"We walk up the mountain until we can barley move, until we think we can't go one more step, and then we keep going. We never let the mountain win."
°•"We walk up the mountain until we can barley move, until we think we can't go one more step, and then we keep going. We never let the mountain win."
°•*⁀➷
This was such a stunner of a book. While the summary was intriguing, I don't think that I really knew where the plot would take me until I truly got into it. What a controversial idea on how to save a marriage. What an interesting way of navigating love and all the different ideas surrounding it.
Lauren has so many different forms of love surrounding her. She has a sister who doesn't care when love comes into her life, but knows she wants it. Knows that she'll never search for it, but also never say no to it. She has a brother who stumbled into love, and is doing everything he possibly can to build a life out of it. A mother who tried love, thought it wasn't for her, and may be realizing it is. A grandmother who loved her entire life. A friend who was so broken by love, but still unable to say no to its charm. A co-worker who is in love, deeply, but not as happily as can be.
Each story that Lauren is surrounded by is so extremely important to her figuring out if she can or cannot be with Ryan. Each love is another stepping stone into figuring out if she can let him back into her life after they hurt each other so much. It was compelling, beautiful, and heart-breaking. I think it's so cool that you can see how perfectly matched Lauren and Ryan are even though we hardly see any of the actual good in their relationship.
And you want to know the coolest thing of all?
I didn't dislike either one of them.
In stories of separation and lost love, it's almost impossible to be neutral and not take sides. Especially if it's someone you personally know. Ryan's family disliked Lauren the moment he told them their situation, but Lauren's family supported her while loving him all the same. Found family is so special because so many of us are at an age where we feel lost in our families, and lost in our lives. Lost in decisions that nobody is ever truly prepared to make. But when you read a family that is so beautifully developed together, it's sometimes even better.
I love that Lauren found herself in her time away from Ryan. I love when it clicked, for her, what being in love truly meant. I love that he was so selfless in their decision and that she respected everything he asked for. I love that they aren't angry at the decisions they made in their time apart. I love that Lauren realized that sometimes the most important part of loving someone is not taking them for granted.
Marriage, by societal standards, is a very odd concept. The breaking of marriage, even more so. I hope that when I find the only person I want to hold onto me through life, we can both be as clear-headed and kind to each other as Lauren and Ryan were in their toughest moments. This may have started out as a plot I didn't think I could get behind, but it turned into one of the most beautiful stories about love I've ever read.
Marriage is different for everyone, and whether or not it works out in the end, it should always be worth the try.
"I know about hurting all the way to your bones. And I know about giving up. It ain't the way."
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This book was a very tough read for me. I feel lik"I know about hurting all the way to your bones. And I know about giving up. It ain't the way."
°•*⁀➷
This book was a very tough read for me. I feel like I grew up at the perfect time, although arguably worst, to have this hit just a bit too hard.
This begins with a very intimate look into a broken marriage. Two people who love each other had grown apart due to different experiences with loss. Joleen lost her parents at a very young age and found solace in the routine of the military. Michael lost his father and tried to find solace in his wife. The difference is, he felt grief, she only ever felt loss.
She comes to find that there is a very big difference between the two.
As duty requires, Joleen is sent off to war. In her absence, Michael needs to step up and take care of his children. In doing so, he remembers who he was before grief changed him so entirely. He remembers how much he loves his wife and regrets the way he treated her before they had to say goodbye.
He also takes on what his father always calls, "the case that changes everything." He's a defense lawyer defending a man with PTSD. It hits so close to home for him and helps him to learn what his wife may need from him when she comes home one day.
This book is heart breaking, and was hard to get through. I cried through so much of it due to my own experiences with friends and family that came home from Iraq. If you told me Michael and Joleen didn't exist, I wouldn't believe you.
That's how incredibly Kristin Hannah wrote this.
Sometimes a five star book sneaks up on you. I wanted to give this four stars almost the entire read, and then I started writing this. It's five stars. It's knowing that while you may never be the person you were before, you can always become someone to be proud of now.
"We don’t live longer when we try not to die. We live longer when we are too busy living."
°•*⁀➷
It's so difficult to review memoir's of people you have"We don’t live longer when we try not to die. We live longer when we are too busy living."
°•*⁀➷
It's so difficult to review memoir's of people you have looked up to for so long. Or people you admire. Or probably anyone in general, if we're honest. It's just so difficult to write something about a life that's currently being lived, whether it be positive or negative. Everything I have to say about this one is positive.
Matthew McConaughey has been a part of my life for the entirety of it. I've known he existed for as long as I've known how to say the word alright (x3). My Mom loved him, and so I grew up loving him, too. I know one day, if I'm lucky enough, my kids will know Zac Efron's name for all the same reasons I know Matthew's.
To read about his life felt like a gift.
When you grow up admiring, respecting, adoring, and looking up to someone the way I did for him, it's difficult to put into words what a text about their life can mean to you. Especially when it's something that sits so well with the way your own brain works. Every word he wrote, every bumper sticker, every red, yellow and green light... I understood why it worked that way for him! I loved the online of the idea, and I loved the outcome even more.
I don't know what to say other than to ask you to read it yourself because I don't want to influence any feelings you may/may not have going in. Matthew McConaughey is so full of light, and love, and respect, and exuberance that it's difficult to even say what moved me most.
From his loneliness in Australia to his list of 10 things he wants to accomplish in life, I loved every word in between. And every word that cam before, and will probably come after. I'm so happy he mentioned my three favorite movies of him and that one of them was so pivotal to his career. I love that he talked about covid and explained that, "The red light year that 2020 was will one day, in the rear view mirror of life inevitably, turn green, and perhaps be seen as one of our finest hours."
I love the optimism. I love that he's exactly who he has always shown us he is... even in written word. Even reading to us.
I love Matthew McConaughey. I hope he'll keep writing, keep existing, and keep loving.
"It's one thing to wander in the darkness because you know no different, but it's quite another to enjoy the light only to have it taken from you."
°•*"It's one thing to wander in the darkness because you know no different, but it's quite another to enjoy the light only to have it taken from you."
°•*⁀➷
What a wonderful book. What a beautiful series.
While this entire series was beautiful, intricate and a work of art through words, this book feels so separate from the other two. A Discovery of Witches is what it implies: a discovery. Whether it be of the world or self, it focuses on building the beautiful world we fall into. Shadow of Night was a different form of discovery. One of love, respect, loss, and so much joy. Both books set this one up to be so much more than just five stars.
Diana and Matthew have spent months away from their present. Coming back seems like a dream, especially with heart break settled in to the walls before they even get there. This book has a slow start to represent how grief slows the world down, and I love it. I love that in that grief, we see how far they have come as a couple. As partners. Yet somehow, they haven't come far enough.
There's a seemingly silent war happening in the under currents of every page we turn. Everyone is fighting for their right to choose their own future. The covenant began as something to keep creatures safe, and has become a crutch to allow prejudice and hate. A friend of Diana's points out to Matthew that everyone would rather hide from tough decisions, but someone needs to stand up for what is right. In that moment, everything changed.
For centuries, much before Diana came into Matthew's life, he thought he could be nothing more than his families Shadow. He believed he was the darkness inside the de Clermont's light. Until Diana, he couldn't see that he could step into the light as well. Through her unending love and compassion, he realizes he can be so much more.
It's something those who loved him knew all along. He was always worthy of a different life, but until he took it for himself, he would be stifled by his own darkness.
I love when books remind you that healing doesn't happen overnight, that the work never stops and the darkness can come in at any time. It's how we react to it, how we face our fears, how we choose to live that matters.
This book is the answer to the first two's questions just as for every question Matthew has ever had, his answer is Diana. I can't wait to read these books again. What a perfect last read of the year.
"Maybe spells are nothing more than words that you believe with all your heart."
°•*⁀➷
This book picked up exactly where the first left off. Or 422 year"Maybe spells are nothing more than words that you believe with all your heart."
°•*⁀➷
This book picked up exactly where the first left off. Or 422 years earlier, if you want to be accurate. Diana ends up in a life she's only ever read about and finds out very quickly that reading about something and experiencing it are two very different things. Like anything else in her life though, she adapts and takes it on with a determination I can only imagine.
That doesn't come with only her own mind though. Beside Matthew, she meets so many people that touched his life once upon a time. His friends, his family, his father... who in their time had passed on. Everyone who has touched Matthew's past begins to be a part of Diana's present, leaving their impact on her heart in all the same ways they had Matthew. And for him, it feels like an opportunity to fix past mistakes.
The issue is that they were PAST mistakes. Anything they attempt to change in his past affects their future, which isn't necessarily good for the issues they escaped by running to the past in the first place.
I loved everything about this book, but the thing I loved most was Diana and Matthew's ability to adapt. To communicate. To understand each other. Did they have their trials? Absolutely, all new couples do, but this book really captured what it means to work together rather then alone. To love rather than expect love. To love another heart and soul rather than with exceptions.
We find out pretty early on in the first book that Matthew holds himself to a high standard because of events in his past. Being forced to face them seems to be the only way to confront and move on from them. He has an eternal life ahead of him, with or without Diana in it, and to not feel worthy of her while they're together is a disservice to them both.
I loved watching him work through that. I love that he had his father to lean on for a time, a father who loves him no matter his flaws. No matter his future. Unconditionally. Philippe says to him, "You are equally worthy of her. Stop regretting your life. Start living it."
And so Matthew does. Even if it takes this entire book to do it, he does. And I'm so proud of him for it.
I could never choose whose journey in this book meant more to me, but I can't wait to see how it concludes in The Book of Life.
I feel like this book was a gift for the teenager who grew up loving Edward Cullen. How on earth was I able t"Magic is a gift, Diana. Just like love."
I feel like this book was a gift for the teenager who grew up loving Edward Cullen. How on earth was I able to wait so long to open it? I think it's because I was meant to read it when I could text my wonderful friend, Aly about this world she loves as much as I love Edward and Forks.
Isn't that something?
It's been a long time since I've been so entranced by a fantasy novel. I escape into ACOTAR and Twilight to feel everything I did the first time I read those, and I think All Souls is going to turn into that for me as well. The lore, the history, the magic, the absolute love that went into creating this fantastical world. Deborah Harkness is a genius. I'm so glad I'm in it now.
As stated above, I've loved vampires all my reading life. I can't even begin to explain how much Edward has meant to me for over a decade. To find Matthew and remember falling in love with Edward by falling in love with him: there just aren't words. I know these stories are different. I know Matthew is much more complex than Edward ever could have been starring in a young adult novel. I know that Matthew is going to become so much more to me in the coming pages, and I can't wait to see how his journey continues.
The true star of this book for me, though, was Diana. The quote above captured so much of the plot for me in one simple statement. She grew up believing that if she were to use her magic, she couldn't call anything her own. It caused her to hold back, to not learn, and to push all of her family history behind a door that never should have been closed. I love that Hamish (I'm going to love him forever, too) pointed out to Matthew so early on that expectations are terrifying, and she can't be pushed to become something she's not ready to partake in.
In between falling in love and bonding over history... there's also the mystery of how witches, vampires and demons came to be. The mystery of wondering how their species can continue when they're dying out. There's war coming. There's fueds that have existed longer than any human lifetime. There's a story that never could have been just a story.
So many things pushed me to keep flipping the pages. My favorite thing about reading has always been forgetting that time passes around you. Forgetting there's a world outside of the one you're in. The most spectacular thing about this one is that time seems to have no meaning.
Matthew is thousands of years old, and he falls in love with a modern woman who loves history. What could be more perfect? More magical, as my quote implies?
I can't wait to see where time takes them next....more
"Translation was impossible, the realm of pure meaning it captured and manifested would and could not ever be known."
I write quotes out every time I r"Translation was impossible, the realm of pure meaning it captured and manifested would and could not ever be known."
I write quotes out every time I read a book so that when I'm done I can find the perfect one to capture the heart of a story. It's become my favorite part of reading. It's interactive and it always gives me something to look forward to when I turn the final page and there is an inevitable end. It's been a very long time since I didn't want an end to come.
I'm so in awe of this book that I think I'm in denial that it actually finished. How can it be done? How can a story like this one end? How is this fiction?
For the first half of Babel I was entranced by the writing, the story-telling, the set-up and the world. I was transported to the past and enriched by the theory of translation. I was essentially on a readers high. The kind where you forget you're reading at all. For the latter half, I was breathless. I don't think I have ever read a fictional book that so truthfully explained reality. As it's written, "It's hard to accept what you don't want to see."
That's not what I want to talk about, though. I want to talk about translation. I want to talk about the metaphor of silver bars representing a foundation of not only listening, but understanding as well. When you make a new friend, much like Robin did at the start of this, you spend so much time giving information. You spend so much time trying to tell them who you are that you forget they want to tell you who they are as well.
All anyone wants, as Ramy says to Robin, is to show themselves to the world and hope someone else understands them.
That's what I got from this book. It's a boy stolen from his homeland and told that he has to be thankful for a privilege he never asked for. A privilege he was never made to feel like he deserved. A privilege he only ever felt like he stole. All because he had a mind willing to understand, comprehend and dream with.
So many things get lost in translation, even when you speak the same language. It's the listening, and the ability to dance in shackles that becomes so much more important. When at a party where Robin is meant to feel down about himself, he uses the term "dance in shackles" to explain how translation truly works. He says that, "The poet runs untrammeled across the meadow. The translator dances in shackles."
I think that's such a beautiful analogy. An author, a writer, a poet... they get to express how they feel in the language they speak. They tell us exactly what they mean, exactly what they want to convey, and it's the translator who needs to understand it so completely that they can bring that meaning into a different language. Essentially a different world. A different culture sometimes. How can we ever hope to understand an experience we've never had without someone else who understands it standing in the middle?
How do we trust them?
This book opened up so many questions I never knew I had inside of me. It answered all of them by the end. Another quote I loved is: "Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No, a thousand worlds within one. And translation - a necessary endeavor, however futile, to move between them."
The world is big, and difficult, and dark, and light, and kind, and reckless, and full of pain, and regret, and so much anger, and so much love. How can we understand any of that without translation? How can anything be understood if we are not truly listening?
How can we ever be better if we can't learn from the mistakes made in history? R.F. Kuang writes, "History isn't a premade tapestry that we've got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can form it. Make it. We just have to choose to make it."
So let's choose to listen better, and understand without bias.
Let's "Be selfish" in some things. But let's also "Be brave" in all others....more
"Star light, star bright, you can be anyone you want to be tonight."
°•*⁀➷
I have had this book free with my audible subscription for so long that I alm"Star light, star bright, you can be anyone you want to be tonight."
°•*⁀➷
I have had this book free with my audible subscription for so long that I almost can't believe I never picked it up sooner. I read The Dead Romantics this week, and loved it so much that I wanted to read something else by the author. I can't believe this is Ashley Poston's book. I can't believe I've had it sitting, and waiting for me for over a year.
Cinderella has always been my favorite princess. As a young girl, I felt so connected to her inability to fit in with anyone, and loved the idea of meeting a prince and having him search the land for you. Very much a non-reality, but a dream nonetheless. This story lived up to all the best re-tellings with the side story of being a "geek" which... I most definitely am.
Obsessed with her favorite show, Starfield, Elle is so angry when THE WRONG GUY gets cast in the role of her very own prince charming. And the story follows her realizing that maybe he doesn't look right for the part on paper, but he might just have the heart for it. It's a book about not judging people before knowing them. About celebrity and everything you lose when people around you are greedy. It's learning to be more understanding, and kind, and respectful. It's so very special.
I rarely enjoy young adult novels these days because I don't always understand the premise, nor the miscommunication. Teenagers are very hard to understand, and while I know I probably acted the same way, it's hard to relate to them. I didn't have any trouble with this one and it was quite possibly one of the sweetest stories I've ever read.
It even got me crying. The bullying from one of Elle's step-sisters... Elle felt so bad when her monster of a step-sibling got a taste of what she always dishes out. It made me think about how I apologize for someone else running into me on a sidewalk. So selfless, so kind, so brave. I don't know how I lived so long without reading Ashley Poston.
"Caring what others think is a lot of work, and with a handful of exceptions, I'm not a huge fan of work."
°•*⁀➷
Not only did I just enjoy an Ali Hazelw"Caring what others think is a lot of work, and with a handful of exceptions, I'm not a huge fan of work."
°•*⁀➷
Not only did I just enjoy an Ali Hazelwood book (FINALLY!) but I loved one. I loved this one. I loved Hannah's brain so much and I loved Ian even more. I love that the sex FINALLY wasn't the only thought on the characters brains, gosh, it adds so much more to the story when there's reasoning and development. I want every book she ever writes to be like this one, from now on, PLEASE. I am begging. I loved this novella so much.
Hannah doesn't want a relationship. She doesn't want to have expectations or open herself up to being hurt. Inside of that, though, she's so respectful of those around her that don't feel the same way. Ian is one of those people. He's not the kind of guy who doesn't take a girl out to dinner. I loved watching them grow in that, grow out of that, grow together.
I loved the miscommunication and how it got resolved. I love that it's cold outside and this book takes place in the cold. I love space, and I love Mars, and I want Ian to be mine. I kind of want Hannah to be mine, too.
I cannot express enough how MUCH I loved this book.
"How odd it is that we so often weep for each other's distresses when we shed not a tear for our own!"
°•*⁀➷
I adored this book. I devoured this book. I"How odd it is that we so often weep for each other's distresses when we shed not a tear for our own!"
°•*⁀➷
I adored this book. I devoured this book. I think Anne Bronte might just be my favorite Bronte. Don't quote me on that. (But maybe do)
This story had me hooked from the start. I've become quite the classics fan over the past few years, and this one had me from the summary alone. It felt like it was calling my name honestly. Not only have I become a fan of the classics, but books written in letters as well. I read Jane Eyre earlier this year and loved the way it was brought to life through the letters she wrote. Helen's were just as enticing, just as exciting to follow.
A story written in the present, but carried by its past? There just isn't anything better.
What captured my interest the most, though, was how current this all felt. It's a book written almost 200 years ago and yet it tells the same stories as the ones we experience now. Infidelity. Miscommunication. Drama and gossip. Realizing that sometimes, feelings are simply trivial until the real ones come about. I loved how much I could relate to Helen, how much I could love Gilbert. I loved that you could tell the difference between the true gentleman and the scoundrels of the past before circumstances were brought to light.
It was thrilling, and comforting, and entertaining, and powerful.
Helen is a woman who stands up for herself against all odds. A woman who will protect her son above all else. Who will look to God for guidance and love. She never wavers in her faith, she never loses her love for Him, no matter what trials she faces on earth. She even tells Gilbert that even if they can not love each other in this lifetime, they will love each other in Heaven. The belief in that admission carries you through the heart break of the end.
But do love stories ever really end with a broken heart?
What a dynamic, romantic, compelling story. I can't wait to see what classic I pick up next.
"Maybe Brenda's kindness didn't make her weak after all."
°•*⁀➷
If you've never read a short story: make this your first. I can't believe I'm crying ove"Maybe Brenda's kindness didn't make her weak after all."
°•*⁀➷
If you've never read a short story: make this your first. I can't believe I'm crying over a story that took me less than a half hour to read. Jeremy Ray, I hope you know I'm ready to devour everything you've ever written. I hope it's all like this sweet little story about George.
Jeremy contacted me on instagram asking if I wanted to read an ARC of this short story, and after reading the summary, I knew I had to. And opening it up to read the dedication of "Growing up, I was a big fan of how Pixar would put short films in front of their features. The following micro-story is my way of doing the same." Jeremy, you did that, and you did it so beautifully.
This is the story of George the house plant. He's wary of humans, scared of them really, and is terrified when he finds himself in an unknown environment with a human that's known as a plant killer. Like anyone captured, he tries to find his human's weakness. When he realizes how kind she is, he thinks that a weakness. When trying to exploit that, he finds that it may be the greatest strength in the world.
What a beautiful message. What a special story. Kindness will always prevail in the end if we let it.
On top of that, it touches on the damage humans do to beautiful things we never had a right to disrupt. Plants, whether they be ones we bring into our home, or growing outside, they help us all to thrive and we need to respect and cherish them for that. We need to love them, and not make them fear us. If personifying a house plant helps even one person take better care of the earth, that can only be a win.
As George tries to prove: they can only save us if we put in the effort to be saved in the first place.
"To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted."
°•*⁀➷
Hauntingly beautiful. A classic in the making. Stunning in its p"To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted."
°•*⁀➷
Hauntingly beautiful. A classic in the making. Stunning in its portrayal of life, death, and the grief that plagues us all. I don't think there are enough words to convey how much this book touched my heart, but I'm going to try.
In the description, it's written: With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.
I agree with every word, and could not have said it better if I tried.
I'm also finding it so incredibly difficult to choose only one quote, so here are five more that really stuck with me that I would find it heart-breaking to lose in the void of my thoughts:
- "To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once."
- "Ma. You once told me that memory is a choice. But if you were god, you'd know it's a flood."
- "To arrive at love, then, is to arrive through obliteration. Eviscerate me, we mean to say."
- "They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."
- "Because grief, at its worst, is unreal."
Do you know how difficult it was to narrow this down to five more? I don't want to even begin to forget this story.
This book follows a young boy's memories as he recalls his life in a letter to his mother. Those memories are heart-breaking in their pain, but beautiful for their hope. I know that Ocean is a poet... but I think he just became my favorite artist. He paints with words the way artists do with color. He made this story so real in my head, I don't think it will ever leave. I was with him every step of the way.
There's just something about a broken boy trying to become whole on his own in a world that doesn't want him. Rationalizing his mother's treatment of him as a boy until he could protect himself. Learning, and un-learning as needed. Respectful, yet recognizing when change needs to happen. Every quote I highlighted had something to do with advancement of self, and every word I underlined was poetry to get me there.
And as if life was not already hard enough for someone so visibly different, bring in a love like no other and make him a mirror of yourself. I adored the section where we first met Trevor. There was a scene later on where Little Dog was recalling when a professor had told him that gay people were narcissistic and that's why they chose to love the same gender as their own. Obviously, that's incorrect, but he struggled with that idea and I loved struggling with him because he realizes that it just doesn't matter. He is who he is, and no one can force him to be other.
He's been other his entire life, why does it have to be different with this new truth?
And grief. If you've been following me for a while, you've probably realized that books about grief are my highest rated stories. There's something about grief that's so honest, when written correctly, that I cannot get enough of. I want to feel all of it with the characters I love because it's something we, as humans, all feel at one point in our lives. And that's kind of beautiful.
Ocean writes grief in such a passionate, honest way. Sentences so short, thoughts cut halfway through themselves, a rambling mind prone to tangents. There's never a break until that defining moment, which is where the quote above about grief comes from. A scene that I will love for the rest of my life and look back on when I'm in the midst of my own inevitable trip back into it.
I know there's a million more things I could say. But the book says them all for me. So please, if this isn't on your list to read: add it. If you've been wanting to pick this up and haven't: please do. It's better than you can imagine. More meaningful that you can know without experiencing it yourself.
On earth we're briefly gorgeous, but I'm positive this book will live forever. Because even if forever doesn't truly exist, I will love this book for as long as I can until someone else takes up the mantle.
I feel like I've been waiting my entire life to read this book. Since the first moment I saw it, I knew i"Your book will find the people it needs to."
I feel like I've been waiting my entire life to read this book. Since the first moment I saw it, I knew it would be mine. I knew that I would love it. Before I even read the summary, I knew that everything written under its cover would be everything I needed to hear. Books speak to us, when they're right for us, and this one knew me.
Firstly, and most importantly, I need to praise Ashley Poston for her writing. Her imagery. Her ability to bring light, and kindness, and hope to grief. I can't put into words how much this book is going to mean to me from this day forward. She wrote in her author's note that "I think, as readers, we all have a comfort read, the one book that protects us in the exact ways it needs to. A book that we find ourselves in, like looking in a mirror. Oh, you too? It will ask, as it fills that soft, hollow place in your heart that nothing else dared to touch. I think we all deserve a book like that, whatever yours is" and I know that this book has been added to that special list for me.
Now to the actual review.
This book was such a celebration of life... and death. It's the feelings we sort through as we watch life spin around us without a planet in our solar system. It's heavy, and it's hilarious. It's sad, and it's fun. It's feeling lost, and realizing you were never really lost at all.
I love Florence so much. She's chaos, and anxiety, and love, and strength, and bravery, and life all put into one beautiful, entertaining ball of energy. I connected with her instantly. The moment she brought a half dead cactus into her new editor to ask for an extension on a deadline, I could see myself in the ensuing "WHY DID I DO THAT" thought processing instantly. She takes on life in so many of the same ways I do as an older sibling. She loves books (NORA ROBERTS) just as much as I do. She's who I want to be when I grow up.
Loving her made this read good, but watching her grow, and change, and become who she is in the end... that was the gift. She goes from a broken-hearted ghostwriter to understanding that isn't all she is. That she can be so much more. And Ben being there every step of the way: encouraging her to write, supporting her in her grief, respecting her space. He's perfect. They're perfect.
One of the most beautiful scenes I've ever read is when he tells her, "So, thank you for giving me words when I didn't think there were any left. I hope you never stop giving the world your words." I hope Ashley Poston never stops giving me hers.
I'm sure there's about a million more things I could put in this review, and I probably will on a second, third, fourth read, but for now let's leave it at: if any part of this book calls to you, listen to it. Pick it up. Read it.
It may just change your life. It may just be the book you find yourself in. It may just be exactly what you need to hear....more
"Life is a performance, and we don't all like the scripts we're given; sometimes it's best to write your own."
I want Halloween to be here tomorrow. I'"Life is a performance, and we don't all like the scripts we're given; sometimes it's best to write your own."
I want Halloween to be here tomorrow. I'm going to read this again on Halloween. I might just read this every October for the rest of my life. What an incredible book. What a terrifying story. What a sad, broken family.
This took me longer to read than I've spent on any given book in a long time. Don't let that give you the wrong impression as this is probably going to land in my top 10 of 2022. It took so long because I wanted it to last. I wanted a book that happened over the span of 12 hours to last so much longer than that. I wanted to work up my own theories just like any good thriller makes you do. And it was so fun to make it last a week simply to puzzle over who on earth was murdering the Darker family.
I have to admit, I didn't guess. And that made this book the 5+ star read that it was. I wonder if I'll see it better in my next read or if I'll still assume it is who I thought it was this time. I can't wait to find out.
Beyond the mystery and the thrill, though, Daisy Darker was an absolute joy to follow. There are so many incredible one liners, thoughts about being lost and unloved and unseen. We all feel a little bit like that, I think, alone. And Daisy has always been alone.
I love the idea of telling your story no matter how broken it may be. I love every quote about life not being exactly what you wanted, but making the most of it anyways. I love the way this story was told. And I love that everyone can find a piece of themselves in a member of the Darker family.
I love that this pulled me in before I even open to the first page of the book. I love Daisy Darker as much as I hate her family. I didn't like a single character other than her. And that's some incredible writing.
I can't wait to read another Alice Feeney book....more
In her author's note, Katherine Center writes, "I thought about it so often during 2020: How much laught"The people we love help teach us who we are."
In her author's note, Katherine Center writes, "I thought about it so often during 2020: How much laughter matters. How much hope matters. How much joy matters. How the right story at the right time can lift you up in ways that feel like a rescue."
Not only is that true, but she brings it to life within the pages of this book. There was so much laugher, like a fear of cows and and "is he YOUR boyfriend?" I laughed so much I think I forgot, like Jack, that I even knew how to laugh. I knew full well this was a fake dating book and still yelled: YOU'RE GOING TO TELL THEM SHE'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND at the top of my lungs like it was brand new information. Also, I want to live in a world where The Unhoneymooners was made into a movie??
Needless to say, I loved this book. And here's the real reason why.
It's funny. It's a lesson on how to love, and how to be loved. It doesn't have a cringey message that you have to forgive everyone in your life, but an absolution that you get to make a choice on who you let close to you. Some people (ROBBY) don't deserve it, and that's okay. It was so real in the way Hannah reacted to Jack's fame. She only knew an image of him, and seeing his true character come to life in front of her, in front of us, was so much fun. This book was so much fun.
But my favorite part is how perfectly grief was handled in the most subtle of ways, for both our main characters. Hannah sleeps in a closet when she's scared and Jack walks across a bridge just so he can breathe. It shows trauma in such an honest, respectful and beautiful way. Beautiful because trauma shows up in such small parts of our life, and we get to laugh through everything else. That doesn't make it any less real or manageable, it just makes it honest.
That's what this book encompasses. Joy within pain. Hope within fear. Love within uncertainty. Honesty within a lie. In reading the author's note at the end, I have to say Katherine Center wrote the perfect book. And I'm so glad it brought her joy in a year I still don't know how to process. I don't think any of us ever will. But I'm thankful that books like this are the product of it nonetheless. ...more
"These days, Eve felt like someone who kept going, and she liked that someone, so she didn't care quite as much if everyone else liked her, too."
°•*⁀➷"These days, Eve felt like someone who kept going, and she liked that someone, so she didn't care quite as much if everyone else liked her, too."
°•*⁀➷
While the second book remains my favorite story, Eve has become my favorite sister.
This book follows two socially outcast people (not by their own choice, but instead by other people's inability to make room for their needs), and brings them together into the steamiest, sweetest, loveliest story of all time. So much fluff, and a perfect wrap-up to The Brown Sisters. So many things that both Jacob and Eve did, so many things they worry about, allowed me to fall right into this so easily.
There was a quote I posted while I was reading that resonated with me so much. About how imperfection is inevitable, that there are so many ways to fail, and almost all of them are out of our control. I think that's something that so many people hyper-focus on when they're upset: what WE did wrong... when in reality, sometimes nothing was done wrong and that's just how the situation was meant to be. To see the positivity in it, like Jacob taught Eve to do, was so special to me. And was absolutely something I'm going to think on going forward.
I love that the reasoning behind Jacob starting his B&B was to make a home for absolutely anyone to be comfortable in because when he was growing up, he never felt comfortable anywhere at all. Nobody wanted to make him feel safe, and nobody wanted him to feel comfortable, so he does everything he possibly can to make sure he has accommodations for anyone and everyone who might stop in to his place. That really comes across, especially when Eve pops into his life and essentially finds her home right beside him. Cooking for people, and making them feel heard and respected first thing in the morning. That feeling was so special to me as well.
This was a love story, but it was also a book about respecting yourself, and who you can become with the right people's support. I'm so glad that Eve and Jacob found each other, and I want so much more of them than I got.
"Feel all the feelings, Carla. Let them hurt, then let them heal."
°•*⁀➷
I loved Float Plan so much because it was a perfect absolute recollection of ho"Feel all the feelings, Carla. Let them hurt, then let them heal."
°•*⁀➷
I loved Float Plan so much because it was a perfect absolute recollection of how grief reorders a life. I liked The Suite Plan because we got to watch a girl recognize what real love looks like. I love Off the Map because we got to watch Carla stop running away from the life she finds out she CAN choose.
Carla grew up knowing that life was meant to be experienced. With her Mom taking off and her father having no idea how to take care of a young girl, he decided to make their life one full of memories. They traveled to every park they could, camping and living off the land, there were no limits or expectations... just fun. Just love.
So what happens when those memories are lost? When her father is diagnosed with dementia, she has to find a way to keep all of those memories close enough for the two of them. Especially when he makes her promise to keep living, and keep experiencing, even when he can't be there next to her.
That brings her to Ireland for her best friends wedding. My Anna, from Float Plan. And Ireland brings her Eamon. There's a beautiful moment when she makes her way home for the first time in years where she tells her father, "Ireland was beautiful. And while I was there, I fell in love." For someone who's been traveling, and running away her entire life, I feel like my heart stopped with hers in that realization.
When someone you've known only a few days helps you to understand the importance of going home, there's something there, something so much more than Carla or Eamon seemed to be ready for.
I've spent so much of my life reading that sometimes I can't believe that books can still sneak up on me like this one did. This felt like a big hug. I mean, where else can you find a drunk bull and the perfect guy in the same place?
So, make sure you: Feel all the feelings. Let them hurt. Then let them heal. Carla needed to hear that and maybe you do, too. And if you can't do it on your own, do it with Carla. Grab this book in March like I will be, and fall in love with the Beck sisters and all their friends!
"He was one of those people, one of many, whose lives had been forever changed by someone else's words."
°•*⁀➷
This was five beautiful, wonderful stars."He was one of those people, one of many, whose lives had been forever changed by someone else's words."
°•*⁀➷
This was five beautiful, wonderful stars.
There is such a variety of diversity in these books. It makes my heart feel so full that anyone could find themselves in this book, and the first, and probably the next as well. For me, this book was so relatable because of Zaf's anxiety, and a lot of the reasons for it as well. And just like the first story, the response to it was beautiful and exactly what he needed.
The first time I decided I loved this book was when Zaf was having a panic attack over doing an interview for the first time in a while. He had to stop walking and catch his breath, so Dani did it with him without question. After he got himself a bit under control, she asks him if she should go in and cancel. He says there's only ten minutes and she flat out says that it could be ten seconds and she'd still go in and do it if that's what he needed.
It's so special to be cared for, and understood like that. But I was sunk at about 80%.
There was a part that just floored me, and it's where my quote comes from. It's the end of such a moving scene where Dani and Zaf are laying in bed and he's opening up to her about his experience with his mental health. As someone who has struggled so much with her anxiety, and has come to a much more manageable place, reading, "I know you put a lot of stock in the fact that you're better now, that you handle things, that you cope, but coping takes a lot out of a person, too, and handling things doesn't mean never struggling or slipping up" sort of floored me. I can't even explain how important it is to hear that when you're trying to remind yourself it's okay not to be okay.
And then, Zaf is comforted so much that he continues, and explains, "People think anxiety makes you nervous all the time, and it can, but no one ever talks about how it makes you angry." I just, I can't put into words how much I love that sentence. How much I relate to it. How, when I read it, I had to read it two more times just to make sure it was really there.
That entire scene made this book the five, big and bold stars that it is for me. Zaf made this book five stars for me. His love for books, his respect for romance and his passion to find a way to be better no matter what. To spread his message on how to be better despite crippling circumstances... he's a dream boy. He's my dream boy.
I wish I could listen to smutty romance audiobooks with him every night with a book open between us. I'm so glad Dani gets to, though. They both deserve to be so happy.
If, like me, the first book of The Brown Sisters felt a bit underwhelming... know that this one is not. If you loved the first book, know that this one is just as good. I can't wait to read about Eve!
"Most of the time, when you regret something, you haven't seen what the thing you regret can lead you to, if you let it."
°•*⁀➷
I loved this. One of the"Most of the time, when you regret something, you haven't seen what the thing you regret can lead you to, if you let it."
°•*⁀➷
I loved this. One of the best portrayals of grief for teenagers to see and understand I have ever read. If you've got a teen in your life experiencing grief for the first time, give them this. How healing it was.
It definitely took a bit longer to get into than I would have liked, but once I did it was hard to put down.
The description of grief and how people expect it to stop, but it never does, and it hurts more as you age because you start to forget moments you want to last forever. I loved that. It's like there's a hold inside of you, and it never gets smaller, you just grow into it. I love the way memories and dreams and life without a loved one was talked about. I loved how June experienced it. I love how Saul never made her feel pitted for it.
I love that they kept saying, "I'm useless, but I'm here." I hope next time I have to go through grief, I have someone in my corner letting me know they're there, and that they know they can't really do anything to help. That might be the most comforting sentence in the world.
June and Saul never felt like they were bad together, and they had a Romeo and Juliet situation going on for a while there. I loved that. Forbidden love and its best. Forbidden love where the person who understands you the best is the one you aren't allowed to be with.
I loved June and Hannah's friendship, their honest and respect for each other made falling into these pages so easy even when it was slow in the stat.
There's nothing quite like reading a book that understands you, no matter how many I manage to find.
"If you hit bottom, there's a whole lot of people here to help you up."
°•*⁀➷
What an epic end to this series. This book felt a bit slow in the beginnin"If you hit bottom, there's a whole lot of people here to help you up."
°•*⁀➷
What an epic end to this series. This book felt a bit slow in the beginning, but once it gets going it doesn't stop. And I loved it. I loved experiencing this world through Gregor and cannot believe it took me so long to get to it. Suzanne Collins, I love you.
This entire series has been full of such incredible lessons that I think this one felt slow only because it was the conclusion, when all of those lessons need to put into action and followed through on. Gregor found it very difficult to trust, to fight for people that don't trust him, and to fight a war he didn't necessarily believe in either. Let me tell you that when I was 11... I wasn't fighting a war. But he was, and it's kind of a metaphor for when you come to an age when you need to start taking in information and doing something about it.
We saw him confused, struggling with grief and expectation, and all while taking care of his entire family. There's one point where he flat out says that he's the parent, and he was, and in the end his parents tell him he has to get used to having parents again and I just don't know if he'll be able to. I like that it was included because the reader can jump out of it and appreciate their parents just a little more, and all the hard work they do. I don't think a lot of us really get to see how hard are parents work for us. It's nice to sort of have it thrown in your face.
I can't wait to share this with kids like I do Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. It's right up there with one of the best middle grade series I've ever read. I wish I had read it then, but I'm so glad I've read it now.
paige (ptsungirl)
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Books:
2022-5-stars
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