luthereadingqueen's reviews
265 reviews

RTC

I just checked and I'm the only person that has given this book less than 4 stars so I think I should start this review with the thing I hated the most about Dearly Beloved so I can get it out of my system.

The reason why I can't give this book more than 1 star is because I fuc**** hate our main character, Colleen. There's nothing that pisses me off more than when things like "anorexic looking" and "she looked as if she hadn't eaten for days" (These are exact quotes from the book) are used to describe anyone. How ignorant can you be to think something like that? People with anorexia aren't always the thin ones, that's an awful and dangerous stereotype. And even if those girls were anorexic you have no right to judge them because you don't know what the fuc* they are going through. I honestly thought we were over this but it seems we aren't and I'm furious.

She said similar things to EVERY. SINGLE. GIRL. that got remotely close to Slade, her love interest. And you know another thing I noticed? She doesn't have a single girl friend, I wasn't surprised when I realised that considering all the girl-hate she spread everywhere. I could go on and on talking about how messed up her mind was but I'm already angered just thinking about her.



I actually thought to give Dearly Beloved a half-star more due to Slade and his relationship with his younger sister. That relationship was one of the purest I've read for a while, Slade doing his best to help his sister to be happy, safe and to not worry about anything because he was there by her side and he could fix anything for her. It reminded me a lot about my own relationship with my sister, if you are an older sibling you know you always try to do your best but sometimes you make mistakes trying to protect your sibling. They relationship just melted my heart and I feel like a would be a good friend of Slade since we have so many things in common (except for the money 😂).



Moreover, I actually liked the sidecharacters. I would love to read a book from Isabelle, Mo or Charity's point of view. Even though we didn't get to know them deeply, I can still sense they have interesting secrets going on. Also, I feel like any of them would be a better main character than Colleen, if the following books are about them I might give them a chance otherwise this is over for me.

Like I mentioned before I thought about adding it a half star but I'm just so angry that I can't do it.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this book due to its toxic main character and her thoughts, but if you think you can ignore it, there were a couple of interesting things that you may like.

3.5 stars

The Breaths We Take has one of the sweetest friendship I've ever read about. In this book we have Ben as our main character and he has three best friends: Ted, Hope and Doris. Their relationship gets complicated when Doris starts playing matchmaker with Ted and Hope but regardless, Doris and Ben's relationship is so wholesome. We get to see them grow together and supporting each other even if they don't complete agree on everything.



Other problems arise when Ben catches feelings for Ted's brother, Adrian. In my opinion, Adrian was really sweet and charming even though sometimes he acted as a spoiled kid lol. I liked their dinamic because it felt real and deep but it also made me angry the homophobia we could see surrounding them. That was one of the factors that made me remember this book is supposed to happen in the 90s and not now because some things were said that today wouldn't be acceptable (I'm sure homophobic people still say things like that but regardless you get the point) And another detail was that no one had cellphones, at first I was weird out by why they waited to get home to call someone and then I got it, that maybe cellphones weren't as popular back then.

Another positive aspect of this book was the writing, I actually could feel like I was inside of the book watching everything happen around me. Oh, I didn't mentioned it before but Ben and his family are Jewish so there were a couple of words used that I didn't know what they meant but fortunately at the back of the book there's a glosary which makes everything easier to comprehend.

Now onto the not so positive aspects of this book, the main issue I had was that everyone seem to get married to their highschool sweetheart. It was so weird to read and it really pushed me out of the story because it just didn't seem legit to me. I'm sure there are a couple of people who did but not everyone like this book showed. I'm just not really into stories were people only love one person for their entire life.



Then there was a conflict with Ben's grandfather and his health. During this time Ben talked about how worried and scared he was but I didn't believe him at all. I've been through a similar situation recently and I definitely spent more time with my family than what Ben did, his sister came from college for a weekend and even her was more helpful in the situation.

And lastly, the ending was very slowed paced for me. There was a tiny conflict almost at the end that I feel was there just to make the book bigger because it didn't actually affect how things were going before it.

Then the actual last chapter was very quick and I liked it a lot because of that and also because it showed how things are not always perfect all the time but we can still get a happy ever after.

3.5 stars

I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book, I mean it's super short so some things happen way too quickly for my liking but aside from that it was very entertaining.

My favorite thing about Kate's Crew is how open everyone is to try new things and respect their partners' decisions, like for me is so important when books portray that if you say no it's no and it's not a big deal, they will enjoy doing whatever you're comfortable with. Just because of that I would give this book five stars.



However, there were two main things that I didn't quite enjoy. The first one was that Kate and one of the Crew have sex way too soon and they don't use protecting, Kate just tells him she's "clean" and that hopefully he is too, which he says he is. That's so irresponsible. Then, we had a sex scene where she was underwater and Mike gave her oxygen by kissing her and I just thought that was a bit unrealistic.

Concerning characters, I think my favorites were Neil and James, two other guys that are in the Crew. I just loved their relationship, they were my OTP from this book and wish I could have seen more of them. I guess I'll have to wait until book four (or maybe I'll just skip book 2 and 3 to get to that one sooner) 😂

Wow I think that if you're transgender, gender-fluid or a nonbinary person, you should totally give this book a chance and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

I personally loved to see so many representations in a single book (even though I don't feel capable enough to talk about them since they don't represent me particularly), hopefully we'll get to see more books like this in the near future because they are needed.

Another extraordinary aspect of this book is that you have stories that are "coming out" ones and others where the characters' gender is understood and no one questions it! Sometimes what we all need is to read stories were the characters get to show their true selves without anyone judging like it happens in real life (at least that's my experience reading about lesbian characters).

Moreover, this is an anthology where all of the stories are fantasy ones but at the same time, all of them had their unique plot twist, world and extraordinary creatures. Tangled Nets, His Father's Son and The Wish-Giver have to be the stories that I loved the most but the other ones are not that far behind.

I would honestly recommend this collection of short stories to everyone, not only because we need more stories with these kind of representations but because the stories are also fun, interesting and gripping. There is magic, dragons, royalty, everything you could ask for in a fantasy collection plus amazing characters representing people that hadn't gotten their spot light in stories until now.

I had some issues with this book, the main one being how gory it was. I wasn't expecting it at all, and it was so weird because our main characters were these sweet girls but once they "had" to kill someone (it was mainly vengeance) they would take someone's eye out and the blood would explode, very graphic and gross for me.

Talking about the main characters, they were all so childish that it was almost impossible to picture them as people capable of protecting the entire world. The only one I liked a bit more was Rachel, but since it's a super short book we didn't actually got to know her.

Then, we have the most severe case of instalove I've ever read. It was so random and unbelievable. The thing tho is that sometimes I don't have a problem with instant attraction (because instalove doesn't exist) but in this one we had zero explanation as to why they immediately liked each other.

Skylar and Luke's scenes were such a mess and it really felt forced.

Lastly, we spent the first 50% of the book as a huge introduction to the girls' story. I think considering this book is so short the story should have been focus enterily on the past or what the girls were living now. Because by having both story lines, everything felt rushed and lacking depth.

However, there were a couple of things that I did actually enjoyed. For instance, there's an f/f love story that truly touched my heart, it had some instalove vibes too but not as strongly as the one I mentioned earlier. I think this is one of the romantic partners that I'll never forget.

Having this in mind, Immortal Girls has a lot of representation. It has lesbian characters, a deaf character (even though I didn't like how that one was handled) and some characters with PTSD.

All in all, this book had a lot of flaws but if you're interested in a cute short f/f romance you may like this book, just keep in mind that that story is a small percentage of the entire book.

3.5 stars

First of all, I'm not the biggest poetry reader so you may want to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Some Girls Bind was such a unique story for me, I've never read a book where the main character is genderqueer before so it was a great experience being able to see through Jamie's eyes.

Jamie are adorably sweet and strong nontheless. I loved seeing how they discovered how they felt about their identity and how that was perceived by other people. Their struggle was so saddening but truthful, this is one of those books that make you feel exactly what the character is going through and that made it a very moving story.

Moreover, we have a friend group in here that was just the most adorable thing to read about, they are all so supportive to each other and they created a safe space where everyone can be their true selves without feeling judged. And that's also another nice thing about this book, every friend had their own challenges and things they had to deal with, it was a very diverse group and we don't get that often.

The problem I had with this book, though was that after finishing it I cannot exactly tell you anything else about Jamie apart from the fact that they are genderqueer. I was expecting to get to know them better but I get the story focuses only on that aspect.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and very eye-opening read but I didn't give it 5 full stars because I would have like to know Jamie outside of their gender identity too.

I don't give 5 stars easily so believe when I say Second in Command gave me so many emotions that now has a special place in my heart 💕

This book talks about what happens when one of the parents on a household leaves with the army, how the rest of the family deals with it and tries to carry on a normal life even though they know there is a vital member of the family missing.

The gem of Second in Command is my precious main character, Leo. This boy had the most pure intentions I've read, his only desires were to protect his siblings and help his community to be more tolerant and safe for everybody. On top of that he had to go through so many awful things and make difficult decisions which made him more real and complex.

Then we have Leo's brother, Jack. This kid felt even more real than Leo but he didn't have the same mindset as his brother and that's were they difference. I actually loved him too, I think it was mainly because I understood where his decisions came from and it also helped that we got to know him through Leo's eyes and they just have so much love between them that it was hard not to feel the same way.

The only thing I didn't like were the parents and their decisions, I don't want to get too into it because it's a very personal thing but if I had been these kids' parents, I would have made sure to be present for them and actually take care of their needs no matter how I was feeling or what I wanted because children always come first once you have them. But again, it's personal and I also think if these parents had done things my way, this book wouldn't exist and that would be tragic.

All in all, I would 100% recommend this book to everyone. It's short so it can be read very quickly but the story would still be impactful. I truly loved this poetry book and will hold these two brothers close to my heart forever.

RTC