the struggles of wanting to pursue new possibilities while also clinging so strongly to physical proximity because of past violent separations. It confronts the self-righteousness of white liberalism, and explores the disconnect between the Black experience of former slaves and those who were already free.

Less important than those beats, Morrow also introduced some twists that made my precious little heart very happy.

It packs a big emotional punch while also being incredibly enjoyable to read, is what I'm saying. I'm really looking forward to handselling this one.

Okay, I read the blue alien peen book. Are you happy now?

Shades of Beauty and the Beast, with a dash  of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This was not terrible. But also, the on-page extreme sexual assault was completely unnecessary, for me, to contrast the new hot set of aliens. And there's dubious consent at best at the start of Georgie and Vektal's "relationship" that made me extremely uncomfortable. No shade to people who like this series, and I guess I understand what Dixon is going for - Mara at Bookslikewho has a long video talking more about the themes present in the series as a whole - but this series is just not going to be for me, I think.

This was a really cute story about building community through storytelling, which is always my jam. Plus, there's a mobile book aspect which is also my jam. ;)

 I'm not really what you would call a sports fan. But I think this did a really good job at highlighting and explaining for the naysayers the dilemmas (and the facts behind them) of why some people who ARE sports fans struggle with certain elements. From players convicted of crimes playing again, to leagues that place profits over players' health, to the astronomical and ridiculous PUBLIC costs of vanity stadiums, to the dearth of support for players from marginalized identities, to the challenges with the Olympics. Admittedly they don't have all the answers, but it's a well-reasoned, well-researched, well-rounded look at these issues. There were also a lot of anecdata from people within the sports field, both players and reporters.

A good amount of this book definitely went over my head when it came to game rules, etc. (especially that chapter on baseball free market...) and I am not really a sports "fan" so the chapter about stadiums only made me even more enraged than I already am about that fun aspect of sports, but this book captures a lot of the reasons why I'm NOT a big sports fan. Admittedly, though, I can't say that would still be the case if it was a family or traditional pastime. I am able to separate myself from that fanaticism because it wasn't grown into me, which is much easier.