sol_journal's reviews
78 reviews

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph 

Posted on: 21 December 2024

This has been one of my lowest rated and earliest dropped books of the year and I’m kind of really disappointed! I came here with a mild understanding of the book, no previous experience with Amalie Howard’s writing via previous books, and no expectations.

Boy, will I learn to do my research better next time…

I’m a hater by nature. I can hash out the meanest review if I wanted to. I won’t though, because I don’t wanna be mean considering I,

1.) didn’t get far into the read at all (10%) to give it a fair and fighting chance at redemption

2.) should have done my research better to see if this was a pick for me or not.

3.) know that I could’ve been way meaner for another read *cough,serpentanddove,cough* and I wasn’t, so I’ll keep that kindness here again too.

So, I’ll start my review with that much. I’m going to be as fair as I can be in my words because I know I didn’t finish, but I have zero desire to continue it.

“Why not?” you may ask if you know me because sometimes I like to spite read books I don’t enjoy or at least push on to the 20% mark before DNF’ing.

“Because,” I say, “there wasn’t enough to keep me hooked.”

Let’s begin.

I am in the lgbt+ community. I myself identify as pansexual/panromantic. I don’t feel like I have the voice to speak out on bisexual struggles against stereotypes that are prominently made in media. I can, however, bring awareness to it and suggest people turn to more vocal pages and people instead (there’s multiple threads on Twitter/X that I used when making my mind up on whether or not I would talk about this in my review or not so that’s a place to start)

We are introduce to Laleh in the first chapter. She is Suraya’s best friend and not explicitly stated as bisexual, but there is a mention of her having previously dated a woman and now she’s lusting over the prince. It can be assumed that she’s bisexual because of this (or I assumed so at least since bisexuality tends to be featured in books more than pansexuality from what I’ve personally seen anyways). “But that’s not too bad!” you might think and yeah, it’s not. It’s good! Love to see the rep! Until that rep is painted to be very sexually minded. Every other sentence, it seems, is some innuendo about sex, or she’s always making sexual hand/mouth motions. She quite literally tells Suraya to ‘clear the cobwebs’ she’s sure to have since she hasn’t had sex in a while. And okay, the argument could be made that Laleh isn’t meant to be seen as more promiscuous than Suraya, but as more sex positive. I personally think that’s a very thin line to toe though, especially considering the romantic inclinations of Laleh. It can be seen either or, and I just personally saw it as fitting too closely into bisexual (or any non-straight for the matter if you wanna get broader) stereotypes that are harmful for the bisexual community.

I encourage open conversations if others think otherwise and totally am open to learn other points of view! This is simply mine and it left a bad taste in my mouth enough to not like the book. There’s even a part in a different chapter where somebody has transitioned somehow, but the person they are speaking to is ‘uncaring about her preferences or appearance’ after the former character has stated they now go by a different name. This moment could also be shrugged off and I might be looking way too deeply into things, but it, again, did not sit well with me.

To shift gears a little, let’s talk about our main character Suraya. She’s pretty much like any romantasy character in that she’s given this opportunity and cannot believe somebody picked her because “well look at me!” (She’s basic, she’s your average looking woman who doesn’t see her beauty compared to others). She’s a pretty interesting enough voice to follow up until (maybe jokingly, maybe not) says that the prince’s type has to be ‘some stunning specimen with melon-sized breasts and a brain the size of a walnut.’

I dunno… didn’t rub me the right way at all.

To not entirely be a hater, I’ll bring up something I did like. The writing style has to be one of my favorites, scene-building wise. The prose was quite nice and enjoyable in style! I could tell that this would have been a lovely world to dive into via the writing alone. There was just a disconnect with the way the characters speak and the setting. That’s totally on me though. When things aren’t set in some modern-day town or city, I automatically assume it’s some historically dated era. You can imagine how jarring it was to go into this book thinking this only to read, “book boyfriends are simply better”, or “thick thighs save lives”. Ya know? Again, that’s totally on me (or that’s on me for always assuming that more dated settings need to use dated language. It’s a fantasy world so change it up however you want babes, just personally it wasn’t the take I was following so I was taken aback at first)

Anyways, all of this to say (my tl;dr summary): the prose was nice. The writing flowed well and I actually liked it for setting bits. The disconnect came from how characters were being portrayed, and assumed things that I made for the book instead of just letting it flow as it is. ‘The Starlight Heir’ isn’t a read for me. It might be for you and kudos for that much, but I have to pass on this one. Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for approving me for this ARC. I just hate to say it wasn’t for me at all. I’ll do a better job at researching what I can about books before requesting them, but nonetheless I am grateful for the opportunity no matter how short-lived it was.

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph 

Posted on: 17 December 2024

I use a grading system to help rate my books and not gonna lie… I thought this read would be rated a bit lower. Maybe I’m being generous because I wanted to love it where I only liked it, but I’m nothing if not honest. My grading scale ended with a number that rounds up, then I shall round up.

I say this because I had a love-hate with the story. This is my first Angela Montoya read and it’s left me wanting. There’s a bunch of little thoughts floating in my brain but I think it can all be summed up with one sentence-

I felt that the story was romance first over story first, and damn that was a good storyline that got overshadowed.

Let’s dive in.

Okay so we have a pretty good cast of characters. I loved Lalo, I loved Carolina, and I loved the secondary characters of Nena and Fernanda. I think sometimes the characters hit too hard into the themes they were made from and it made their delivery fall short. I can’t explain it. It’s like when a book is built on tropes and shoehorns these tropes in to say that they did it, but it’s so in your face that you’re like “oh okay yeah.. I saw it buddy, thanks”

Carolina and Lalo’s romance was sweet, don’t get me wrong. I loved it, I loved them, but sometimes they did things that didn’t make sense. It kind of goes back to their character types and also kind of goes back to my aforementioned statement. A minimally non-spoiling example is when the two are hiding out in Carolina’s abuelo’s room. It’s late and she’s already gotten onto Lalo to keep quiet else somebody hears- and then they start training?? Like, go off I guess, but I don’t think throwing punches is exactly quiet. They also have banter in the most serious moments and it kills the vibes. They find out some information crucial to their search and then Carolina giggles over something Lalo says.

Oh also- they don’t jest…..

Tirade over, I think it’s a good story in that I was hooked on the background plot happening. I kind of really liked Montoya’s take on vampires and how they started, and the whys to their weaknesses. These were pretty well thought out and made sense to the lore she’s built up. In hindsight, perhaps the romance was pretty necessary for the way the story turned to for endings (to avoid saying much more anyways, that’s all I’ll say). Again, the romance itself was sweet. Who doesn’t like the ‘touch her/him and die” (because it went both ways here). It’s an entirely swoon-worthy read for sure.

There’s also some lighter/semi-focused on topics that weren’t exactly the main issue, but they weren’t entirely cast aside either. The whole time, Carolina is fighting to be seen by her father for who she is, as she is. For many Latinas (and many others with father issues too but just to mention specifically a demographic more likely to pick up this read and resonate with the issue), we all know the struggles of machismo and how papás tend to favor their sons over their daughters. I think this was important to see too in that never was there a part where Carolina was extinguished. Montoya gives us a fiery female lead who finds a partner that can handle it without getting burned. I think that was the biggest saving point for me in this book, the fact that I love angry, stubborn, headstrong women, and the lovers that whole heartedly support them in all their sharpness.

This book has its faults. I can see why people can love it and I can see why people found their issues with it. After typing up this review, I can actually see why I personally decided to keep it at 4 stars. I can admit that I’m being a little harsh in my criticism, but it was a pretty good book! It wasn’t my usual read, but it had a lot of little things that shined through enough for me to like it in the end. Would I pick up another Angela Montoya book? Honestly- I think I will! After seeing her style, I can be better prepared for any other works. She sees the desire for angry women and soft love, and she nailed each point right on the head with ‘A Cruel Thirst.’

**Thank you NetGalley and RHCBEducators/Random House Children’s- Delacorte Pree for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph 

Posted on: 26 November 2024

I kind of requested this book on a whim after seeing that we are birthday twins (hello other Dec 10 babies <3). The premise of it seemed interesting and I thought it fell into all the right boxes for some of my favorite books, so I said why not and requested it!

Little did I know that I would find a heart and home within the pages.

I usually like to start off my book reviews with things that I didn’t like all too much in the book, but there was very little of that here. I get what some people disliked about the language used. In the first chapter, we get the infamous “not today, satan!” quote that I found a little funnily out of place, but not terribly bad? There’s a lot more instances of “oh la la la la la la” (I’m not exaggerating at how many ‘la’s’ either) that were more annoyingly overused, but even then it wasn’t enough to overpower the rest of the story. Besides that, I personally don’t think the language used sucks you out of the story too much. That’s just my personal opinion though!

Next on the list- characters. There’s a good mix of characters at play in this story. We, of course, have the main duo mentioned in the summary- Joséphine and Clara. We get plenty of villagers too, some soldiers (vaguely anyways) and some rich men too far from danger to realize its true effect. Because of all the moving pieces needed to help nudge the story and its central theme along, I think the length didn’t give enough time to flesh out the smaller notes. Yes, we’re given reasons to hate the monsters living inside the houses, but it’s surface level. We see girls with bruises who flinch away from men or girls who do what they need to get out of their homes. And yes, I did hate the men and the boys and the priest who needed to get more than just bit, but if the novel was longer, the dislike could’ve been sown deeper.

I think that’s my real complaint here, I just wanted this novel to be a little longer. I loved the angry main character who yearned to feel beloved and needed. I loved the gentle secondary character who loved all the sharp bits and held a fire of her own in her chest. I loved the cast of girls we follow that support each other, that learn to lean on each other and break their silence. I think I just wanted to see more of them, especially with the ending that we are given (I got chills reading that epilogue at the gym, truly this book has a piece of my heart) 

‘We Are the Beasts’ spoke to the anger in me. It reminded me that the anger isn’t /just/ in me, but in all of us, in different ways. This book is for the fiery, feral voices with teeth sharp enough to rip. This book is also for the quieter, careful voices with hands to mend but hearts that burn. I think this book fed the same fire in me that reading Clytemnestra’s story did- and I wholly support all the women’s wrongs that might have transpired during the first page up to the last of this novel.

CW: blood, abuse, mention of child death and allusions to how it happened/what happened to the body, murder, passing mentions of torture and sexual harassment where you can assume what the intentions were but it’s not exactly written out word for word.

**Thank you Amilea Perez for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: Goodreads and The Storygraph

Posted on: 25 October 2024

3.5 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

Firstly, happy book release week! I totally didn’t mean to do a review this last minute, but I didn’t quite know what I wanted to say, really. In the end, my criteria to rating books left this at an even 3.5 which I rounded up to 4 stars. I’m still kind of sitting between that 3 and 4 star mark, really, but for the sake of Goodreads’ limited options, I will *keep* it rounded up.

Anyways, all of that to say that I had a bit of a love/hate with this book. I tried to keep all my thoughts in order by keeping an ‘info dump’ list that I didn’t quite keep up with- bummer. I do have enough to sort my words out enough though, so let’s get to it.

I usually try to stray from reviews when I’m reading a book if only to not have anything spoiled for me. Regardless, I find myself skimming through them in the end and I couldn’t help but keep note of some of the things other readers saw and mentioned. So I guess I’ll start off with the things I didn’t quite enjoy/things that bugged me when reading:

I can’t quite place my finger on it, but the dialogue felt a little like… awkward at times? Did anybody else catch that? Especially between the family (well obviously, that’s who we followed for over half the book but more on that in a bit), I just felt that it was giving… Disney-channel-family-movie-dialogue. Does that make sense? It wasn’t *bad* so to say, but it did just feel a little unnatural.

I’m gonna shift gears and bring the topic of family with me into the theme of pacing. Perez mentioned this in her instagram story once already, but let me say it here again too- this book is a slow burn. This book is slow paced. It is NOT for the reader who likes action and fast-moving scenes because we literally follow the House of Life for most of the book up until the day of the tournament (this was roughly around the 60% mark because I remember ranting about it to a friend of mine). I had a love/hate with *this* for the fact that- well the book is *called* ‘The Tournament of Heirs’. Why do we only get 40% of actual tournament content? On the flip side, I loved the chance to get to know these characters more though. The slow pacing helps in giving readers a moment to learn about this main cast and get attached to them if only to make the tournament part more stressful to read.

And now to segway this pacing issue into the broader topic of writing style. I didn’t exactly *hate* the way Perez writes, I think for a debut book, it’s wonderful and definitely could grow into something more graceful and lovely. However, I did see the issue a few other readers had in that the content felt repetitive. I get it, I saw it, I read it over and over- it is repetitive, especially in things that the author wants you to remember. It’s a mix of show *and* tell, which I felt didn’t hurt the story *too* much, but it did get a little tedious after a while. I think that with time though, Perez’s writing can most definitely improve into something where the need to repeat facts that she wants the reader to know will slow evolve into another way of keeping info constant without being too in your face about it.

Phew, okay. So you might be thinking, “Well damn girl, if you had all that to say about the book, then why did you round it up to four stars!?” 

Uhm, well.. I’m asking myself the same thing…

What *really* got me hooked onto this book was the strong sibling dynamic that was promised in the early book promo. I love love LOVE books with sibling relationships as somebody who has two older sisters and sometimes wishes that we were all closer together, or that we didn’t fight so much growing up and hold those old grudges, or that no matter what happens in the future, we will *always* be there for each other regardless of how much distance is between us (Elle, if you’re reading this, no you aren’t). So when I met Acalan and Metztli, I knew I would stick with the book. These characters were written with love by Perez, that much is very clear. Where a few other characters felt a little flat or just distant because we didn’t get the chance to know them better due to passing mentions of them or.. other reasons (iykyk), I think the main sibling duo we follow had their chance to shine. And I won’t lie, it felt a little trope-y sometimes, a little too much cliche or simple, but I don’t know… I just couldn’t let go of these characters as easily. And I never hit a point where I was like “this is so annoying, I have to stop reading or I’ll become a hater”. Although there was one thing that I kind of didn’t like…

The romance in this was okay. I didn’t really come into this book with a need to see love flourish, but it was something nice! Acalan’s story had a more insta-love type that usually isn’t my cup of tea. It was sweet, it was nice, it got me annoyed in one scene but I got over it. I think the characters worked well together which made it all the sweeter, but again- I personally don’t like the insta-love too much. Metztli’s story had more of a slow burn, but when it happened- oh boy, it happened. It, again, was a nice side romance story. I think *those* two characters work well together too. Necalli has a lot of my favorite book-romance-lead tropes which meant that I’d love him eventually, but I still feel like his snarky-ness could’ve shown a little more/it wasn’t a switch that made these two fall into one another.

I think the storyline went along well. There’s prophecy talks that’s kept a secret most of the time. I switched between annoyed and intrigued at its constant mention, but it played out well enough in the end. I will say that the ending kind of felt a little anticlimactic to me? I don’t know if I was so excited to see what happens that I accidentally glossed over some key parts or if it genuinely didn’t have that arching blow that it was leading into. I don’t know. What I do know is that the characters, Perez’s potential, and the way this book ended has all snagged me so deeply into waiting for the second book. It’s a fine read! There’s room for growth, but I think it’s a nice debut that mixes bits of Mexican and Aztec culture, and a new fantasy world to make an interesting tale! I think it’s worth a try if you’ve been looking for a new book about gods’ games, sibling bonds, and the desperate need to keep a kingdom and a family safe.

Posted to: Goodreads and The Storygraph
Posted on: 25 October 2024

3.5 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

Full review to come. I literally just finished the last page though and must drop my initial thoughts. 
This book was a horror in such a good way. I cringed and I tried to cover up the words while reading the gory bits. I *felt* Ji-won’s rage and kind of hate we were taken along the roller coaster of deaths and devours only because I realized I’m more squeamish than I thought. Still, I absolutely will be here whenever Monika Kim releases another book! There was something just wickedly gruesome and terrible about this that didn’t allow me to put it down. I loved the narrative we got to follow, loved the descent and the twists and the ending. Loved loved *loved* this little terror of a novel.

**Thank you Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph

Posted on: 7 October 2024

3.4 (rounded down to 3) out of 5 stars.

I don’t know where to start for this one. I wanted to love it, so so SO badly did I want to enjoy this! Rebecca Roanhorse hadn’t steered me wrong before so I was ready for another banger she reviewed.

It fell short for me and I don’t know why! It was easy going first. You do kinda start off kind of thrown into this world, but I think August Clarke does a splendid job of pulling you through with the main character. I think what got me confused some was the sudden ‘you’ that was mentioned and turned out to be a friend (potentially lover too I think?) of Marney. Once I got it though, it was like nothing.

I think what bugged me was the pacing? It started off with a bang, kind of slows down, and I feel like it alternates between these action scenes and suddenly slower informational bits. The world building was slipped into these slower bits, and I think it just felt like a dump at times? I literally entered a reading slump during one of the slower bits and found myself pushing through until it got a little better, but I just couldn’t bring myself to force-read it anymore.

I say this, but still I don’t think it was a /bad/ read. It just wasn’t for me at the moment. I do want to try and pick it back up again another time because the plot was good. I was here for the lesbians and the worker’s revolt, and I was not left wanting. I think the info bits were just dragging too much, and I was too distracted to fully re-immerse myself after picking it back up from one break already. Lots of people did seem to enjoy this read though, and I can really see why! At the same time, I can also see how it isn’t for everybody as well. It’s definitely an interesting ready, and the writing style wasn’t entirely my favorite, but it’s one I want to come back to. Just for now, I had to DNF because I didn’t see myself picking it back up again and actually finishing it before it released.

**Thank you Random House Publishing- Ballantine and NetGalley for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph

Posted on: 3 September 2024

4.2 (rounded down to 4) out of 5 stars.

“This was its own kind of torment, knowing how it felt to have Sylvia pressed against her. It was a cruel vision of something not meant for her.” 

This quote was pulled from the author’s instagram in a promotion post for the book!! It’s an AMAZING vibe for the yearning we see everywhere in the book though. ‘A Dark and Drowning Tide’ was such a different change of pace from the books I’ve been reading lately and I LOVED it! There was just something about the angsty lesbian lovers stuck on a ship with a killer while fighting feelings for each other and still trying to continue their mission for me. This is the first book from Allison Saft that I’ve read despite having almost her entire backlist, and it only convinced me to pick up her other books as soon as I can.

The prose in this book was so lovely! I am a sucker for flowery, tortured lovers and poetic writing. It was a nice mix of myth and romance, not leaning too heavy on the story to fudge out the romance and vise versa. As far as the mystery aspect goes, there’s a lot of flares about. Some things get mentioned or brought up and immediately you kind of know to keep your eye on it’s constant mention/its oddly specific mention. I don’t think it was too on the nose with the ‘clues’ for it, which I enjoyed as well because I love a good plot twist!

Just- all in all, I really enjoyed this read! It’s got a little bit of everything mixed in, but my absolute favorite bits were just the romance and the touches of folk stories. Saft connects some fairytales to characters and I really enjoyed those bits and references, but I think that was a personal preference. 

**Thank you so much Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine | Del Ray for the earc! All words and thoughts in this review are my own honest opinion!**

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph

Posted on:

2.9 (rounded up to 3) out of 5 stars.

Uhm- I’ve got thoughts. I’ve got a jumble of words in mind for this read that I don’t really know how to untie. I’ll try my best to be coherent, but I have very little yet so much at the same time to say about this read…

Let’s dive in?

I understand the sort of message that Lilliam Rivera was trying to convey here. I kind of hate that the only fashion world reference I knew to help set the scene was ‘Ugly Betty’ because it seriously kicked some of that seriousness out of ‘Tiny Threads’ too, and there was already only so much to work with. I think for me it was the pacing that affected this a lot.

At the beginning, it felt like Rivera was trying to take things easy to help set the scene and let readers get a feel for what was to come, but then realized she was nearing a word cap and rushed all the important plot points back to back before the end. It just felt… messy. There was too much stitched together to fill in gaps left by other ideas, but then more gap arose. I think if the book was a little longer, more time could’ve been given to weave the timeline that Rivera started with.

Something else that bugged me was the way these plot points were intersecting. Once everything is connected, earlier details start to make some more sense, but there were too many stories being told for it to run linearly. I almost wonder if back and forth flashbacks/two time period POVs could’ve helped achieve the ending that ‘Tiny Threads’ came around to? I’m not sure. It just felt like there were too many ideas being used to help elevate the plot and not much was done to help smoothen the bumps in the road.

I have to agree with others in that the love interest isn’t really a love interest. He’s in for a few scenes, but not terribly much as- a love interest. I’m saying that word a lot, it’s losing its meaning. I feel like more could’ve been done to either ascertain that idea that he is a love interest beyond a few awkward meetings, or a different title could’ve been lended to him instead. This personally didn’t bug me all too much, but I figured it’s something worth noting as others found issue with it.

‘Tiny Threads’ attempts to lay down a *strong* and impactful message within its story. It strives to capture attention with its eeriness and by showing the true horrors that lay deeper behind glimmering facades and money-cushioned lives. I just think that the air could’ve been a bit more dramatic, a little less rushed, and a lot sharper. I haven’t read any of Rivera’s previous works, but as one of her firsts in the adult-fiction world, I believe this to be a good starter with which she can only grow from!

**Thank you so much Random House Children’s/RHCBEducators for the earc! All words and thoughts in this review are my own honest opinion!**

Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph

Posted on: 15 June 2024

3 out of 5 stars.

I feel a little betrayed by how people talk about this book compared to what’s actually in it. I’m skipping my usual rambles here and digging straight into the core of my thoughts, let’s go:

First off, I see it often described as ‘horror’ or ‘chilling’- it’s not. I was disappointed in this fact because I set it aside to read during my celebration of ‘Summerween’ where I just read spooky books throughout the summer since I usually can’t fill my fix during October. I want to say that I didn’t find it scary because it’s YA horror and I’m starting to get into more adult horror, but I find Kylie Lee Baker and Erin A Craig’s books a lot creepier and eerier than this- and both authors’ books are YA! This is a thriller at most, but that’s still pushing it. It’s a high fantasy YA novel with minimal eeriness in the beginning that doesn’t really carry through to the end.

Secondly, I had a love-hate throughout it. I feel like the plot and the characters were there, but they were *lacking*. Let me split this into a two parter, it’ll be short and connect in the end I promise. Characters first-

The characters were very trope-y. They did honestly feel like people plucked straight from C-Dramas which isn’t a bad thing! I just think they were just too heavily reliant on these tropes to move their growth along. The way the writing was also lent no hand in rounding them out. It was very Tell Not Show in a lot of places and it just made it hard to feel and connect with these characters.

The plot was very similar. It felt like a drama in that there were a lot of moving pieces, but I think that the length of the novel just didn’t allow it to reach its potential. Some bits felt rushed, others felt like they were thrown in for the sake of filling in a gap left open by another plot point. If the book were a little longer, I really do think it could’ve felt less… choppy and stitched together. I think there was just too many things trying to pull the story along that the ends got frayed along the way. And again, there were a lot of drama tropes tossed in that just didn’t really help to flesh out the actual book and it really just left me wanting something more or better from it.

I don’t have too much else on my reader notes about this- nothing that hasn’t been repeated above like five times a paragraph. I just wish I would’ve enjoyed it more! The premise was interesting. I read the summary and was *instantly* hooked, but I just don’t think the summary gave the story the right push-off it needed. It felt a little misleading, especially with so many people calling it horror when it’s not even terribly creepy (I guess the idea of this mirror world is creepy? But the execution lightened the blow that it could’ve had). I can definitely see how people can enjoy this though and I hope more people will!! For a debut book, it’s pretty nice especially for drama lovers. I just couldn’t get into it and never quite found my footing enough to enjoy it. As Keshe Chow grows more as an author, I’d love to see what else she comes up with! Because again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the story and the characters could’ve been so much better than they were if more time was given to them and if it was polished a little better.

**Thank you so much Random House Publishing and Kathleen Quinlan for reaching out with an earc! All words and thoughts in this review are my own honest opinion!**
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph
Posted on: 8 June 2024

3 out of 5 stars.

I tried to like this. I really did. I got to 20% then 25%, then told myself I’ll go to 35% to see how it’ll go and I still just had that love-hate relationship. When I start to feel this way with books, I’m wary to keep continuing because I start to get too critical over the smallest things and it further ruins the read.
So ultimately, I did decide to just DNF. I just don’t think this book is for me. It’s slightly out my range from the usual genres I pick. It’s also just a little slow and the characters a tad unlikeable in a bad way (because I love me a good unlikable or unreliable mc, don’t get me wrong)

I had this issue that a few others had in feeling that Gia’s manuscript POV was just… long. And it took too long to get to the point. I get that we’re peering into the buildup of what happened, but I don’t know… it just didn’t interest me yet there are a *lot* of chapters featuring Gia’s POV compared to Abby’s and that’s considering the fact that I didn’t even finish the book. I feel like I just wanted to see more of Abby, or more movement *anywhere*.

The premise was interesting, the whole idea, the cover, and the title- it was *interesting*, but the actual inside of the book just left me wanting. Maybe I’ll try again to finish this, but genuinely I don’t think it lined up with what I was expecting based off the summary and the cover? I think others will definitely enjoy this more than I have, but just for me personally, it really didn’t strike the right cord from the get-go.