shivani_n's reviews
390 reviews

only in a monica murphy book will there be a marriage proposal, a funeral, a guy admitting to being in the mafia, and smut all in the span of 10 pages. 

“i am so in love with you. wildly. deeply. unrelentingly in love with you.”

this was so good!! definitely a redemption from carley fortune’s last release. lucy and felix’s chemistry was like off the charts and i loved felix’s character. he was such a sweetheart and you could tell he was so smitten for lucy from the start, but their relationship also slowly developed into something much deeper than either of them had expected. all the little things they did for each other over the years were so romantic, like how lucy sent him books and felix sent her seeds for the flower farm she wanted to create.

it was set over the course of 5 years, flipping between past and present timelines, which is one of my favourite story structures!! this very fun to read and i’d recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet summer romance :)

"I didn't learn what love was supposed to feel like. It doesn't feel natural, or come easily to me, to let anyone close. But you—you make love so easy, Daphne. You make me think I already deserve it, exactly how I am. And I feel lucky every time you look at me. Not because I think I've managed to earn you, but because it feels like you don't need me to. Like you just... like me. Like you love me. That's how I feel with you. And I know I'm not who you pictured yourself with, but I think I could be, eventually. If you'll let me. So don't go. Because I don't want you to. Because you're my best friend, and I'm in love with you."

AND EMILY HENRY HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!! she literally never disappoints, i love this book. i'm obsessed with daphne and miles they are so cute omg. friends to lovers is my favourite trope so i obviously really enjoyed all of their scenes together, and their banter was so much fun. miles is actually the biggest sweetheart like where can i find a man like him fr!!! i love how they always showed up for each other in every way possible, it was so romantic.

i also like the whole premise of the book in general, it's a bit different from her other novels because it's a bit of a mix of tropes--roommates, friends to lovers, and a bit of fake dating thrown in there too! it all made for a really entertaining plot and lots of tension. 

emily henry's writing was dazzling in this book, particularly all of the metaphors and similes she used when describing how miles made daphne feel. they were just so creative and i thought so many times, wow, that's such a beautiful way to describe that giddy feeling. 

i would definitely recommend funny story if you're looking for a lighthearted easy romance read :))

as you can see i’m desperate to catch up on my reading goal…

eh not the best classic i’ve read. i deem this mid. 

"I like being around you when I'm home and I miss you when I'm away. I've learned love is more than the butterflies in my stomach when I look at you. It's more than seeing you in my jersey. More than needing you close to me all the time. Love is a quiet trust. It's familiarity and knowing someone, really knowing who they are deep down. You know me better than I know myself, and I think I know you pretty well too. You admit your faults without fear and accept mine without question. I'm in awe of you every day. I want a life with you in it, not just because of how you make me feel, but because of who you are. Jordan, you are my everything."

needed to read something trashy. this was cute!

this family saga was immensely enjoyable, i literally didn't want the story to end because every chapter had me on the edge of my seat!! if it wasn't for APs i would have finished the book in 3 days instead of 3 weeks😭.

this book is quite long but definitely worth it for all of the buildup you get, and i like how since it switches from past and present perspective, you get to see things unfold in a certain way that's really satisfying but it also leaves you wanting to know more. i liked the author's writing style and how candid the dialogue and everything was; the characters felt very real and flawed and it just kind of shows how even adults act like children at times and they really don't have it all figured out like we may think they do. the drama was 10/10.

i also just love the themes in this book about family, sisterhood, and marriage. i haven't read many books that are deeply centered around those themes, so it was a nice change. i also like how you get everyone's perspective in the book, and even though there are multiple characters, the author switches seamlessly between those perspectives.

the ending did feel a tad rushed but overall i loved this book and would definitely recommend, especially if you want something juicy and engrossing!! also i'm really looking forward to summer so i can catch up on my reading goal because i'm so behind right now 💀

this book made me sick but i loved it. i don't know what i was expecting but it was definitely not this! i could. not. put. this. down. SO SO SO GOOD i devoured it in 2 days.

for obvious reasons, this is a tough novel to read. it is very disturbing and at times i even found myself hating vanessa, the narrator, because of how much she defends strane, the man who groomed her since she was fifteen. but i think that's what makes the book so captivating, because she's kind of an unreliable narrator and she walks on the thin line separating self-hatred and delusion regarding what she experienced.

the book follows vanessa throughout the aftermath of her affair with strane, and focuses on how her relationship with him evolves over the course of the book. i love how it switches between past and present timelines so that all of the puzzle pieces you thought were missing eventually come together and it makes sense. it's also a very effective way to make the reader understand vanessa more deeply as a character, even when she doesn't understand herself. i felt so bad for her because it was clear she was manipulated and taken advantage of since she was a child, and her story just goes to show how much that can affect a person for their whole life afterward. 

also, russell's writing was phenomenal, there's something about all the extremely twisted detailed metaphors that elevated the story so much. all the characters were so carefully crafted it's actually kind of genius. strane's character especially, because all of the stuff he was saying when he gaslit her was so damn convincing it felt like he was gaslighting me too.

it's genuinely horrifying to think about how many girls have gone through similar abuse thinking it was love, and that's why this book is so important for people to read to get insight into the mind of a victim. it's a very unique story and SO gripping i would absolutely recommend (be careful of the trigger warnings though).

objectively this book is absolutely despicable and deranged but hey i knew what i was getting into so i can't say i didn't expect it!

the writing is terrible, and i mean like absolute GARBAGE. 
there's barely any plot or real romance the book is 90% smut.
the main guy, whit, is a total ick whose only redeeming quality seems to be his dick (omg hey that rhymes!), and girl, summer, is a desperate idiot. i mean she spent a whole year and half away from him saying she was "so over him" and that they would "never work out" only to get back together with him the SECOND he popped back into her life. it barely took any convincing LMAO.
all the characters are so goddamn stereotypical like there's this one gay side character who says "darling" every 2 seconds and loves shopping and is horny 24/7- monica murphy literally writes his character as if she has never talked to a gay person in her LIFE LMAO. to be honest it feels like she writes all her character interactions as if she's never spoken to a human being before.. bc the stuff these people say is INSANE like there's just no way there are people that actually talk like that💀.

anyway, really bad book but i got some good laughs from it and it was a good break from real literature! sometimes you just need to read trash and that's okay 🙏🏼😁

"If I could make you stay, I would, if I had to beat you, chain you, starve you– if I could make you stay, I would. One day, perhaps, you will wish I had."

"One day I'll weep for this. one of these days I'll start to cry."

this book lowkey shocked me to my core. i've never read something so brutal and raw in its description of shame and guilt. in fact, the whole book is really all about shame when it comes down to it, how it manifests, and how much damage it is capable of. the way james baldwin created the whole book around giovanni's room was also really interesting to me, albeit very sad. at first, it starts of as a place where david (the main character) is able to express himself and escape the outside world and its expectations, but then later transitions to a kind of prison where he is unable to escape his desires and gets caught in this deadly cycle of shame and guilt for his queerness. 

i also like the way the book is structured in terms of the passage of time. right from the beginning, you baldwin lays out how everything ends (hella leaving david, giovanni being executed), but you don't know how or why yet. that's part of what made the story so compelling; i was eager to find out why giovanni was being sentenced to death and everything that led up to that moment. 

honestly a very gloomy, weepy, depressing book but i still liked it. there's a lot of devastatingly eloquent writing so i'd still recommend if that's something you're in the mood for- it's also very short!