misslisa11's reviews
734 reviews

All This and More by Peng Shepherd

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

You, Again by Kate Goldbeck

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.0

Book 78 of 2024: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it. Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.

I’m a bit behind in my @bookishswiftiesclub reads for the year, but my Libby hold for this book finally came through! This was definitely an entertaining read! I loved the writing style and the different points of views of the various characters. Arthie was such a complex character and I loved how more and more of her background  is revealed throughout the book. There were a lot of twists, turns, and betrayals, and I ate all the drama and suspense up! I really enjoyed the romance elements of the book and thought Flick and Jin were perfect together. And I also enjoyed that there was a lot of action and intrigue! The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger so I’m excited to see how everything resolves in the second book!

The Verifiers by Jane Pek

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she’s just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she’s landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit.

This book has been in my TBR for a while, and I received an ARC of its sequel earlier this month, so I figured I should probably get to reading this one! This book can be described as a mix of a literary mystery and a family drama, two genres, which I very much enjoy. There were a lot of literary references throughout the book which were fun to catch. I think I enjoyed the family drama aspects of this book more than the mystery portion. At time the mystery seemed to drag on, and the final solve wasn’t as exciting as I expected. The main character spends a lot of time referencing a beloved detective from a series she enjoyed throughout her childhood. I think this helped explain her motivations and give some background to her character, but after a while, the references got to be quite excessive. But I really loved the relationship. Claudia had with her mother and siblings, and how those changed throughout the book. The book had great lesbian and Asian representation. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series!

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele’s dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself. The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed. Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

@bookishswiftiesclub June YA read! This is a retelling of The Goose Girl, a fairytale I was not familiar with going into my read. I think the book did a really good job of keeping the fantasy vibes while also mixing in a fair amount of adventure and drama. At first Vanja comes across as a bit of a selfish antihero, but throughout the book her motivations and background are revealed, making her a complex character and endearing her to the reader. I enjoyed her growth throughout the story, as well as her quest for independence. I also really enjoyed the medieval German setting of this book, which overall really added to the fairytale atmosphere. There were a lot of different side characters that also had their own back stories and complexities, and I really loved their relationships with one another. There were a lot of characters, but I never felt overwhelmed by the amount or had trouble keeping them straight. The book also had great queer representation! If you’re a fan of fantasy or fairytale retellings, definitely pick this up.

Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can’t afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood and the loss of Shane’s father and her grandparents. Shane’s mother and a local boy go missing after a strange interaction with a fairy ring. Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent—who isn’t exactly trustworthy—set off to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world—or this place in time. 

I absolutely loved this book and the entire Elatsoe universe that Darcie Little Badger has created! This book solidified Little Badger as an auto-buy author for me and I am respectfully BEGGING for stories about all of Elatsoe’s ancestors all the way back to six-great grandma! I absolutely love the atmosphere of these stories—the mystic is grounded in reality, and the strong female protagonists are such wonderful characters, making the books a true joy to read. I loved that in this book, much like in Elatsoe, Little Badger was able to capture much of the Lipan mythology and lore and intertwine it into a fascinating coming of age story about the importance of family and heritage. But what took this above and beyond was that she also addressed many of the hardships and cultural/generational trauma that Native Americans have suffered through throughout history, particularly displacement. I love that Little Badger is able to write about her heritage in a way that is as informative as it is entertaining, and there is something very special about the accessibility and magic of her writing. All the starts to this book. I highly recommend this series and this author, and can’t wait for what comes next!

In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

3.0

In eighth grade, Amy was voted “Most likely to appear on Jeopardy!” by her classmates. Decades later, she finally got her chance. Not only did she walk away with $1.3 million while captivating the world with her impressive forty-game winning streak, but she made history and won an even greater prize—being herself on national television and blazing a trail for openly queer and transgender people around the world. Now, she shares her journey that led to becoming an unlikely icon and hero to millions.

I loved Amy’s run on Jeopardy, and I was excited when I saw she had written a memoir. She is obviously insanely smart, and that definitely came across in her storytelling ability. I listened to this on audio, and she read it, which was a fun and special treat. I really loved getting to know more about her history and background, and appreciate how candid she was with sharing things that have happened throughout her life and in her transition. One thing, however, that really bothered me was how flippant she was about drug use. She spent a lot of time talking about how drug use has helped her cope through different difficulties throughout her life, but without at all addressing or acknowledging the dangers of using drugs. I understand that that is her personal experience, but I think it is very dangerous to talk about drug use to any audience without discussing any of its repercussions. This detracted from how much I otherwise enjoyed the book. At times, the chapters felt disjointed and felt more like an unconnected series of essays. For these reasons, I probably wouldn’t recommend this unless are very interested in learning more about Amy.

Baby X by Kira Peikoff

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create egg or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip–love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman, Quinn, who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC! This book had an interesting premise but I found the execution to be a hot mess. I really wanted to like it but the writing. Was. SO. Bad. The syntax was all over the place, making everything seem incredibly choppy. The characters also came across as quite flat and I couldn’t bring myself to care for or be invested in any of their stories. Their motivations are very murky for the majority of the book. There was kind of a twist at the end but it wasn’t enough to make up for the chaotic plot structure. I wouldn’t classify this as a thriller as there was really no suspense. The sci-fi elements were also kind of strange and rooted more in fantasy than science. The book also had an opportunity to delve into deeper themes of medical ethics and surrogacy, but those were more surface level plot elements and I was disappointed by that. Overall this had some potential but the execution made this a miss for me.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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

4.5

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP for short), has always loved his niece Maisie and nephew Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, Patrick is overwhelmed. So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility.

Full of heart and humor, this book was a wonderful read about family, grief, identity, and healing. This book is binge worthy and full of delightful characters! They all experience a rollercoaster of emotions pad they deal with their grief together and individually, and they all felt so raw and real. Grief can be a challenging subject to both read and write about, and Rowley handled it so beautifully in this book. There was so much warmth and the perfect amount of humor mixed in with the more somber moments. The children Maisie and Grant were so adorable and hilarious, and I loved how they grew throughout the book and also challenged Patrick to grow as well. All around this was a great feel good story about family and moving on, and I definitely recommend it!

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.0

As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest. Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.

Thank you so much @netgalley and @meg_shaffer for this ARC! The author of The Wishing Game is back with an other fantastical tale full of heart and whimsy. This book leans more into the fantasy world than the magical realism of The Wishing Game and I really enjoyed it. I really l loved the themes of making your own home, found family, the power of magical believing in changing unfortunate circumstances, forgiveness, and never giving up on fantasy. Shaffer created such a beautiful fantasy world in Shanandoah and I could easily escape into that world while reading! All of the characters were so endearing and I loved how they all worked together. And I REALLY enjoyed all of the Fleetwood Mac references! Definitely look for The Lost Story when it hits shelves in July!