From what I can tell, my opinions on this manhwa clearly fall into the "unpopular" category. The art is amazing, no doubt, but most of the story itselFrom what I can tell, my opinions on this manhwa clearly fall into the "unpopular" category. The art is amazing, no doubt, but most of the story itself irritated me. I mean, everyone spontaneously falls in love with Elise, and not a single person dislikes her despite her fame? She solves all the problems that the empire faces (partially due to her knowing what will happen in the future) and no one questions it?? The prince is liTERALLY THE BLANDEST ML I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED??? THEY DON'T HAVE CARS BUT THEY DO HAVE AED'S???? SOMEONE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Yeah. I was certainly expecting more considering just how much hype surrounds this, and while I did make my way through the entire thing, I never really got what I was expecting, or anything even remotely near it.
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Merged review:
From what I can tell, my opinions on this manhwa clearly fall into the "unpopular" category. The art is amazing, no doubt, but most of the story itself irritated me. I mean, everyone spontaneously falls in love with Elise, and not a single person dislikes her despite her fame? She solves all the problems that the empire faces (partially due to her knowing what will happen in the future) and no one questions it?? The prince is liTERALLY THE BLANDEST ML I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED??? THEY DON'T HAVE CARS BUT THEY DO HAVE AED'S???? SOMEONE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Yeah. I was certainly expecting more considering just how much hype surrounds this, and while I did make my way through the entire thing, I never really got what I was expecting, or anything even remotely near it.
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Merged review:
From what I can tell, my opinions on this manhwa clearly fall into the "unpopular" category. The art is amazing, no doubt, but most of the story itself irritated me. I mean, everyone spontaneously falls in love with Elise, and not a single person dislikes her despite her fame? She solves all the problems that the empire faces (partially due to her knowing what will happen in the future) and no one questions it?? The prince is liTERALLY THE BLANDEST ML I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED??? THEY DON'T HAVE CARS BUT THEY DO HAVE AED'S???? SOMEONE MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
Yeah. I was certainly expecting more considering just how much hype surrounds this, and while I did make my way through the entire thing, I never really got what I was expecting, or anything even remotely near it.
this was actually pretty entertaining :D i'm ngl i guessed who it was from the beginning which was a little disappointing but the writing was nice andthis was actually pretty entertaining :D i'm ngl i guessed who it was from the beginning which was a little disappointing but the writing was nice and the story was fun even if the mystery itself was not complex (admittedly something that shouldn't be lacking in a murder-mystery novel). the main character and her bestie were awesome and my least favorite part of this book was adam or whatever the detective dude's name was (i cringed at every scene with him and lana). 10/10 needed more food....more
(2 stars seems too lenient... but we'll keep it there for now)
this,,, what even was this. honestly, i can't even answer that question myself and it's (2 stars seems too lenient... but we'll keep it there for now)
this,,, what even was this. honestly, i can't even answer that question myself and it's been like five months since i read this dumpster fire of a book.
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'last chance books' promises so much of what i love, that it's actually incredibly disheartening that it delivered on almost none of it, and irritated me to no end. just from the cover, my hopes and expectations were admittedly pretty high. yes, i am the type of person who repeatedly falls for pretty cover marketing and only lives to regret it. i have nothing to say for myself.
on top of that, the synopsis promises an exciting enemies-to-lovers romance set against the backdrop of feuding bookstores. it ?? sounds ?? so ?? amazing ?? but, oh man, let me tell you, this book was just not it.
the very first thing that comes to mind when i think about this book is CRINGE. i secondhand embarrassment'd (?) my way through this audiobook and it was so incredibly painful; i feel extremely wronged by that amazingly deceptive cover that i will likely sue for false advertisement. (this is a joke. i'm a broke student. please don't take this seriously)
why was this so disturbingly cringeworthy you ask? well, for starters, it was the romance. YES, the romance of a romance novel was cringy to me. is there any hope left for the book at this point? i don't think so either. we're told it's enemies-to-lovers but in reality it's just the main character not-so secretly lusting after the love interest while saying mildly antagonistic things to his face. meanwhile, the love interest fell head over heels in love with miss mc after talking to her for all of about three times. that's not enemies-to-lovers??? all i smell here is a load of insta-love and i don't like it.
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unfortunately for us, while the romance was being disappointing, the characters were being insufferable too.
the main character, whose name i can't even remember was SO. CHILDISH. and i know that it was later explained why she behaved the way she did and all of the excuses were made, but that doesn't take away from the fact that i absolutely couldn't bring myself to root for or her ill-advised decisions because of how infuriating she was, and how horribly she treated everyone around her just because of her own inner turmoil.
the love interest was just ugh. he was bland. i can't even remember anything noteworthy about him other than his interest in cosplay and fashion design or something?? which, i mean, yay, follow your dreams and all that, but also like, get a personality maybe? heard they're going for pretty cheap on ebay these days but i wouldn't know.
ON TOP OF ALL OF THIS. yes there is still more i hated about this book. I FELT LIKE THE PACING WAS WAY OFF??? not 100% sure about this seeing as to how it took me basically ten days to slog through it + time is a construct BUT it just felt off. arguably, that could be said for everything regarding that book but we're choosing to ignore that for now.
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the fact that i was listening to this book while suffering through math homework probably did not help my experience of this whatsoever. regardless, i really was extremely disappointed by the way this book did not deliver on any of what i was expecting, despite all of the potential that it had with such an interesting concept.
hopefully this experience will make me less vulnerable to illustrated book covers that clearly scream "IT'S A TRAP DON'T DO IT" but i think we all know that's not going to happen :' )...more
this book was PAINFUL. i'm not even sure how i managed to slog through it because i all i remember about this is how lo(1.5/5 but that seems generous)
this book was PAINFUL. i'm not even sure how i managed to slog through it because i all i remember about this is how long-winded and irritating it all was. everyone is suddenly acting out of character. stuff is happening but no one cares. everything is painstakingly described to fill up the empty space.
NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS. that is, of course, until the very end of the book, where everything plot-wise was crammed into the last fifth of the book. and somehow that was supposed to make up for everything that we endured to get to that point ??
i mean i've fallen for that kind of thing a lot, but still. no thanks.
this book put me in a reading slump (for a YEAR. i literally did not know what to do with myself.) and the first book, which was not even that incredible in the first place, was the only reason i read this. on top of that, i haven't exactly heard the greatest of things about the next book at all, so for me, the rest of this series is just nah.
thinking about this book makes me want to drink toothpaste while walking on legos. it manages to give you hope and then takes it away in the mo[image]
thinking about this book makes me want to drink toothpaste while walking on legos. it manages to give you hope and then takes it away in the most disappointingly painful way possible and is mostly responsible for my consequent reading slump. that's all i have to say....more
Dear god. What the hell did I just read. - my first thoughts after finishing this book
A Sweet Mess was not at all sweet, at least to me, and ent(1.5/5)
Dear god. What the hell did I just read. - my first thoughts after finishing this book
A Sweet Mess was not at all sweet, at least to me, and entirely too much of a mess. Seriously. Where do I even begin with this one?
Aubrey Choi is a successful bakery owner living in a small-town in California. A mixed-up order leads a gummy worm-filled bundt cake straight down the throat of widely acclaimed food critic Landon Kim - who also just so happens to be her one-night stand. One harsh review later, Aubrey's business is going down the drain, and Landon suddenly shows up to help her out. Of course, the entire time, they're fighting their mutual attraction to one another. Will they be able to save Aubrey's bakery and fInD LoVe? Yes, apparently.
My biggest problem with this book was Aubrey and Landon's relationship. It felt entirely too insta-love-y to me, and never at any point did I feel like they were actually developing a relationship - it was just built off of mutual horniness, rather than anything substantial. The entire book, in fact, was filled with lustful yearning between the pair.
To fix the matter with Aubrey's bakery being put nearly out of business, Landon decides to invite her as a guest chef on a cooking show of his friend's, and while filming, they end up in a "there's only one house" situation. It would be really damaging to both of their reputations for reasons unknown if the public were to find out that they were sleeping together, so they decide to keep it a secret.
Throughout the book, I got the feeling that most of the plot devices were just that - plot devices. I'm sure that if certain things were delved into more, we wouldn't really be left with any conflict for the novel to be centered around at all. Which, in turn, left me feeling that this book was very empty and somewhat pointless.
Then, of course, was the (view spoiler)[unexpected pregnancy trope. (hide spoiler)] To say that I was annoyed by how this trope was dealt with in the book would, in fact, be an understatement. Aubrey and Landon could have communicated clearly with one another about what they wanted and what they were thinking, but noooo. Why be mature adults discussing important life decisions when you can just be angsty, brooding, hormonal teenagers instead, am I right?
The characters did not have any weight to them at all. They were chariactures of tropes and had no personality holding them together, Landon more so than Aubrey. Seriously. I couldn't tell you a meaningful thing about the guy even if I tried. They didn't "grow" as characters whatsoever, but then again, neither did their relationship, which was, again, built off of sexual tension that was just manifested into existence.
The whole food aspect of this book was really downplayed, considering the main plotline and the fucking cover of the book. It was actually really cool to read about whenever it was included, but unfortunately, it wasn't included all that much.
I kind of wish that there was more of an emphasis placed on the cooking show instead of Aubrey's internal monologue consisting of thirsting after Landon 24/7, because then we would have gotten to see more of the food, which, honestly, was one of the biggest things that drew me to this book in the first place.
One of the only tolerable aspects of this book, as well as one of two tolerable characters in this circus, was Aria, Landon's chef friend and the host of the cooking show Aubrey guest-starred in. She had her own thing going on with a different romantic subplot playing out between her and a different character in tandem to Aubrey and Landon, but she was amazing. She, and Aubrey's friend Tara pretty much made up the entire cast of characters that I was okay with. And that's saying something, because they were pretty minor characters, all things considered.
It was interesting to read about Aubrey and Landon's pasts, no doubt, but I felt that it held little bearing on the story at hand, if that makes sense. It almost felt like an info-dump, just something that we should know about the characters but nothing that would actually come into play in the story. It, of course, didn't help that Landon's past was expressed very limitedly.
The writing was alright, generally speaking. I remember at certain points having to close my laptop and sit with my head in my hands for a few moments before regaining a semblance of sanity to be able to continue, but for the most part, the book was simple/readable and not too info-dump-y.
The ending and the resolution were just not it for me. You're telling me that after everything I went through reading about these clowns refuse to get together, then get together, only to fall apart, they just spontaneously were able to fix everything and make it work?? Um, no. It felt incredibly rushed and not all like the conclusion that you would be expecting for the conflict that was directly preceding it. In less words, I was upset and disappointed.
Overall, I stand by what I said - this book is a mess. I didn't enjoy it much at all, and a very big part of that was how disasterous the main relationship was to me, as well as the lack of food in a book centered around a baker and a food critic. I mean, come on people, it doesn't get much simpler than that!...more
idk man. everything about this was formulaic and predictable, and any conflicts that arose were resolved in a matter of pages. the characters a[image]
idk man. everything about this was formulaic and predictable, and any conflicts that arose were resolved in a matter of pages. the characters are also just copies of their counterparts in the New Adult Romance Formula™, which means that the romance and general plot aren't all that innovative either.
the writing was criminally painful to read, and that includes all the random info-dumps about literally everything. like, no, kind sir, i would not like to know about how you and your brother caught your parents going at it in an office that one time. i lost so many braincells; it's unholy.
now, if you're currently asking 'but human, if you hate these kinds of copy-paste books, why would you willingly read it??'
i only have a few reasons:
a.) my friend offered to read it with me. why suffer through a book alone when you can do it with others ?? >:D
b.) i was at least expecting something fun?? even if it was trashy, if it was enjoyable to read and the romance was worth rooting for, i wouldn't have minded. but this book takes the 'pleasure' out of 'guilty pleasure', and leaves you only guilt for the permanent damage you've inflicted on your braincells.
anyway. i was able to read this pretty quickly which honestly is a selling point for this book. no, i did not enjoy this, and no, i would not recommend this to others lol
listening to this (because of course it was only available in audiobook form fdnskjnfskjndsk) was an exercise in patience (0/10 would never recommend)
listening to this (because of course it was only available in audiobook form fdnskjnfskjndsk) was an exercise in patience for me, one which i nearly failed. i mostly spent my time listening to this alternating between wanting to pour bleach into my ears and wanting to delete my hoopla account so i could never make a mistake like this ever again.
this was beyond painful. literal hell. never again....more
I actually really liked the beginning of this and felt that there was a lot of potential here.
Then the story progressed. And progressed. And progresseI actually really liked the beginning of this and felt that there was a lot of potential here.
Then the story progressed. And progressed. And progressed.
The chemistry between Kate and Ian just sort of... fizzled out? It was all very anticlimactic. The story was dragged on and on and on, to the point where it became repetitive and boring. When it finally did end, however, many plotlines were left hanging and certain parts of the plot were just never really wrapped up. It was extremely sudden and extremely irritating.
Overall, the art was good and that's about it. I regret the time I wasted reading this but oh well....more
I mean, the insta-love was extremely strong and extremely disgusting, but hey, there's a lot you have t(2.5/5)
This was alright, all things considered.
I mean, the insta-love was extremely strong and extremely disgusting, but hey, there's a lot you have to sacrifice if you're going to put two separate romance arcs as well as an actual plot into a single novella.
Honestly, I think that this had the potential to be really good if there wasn't so much crammed into such a small amount. The romance(s ????) felt absolutely unnecessary but the plot was actually quite good. I think it was also mentioned in the next book, which was nice.
Too bad the plotline only really started in the second half, because the first half was just one of the side characters from the second book mooning over more atrocious eye descriptions. What is it with mediocre YA fantasy book and their eye descriptions??? I suffer so much because of them.
Anyway, this was nice, and it definitely could have been better, but it's just a novella, so it's fine....more
This was eh. I mean, on the one hand, it was interesting to see the specifics of a scene that was frequently mentioned in the second book of th(2.5/5)
This was eh. I mean, on the one hand, it was interesting to see the specifics of a scene that was frequently mentioned in the second book of this series, because I actually felt like I was understanding the references. But at the same time, this could have just been slightly condensed and included in the novel itself as a meaningful reveal or to exhibit character growth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯...more
As a fan of Stuart Gibbs' Spy School series, I came running when I heard that another author was w(2.5/5)
Welp, mark me down as disappointed and angry.
As a fan of Stuart Gibbs' Spy School series, I came running when I heard that another author was writing a book with a similar premise; namely a secret espionage task force made up of kids.
Naturally, my expectations were ridiculously high because the Spy School books happen to be some of my favorites, which might count for part of why I was so disappointed in City Spies. But personally? This book isn't all that good to begin with.
City Spies follows Sara Martinez (now known as Brooklyn, for the city that she's from), a child prodigy hacker, who ends up on the wrong side of the law for exposing her terrible foster parents. After being rescued by Mother, a spy who is technically 'dead', Brooklyn joins the City Spies, a group of precocious kids brought together by MI6 to undertake missions that adults couldn't. In particular, it appears that the next victim of Umbra, a global crime syndicate, will be Stavros Sinclair, a young genius, and his company, Sinclair Scientifica, at the Youth Summit for the Environment in Paris. It's up to the City Spies to save the day, and the world.
Brooklyn is like the quintessential middle-grade adventure novel protagonist, minus any meaningful character growth. While she does struggle occasionally, she eventually but very quickly overcomes it. She's perfect at the spy biz as soon as she begins, and is even better than the others?? Despite having just joined???
It just doesn't make sense.
My dislike of the characters would have been somewhat forgivable if the plot was any better.
Spoiler alert? It wasn't.
Now, I get that this is a middle-grade novel, so I can't expect the complexities of the plot that one could expect with an adult or even YA adventure novel. That being said, I think it says something about the book that I was able to figure out exactly how everything was going to go down, as well as the identity of the head of the evil organization, in the first few chapters. It's not that there were a lot of clues - it was simply too obvious, too cliche, almost to the point where rather than the twists being hinted at, they were just being avoided being said.
(Side note that my siblings, who do fall under the target audience of this novel, read this book before me and warned me beforehand that the plot was extremely predictable. I'm starting to regret not listening to them more often.)
That being said, this book wasn't entirely all bad.
I actually really liked the whole found-family concept and felt it to be really interesting, especially between the City Spies themselves. I liked seeing how their relationships with one another grew and they learned to accept one another, even if it did take some time. In particular, I liked reading about their backstories and how Mother brought them all together, which proved to be more interesting than I had anticipated.
The writing style was alright and actually worked quite well for the book, even if it was majorly told through Brooklyn's perspective. Even though I found her character to be quite infuriating at times, there weren't a lot of thought processes written out in detail, thankfully.
Overall, while I did have a lot of high expectations for this book, it didn't exactly meet all of them. I was disappointed, but that isn't to say there was no potential with the characters and the plot. I think to compare this book to the Spy School series would definitely be a stretch, because although the central concept is the same, the Spy School books execute this concept much more effectively. That being said, I'm probably going to continue with this series anyhow, because I really think that there's potential for an enjoyable, middle-grade adventure story here....more
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins NZ for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
'Levi's War' was somewhat long-winded and somewhaThank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins NZ for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
'Levi's War' was somewhat long-winded and somewhat enjoyable. The plot was a bit repetitive and certain things in particular were repeated over and over again. While it is the third book in a series, I didn't have much trouble piecing together what had happened in the other books (mostly because of how much information was being spewed at me throughout the book). Some of the more "shocking" plot events fell a little short for me, and on top of that, the characters could be fairly irritating at times, and didn't experience much character growth overall, MC included. While it was certainly an experience, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would....more
Thank you to Netgalley and Underlined Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Considering how much I hyped myself up with Thank you to Netgalley and Underlined Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Considering how much I hyped myself up with that excellent premise and wonderful cover, having read the entire book, I feel vaguely lied to.
This is not a good feeling.
'My Epic Spring Break (Up)' follows Ashley, an aspiring computer scientist, and all the mishaps that follow when she decides that she's going to go off-script this spring break and follow her heart, to have fun.
The best part of this book, hands down, was Ashley's representation as a woman in STEM. I loved that she had a passion for this subject and that it was consistently written into her character. It wasn't something that was simply stated at the beginning and then brushed aside for the rest of the book; it was consistent, and that made me really happy.
That being said, there were a lot of things about this book that I really didn't enjoy.
The very first being, of course, the love triangle. It won't come as any surprise but I'm not the biggest fan of love triangles, especially when they're written in a way where you know exactly who the main character is going to end up with at the end of the book. This book's love triangle was exactly that: obvious and a sad attempt to create drama in the book.
Speaking of the romance, it felt that as soon as Ashley fell for either boy, she seemed to ignore her prior commitments to the hackathon, as well as her life goal in general? It was strange to read about, and honestly, quite unrealistic.
There's also the matter of just how naive and prone to peer pressure Ashley was. I can't even begin to count the number of times I had to shut my laptop and attempt to calm down as I was reading about Ashley making a decision she would no doubt end up regretting, and gave entirely too much trust and benefit-of-the-doubt to Walker.
The secondhand embarrassment was so strong with this one, but somehow I was able to make my way through it with my braincells (mostly) intact. I was expecting character growth and development in Ashely as she made mistakes and hopefully learned from them, but I'm sad to say that she doesn't really "change" until the end. It felt sudden compared to how she was behaving earlier in the book, and didn't feel like solid character growth for me.
To add to that, there was a fair amount of girl-on-girl hate, mostly between Ashley and Jason's ex-girlfriend whose name I can't remember at the moment. I abhor girl-on-girl hate in contemporary novels especially, because they make the main character out to be some sort of angel, while the other female character is slut-shamed or something to a similar effect. It's annoying and reminiscient of bad 2010s fanfiction.
A certain romantic revelation at the end was described in such dramatic detail that I was struggling not to laugh in public. This whole book, in fact, can be extremely over the top with a flair for the dramatic that I haven't seen since 'Loveboat, Taipei'. Sometimes, that was a good thing. Other times, well, not so much.
All of that being said, however, I really liked the relationships that Ashley had with her closest friends. They were supportive of her and her actions, although I felt that they were barely in the spotlight to have any lasting impression on the reader.
Overall, this book definitely wasn't for me. While I certainly can see where some might enjoy it, some parts of this book just didn't work for me, and I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. Some coming-of-age themes as well as themes of resilliance attempt to shine through, but are ultimately covered up and pushed aside by the sheer amount of love triangle drama present in this book. There was a lot of potential, but I don't think that it was used to its fullest, which made for an overall unsatisfying read....more
To say that I disliked this book would be somewhat of an understatement.
My first problem with this book was that Liz, the main character, was a(2.5/5)
To say that I disliked this book would be somewhat of an understatement.
My first problem with this book was that Liz, the main character, was absolutely infuriating. The writing read like it was a not-like-other-grills YA contemporary romance from 2010, which, honestly, except for the year, is exactly what this book is.
Ever since her mother died when she was young, Liz has been obsessed with rom-coms and finding her movie-worthy happily-ever-after. Enter Michael, the neighborhood boy she was (and still is??) in love with when she was literally in kindergarten, and Wes, the infuriating boy-next-door. One of them is going to help her get the other. You know where I'm going with this.
Honestly speaking, it was painful to see Liz adamantly going after Michael even after a) it seemed like fAtE wAs TrYiNg To KeEp ThEm ApArt, and b) his most appealing trait was his SoUtHeRn DrAwL. Like, umm, no thank you? And then there's the fact that Liz hadn't actually seen him or talked to him since elementary school, but was still in love with him. Seriously. Liz is better at romanticizing her life than me when I have six assignments to finish for school and three hours to do them all.
It was even more painful to see how she was slowly isolating herself from everyone around her, except Wes, and how somehow, in some way, most of her problems stemmed from the fact that she never really got any closure from her mother's death. That part might have actually been tragic, but it wasn't addressed very well until the end, and everything else was annoying.
Specifically, all of her gushing over Michael was just not it. I was disgusted and cringing every five minutes, to the point where I had to pause the audiobook and do history homework to attempt to burn the scenes from my mind multiple times. It was not fun, to say the least.
That being said, the audiobook was actually quite good. I think I would have jumped out a window if I was actually reading this book in text format, but somehow, the audiobooks narrator's ability was enough to keep me from taking such drastic methods of escape. The narrator was magically able to keep me at least somewhat interested in the happenings of the book, and their voice is one of the two saving graces of my reading experience.
The only character I could really tolerate was Wes. Poor, poor Wes. I'm going to say it right now: Wes did not deserve everything that Liz made him go through. The dude has been simping after her since they were children, and agrees to help her get another dude just because he likes spending time with her?? Get this man a medal. And maybe a back brace for carrying the entire book on his shoulders.
I won't deny that Wes and Liz's relationship was cute, but at the same time, while it was developed a lot throughout the course of the book, I never felt that we were given the outcome of that development. It was always very two steps forward, three steps back with them.
There were a lot of tropes both used and spoken about in this book, and I felt that they were alright, but nothing too special. The plot in general was actually quite nice, the only thing that really ruined this book for me was Liz's character herself, and her inability to communicate with literally anyone in her life.
Overall, I felt that this book had a lot of potential to actually be a cute and interesting, light-hearted story. Unfortunately for us, the main character makes you want to tear your hair out and then set it on fire, even if her love-interest is the human equivalent of cotton candy. I'll be honest and say that I was expecting more, especially from the MC, but if you're able to ignore that sort of stuff, I'd definitely recommend this as a sweet, quick romance if you're looking for one....more