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niamhreviews's reviews
582 reviews
Modern Family: The Untold Oral History of One of Television's Groundbreaking Sitcoms by Marc Freeman
4.0
30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani
3.0
I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Hachette Audio.
'30 Things I Love About Myself' begins with Nina in jail. She didn't plan to be there the day she turned 30. But with everything else going wrong in her life - what's a stint in the slammer? From there, she decides to go on a journey of self-love.
I felt this book didn't know what it wanted to be. Like a child, it picked up a lot of themes and began to start them - only to drop them when another, more interesting one came along. It wasn't particularly focused, and following the first couple of chapters, it seemed to change to a completely different book than what it was blurbed to be. That being said - I liked the themes that were chosen. They were interesting and contemporary - certainly not ones that are familiar in contemporary fiction. They were just weren't explored to the depth they needed to be.
The book becomes very same-y after a while, with drama happening for the sake of drama, rather than having genuine tension to play on. I felt like so much more could have been done to take Nina on her journey of self-love. Much of it seems to happen off-page, so to speak, and we get a description of what happened before the rest of the story continues. It even feels a little dated in places, despite it being released this year - the constant Harry Potter references were very off-putting and the astrology stuff was...interesting. And not always in a good way.
There was more that could have been done, but it was an easy read. There are CW's in place for mentions of depression, suicide, sexual assault, racism.
'30 Things I Love About Myself' is available now.
'30 Things I Love About Myself' begins with Nina in jail. She didn't plan to be there the day she turned 30. But with everything else going wrong in her life - what's a stint in the slammer? From there, she decides to go on a journey of self-love.
I felt this book didn't know what it wanted to be. Like a child, it picked up a lot of themes and began to start them - only to drop them when another, more interesting one came along. It wasn't particularly focused, and following the first couple of chapters, it seemed to change to a completely different book than what it was blurbed to be. That being said - I liked the themes that were chosen. They were interesting and contemporary - certainly not ones that are familiar in contemporary fiction. They were just weren't explored to the depth they needed to be.
The book becomes very same-y after a while, with drama happening for the sake of drama, rather than having genuine tension to play on. I felt like so much more could have been done to take Nina on her journey of self-love. Much of it seems to happen off-page, so to speak, and we get a description of what happened before the rest of the story continues. It even feels a little dated in places, despite it being released this year - the constant Harry Potter references were very off-putting and the astrology stuff was...interesting. And not always in a good way.
There was more that could have been done, but it was an easy read. There are CW's in place for mentions of depression, suicide, sexual assault, racism.
'30 Things I Love About Myself' is available now.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
4.0
Honestly, The Princess Bride is very quickly becoming my comfort movie, and I'm really glad to have the book too because it has just the same fun and wit as the film. Plus the audiobook is narrated by Rob Reiner! Maybe I should buy 'Adventures in the Screen Trade' after all...
Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto
3.0
I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley & HQ.
I so wanted to love this book. The first book in the series - 'Dial A For Aunties' - was such a chaotic, exciting surprise that I couldn't wait to read this one. But the follow up suffers from a bit of a sophomore slump.
Following Meddy and her Aunties - as well as her husband-to-be Nathan - this second novel is all about the aforementioned wedding, which is derailed when Meddy and her four Aunties get into hijinks and try to keep a massive secret being revealed to the entire wedding party. If you've read the first book, you'll get the general jist of what's going on - its narrative follows a relatively similar path. I can't say much without it being a spoiler, but it's just as crazy a plot as you're expecting.
Full disclosure - I worked out the ending about two chapters in. I was waiting for there to be a bigger twist and it just never came.
Whilst the same kind of chaos that was in the first book remains, what was charming then just felt a bit...same-y now. One of the biggest problems of this book is the lack of moving parts. In 'Dial A', there was the constant looming threat of the body being discovered, with lots of other small things involved to make everything more complicated. It created a real sense of jeopardy that's missing in the sequel. It didn't quite feel like it warranted the amount of pages it was written with - things could've been solved very quickly and not had as much of an impact. Chapters became very repetitive after a while and Meddy, despite being the main character, is never the most interesting character.
The ending also felt hugely underwhelming. There had been plenty of knots tied and wires crossed to get to a really exciting finale - but it just never came. It just sort of...ended and everyone continued as though they hadn't just spent a day doing a bunch of crazy stuff. I won't give away spoilers, but for a group of people who were so adamant on getting revenge on another group - they gave up their charge VERY QUICKLY.
It's a fast read and if you enjoyed the first book, you'll probably find some enjoyment in this one. But for me, the writing wasn't particularly good and a plot that could've had far more excitement in it instead just under-performed.
'Four Aunties and a Wedding' will be published March 29th.
I so wanted to love this book. The first book in the series - 'Dial A For Aunties' - was such a chaotic, exciting surprise that I couldn't wait to read this one. But the follow up suffers from a bit of a sophomore slump.
Following Meddy and her Aunties - as well as her husband-to-be Nathan - this second novel is all about the aforementioned wedding, which is derailed when Meddy and her four Aunties get into hijinks and try to keep a massive secret being revealed to the entire wedding party. If you've read the first book, you'll get the general jist of what's going on - its narrative follows a relatively similar path. I can't say much without it being a spoiler, but it's just as crazy a plot as you're expecting.
Full disclosure - I worked out the ending about two chapters in. I was waiting for there to be a bigger twist and it just never came.
Whilst the same kind of chaos that was in the first book remains, what was charming then just felt a bit...same-y now. One of the biggest problems of this book is the lack of moving parts. In 'Dial A', there was the constant looming threat of the body being discovered, with lots of other small things involved to make everything more complicated. It created a real sense of jeopardy that's missing in the sequel. It didn't quite feel like it warranted the amount of pages it was written with - things could've been solved very quickly and not had as much of an impact. Chapters became very repetitive after a while and Meddy, despite being the main character, is never the most interesting character.
The ending also felt hugely underwhelming. There had been plenty of knots tied and wires crossed to get to a really exciting finale - but it just never came. It just sort of...ended and everyone continued as though they hadn't just spent a day doing a bunch of crazy stuff. I won't give away spoilers, but for a group of people who were so adamant on getting revenge on another group - they gave up their charge VERY QUICKLY.
It's a fast read and if you enjoyed the first book, you'll probably find some enjoyment in this one. But for me, the writing wasn't particularly good and a plot that could've had far more excitement in it instead just under-performed.
'Four Aunties and a Wedding' will be published March 29th.
From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy by Scott Meslow
4.0
A fascinating exploration of where the romantic comedy genre has been, where it went and now where it's going. As a reclusive romantic-comedy enthusiast, this book made me want to go back, to compile lists and watch those old classic movies that take me away from reality for a moment.