meg_'s reviews
489 reviews

It wasn't bad, but I just could not fully invest in reading this. I was too bored to continue and decided to just stop. 

I found this book to be wayyy overhyped. I honestly didn't like it very much, which is saying something because I am usually a sucker for any type of friends to lovers trope. I found the romance to lack believability, especially once we learn the context of how long lasting Shep's feelings were. The premise of this sounded so fun and it started out that way, and then just went a little sideways. I felt disconnected from the characters, nobody directly communicated how they were feeling until the very end, and everything tied together with the most perfect bow that I found it a little unbelievable. I know many enjoyed this a lot, but it wasn't for me. 

So this book was not bad, but for me it was SUCH a disappointment. To be fair, Happy Place is one of my favorite books of all time, so I guess I should have tempered my expectations a little bit but this fell so flat for me. I feel like the characters, especially Miles, lacked the same level or depth that I expect after reading Happy Place. I also absolutely hated the third act break up premise and found it to be so unnecessarily stupid. Major miscommunication/lack of communication trope, but done terribly and I just didn't like it. 

Again, it wasn't a bad book. I did like the characters overall and the premise itself was fun and cute. 

I have a really complicated relationship with my feelings on this book! As always, I love and will forever be obsessed with Magnolia Parks as a character. I think she is amazing, and so fun to read about, and I love getting to go inside her head with her and read her stream of consciousness thoughts. At the same time, this book felt like a pretty big let down for me. I was never really rooting for the relationship between Magnolia and BJ, and have always way more been rooting for Julian and Magnolia to be together. 

That aside, this book just felt unnecessarily long with no real substantive plot. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is true for almost every book in the Magnolia Parks Universe, but it felt just super off in this particular installment. I feel like the one thing within the book that was solid in terms of build up plot wise was the wedding, but even then I feel like nothing really built up to it? We knew they were getting married and planning was happening, but then it ended up being spur of the moment anyway, so what was the point of any of it. It felt lacking.

The things that I loved about this book, as I love with every book in this universe, was the depth of feeling that the story and these characters evoke. Magnolia's feelings around her grief felt so incredibly intense. I felt the way she was feeling and grieved in the same way while reading. It was beautifully described and written and this was by far the most important part of the story for me. I also just love Magnolia in general. 

I am looking forward to the next book in the universe, because a lot of what was written here was setting some major plot points up for the next book (during which I will be in PAIN because my poor sweet Julian :(). 

This was a great second installment in this series! I enjoyed this book even more than book one and while I don't want to give too much of the plot away, I found so much of the plot points of this book to be more dynamic and enjoyable than book one. In particular, I think the dynamic of the school/training environment was really fun to read. The cliffhanger at the end has definitely intrigued me to continue reading more. Can't wait to see how the story gets even better. 

I ate this book up! It was so fast paced and easy to get sucked into the world and finish the read. I genuinely had such a good time reading it. I don't think it was groundbreaking in terms of content and I would say it's pretty predictable but I still really enjoyed it. I found the characters fun and lovable and found the overall mystery within the plot fun to read despite its predictability. 

This is a good YA Fantasy that I think has the potential to be great within the context of the whole series. I really liked the dynamic between Han and Raisa and the overall plot was interesting. I will be continuing the series to see if it gets even better. 

This was a very middle of the road book that I honestly forgot I read because it was just very mid. The plot was predictable and relatively boring, and the characters didn't stand out to me. The main plot point within the romance was a lack of communication, which I don't necessarily mind, but only when it's done well. I don't feel it was done especially well in this book. I struggle with the rating because I feel like there are so many other 3 star books that I genuinely enjoyed, but I don't feel comfortable rating it lower becaue it also wasn't bad. Overall again, I would just say this was mediocre at best. 

I found this to be super cringe with minimal plot and I got to a point where I just couldn't finish it. 

I have so many thoughts on this book, and unfortunately, the majority of them are bad. I feel sad about it because the premise of the book had such promise and I truly loved the initial found family element. But my feelings shifted pretty quickly when I realized that the romance within this book was this incredibly weird age gap that felt uber uncomfortable. Our main character is 16 at the time that he meets the "love interest" who I believe is 10 or 11 at the time they meet. I didn't realize this was going to be the primarily love interest until way further in and I had to re-read the synopsis to confirm it because I was a bit shocked. It's not just the actual age difference, but the fact that our main character, Ox, essentially watches Joe grow up from such a young age. It feel super weird, especially considering how frequently their first meeting was mentioned, even far into the timeline when it was clear there was meant to be a romantic relationship between the two of them. Super fucking weird.

And then, the two start an actual romantic relationship when Joe is still underage and Ox is 23?! Absolutely not. I just don't understand the decision to have the age gap play out that way. The two characters aren't really that far apart in age, but it's the dynamic of when they meet and watch each other grow up that is super fucking weird. Like maybe if they met when Joe was in his teen years and Ox was older and THEN there's a long period without seeing one another where Joe returns as an adult and is suddenly full grown and Ox realizes his feelings, I could see, but this was so weird. I know I've gone on too long about this in particular but it truly made me feel uncomfortable the whole book because even near the end of the book I couldn't help but view Joe as a child/adolescent, even when he was an adult.

The other piece that I disliked is how many people were added to Ox's pack. The initial found family for Ox with the Bennett family was so sweet and heartwarming to read, but as the story goes on the found family suddenly becomes the whole town? It was really hard to suspend my disbelief.

Lastly, the descriptors of the torture of Richard felt like way unnecessary and so horrifying. 

The book honestly kind of reminded me of the aftg series because so much wild shit happened that was just unbelievable, but the biggest difference again was that throughout aftg our characters are all young adults! 

Alright, rant over. I would not recommend reading this.