tvislife's reviews
377 reviews

Aaand we’re back! I was nervous after War (which I hated), but this had a lot of the same charm that the first book had. Ana was a delightful heroine, a nice little mix of charming and over-the-top, and Famine was a tortured little sadist, which I actually found kind of fun. 

Again, these books are not good. If you’re a fan of dark fantasy romance and are fine with morally irredeemable main love interests, then this is right up your alley. But if that’s not your thing, there’s no chance you’ll enjoy it. It’s very simply written (not “bad”, but forgettable and nothing special). Plus, the main characters just aren’t good people, and even when “redeemed” they still suck. But I had fun, and I think you might have fun too. 

This was so much worse than the first book. The second horseman, War, comes to Earth and is leading a war camp to slaughter city after city (Miriam’s city included). 

I know that both Pestilence and War killed thousands upon thousands, but somehow Pestilence felt less terrible. At least he indirectly kills people (through disease). War just straight up slices people, and burns down cities and lets his warriors kill babies and assault women. He didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities, and was honestly pretty boring to read about. Him and Miriam didn’t really seem to have any real connection, and Miriam had zero personality anyway. I thought about quitting multiple times, but I’m holding out hope for the next book, so I finished this one to get on to the next. Hopefully it’s more like the first. 

Cheesy, and a little cringe in parts, but full of heart and incredibly enjoyable. The plot, a portrait artist losing the ability to recognize faces and navigating a romantic relationship, was ridiculous and very very entertaining. 

I’ve read one other book by this author, and I also remember being shocked by how much I enjoyed that one too. Typically I’m not a huge contemporary romance fan, I tend to lean more historical or fantasy, but this is just a jolly good time! Her writing is so easy to fall into, and I breezed through this easily in one day. Nice little late summer read! 

Intensely readable, but also problematic as fuck. So, beware, this is a dark fantasy romance. Pestilence, aka a human-like embodiment of the plague, comes to earth and takes a girl captive that tried to kill him. 

I mean, yeah I really enjoyed this, sue me. Is he a horrible person who literally tortures her and keeps her captive? Yeah. Is he literally committing mass murder, in a horrible and gruesome manner? Yeah. Do I still think he’s kinda hot and want them to be in love? Also yeah. I recognize that’s not good, but whatever, I had fun. 

My favorite Emily Henry book (so far)! It was light and fun (and also deep and depressing), and the setting and plot were honestly perfect for my late-summer blues.

This book is just chock-full of nostalgia, in a somewhat painful kind of way. The friendship between Harry, Cleo, and Sabrina was the real heart of this book. As someone in their mid-20’s, I can really really relate to the characters in this book—they were inseparable, told each other everything, spent all their time together—and then they all got lives and moved on. It hurt my heart because it resonated so deeply with me. 

But that’s part of growing up! People get lives, and move, and get new partners or jobs or their availability changes, and life still had to keep trucking along. I hardcore related to Sabrina, trying desperately to cling to the memories of the good times and somehow letting the current moment partially slip away. But this is a romcom, and so we got our nice little happy ending, and it was kinda cathartic to see that everything in their little group worked out for the best (even if it’s not what it was). Bittersweet little read. 

I really, really appreciate what this book was trying to do, even if it didn’t quite come together. The idea of a found footage horror novel (instead of movie) sounded like something that was tailor-made for me. And for the most part, I really enjoyed it! All the different formats, interviews, diary entries, footage descriptions, texts, etc, really came together to give it that found-footage feel. The issue, in my opinion, was the writing. 

Although I think the author was fine at writing in all these different formats, I think his actual character and plot descriptions were pretty flat. No one felt super fleshed out or three dimensional to me—and we got diary entries from everyone! The descriptions just weren’t there, and everything felt very surface-level and basic. The plot really spiraled into “unrealistic” too fast—I think if the author was going to go all-in on the wackadoodle level, he really needed to paint us a better picture; something along the lines of “giant scary hand from the earth” really doesn’t cut it, description-wise. I think with a few more drafts of this novel, it could have been great, but as it is now, it just reaches a lackluster B-level horror movie sophistication for me. 

Fun follow-up to the first book, and just as fun! I will say, I didn’t quite like Lucie and Tristan as much as Annabelle and Sebastian, but this is still one of the better historical romances I’ve read. 

Lucie is deeply involved in the suffrage movement, and struggles with the idea that she may have to compromise her life’s work if she wants to be with a man. I really liked how they handled her inner turmoil, and the overall message that a woman can have goals and ambitions and doesn’t need to give those up for love—it’s possible to want AND to have both! I also liked the fact that she was obviously an older spinster (almost 30 I believe), which can be rarer for these novels. Tristan was kinda creepy in the first book imo, but he redeemed himself in my eyes in this book many times over, and I really enjoyed it. 

One of the better historical romance books I’ve read! It follows Annabelle, who is a new student at Oxford (which just started allowing female students) and her interactions with the Duke as she fights for the Married Woman’s Property Act to be changed (and as she fights her desire for the Duke). 

As far as plots go for historical romance, this was one of the most engaging ones! I was iffy when I saw it was about suffrage, and thought our main character might be a bit too lecture-y or “rah rah girl power!” as some authors like to do when tackling women’s rights topics. But she wasn’t! She was a rational and clever woman, and her arguments were well thought out and received by others in a believable way (meaning, no one was like “Wow, I guess women CAN think!”, which I was worried about). She encountered opposition, as expected, and had reasoned arguments to back her stances. I really enjoyed that! 

And the romance was just as believable too—like her reasons for wanting him, and their reasons for why they couldn’t really be together, all made sense! And the book was resolved in an exciting and believable (for a fiction book at least) sort of way. Highly recommend to fans of this genre!

Phenomenal end to a phenomenal series. By God, am I going to miss little Jorgy! 

Like the previous books in this series, this final one is full of murder, mayhem, and things that will make your skin crawl. And yes, I loved every minute of it. Even though I found it a satisfying conclusion plot-wise (The Dead King and the references to the Builders and their goals finally make sense to me), I do still wish we had more time with Jorg. His characterization had a fascinating progression, and the people he surrounded himself with were delightfully mysterious and intriguing as well—I want books from Makin, Katherine, Miana, and Rike’s POV (although I’m guessing Rike’s would just be “where’s the loot” over and over). I’m not ready to leave this world, but so happy I got to experience it. 

If you pick up this book, I’m sure you mostly know what you’re getting into. The main character is a literal shopping addict, who loves fashion and thinking of no one but herself. 

I personally don’t care for fancy clothes or designers or anything related to fashion, and a lot of this book talks about those exact topics. So why did I pick this up? I love the movie! Honestly the movie is one of my favorites from when I was a kid—not because of the clothes or shopping aspect, but because she was very much a girly girl, who liked girly things, and still ended up with the guy and the career. That’s a nice story! The rest of it, which is what this book was really about, was not for me. I don’t care about Gucci or sales on scarves—I do care that Luke (aka Hugh Dancy) is hot and respects our main character. So if you’re like me, and wanting to read it because of your love of the movie—skip it and just watch the movie again with subtitles.