ellenareads's reviews
434 reviews

Is there such a thing as too sweet?😅 
I know I won't give this book more than 3 stars so I might as well stop reading now.

I'm just not vibing with the way the author is choosing to narrate the story. I feel like some major parts of plot and characters' internal thoughts got left out in service of starting the story as soon as possible. It left me questioning how the characters got to the current place in the story since a lot of reasons behind why they chose to do certain things get glossed over or not even explained. Also, there were numerous times when I cringed at some of the dialogue in here, and I have a pretty high tolerance, so that brought my enjoyment down a lot.

This book is exactly as advertised, hitting on all of the mainstream tropes in this type of story and a lot of loose threads left at the end.
It was great for my reading streak since I kinda get overwhelmed when I start a big book and feel like I’m moving really slowly through it, so picking up something fast-paced and quick that I can read in 1 or 2 sittings works great to fend off a reading slump. 

Dead Winter follows Crista going on to the Rocky Mountain retreat with her boyfriend, while they get stranded in the middle of a snowstorm with the other passengers on the bus. 

I loved the atmosphere, you could not help feeling the cold described and the endless white of the snow. The horror elements were really good and kinda unexpected with some of the gorry descriptions since I had the impression that Darcy writes cozy horror. 

While I really enjoyed this book, something that bothered me enough to keep it to 4 stars was that it took me about halfway point to get invested in the story. I think it didn’t need to be this long also since the kills became kinda repetitive at one point. 

That said, the mystery was interesting. I predicted some stuff and was shocked by other staff. I think the ending was great and thrilling until the end. 

If you want a horror with an isolated winter setting where you suspect every character in the story then this one could be great for you. 

Sadly, this book did not work for me. And if I’m completely honest, I'm not sure I can pinpoint a specific thing that bothered me, it was just average overall. 

I feel like the focus of the book was all over the place. It was trying to straddle the line of serious discussion on trauma while still having a happy unserious tone and it just didn’t work for me. I felt like the magic was under-explained, the whole family situation was a mess and so awful that I have no words. The friends were there as plot devices when the FMC needed them to show up in the story. Arguments were happening so often, and it would all resolve in the next chapter despite them saying some awful stuff to each other or other side characters. 
Also, the whole conversation where she admitted who MMC was to one of her bff but let the other one believe an assumption without correcting her (for absolutely no reason) is just wild. Also, I can't be the only one who finds it weird when her friend makes her sleepover at her house to keep her from going home with MMC while drunk, but not even once tries to shield her from the abuse her mother is having on her every single day. All of the parent-child relationships in this book were pretty poorly handled tbh.

And despite all of this, I wouldn’t say it was badly written or that nobody would be able to enjoy this, but I just don’t think it handled any aspect of the story very well. If you are looking for a quick story for when you are in a specific mood with the right expectations, I could see people liking this more than I did. 

 Holiday slasher about a family deciding to go to a remote cabin for a Christmas getaway after a rough couple of months as a way to reconnect. This book showed up on my StoryGraph feed, so I tagged it as a possible read for those winter months and it definitely did not disappoint.

The first chapter set the tone for the rest of the book and it just got better from there. I really loved the introductions to our characters and how we got a POV from every member of the family. All of the character relationships were so realistic. We saw from each perspective how the characters feel about the current family situation and how their actions can be viewed as selfish on the outside.
Also, there was disability and LGBT representation so a plus for that.

The main issues I had with this book came in the last part of it. I really loved all of the build-up to the slashing part but I feel like the ending suffered a bit from the length because the ending felt rushed. Several emotional moments fell flat for me at the end because I didn’t have time to process them. But that is usually how I feel with novella-length stories so I was willing to give it a pas until that last scene. I really didn't like it. That said, I loved all of the reveals and twists. The slashing was also done in a way that I hadn’t read so far in my limited slasher experience, so I really enjoyed reading this book.

If you are looking for a wintery read with Christmas themes pick this up. It really packs a punch in such a short amount of pages. I’m definitely gonna try something else from this author in the future.

I just lost interest in this over time. I picked it up for the r/fantasy bingo and the completionist in me kept making me pick it up every few months, but it was just giving me so much anxiety lately when I’d see it on my currently reading list for months now so I'm finally giving up. 

        I loved this book so much. This is my second attempt at reading it. The last time I tried it I got so bogged down with the magic using explanations. I just wasn’t gripped by the characters as I expected so when I was confused by all of the explanations of how the magic works I just gave up. 

But, this time around it was such a different experience. I’m much more familiar with Brandon's work and writing tendencies because I read more of the Cosmere since then. I was so overwhelmed on where to start the Cosmere and since I didn’t vibe with Mistborn the first time around and it was the number 1 recommended place to start. So, I just chucked the reading order recommendations out the window and picked the books that called to me. So far my Cosmere journey is all over the place and honestly, I’m not mad about it. I’ll probably have to reread to catch all of the minor crossovers but there are so many guides online that I’m not too bothered by it. It seems like it got to teh point in the Cosmere where you are required to have read more and more to read the new books so I decided to go back and read Mistborn. 

        Back to the Final Empire. If I were to pitch this book to anyone right now, all I would say is ‘found family’. While yes, Sanderson's elaborate and complex magic system is still his most unique skill as an author, I would say that the found family aspect of this book will stay with me the most. I don’t usually highlight sections in my books, and I’m too scared to write or draw in my books so I hopped when I got my Kindle the process of highlighting would be so much easier and less nerve-racking but I still wasn’t using it. This book changed that. I marked many lines and conversations that felt so real and touching. I loved Vin's development and constant struggles to move past her trauma. It was shoving up even on the last page of the book despite all of the development she went through. 
     I will say that even this time around I found that it still took me about 40% to get fully invested. It’s understandable considering all of the things that had to be set up at the beginning but it all paid off in the end. The ending was a bit underwhelming but by that point of the book all I cared about was that they get out of there alive since I got so attached to the characters. 

       While there were definitely more things that I had issues with right after reading the book, I put it through Cassidy’s rating scale it ended up as a 5-star read. And at the time, it didn’t feel like it because all of the minor issues I had with it were so fresh in my mind. But, writing this review a couple of days later I can say that it definitely feels like a 5-star read. I was so stingy with my 5 star last year to the point where I wasn’t even able to make a top 10. So this year, I still wanna be critical with my reads but I’m gonna try to convey that more in my reviews and use Cassidey’s rating system that ways enjoyment a lot more which just works far better for me as a long-term scaling system. 

Falling Off The Cliff is a debut romance novel by Kanitha P. centered around Formula 1 driver Thiago and cafe owner Kamari.
This book was all over my feed for a few weeks before its release. From Instagram to Twitter(X), every romance bookish creator was sharing posts about it and promoting it, so I was very intrigued considering that it had most of the tropes I like.
💗 formula 1 romance
💗 fake dating
💗 reverse grumpy/sunshine
💗 slow burn
💗 one bed

Sadly though, this book just didn’t work for me. I read up to 22% of this book before deciding to put it down. One of my goals for this year is to DNF books that I’m feeling no intrigue to keep reading since it’s probably gonna end up as a 3-star anyway even if the ending managed to pull it out in the end.

So let's talk about what didn’t work for me. I needed more background on FMC and her friend group. I think more details about her ex and how she got to Monaco with her friends before meeting Thiago were needed for me to be more connected to FMC. Her ex-boyfriend was mentioned only once before his appearance a couple of chapters in, but I felt nothing in that scene because it wasn’t like the author showed any signs of that breakup making a lasting impact to feel anything in that scene when he begs her back.

I love the fake dating trope, even though it’s not the most realistic since it’s hard to make the situation work for both sides of the relationship. In this book, I felt like Kamari had absolutely no reason to fake this relationship. And that was probably the biggest gripe with this book and why I DNFed. I just couldn't find a logical explanation as to why she would put herself through this public relationship when she gains nothing from it.
She was incredibly rude to him and acted like he was forcing her to fake date him even though she was the one who agreed to it willingly. It just kept rubbing me the wrong way and kind of started to get on my nerves, despite knowing that she was supposed to be the grump. It just felt like she was particularly acting grumpy to him rather than acting like that all the time.

I also found the dialogue repetitive in some parts. There were certain phrases or patterns repeated in their conversations that kept pulling me out of the story. But that is all to be expected in a debut book and nothing that isn't fixable with more editing. It just kept bothering me since I was already frustrated with the character's actions that didn’t make sense to me.

I would still recommend this book if you like the tropes listed above and don’t usually notice the writing style and its quirks.