Tag: genre: romance

title: Daughter of the Pirate King (Daughter of the Pirate King #1)

author: Tricia Levenseller

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Romance, Fantasy

my thoughts: I really enjoyed this! It was a really fast read, not very long but wonderfully written imo. The story pulled me in right away and I did not want to put the book down. I also love the story behind Alosa’s conception. I’m a sucker for cover art and this one got me hooked before I read the summary.

A little tidbit about me, I get all my books from the library first and if I really like the story I’ll go and buy it to support the author. As soon as I started the book I knew this was going on my books to buy wish list. This book left me wanting to read more by Tricia Levenseller.

Finish date: 09/12/18

title: Tight Quarters (Out of Uniform #6)

author: Annabeth Albert

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Contemporary, Romance, Lgbtqa+

my thoughts: This was the first book by Annabeth Albert that caught my interest. My library finally got an ebook copy and even though I’ve only read #1 in this series I decided to check it out. There’s no spoilers for other books, you can read any in the Out of Uniform series out of order. I didn’t love it (not like Off Base) but I really liked it. Solid story telling imo and Albert is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine.

Finish date: 08/28/18

40b. A graphic novel – The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

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Finished 08/10/18

I love comics and I love graphic novels. When I saw this book on goodreads I got so excited I ordered it right away and could not wait for it to arrive. The book itself is so pretty! I bought the paperback and the cover is that soft idk velvety (?) covers, you know those smooth but not glossy covers. Anyway this was truly a joy to read. Whimsical and heartfelt throughout the story. I loved the illustrations and the story. I’m very glad I bought this book to add to my collection. I really hope this isn’t the end for Sebastian and Frances.

title: Uprooted

author: Naomi Novik

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Fantasy, Romance

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers.

This book is highly rated on goodreads and I was expecting this magical read. It ended up being overhyped, for me anyway. I guess I’m the odd one out here but I just did not really love this. I barely even liked it really. I felt that everything was just too nicely thought out and plotted specifically for the main character to stand out. It didn’t feel organic, oh here comes this underdog but wait she’s special and no one noticed, a natural at magic no training required. Actually the training is too strict for her, no training needed! Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t necessarily bad but it left me wanting. Wanting for more backstory, more detail, just more. Basically a three for me is I liked it, the end, nothing more. I’m still going to give Spinning Silver a try but my expectations have been lowered.

Wait wait how could I forget! The weird romance that was so forced between the Dragon (who is not a dragon ??) and Agnieszka, yikes! Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. He was terrible to her, abusive really. The book was not graphic at all and then BAM awkward sex scene. Okay this might be more of a 2.5 bumped up to a generous 3. Sorry guys, this book just was not for me.

Finish date: 08/10/18

title: Off Base (Out of Uniform #1)

author: Annabeth Albert

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Contemporary, Romance, Lgbtqa+

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers.

I loved this! I’m a little sad that it seems to be just a standalone book because I would love to read more about Zach and Pike. This is actually the first published m/m romance I’ve ever read and I loved it! I can’t wait to check out more books by Albert. I really enjoyed her writing and this story. Yeah the romance was 10/10 hot but I was also very invested in the two characters story. I loved Zach and Pike’s budding romance, from casual to officially boyfriends. I do wish we had been able to see more of Zach and Pike’s life after they became official, a little view of their life as an out couple.

Finish date: 07/25/18

36. A book set in the decade you were born – The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley

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Finished 07/12/18

About the prompt: I had a hard time with this prompt because not many books were available to me that fit into this category. After many google searches I found this wonderful book. I was born in the 90s and this book takes place during 1993-1995, perfectly fits the prompt.

About the book: After finishing this book and having just read Aristotle & Dante by Saenz, I’ve re-discovered my love of coming-of-age themed stories. I used to devour these kinds of books during my middle school and high school days. This book was everything that I would have wanted to read back then and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it now. It was a great coming of age story, heartbreaking with an uplifting and hopeful ending. You follow Maggie during her teenage/young adult years, trying to navigate the world as she knows it.

title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Lgbtqa+, Contemporary, Romance, Coming-of-Age

my thoughts: under the cut for spoilers.

A coming of age story about two Mexican boys trying to find their place in this confusing and complicated world. Ari and Dante are definitely teenage characters with their thoughts and speech, not in a negative or annoying way but in a realistic way. At first I wasn’t sure if they were going to end up together but I hoped because they just fit. The only reason this was a 4 and not a 5 for me was that Ari didn’t come to the realization that he was in love with Dante on his own but because his parents brought it to his attention. Other than that it was a great coming of age story and I haven’t read many books in this category with boys as the main characters. If you love coming-of-age stories I definitely recommend this book and the author is working on a sequel.

Finish date: 07/08/18

title: History Is All You Left Me

author: Adam Silvera

my rating: ⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Contemporary, Romance, Lgbtqa+

my thoughts: under the cut for possible spoilers

After reading this book and They Both Die at the End by the same author, I’ve decided this is not the author for me. The characters were not fleshed out enough for me, I didn’t care about them. Yeah the book was sad and I shed a couple tears towards the beginning for their grief but then I just kept getting annoyed. The constant back and forth was confusing at times. The author tried to make this mental health character but it was half assed. There wasn’t enough time to flesh that storyline out and deal with it. There’s nothing in the book that suggests the main, Griffin, is delusional. Then during the last chapter, the last fucking page he mentions off hand oh yeah my therapist diagnosed me with DD. It was out of left field and terribly done in my opinion. If this author wanted to include mental health, it should have been addressed better and given more attention instead it felt like something tacked on at the end.

Finish date: 06/26/18

title: A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR #1)

author: Sarah J. Maas

my rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): YA, Fantasy, Romance

my thoughts: under the cut for spoilers

Finish date: 05/25/2018

I love fairies. Anything fairies I will give a chance. I really enjoyed this book and I loved the whole fae aspect. The romance was eh, I liked Tamlin a lot but then they introduced another High Fae. When Rhysand was introduced my first thought, oh here we go again with a love triangle. It wasn’t prominent in this book and I’m hoping it doesn’t go there. I’ve seen the ship on tumblr so I am wary but I’ll read and see for myself.

It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling and I thought that was really cool. Although that did make some parts predictable; that didn’t bother me too much in this book. I also liked that it was a fast paced book, very easy read. I will be continuing on with the series.

note: Depending on how I manage the rest of my time, I may end up including this book for my pop sugar reading challenge.

title: A Discovery of Witches

author: Deborah Harkness

my rating: ⭐️⭐️/5
genre(s): Fantasy, Romance

my thoughts: under the cut for spoilers

Finish date: 05/15/2018

This book was just too slow paced for me. It took me over a month to finish, I just couldn’t stay interested. It also seemed like the author tried too hard to be different, to try and distinguish this book from other witch/vampire books. There was so much information that in my opinion seemed unnecessary to the plot. I mean whole pages dedicated to wine tasting that in the end was only used to show how refined Matthew’s (the vampire) tastes are and how old he is. This book was just not for me and I won’t be continuing on with the series. When I finally finished I was honestly relieved to be done with this book.