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mirrorballmuses's reviews
251 reviews
Doll Shaker by Casey Renee Kiser
2.0
I won this in a giveaway and I knew what to expect based off the synopsis. I knew it’d be disturbing, it said it would be. I was still pretty interested in giving it a whirl though. However, it was a little too triggering for me personally. I should’ve taken more caution before diving into it. I felt gross reading the poems and that’s never a nice feeling to have while reading.
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
5.0
I want to preface this by saying that this is my first read by Mariana Zapata so I don’t have her other books to really compare it to so I have no idea if this is her ~best work~ or not, but regardless, I absolutely loved it. I need more of y’all to read it so I can see more memes of Tobias Rhodes too please.<3
My Review:
This book warmed my heart. Aurora/Ora (h) annoyed me at the beginning but very quickly grew on me and damn she was such a perfect sunshine character who was HILARIOUS. Her fear of bats was especially so funny. Seeing her grow during her journey was also such a powerful thing.
Rhodes (H) was a retired Navy, single dad, and the epitome of grumpy character who was soft for only his teenage son, Amos and yes, Ora too. But honestly, when I say their relationship is a slow burn, um. Consider the slowest thing you know and yeah that’s how slow it is. BUT!! ITS WORTH IT. I PROMISE. Seeing Ora grow closer with their little family of two and the friendships she formed with them was so cute. Rhodes was extra guarded and protective but he was a softie deep down and it’s ADORABLE when he unleashed his soft side. Him FINALLY coming around felt all the more special too since it took so freaking long.
This book also tackled issues such as grief (loss of a parent/husband/break up), and personal growth very well. It was comfortable to read Aurora discuss her grief but it wasn’t sugarcoated feelings either. Her redundancy talking about her ex and her mother got a little annoying and seemed to be used for filler sake at times but I didn’t mind it entirely because I think it made it more real. Grief is complicated and her mind always wandering back to the trauma with her mom or her ex when something would happen is something us real humans do too and there were so many quotes from these parts that really resonated with me. All the characters had their own battles they faced and I felt connected to them and understood them. I wanted to give them a hug.
I could go on forever about what I loved about it but there’s I’ll just conclude by saying: it had me teary-eyed, smiling, and laughing. It was one hell of a roller coaster ride. Trust me on this one. Read it. It’s beautiful.
My Review:
This book warmed my heart. Aurora/Ora (h) annoyed me at the beginning but very quickly grew on me and damn she was such a perfect sunshine character who was HILARIOUS. Her fear of bats was especially so funny. Seeing her grow during her journey was also such a powerful thing.
Rhodes (H) was a retired Navy, single dad, and the epitome of grumpy character who was soft for only his teenage son, Amos and yes, Ora too. But honestly, when I say their relationship is a slow burn, um. Consider the slowest thing you know and yeah that’s how slow it is. BUT!! ITS WORTH IT. I PROMISE. Seeing Ora grow closer with their little family of two and the friendships she formed with them was so cute. Rhodes was extra guarded and protective but he was a softie deep down and it’s ADORABLE when he unleashed his soft side. Him FINALLY coming around felt all the more special too since it took so freaking long.
This book also tackled issues such as grief (loss of a parent/husband/break up), and personal growth very well. It was comfortable to read Aurora discuss her grief but it wasn’t sugarcoated feelings either. Her redundancy talking about her ex and her mother got a little annoying and seemed to be used for filler sake at times but I didn’t mind it entirely because I think it made it more real. Grief is complicated and her mind always wandering back to the trauma with her mom or her ex when something would happen is something us real humans do too and there were so many quotes from these parts that really resonated with me. All the characters had their own battles they faced and I felt connected to them and understood them. I wanted to give them a hug.
I could go on forever about what I loved about it but there’s I’ll just conclude by saying: it had me teary-eyed, smiling, and laughing. It was one hell of a roller coaster ride. Trust me on this one. Read it. It’s beautiful.