Book Review: A Little Life

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Quote: "You won't understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are - not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving - and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad - or good - it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well."

Blurb: When four classmates from a small Massachhussetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel painter pursuing fame in the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their centre of gravity. 

Over the decades, their relationship deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself; by midlife a terrifyingly talented lawyer yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by a degree of trauma that he fears he will not only be unable to overcome - but that will define his life forever. 

In a novel of extraordinary intelligence and heart, Yanagihara has fashioned a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark and haunting examination of the tyranny of experience and memory. 

Book Review: Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Quote: "I don't hate it. I respect it. Respect. It's Mother Nature at her finest - awesome, beautiful, impersonal, murderous. Think about it: All that water and you could still die of thirst. And the whole point of waves is to suck your feet from under you so that you drown faster. The ocean will swallow you whole and burp you out and not notice you were even there."

Blurb: Maddy is allergic to the world. She hasn't left her house in seventeen years. 

Olly is the boy next door. He's determined to find a way to reach her.

Everything, Everything is about the crazy risks we take for love. 

Book Review: A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart #3)

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber

Quote: "She'd been wrong before. Her life hadn't been full of moments leading to the Valory Arch. Every moment of everything had brought her to this place. It had taken all the heartbreak, all the almost love and the wrong love, to know that this love was true love."

Blurb: Two villains, one girl, and a deadly battle for happily ever after. 

Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She's married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she paid for this fairytale. She doesn't know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out... but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.

Blood will be shed, hearts will be stolen, and true love will be put to the test in A curse for True Love, the breathlessly anticipated conclusion to the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy. 

Book Review: The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart #2)

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber

Quote: "I think there's a happy ending for everyone. But I don't think these endings always follow the last page of a book, or that everyone is guaranteed to find their happily ever after. Happy endings can be caught, but they are difficult to hold on to. They are dreams that want to escape the night. They are treasure with wings. They are wild, feral, reckless things that need to be constantly chased, or they will certainly run away." 

Blurb: After Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, betrays her, Evangeline Fox swears she'll never trust him again. Now that she's discovered her own magic, Evangeline believes she can use it to restore the chance at happily ever after that Jacks stole away. 

But when a new terrifying curse is revealed, Evangeline finds herself entering into a tenuous partnership with the Prince of Hearts again. Except this time, the rules have changed. Jacks isn't the only force Evangeline needs to be wary of. In fact, he might be the only one she can trust, despite her desire to despise him.

Instead of a love spell wreaking havoc on Evangeline's life, a murderous spell has been cast. To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she's not sure she can...

Book Review: Once Upon a Broken Heart #1

 

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

Quote: "It wasn't that long ago that I saw you in my church, willing to promise me almost anything to make the pain stop. Was that a lie? Or have you already forgotten the way heartbreak rips apart the soul piece by piece, how it turns you into a masochist, making you long for the thing that just eviscerated you until there's nothing left of you to be destroyed?"

Blurb: For as long as she can remember, Evangaline Fox has believed in happily ever after. Until she learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, and her dreams are shattered. 

Desperate to stop the wedding, and heal wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. 

But after Evangeline's first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game - and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy.

Book Review: Icebreaker

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

Quote: "We have both read enough romance novels and watched enough bad romance movies to know we love a she's mine type of man"

Blurb: Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California at Maple Hills and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team.

Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins. 

Nate's focus as captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team- including Anastasia, who clearly can't stand him. 

But when Anastasia's skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look too Nate to take her shot.

Sparks fly, but Anastasia isn't worried... because she could never like a hockey player, right?

Book Review: Turtles all the way down

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

Quote: "Most adults are just hollowed out. You watch them try to fill themselves up with booze or money or God or fame or whatever they worship, and it all rots them from the inside until nothing is left but the money or booze or God they thought would save them."

Blurb: Sixteen-Year-Old-Aza is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend and a good student. She's also trying to track down fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, who has vanished without a trace. Alongside her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, Aza sets off in pursuit of the truth- and a $100,000 reward.

The trail leads them to Pickett's son, Davis, a sometime friend of Aza's who might have the clues they need. But as her compulsive thought spirals take an ever-tighter grip on her mind, Aza finds herself struggling to keep her investigation- and her life- from falling apart.

Book Review: Powerless by Lauren Roberts

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

Quote: "He's devastating. Everything about him is stunning and sharp and stealing my breath away. But it's the way he's looking at me that suddenly makes swallowing seem like a struggle, breathing seem like a chore. I've never been looked at like it's a privilege to be in my presence,, an honor to hold my gaze, a gift to get a glimpse of me. Not until I met him." 

Blurb: The Elites have possessed powers for decades, gifted to them by the Plague, while those born Ordinary are just that, banished from the kingdom of Ilya and shunned from society.

No one knows this better than Paedyn Gray, an Ordinary posing as a Psychic to blend in with the Elites. When she unsuspectingly saves one of Ilya's princes, Kai Azer, she's thrown into the Purging Trials, a brutal competition showcasing the Elite's powers. 

If the Trials and the opponents within them don't kill her, the prince she's fighting feelings for will if he discovers what Paedyn is... completely Ordinary. 

Book Review: King of Greed (Kings of Sin #3)

King of Greed by Ana Huang

Quote: "I want to know what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what your dreams look like when you sleep and what keeps you up when you can't. I'll spend however many lifetimes I need to rediscover those parts of you, because you're it for me. In every iteration of every life. Things may have changed since we got married, but you and me? We were always meant for forever."

Blurb: Powerful, brilliant and ambitious, Dominic Davenport clawed his way up from nothing to become the King of Wall Street. He has everything- a beautiful home, a beautiful wife, and more money than he could spend in a lifetime, But no matter how much he accumulates, he's never satisfied. In his endless quest for more, he drives away the only person who saw him as enough. It isn't until she is gone that he realizes there may be more to life than riches and glory... but by then, it may be too late. 

Kind, intelligent, and thoughtful, Alessandra Davenport has played the role of trophy wife for years. She stood by her husband while he built an empire, but now that they've reached the top, she realizes he's no longer the man she fell for. When it becomes clear that she'll always come second to his work, she finally takes charge of her life and puts herself first- even if it means leaving the only man she's ever loved. But what she didn't count on was his refusal to let her go... or for him to fight for their marriage, no matter what it takes. 

Book Review: Archer's Voice

Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan

Quote: "When a thunder-storm comes, I had told him, I'll think of you, not anything other than you. And I always did. Always."

Blurb: I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind. The sound of rain. The blood. The coldness of a gun against my skin. For six months, each breath has been a reminder that I survived- and my dad didn't. I'm almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis... and never rights itself again. 

Until I trespass into his strange, silent, and isolated world, Archer communicated with no one. Yet in his whiskey-colored eyes, something intangible happens between us. There's so much more to him than just his beauty, his presence, or the way his hands communicate with me. On me. But this town is mired in secrets and betrayals, and Archer is the explosive center of it all. So much passion. And so much hurt. But it's in Archer's silence that we just might find what we need to heal... and to live. 

Book Review: Crooked Kingdom (Book II of Six of Crows Duology)

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Quote: "They don't know who we are. Not really. They don't know what we've done, what we've managed together. So let's go show them they picked the wrong damn fight."

Blurb: Kaz Brekker and his crew pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're fighting for their lives. Double crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies and hope.

As old rivals and new enemies descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of jurda parem- a dangerous substance capable of altering the very fabric of Grisha magic- Kaz's cunning and his team's fragile loyalty are tested to their limit. 

A war will be waged within the city's dark and twisting streets- a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the future of magic and the fate of the world. 

My Personal Views: Now, now before you come onto me about why I gave this book a 4 star when I gave the first book- Six of Crows- five stars. Well, let me tell you it is not at all because I found the storyline a bit crappy or predictable (Heck, it was anything but predictable) or I didn't like the characters or anything, it is not at all because of any of these reasons yet I still have a pretty good reason for it. 

I really don't know how to tell you this reason without a spoiler hence, I will give a BIG SPOILER WARNING here. One of the crows dies. Yes, you read it right. One of the crows dies. 

BIG SPOILER WARNING ENDS

And how much disappointing to read it was- I can not tell this to you enough. Major disappointment of the Grishaverse. Now, I am not one of those people who would be put-off because of this in a book but I just felt like it was not necessary there, not at all. I get that sometimes you need to throw your readers off and challenge them with the storylines but I don't know, man, it was just disappointing to read. 

Leigh Bardugo is an excellent writer, she is just fabulous however nah, this was- to simply put it- a major turn off for me in the Grishaverse. If I knew this would be happening in the second book, I would have NEVER picked it up to read. 

Anyways, moving on, the plot was fine. As you must have got it from my- Six of Crows review, I have become a fan of the crows so each scene with the crows was so good. The chemistry between the ships was amazing, the badasses were being just that- badasses. And each character is just so cool. 

The crows made me crack each time with their wits, sometimes they made me feel like smacking them on the face and sometimes shout "SO COOL" on top of my lungs to them and sometimes (especially in this book) made me cry my eyes out. 

I don't know what is going to happen to the crows in the future, if they will get a third book or not but if they do get a third book, I am sure I would be picking it up to read only after doing all my research about it because I can't have my heartbroken by the Grishaverse a second time. 

Ratings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5