r.bookish

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about the forest of stolen girls by june hur. i gave this book 4/5 stars. i honestly really enjoyed this book, and i honestly didn’t expect to love this book as much as i did, even if some of this book was a bit of a mess.

trigger warnings- trafficking, kidnapping, death of a parent, death, child abuse, confinement, suicidal thoughts, vomit, murder.

honestly, i really liked the setting of this book, i believe it was about 1400s korea, which i honestly really liked, since i never really read anything like that, so getting to read this was just so cool. and also that it also had this modern writing and wasn’t that really weird writing that is trying to be historical when it is really just modern writing. but, i also feel like they should have said something somewhere that it was set in the 1400s and not some modern book, cause i honestly thought it was a modern book, since nothing said otherwise.

but, also just seeing this book get into the whole ming dynasty plot of it, was honestly very cool and to see how the two of them get to go hand in hand and how they honestly work together. and just to see how the whole ming dynasty was just really cool, since it was honestly something that you don’t really think about to much in an historical crime book. but, also just seeing the history we don’t really see to much in the the history books or even in documentaries, so i think it was honestly so cool to see them both tied together.

but, i also liked the story about how we got to see the sisters becoming sisters again and reconnecting after their traumatic event in the forest. and i honestly really liked that we got to see this plot about them be a little more human and to see their emotions after all these years and they aren’t either pushing the other one out or like not feeling anything, which i feel like is a common theme in mystery books. and honestly them having a falling out just felt real and that it was honestly kind of cute to see them becoming sisters again.

and just like the evolution of hwani and maewol’s relationship was honestly so cool to read and see. like, to see the start where they weren’t that comfortable with each other and that they weren’t the best friends in the world, but than in the end they started to become more and more comfortable and becoming actual sisters. and also just to see them to them not be friends and kind of come to the terms that if people are hard to you, you can just leave them and do what is best for each other.

but, the characters by themselves were honestly nothing special. like, i feel like they were well rounded and all, but i feel like they were just missing something and weren’t completely there, like in some books. so, i feel like the cast of characters were better as a group, and i feel like they fit in better that way, instead of each sister or person of the town they met, which is probably just a me problem.

and i know when we get closer to halloween and closer to the end of the year honestly, there is a ton of read a thons with atmospheric books, so this book is honestly so cool and it honestly worked so much. like, i feel like hur really took time to build up the atmosphere and the whole world, so i honestly loved that part of it and i honestly loved the whole world getting to think like it was in it.

i also feel like the whole pacing in the start of the book was honestly very slow. and i feel like yeah it did pick up some times towards the end of the book, but the start was honestly very slow, which i guess was fine overall, but i still just wish it was medium pace throughout the whole book. but, i guess it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, and i think it could honestly just been a bit faster and not just slow than picks up.

but, i also really liked the whole conversations about gender inequality and all the empowerment in this time period. and also just seeing them talk about this in the start, and than how it plays into the end of the book and how all of the build up is, which i thought was really cool to see this build up and the overall theme. and just the feeling of helplessness, which i thought was just very cool and that i do think that it honestly had a really good message, which i just honestly hope more historical books take in.

i did kind of want some more plot about detective min. like, i think that there are parts were it was all about the dad, and than there would be pages that never had the plot about dad. and i honestly wished that it had more plot but i think that it would work better if we kind of always got this plot about the dad and not kind of here or there, since it could have worked so much better. but, i still liked what we did get of the dad, and i thought it was just so cool in the end.

but, the writing was also really good. like, i feel like the writing was so amazing and that they did such a good job with the writing overall. and that the writing wasn’t something that wasn’t so info dumpy and that they didn’t dump all the info on us at the start, and that it was historical without reading like an actual historical or like something that could be set in the current day or even in the 1400s.

anyway, that is all for today. and i honestly really liked the whole plot about it all. and it was honestly just such a good book and i honestly can’t wait to read the authors other books and to read the other books that are coming out in the future cause they honestly are probably going to be so good.

hello everyone! today i am talking about the girl in the headlines by hannah jayne. i gave this book 3/5 stars. first off, thank you so much netgalley and sourcebooks fire for an arc of this book! and also happy pub date for this book. and of course, this is going to be an honest review and is not going to be changed by the author or publisher, or even that i got an arc of this book.

trigger warning- addition, death, gun violence, blood, medical content, kidnapping, death of a parent, murder

honestly, the writing of this book was not good. like, it was just very childish and that it was just so boring and dull writing. and i mean, i feel like there are moments in this book were i honestly didn’t even what to read this book anymore cause the writing was just so so bad. and i mean, i feel like some books where the writing isn’t everything, were i feel like mystery books need to have great writing. so, i the writing was just so annoying.

but, i also feel like the writing did get to be way to poetic. like, i feel like there is a time and a place for the writing to be poetic and to have that style of writing. and i honestly don’t think a mystery / thriller book is the type of book were you can get it. instead, i feel like if you want the poetic writing, that works so much better in a romance. and the whole type of being poetic just was so annoying and really took away from the story.

also, andi’s character was just so terrible. like, for one, she just got on my actual nerves about the way she talked or what she said and acted in some ways. i honestly did not like it and i mean, like i think she was about 18 years old, or she was late 17. and i mean, she was just so naive it got to be so so annoying. like there was multiple moments were she would say anything and it was almost like she didn’t even know how the world worked. and like this girl didn’t even know how the bank gives a loan, and like other things i thought were jut common knowledge that she just didn’t know about or understand, so it just annoyed me so much.

but, i honestly liked nate so much more than i liked andi. like, i feel like he knew the real world and that he knew how the world worked and he was honestly the realist in the relationship, which i honestly really liked. and i thought it was honestly so cool to see him help andi even though he just met andi and he still wants to help her and to help her find her brother and to see who actually killed her father and than tried to kill her mother. so, i honestly really liked it and that we got to see this part of it all. and i honestly really liked that they were so different, that i thought it was honestly so cool.

i also think that the whole plot that andi could kill her parents were just so stupid. like, she was way to naive that she probably couldn’t figure out how to use a gun cause she was so dumb. but, i also think that yeah it added to the plot, to a degree, but it was still so freaking stupid and i don’t think she could actually do it. but, also it just didn’t add up with her timeline of events, so i think it was just so annoying.

and i also think that the book honestly was such a mess with answers. like, in the start of the book they kept bringing up the whole plot with her friend and ex boyfriend, and i honestly wish they wrapped them up, since i feel like for the friend it was don’t talk to each other and than the plot with the ex boyfriend that he is an insane cheater. and they never had a wrap up too their plot and i feel like it was just so stupid that they never said, oh yeah they all made up or she never talked to the ex boyfriend again or something along the lines. and i think it was just so stupid and really just pissed me off.

but, also the end of this book was way to quick. like we had the action plot point, the resolve, the happy moment, and than it wrapped up. and i honestly didn’t like it and i thought it could have been done so much better or at least give it an epilogue, so they could do five months in the past or something, but it honestly was just so annoying that it didn’t have one and the end was just yay happy ever after. and honestly this book just wrapped up way to quickly, which was just so so annoying and i honestly hated it so much.

i also think that the relationship between nate and andi was rushed and just odd. like, for one, i don’t think i would just become besties with this girl that allegedly killed her father, put her mother in the ICU, and kidnapped her baby brother. like, he met her and they were already doing petty crimes and just becoming best friends. and like i think it just moved so so quick and that was honestly something that i didn’t really like that much, and i wish they become besties slower than from right when they met.

but, i also think that jayne just needed to do more thinking when it came to this book. like nate and andi would suggest these things like ‘oh maybe you did these crimes than you went to the gas station,’ yet she was covered in blood and any worker would call the cops. and that they really just didn’t making sense and that she probably should have just thought that threw more when they were writing this book.

and also i feel like this book was a big circle. like, something would happen and than we would move forward with it, and than we would back track, talk about the other event first, and than move forward just to do this all again. and it honestly just pissed me off, since it could have just been written so much more better and that it wasn’t so much more of a spinning in circles.

but, i also feel like the who did it was so obvious. like, i feel like it was just so easy to tell who did it and that they were kind of the bad guy through the book, so it was like oh yeah of course they did it. and i honestly hated it and that i think they should have done it by someone else. so, i feel like that was just kind of boring and i wish it was someone else, but it still made it a quick read.

anyway, that is all for today! i honestly liked this book, and i feel like that this book was not that good of the book, but it was only kind of decent because it was so fast pace and just an easy read, which is always a good thing in my mind.

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about all the books that are coming in july that i’m excited for. honestly, there isn’t to many, and i feel like there aren’t that many books coming out this month that i’m excited for. but, there are a couple that i am excited for, so i’m just going to talk about those.

rise to the sun by leah johnson. this book comes out july 6th. olivia is an expert in falling in love, at being dumbed. but, after the fallout of her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and home, but she wants to turn over a new leaf. so a crush free weekend at farmland and arts festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her. but, toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be, unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling from the loss of her musical father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed her fathers life in the wants to follow his footsteps. so, when they both arrive at farmland, the last thing they thought was that they need to join forces in order to get what they wanted with that weekend, so when the festival becomes more complicated than they bargained for, they will both find each other, music, and more than they could ever imagined.

they’ll never catch us by Jessica Goodman. this book comes out july 27th. stella and ellie steckler are only a year apart, but their different personalities make their relationship complicated. stella is single minded, driven, and she keeps to herself, cross country running is her life. than there is ellie, who is a talented runner too, but she also has friends, she has friends, goes to parties and has a life off the course. but, the sisters have one thing in common, the new girl, mila keene. both of the girls lives are upended when mila comes to town, mila was the top runner on her team back home, and they first saw her as a threat, but ellie can’t help but be drawn out by her warm, charming personality. after her best friend moved away and her boyfriend left her, ellie’s been looking for a new friend, and in a moment of weakness, she even shares her darkest secrets with mila. stella finds herself noticing the way she and mila are similar, mila is strong and smart, she is someone stella can finally connect with, and as the two get closer, stella becomes something she vowed she’d never be, distracted.

six crimson cranes by elizabeth lim. this book comes out july 6th. shiori, the only princess of kiata, has a secret. forbidden magic runs through her veins, normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, shiori loses control. at first, her mistakes seems like stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.

you and me at the end of the world by brianna bourne. this book comes out july 20th. hannah ashton wakes up to silence, the entire city around her is empty, expect for one other person, leo sterling. leo might be the hottest boy ever, and not just because he’s the only one left, but he’s also too charming, too selfish, and too devastating for his own good, let alone hannah’s. stuck with only each other, they explore a world with no parents, no friends, and no school and realize that they can be themselves instead of playing the parts everyone expects of them. hannah doesn’t have to be just an overachieving, music box perfect ballerina, and leo can be more than a slacker, 80s glam metal obsessed guitarist. leo is a burst of honesty and fun that draws hannah out, and hannah’s got leo thinking about someone other than himself for the first time.

curses by lish mcbride. this book comes out july 20th. merit cravan refused to fulfill her obligation to marry a prince, leading to a fairy godling’s curse. she will be forced to live as a beast forever, unless she agrees to marry a man of her mother’s choosing before her eighteenth birthday. tevin dumont has always been a pawn in her family cons. the prettiest boy in a big family, his job is to tempt naive rich girls to abandon their engagements, unless their parents agree to pay him off. but, after his mother runs afoul of the beast, she decides to trade tevin for her own freedom.

the taking of jake livingston by ryan douglass. this book comes out july 13th. jake livingston is one of the only Black kids at st. clair prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. it’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, jake can see the dead. in fact, he sees the dead around him all the time. most are harmless, stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact ofter with people. but, than jake meets sawyer, a troubled teen who shot and killed six people at a local high school before taking his own life. now, powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife, plans that include jake. suddenly, everything jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood.

anyway, that is all for today! i honestly think there isn’t too many good books coming out this month, but i mean i’m still excited for these books, even if there isn’t that many of them.

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about all the books i want to read in july. honestly, i have a ton of books i want to read this month, especially since i didn’t read that many books in june and i also have a couple of rereads that i want to read. and, i will talk about most of the books i want to read this month, but at the end i’ll just list the arcs i want to read.

kill joy by holly jackson. pip fitz- amobi does not want to go to her friends 1920’s fancy dress murder mystery party. and pretending their town, little kilton, is an island called Joy. but, as a game begins, Pip finds herself drawn into the made up world of murder, intrigue, and deception. but, the case of Reginald Remy isn’t the only case on her mind.

a good girl’s guide to murder by holly jackson. the case is closed, and five years ago, the perfect schoolgirl andie bell was murdered by her boyfriend, sal singh. the police know he did it, everyone in the town knows he did it. but, having grown up in the town that was all consumed by the murder, pip fitz-amobi isn’t so sure. so, when she chooses the case as the topic for her final year school project, she starts to uncover the dark secrets someone in the town desperately wants to stay hidden. and i think this is going to be my fourth reread.

good girl, bad blood by holly jackson. this is going to be my third read of this book. and this is the second book in the good girl’s guide to murder, so i don’t want to talk about it to much so i don’t spoil anyone.

six of crows by leigh bardugo. ketterdam is a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price, and no one knows that better than the criminal prodigy, Kaz Brekker. so, when Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. but, of course he can’t do it alone, so he gets the help of, a convict with a thirst for revenge, a sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager, a runaway with a privileged past, a spy known as the wraith, a heartrender using her magic to survive the slums, and a thief with a girl for unlikely escapes.

crooked kingdom by leigh bardugo. so, this is the next and final book in the six of crows duology, so i’m not going to talk about it that much.

the atlas six by olivie blake. i’m not completely sure what this book is about, mainly cause i don’t want to spoil myself, so i’m not sure how accurate this is. but, this is all about the secret society of the library of alexandrian, and this whole book is kind of about, what if the library didn’t actually burn down and was still around to this day. and every year they find the six most powerful magicians to join them and to help them with the society, but there is only six spots. which are all recruited by atlas blakely, and he picks, libby rhodes, nico de varona, reina mori, parisa kamali, callum nova, and tristan caine.

just like heaven by Julia Quinn. Honoria Smythe-Smith is a really bad violinist, still miffed by the nickname “bug” as a child, not in love with her older brothers best friend, but that is all of the above. Marcus Holroyd is the Earl of Chatteris, regrettably prone to sprained ankles, not in love with his best friend’s younger sister, but it is all of the above. so, together, they eat a whole lot of chocolate cake, survive a deadly fever and the world’s worst musical performance, and fall quite desperately in love, which all of the above is true.

ace of spades by faridah abike iyimide. welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways and the students are never less than perfect, until now. because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. talented musician devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. and head girl chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has to paid for power. someone is out to get both of them, someone who holds all the aces and they are playing way more than a stupid high school game.

the gilded wolves by roshani chokshi. in 1889, the city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure- hinter and wealthy hotelier severin montagnet alarie. when the elite, ever powerful order of babel coerces him to help them on a mission severin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. to hunt down the ancient artifact the order seeks , severin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: an engineer with a debt to pay, a historian banished from his home, a dancer with a sinister past and a brother in arms if not blood.

one last stop by casey mcquiston. for 23 year old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right, that thing like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. she can’t imagine how waiting tables at the 24 hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that and there is no way that a chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. then there is the gorgeous girl on the train, Jane. the dazzling, charming, mysterious, and impossible Jane, with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needs it most. the subway crush becomes the best part of her day but the big problem is, Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker, she is literally one displaced from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried t leave in her own past to help.

the box in the woods by Maureen Johnson. as an amateur sleuth, Stevie Bell needs a good murder after catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal, but boring, summer. but, when she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls, the site of the notorious unsolved case, the box in the woods murders. all the way back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. the new owner offers stevie an invitation, come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast that follows the case. of course, Stevie agrees, under one condition, if she can bring her friends form Ellingham Academy, nothing sounds better than a summer spent together and investigating old murders.

an emotion of great delight by tahereh mafi. it’s 2003, and multiple months since the US has declared war on Iraq and the American political world has evolved. the tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever, just like Shadi, who wears a hijab, keeps her head down. even though her name means joy, she is filled with sorrow. her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life and her heart is broken. she tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering though and saying nothing, she has her own pain, each day going farther and farther inside herself, until she explodes.

the soulmate equation by christina lauren. the soulmate equation by christina lauren. Jess Davis is a single mother and a statistics wizard, but nothing can convince her to step back into the dating world. she was raised by her grandparents, who are now helping raise her seven year old daughter, Juno, since her dad left since he wasn’t father material. but, as a matchmaking company uses your DNA to find your soulmate, she jumps on the chance. but, she gets a 98% compatibility with the founder Dr. River Pena, and she can’t wrap her head around it.

when you get the chance by tom ryan and robin stevenson. so, the description of this book is kind of all over the place, so i’m going to give you a very very short version. but, this book is all about 3 cousins that go on a road trip to pride as they dive into family secrets and friendship.

life’s too short by abby jimenez. life’s too short by abby jimenez. vanessa lives life on her own terms, one day at a time and everyday to the fullest. she isn’t willing to waste a moment or miss out on an experience when she has no idea whether she shares the same fatal genetic condition as her mother. besides, she has way to much to do, travel the globe and showing her millions of youtube followers the joy in seizing every moment. but, when her half sister leaves Vanessa in custody of her infant daughter, she is housebound, on mommy duty for the foreseeable future, and is feeling totally out of her element, but, the last person she expects to show up offering help is the unbelievably hot lawyer who lives next door, Adrian Copeland. she barely knows him, till they get closer, Vanessa realizes that her carefree ways and his need for structured plan could never be compatible for the land term. then again, she should know better than anyone that life’s too short to fear of taking a big risk.

house of hollow by krystal sutherland. as a 17 year old, Iris Hollow has always been stranger, something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were kids, but they can’t really remember anything about it, but they have a small identical half moon scar at the base of their throats. but, when her sister Grey goes missing, Iris learns how weird her life can actually get.

okay, so now here is all the arcs i need to / plan on reading this month

• the girl in the headlines
• the therapist
• summer in the city of roses
• swallow
• creatures of the night
• faking reality
• you can run
• the sister in law
• if the shoe fits
• the dead and the dark
• like other girls
• the collectors

anyway, that is all for today! it’s honestly a lot of books, but i hope that i can finish a good amount of these, but also don’t pressure myself to read it if i don’t like it. but, i do hope that these are good books, and not all bad.

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about all the books i read this month. honestly, i wish i read more books this month, but i still feel like i read some good books, which i’m honestly happy about though. but, hopefully i’ll read more next month.

instructions for dancing by nicola yoon. i gave this book 4/5 stars. thank you go much netgalley and penguin teen for an arc. this was honestly a very good and cute book, so i really liked it. but, i do feel like the relationship moved really quickly, compared to some other books. but, i honestly really liked it and i liked the plot and the romance. and overall it was a really cute book.

fat chance, charlie vega by crystal maldonado. i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book could have been so amazing, but i feel like the audio book had so much white noise in the book, so that was honestly so terrible, since i feel like it could have been so much better, yet it was distracting. but, charlie was also so self centered, which just annoyed me and it really made me mad throughout this book.

fifteen hundred miles from the sun by jonny garza villa. i gave this book 3/5 stars. thank you so much netgalley and skyscape for an arc of this book. honestly, i feel like there was no growth from the main characters when they met in person, which honestly just really annoyed me, since i feel like they should have had some sort of relationship growth when they met. but, i also feel like the romance was just okay and i feel like so much happened, yet nothing happened.

luck of the titanic by stacey lee. i gave this book 4/5 stars. this book was honestly so sad, but also such a good book. like, the characters were just so amazing and i really liked it. but, i honestly did not expect the ending at all, which was just so crazy and unbelievable sad. but, i honestly really liked the whole family vibe that it gave off and also the little romance was decent, but not my favorite part.

not my problem by ciara smythe. i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, this book was decent, and not the best or the worst book at all. but, this book does have some enemies to lovers romance, which was cute, but i also feel like the romance wasn’t the best thing in the world. and i feel like they were much enemies throughout this book, so when they actually got together it just didn’t feel real or not that forced.

that weekend by kara thomas. i gave this book 3/5 stars. thank you so much netgalley and delacorte press for an arc of this book! honestly, the whole incest plot was honestly so stupid and honestly just so gross and unneeded since i feel like the book could have wrapped up much better than this did. but, i also feel like the romance between claire and ben was just so bad and just something that was not needed. but, i will say the mystery was good.

hunting prince dracula by kerri maniscalo. i gave this book 5/5 stars. this was honestly such a good book, and i honestly loved thomas and audrey rose so much. and i feel like they were honestly so cute and this is probably the best book in the series. and this is also my third reread, if you care.

twice shy by Sarah Hogle. i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, the best part of this book was the plot about wesley’s social anxiety, and it was honestly the part of this book i really liked. but, i do feel like this book was honestly just kind of slow and boring and i feel like there was so many parts were they were just cleaning and it was boring. but, i do wish there was more romance, and not just at the end.

anyway, that is all for today! i honestly wished i read more books this month, but i did read some i really liked, and i hope that i get to read more in july, and that i will enjoy them more than i liked some of these. but, still, i had a good month.

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about that weekend by kara thomas. i gave this book 3/5 stars. first off, thank you so much to netgalley and delacorte press for an arc of this book! and also happy pub date to this book! but, of course, this is going to be an honest review and isn’t going to be changed by the author or publisher.

trigger warning- blood, domestic abuse, child abuse, child death, alcoholism, kidnapping, car accident, incest, suicidal thoughts, cancer.

honestly, i really liked the writing of this book. i feel like thomas did a very good job about talking about what happened before, and then going back to what happened before, and then parts were it was present day, which was just super cool. and i honestly really thought it was cool to have everything being shown instead of us being told about how they got their or whatever else happened.

with that being said, everything about this book is solid and not a mess. like, for one, i feel like Thomas really knew which twists and turns and all the speed bumps she wanted to throw into this book, and really made it amazing with that aspect. like, i feel like everything was done so seamlessly, and that it was honestly so cool. there are definitely some books, and even one of Thomas’ other books were the twists just don’t make sense and aren’t even that good, so in here, it was just done to perfection honestly.

but, i also feel the second part of this book honestly got to be a bit little to much romantic. like, for one we got this redemption arc for the guy that we were supposed to hate in the end of the book. but, also just i think it was so stupid cause i feel like we didn’t need to have this secondary romance plot and i wish it just stuck to the whole mystery / thriller plot.

i do feel though, this book did have its slower moments, like i do feel like there was parts that it was really just skim reading, since it was just shit we already got told about, or just other things that were just basic and boring. which, i feel like most mystery books do have that moment, which sucks, but it also is kind of just a basic thing in some books.

but, i do think most of this book was honestly very good and fast. i do think that it happened rather quickly and that it all worked very well. and also just how everything unfolded just worked very well and also was just engaging and worked very well. but, also there were things that were stupid and i think it could have worked better.

if you don’t know, i do read quite a few mystery thriller books, so i like to think of myself as a pro in here. so, i do feel like in here we were have steps ahead of claire in this book. granted, i feel like it might have just been me, but claire would be like, oh no who did this ?? and than the person that actually did that was right in front of her face and i felt like it would have been so easy for her to be like damn it’s them.

and also i think that there were way to many secrets in this book, and not from character x character, like character x reader. and i know that there needs to be secrets, and it honestly makes the secrets better. but, in something that will forever be burned into my brain, and i’m gonna paraphrase this here, was someone came to kat’s grandma and accused kat’s father of something, and that is all we got told. that this lady caused a scene and it went bad, so we don’t know why or how what happened till like chapters and chapters later. and than also like, we know kat’s grandma hated jesse but, like i think other people in the book knew, but they weren’t gonna tell us and i was like, just tell us already. and it’s not like a murder confession that would break the whole story, when in this case it was just gross.

but, i will say, i do feel like the research thomas did into the true crime world was just terrible. like, for one, there were just so many questions and things brought up that could have been solved if she used google or even ask a police or sheriff office, since i think some authors do and say so in their authors note. so, i feel like some of it could have been solved if they helped themselves and not just kind of half assed the whole story.

there also is this part of the novel were we get talked about how there is this mountain / lake thing, and the lake thing was like super deep and that there was all of these caves and more dangerous places to go in, which were they think kat and jesse’s bodies might be in there. granted, i don’t know how dangerous this place could have been, but, if a person go in their cause it’s to dangerous and they were like damn, we can’t search it, but if you really want to recover their bodies you could probably just scan it with a camera or something, just to give the families a piece of mind. but the police were also like we can’t search the body of the lake since it’s too deep, and it was like huh??? shouldn’t you search it cause their might be the bodies.

but, i also feel like this story wrapped up so quickly. like, i’ll go into the end of this book more in the spoiler warning, which i think was just so gross and disgusting, but i feel like this book wrapped up so quickly, like this plot twist happened, something got resolved, gross moment, and than it was the end. and i think it was just not good, and i think that it should have had wrapped up better, and maybe take the stuff about the romance taken out and all the back and forth, than wrap it up better, and not so grossly.

now for some spoilers, cause i got some thoughts and this is going to in the order it happened, to make it make the most sense-

but this book completely lost me with the romance, like, jesse’s a kat’s was a whole thing, which i’ll talk about later, but more so with the whole romance with ben and claire. so, the romance between them, we got told in the very earlier parts of this books they broke up cause he cheated, but then she goes back to town for christmas break and than they get a little ‘romantic’ on the couch, which i thought was stupid, cause once a cheater, always a cheater. and the romance honestly just slowed this book down so much, since it was so unneeded.

next thing we know, we get this whole plot about kat’s dad is a very abusive to the girls throughout this book, but mainly when she was a kid. which, i think is always a harder part of a book, since you need to do it well enough and be kind of honest about it all. but, i do feel like they brought up, but than it was resolved rather quickly. and also kat would be like, yeah my father is abusive to her grandma and to the people he worked with and they were like, oh he’s just misunderstood, which just pissed me off.

than the next part of this book we kind of get this reveal that jesse and kat and amos, her cousin, are hiding out in this cabin in the middle of the woods, not to far away from the incident. which, at this point they are all like 18-19 years old, but, i just felt like it was so unrealistic that these teenagers could go unnoticed and that nobody ever put two and two together, since it was pretty easy to figure out. and jesse’s and kat’s face was plastered everywhere, so everyone knows who they are and what they look like, so kat would make these comments about how she would go to the store or go babysit and nobody would know recognize them. which, i think is just not realistic, since if you face was everywhere for months, someone is going to be like, oh shit she is the missing girl.

so, if you read the trigger warnings, you probably say the word incest as one of the words in there, and if you follow me on twitter, bookish_r, you would probably already know this. and boy, did i never think i would read a book published in 2021 have this whole plot with incest. which, honestly just pissed me off, since i feel like having kat and jesse be half siblings was so gross. like, i think there could have been so many different ways to wrap this book up, but being like ‘hey yeah, sorry they are siblings’ was just so gross and i think it was just so gross and bad, since they were like lovers, and not even like friends or anything.

end of warning

anyway, that is all for today! i honestly wish i liked this boo, since i feel like it could have been such a better book and not so gross and more just murder mystery. but, i also didn’t really care about thomas’ other book, the cheerleaders, so i didn’t expect to love this book all that much. but, i still think it was decent, minus the incest.