kelsieelsie's reviews
111 reviews

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

In True Face: A Woman's Life in the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Mendez

informative slow-paced

2.5

It started off so promising and quickly devolved into a borning book with the same 15 stories told again and again. Who was the editor? Was there an editor? So much  out of order, we randomly find out her sister died, chapters before we even hear about the cancer diagnosis. She tells the same facts and even the same stories multiple times. This could have been 1/2 the length.

The Black Witch by Laurie Forest
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

Library hold lapsed

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.

So slow, no real explanation of what was happening the main character just accepted everything so we never got explanations of plot points

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

I was so disappointed by this book since I love under the whispering door and house in the cerulean sea so much. The writing, especially the dialogue, made me almost DNF this so many times. 
“Blah. Blah” I said.
“Blah blah” he said. 
“Blah. Blah” I said.
“Blah blah” he said
“Blah. Blah” I said.
“Blah blah” he said.
Did TJ Klune forget there are words other that said to describe dialogue? There were hardly any descriptors in this book at all. Also the word ‘and’ must have been used 8000 times.
“It was cold. And. It was wet. And. It was rainy. And. There were no lights. And. The wind was blowing. And….”
Such awful writing in honesty in shock. Maybe the audio book made this seem worse? 
I was also really shocked how vulgar this book was. There was a very explicit sex scene and some pretty extreme lusting over a teenager. Again, I love Under the whispering door and the house in the cerulean sea and neither of them had sex scenes that I can recall. I will not be reading any more of this series, and probably not any more TJ Klune either.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I want to read this again as a physical copy because in audio format I found the names very hard to keep track of

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

There was a lot of jumping in time back and forth which I found very hard to follow, at least in the audio book. Maybe there is a visual signal in the physical book that shows that the timeline is changing. There were also SO MANY characters whom I found hard to keep track of.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Did not finish book. Stopped at 32%.

Too slow and long. Second attempt reading