A Month in Reading: August 2022
Pillow Thoughts- Courtney Peppernell
... your name runs through my veins...
Honestly, this one was kind of forgettable, but pretty good based on my initial rating. 4/5
You are the sun, the moon, and all the stars.
Shatter Me; Unravel Me; Reveal Me - Tahereh Mafi
I'm not afraid of you, my dear... I'm absolutely enchanted-Shatter Me
These are the first three books of the Shatter me series that I re-read this month. Honestly, all I remembered from my first reading last year was Aaron Warner. But on this reading I realized how little bonding time they had; like I thought the part where [SPOILERS] Warner was locked up in whatever-the-rebel-camp's-name-is was wayyy longer and had way more time together and have some cute lines, but they really just had like 3 scenes in the rebel camp. And that's after Warner was barely in the novel before it. I really built up Warner in my memory for how okay he ends up being-- although he does have some squeal-worthy lines, specifically in the first book.
Just because I'm going to hell... doesn't mean you'll ever deserve her -Unravel Me
Plus reading Juliette and Adam's relationship just really sucks the whole time, it's exhausting. Although the whole falling in love with someone because they were comfortable did kind of it me in this read.
That being said, I also stopped this series after book 3 this time and rated it a star lower than the first time I read it. So my opinions of it definitely are not what they were, and whilst I do still adore Warner, there are definitely far better book boyfriends that have been written. I contrast this series pretty heavily with Holly Black's Folk of the Air series, which upon my re-read I loved Cardan just as much as the first read, and they're both YA.
Altogether, I'd rate these three books a 3.5/5 stars.
Healing the Heart - Courtney Peppernell
you are the castle a soul calls home.
I much preferred the first in this series. Although there were a few good poems and lines, I probably won't be continuing this series. 2/5you can't chose which parts of her you love
Every Word You Cannot Say - Iain S Thomas
I want you to discover a kind of paradise in my eyes
I didn't really enjoy this one; it kind of felt "oh, I'm a man, sop let me tell you what to do and what I think."1.5/5
Well Met- Jen DeLuca
I can't compete with somebody's memory. I already spent five years being someone's lower priority. Being second best always.
This was the first adult contemporary that I feel like I've read in a while that I've enjoyed. Although, I loved the first half, the second tended to drag a bit. But I really related to our main girl and I think that connection really is what made this book a 4-star read for me. Even now, I barely remember anything of note about the love interest and most of what I wrote in my reading journal was quotes about the main girl healing after her long-term boyfriend leaves her after she put his life ahead of her own.
...whose smile lights up the day like the sun, and the night like the moon.
That being said, this also felt a little insta-love-y at points. Like it kind of felt like both our characters hit a switch to change them from hating each other to loving each other, which I also didn't care for. But I think that might be part of why i enjoyed the first half more-- it was pre-insta-love and post-insta-love put a bad taste in my mouth. Especially because the book talks about how they said I love you after a month, which always drives me up the wall with romance novels.
4/5
Home Body - Rupi Kaur
I want something to hold me by the necksplit me down the middle and make me feel alive again
I really hate "preachy" or political poetry, specifically how it's done in this. it kind of reminds me of political horror where it becomes so obvious that the story is not made to just be a story to make you consider certain issues, but explicitly to change your mind. In Home Body, the big difference between the political poems and the ones I liked was the level of nuance. Because of how many political poems this one had, I did prefer the first collection of hers that I read, Milk and Honey.
I want the kind of love that transcends me.
2/5
Nocturnal - Wilder Poetry
I felt you likebefore the rain comes
Originally, I gave this a 3/5, but I genuinely wrote a page and a half of quotes from this so I have to bump it up to a 4 stars. It had a lot of really good poems, but I didn't feel the love for this collection as much as I have others, even though I don't have any specific critiques of it. 4/5
I knew foreverwouldn't be enoughfor creatures like you and me.
City of the Lost (Rockton #1) - Kelley Armstrong
Oh my god, can Armstrong ever write an amazing small town? First Cainsville and now Rockton-- amazing. However, comparing this series to Cainsville, Gabriel has a much better initial appeal as a love interest than Dalton. I just loved his vibes in Cainsville, although I'm confident dalton will get better as we go. I called the ending at around the 50% mark, and some of the conclusions our main girl reached felt a little far fetched at times, but nothing I couldn't get over. 4.5/5
The Dark Between Stars - Atticus Poetry
There aremagnets in mybones for the ironin her blood
I adore the way Atticus writes about love and their partners. They just really hit different. I can't truly describe all of it, but it does go kind of hard.4/5
you are too well tangled in my soul
A Darkness Absolute (Rockton #2) - Kelley Armstrong
This series may soon rival Armstrong's Cainsville for my favourite series. This novel added a bunch more depth to the shallow-feeling characters from the first book, and gave me my potential new all-time-favourite character in Mathias. It kind of started to drag around the 80% mark, but the end went well and he overall mystery was very compelling. 5/5
The Princess Saves Herself in this One- Amanda Lovelace
For once in my lifeI'm going to make suresomeone finally hears me
Although this won the GoodRead's choice award in 2016, I thought this was 1- far too political and not done well and 2- read just like Rupi Kaur. That being said, it was good enough for me to read a bit more of this author before I gave up on her. 4/5
You have stardust runningthrough those veins
The Children on the Hill - Jennifer McMahon
Read for women in horror.
Aphrodite Made Me Do It - Trista Mateer
I'm afraid of what I'll let myself go through for love
Honestly, the best part was the title. The rest was forgettable. 3/5You carry too much in your heart
Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things - Amanda Lovelace
I let myself believethat I could love the devilright out of any man
I liked this collection of Lovelace's less than the first I read (The Princess Saves Herself in this One), but it may also be a factor of length a this collection was only around 90 pages. 3/5
Things I Wish you Knew - Evelyne Mikulicz
You even made my blood taste like love.
Most of this collection-- which also happened to be really short-- used a basic AABB rhyming scheme, which I hated. 1/5
When No One is Watching - Minathi Makanda
I want to give you the kind of love that'll make even the gods cry
This collection was really interesting, it was written really beautifully and its by a South African author. I did prefer the last half, but overall it was still pretty good. 4/5
You have burnt yourself onto my skin
To Drink Coffee with a Ghost - Amanda Lovelace
We are exactly the same and yet somehow exactly different.
Like I said earlier, on Rupi Kaur's Home Body, I love it when poems have some subtly and nuance, but most of this collection just didn't have that. This was my least favourite Lovelace collection.
2/5
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