ditten's reviews
529 reviews

Notorious Park Avenue Prince by Ella Frank, Brooke Blaine

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Really hot MMM that came through with the smut, but that's about it.

I didn't feel like I ever really got to know the three MCs, and they definitely didn't know each other, so it was hard to buy into an emotional connection.

They had fire sexual chemistry, and it was a fun read but I was a little disappointed it never really developed beyond that. I also never actually got to like East all that much, and didn't fully see what he brought to the relationship since I think King and Zac would've been great together just the two of them.

I assume this will spin off into a new series since there was a whole plotline with a secret society and King's ex that was just abandoned and might be picked up somewhere else.

The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I tore through this book in just a few days, it was incredibly compelling like most of Pulley's books are.

However, after finishing it I'm left with some issues regarding the politics in this book that I'm sure other, smarter people have articulated better than I ever could.

All that said, what I wouldn't give for a lens that allowed me to taste every option on the menu before deciding what to order. Science get on that STAT!!

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Testament of Youth is an incredible memoir by Vera Brittain, who worked as a VAD nurse during WWI, and who lost the four men closest to her in the war, including her beloved brother Edward, and her fiancé Roland.

 

This is the first female memoir of the time I've read, and the most well-known, and Brittain's writing is incredible. The book is beautiful, incredibly sad, and thought-provoking. 
Published in 1933, VB had enough time post war to be able to contemplate and put into perspective not only her own experiences but also her contemporaries', and the war itself, while still seemingly remaining mostly faithful to describing her life as she experienced it in the moment, many years earlier. This was in large part done with the aid of her saved diaries and correspondences.

 

VB's memoir centers around the war, its consequences, love, and loss. She also includes a few years of her post-war life, starting her writing career, her work with peacebuilding, and becoming a feminist. It's clear how these experiences and values influence her book, and helps her contextualize the war and its consequences.

 

It does feel particularly upsetting to be reading VB's account of war, and her hope and ideas for how war might be avoided in the future in a book published in 1933, the year Hitler was appointed chancellor, and just a few years prior to WWII.

 

Testament of Youth moved me to tears several times, and while a long read that at times did feel drawn out, I highly recommend it. 

 

Some of my favourite quotes:

 

"There seemed to be nothing left in the world, for I felt that Roland had taken with him all my future and Edward all my past."

 

"It was best, after all, that our dead who were so much part of us, yet were debarred from our knowledge of the post-war world and never even realised that we ‘won’, could not come back and see, upon the scarred face of Europe, the final consequences of their young pursuit of ‘heroism in the abstract’. How futile it had all been, that superhuman gallantry! It had amounted, in the end, to nothing but a passionate gesture of negation - the negation of all that the centuries had taught themselves through long æons of pain."

 

"At every turn of every future road I shall want to ask him questions, to recall to him memories, and he will not be there." (on her brother Edward while visiting his grave in Italy in 1921)

 

"Perhaps, after all, the best that we who were left could do was to refuse to forget, and to teach our successors what we remembered in the hope that they, when their own day came, would have more power to change the state of the world than this bankrupt, shattered generation. If only, somehow, the nobility which in us had been turned towards destruction could be used in them for creation, if the courage which we had dedicated to war could be employed, by them, on behalf of peace, then the future might indeed see the redemption of man instead of his further descent into chaos."

Let's Do This: Bonus Epilogue by Loren Leigh

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Cute little bonus epilogue set 8 years in the future.

Let's Do This by Loren Leigh

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Best friends to lovers + idiots to lovers + hockey boys? Oh hell yeah! 😍

Shaw and Burkie have my heart 🥰 They were the actual BEST FRIENDS and I love how solid a base that laid for their relationship.

I loved Let's Do This, it was such a great read. Minimal angst, maximum best friendship and hotness. I adored these two together, their chemistry and friendship were both on point and it felt so natural to have them transition into friends with benefits, and boyfriends.

I liked how Burkie was usually stressing in his head about whether it would be weird for him to say something (wanting to try specific things in the bedroom, wanting more with Shaw, etc) and Shaw did the same for like 30 secs but then just blurted out whatever he was thinking, making it easy for Burk to speak his mind too 😂

I loved the team dynamics, too, though hockey wasn't exactly at the forefront of the book. At times, it did feel like I'd stumbled into an established universe where I was missing references but since there's only one prior book in this setting, maybe it was setting up future charactersto get their own books.

I initially started listening to the audiobook because I like both the narrators, but for some reason it didn't work for me. Once I switched to the physical book, my reading experience immensely improved, and if I reread it, I'll for sure be doing it entirely in the ebook/physical version. 

The Boy I Love by William Hussey

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

BUCKLE UP, I'm about to throw hands with a book! 🤬

 

It's so refreshing to read a WWI book and have the war not be the main conflict! And what a bold choice to not focus on the large-scale death and destruction of war, but have the Bad Guys be a caricaturishly Evil Captain, and an utterly incompetent Colonel, so that you can center petty in-fighting as the big drama of the book 🙄🙄 

 

Then to give us the most unlikeable and unrealistic love interest is yet another brave choice by Hussey who truly defies the norm of not only this genre, but of most novels and makes you wish the MC and LI both die 🙏 

 

How daring to have the MC's great love, love since childhood, love of his life, die a vague death off-page shortly before the book starting, only for the MC to take all of 3 days to fall in love with the new LI and proclaim to now have a new great love!!

 

I didn't foresee myself reading a WWI book and hoping the Germans would win just so the central characters would die, but I'm once again left speechless at the author's innovative choices in his writing 🙃🙃

 

No but seriously, I ✨HATED✨  this book. It's crazy that the two worst books I've read in my life are ones I read within months of each other but here we are.

I was legit so excited for The Boy I Love, seeing as I've been super into WWI era/1910s writing for a while now!! Queer WWI soldiers, the battle of the Somme, a seemingly doomed love story? Such an incredible premise, sign me the eff up! And then I get THIS? The only reason I didn't dnf was because I was rage reading it, with my anger fueling me. Now allow me to VENT!

 

Mild spoilers below.

 

WHY set a book in 1916 during a war, if you hardly care about the setting? It felt like this book could've easily been set in the 1960s with the characters having a homophobic boss and hardly anything would've needed to be changed.

 

1910s society, class differences, patriotism, not casually coming out as queer to someone you've known for a HANDFUL OF DAYS, and literal facts were ignored because of...  reasons? And the characters all felt either ridiculously modern, or as dumb as rocks.  It was so frustrating to read! 😤

 

As for the "romance"?? About 95% of the book is set in just under a month in June 1916.
By DAY ONE of Stephen (the MC) seeing Danny (the LI) he's infatuated, though the great love of his life (Michael) died recently. By day 4 they're basically in love, and TWO WEEKS IN they're kissing, telling each other "I love you," and sending love notes IN THE FUCKING TRENCHES. And we're supposed to root for these guys? Yeah, no 🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️ #JusticeForMichael

 

Now Danny… Danny, Danny, Danny, oh how I HATED him 🤮
I nearly kept a tally of how many times he should've been court-martialed but I gave up because I couldn't count that high! 

Talking back to superiors, throwing things at them, questioning orders, inserting himself in situations he should've never been in, demanding to be called fucking ~squire instead of "soldier servant" aka the TITLE of his actual gd job because he didn't want to sound like he was "inferior" to, well, all his superiors 🙄😤

 

OH! And the one time he refused to shoot a German sniper who had been taking out British soldiers because he didn't want to "KILL IN COLD BLOOD", because omg he's so sensitive and too pure for war uwu, so now the sniper can just continue killing??? But it's okay because Danny decided he knew better than everyone, and also he didn't believe in hierarchies, and also he had a nice smile so it all worked out. SMH! 😡

Don't even get me started on how apparently Stephen and Danny could've stopped WWI in 1916 because they were smarter than anyone else but homophobia is why the war lasted till 1918???

 

I read an ARC of this book and I wish I hadn't. It's nearly put me off reading for good.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Raven Boys is a hard one to rate because while I ended the book loving what was happening and being super excited for more of the series, getting there was a bit of a journey 😂

I had such trouble getting into this book, I was kind of intrigued but also a little bored and confused. While the confusion lasted the whole time (I *still* have SO MANY questions),  I eventually started getting really into the book. The last maybe 20% were incredible and I was so loving it!!

I think this series might be one of those you need to read fully before really making any final judgements. I can imagine this book having a very different impact on a reread afterwards. 

But yeah, I'm definitely into it, and I'll be diving into book 2 soon! Can't wait to see what happens with my babies Adam and Gansey, and the entire gang!

Whiskey & Sin: Bonus Epilogue by Emily Rath

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

Bonus epilogue with Yumi and Silas and a little someone. Unnecessary and not even from Silas's POV

Whiskey & Sin by Emily Rath

dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

"You are not a reflection of the shit that’s been done to you. You don’t have to carry it or live inside it anymore.”

Wonderful slowburn omegaverse (no shifter) romance with a dark backstory. 

Poor Silas, his life has been hell and it's no wonder he doesn't trust anyone, or even himself. The way Bear showed and encouraged Silas that he was strong and free and brave by being there for him in whatever capacity Silas allowed was beautiful. This man was so broken and it felt so incredible to see him start to find himself and come to trust in Bear. 

And god, Bear? My darling Alpha boo. So good, so decent, so right for Silas. Him always allowing Silas to take the lead regardless of how his instincts were to throw himself at Silas, and how his need to protect this stranger was so overwhelming hit me hard. 

The angst was on point, I was so upset and scared at times, and man, the slowburn romance was beautiful. Silas and Bear were just perfect for each other!! The book itself was a bit too long imo, but I still had a great time with it. 

The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Loved!! Cassian and Daizell and their hijinks had me greatly entertained, and they were so perfect for each other! 

Cass is a Duke who has to travel incognito fora while, and he runs into disgraced Gentleman Daize who agrees to help him. 

Cass struggles with finding and fending for himself and wants a bit more adventure in his life, while Daize has abandonment issues and just wants a bit of peace and security. 

They balance each other out so well and they were so goddamn sweet and wonderful together. And also kinky 😏

While the first two books in the series were very linked, this one is a standalone (with a couple of cameos hehe.)

Buddy read with Dana which was, as always, fantastic ❤️