Format: eARC

I Know Where You Live by Gregg..

Posted 06/21/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Have you ever read a book, really loved it, and just really disliked pretty much all of the characters in the book? That’s how I felt about I Know Where You Live by Gregg Olsen. I loved the book, loved the premise of the book, but really didn’t like the characters. Violet and Lily were just irksome to me. Violet’s holier-than-thou attitude and Lily just basically doing her best to ignore everything that was going on just annoyed the daylights out of me. I understood Rose and her mother’s dynamic because I lived through that time when you didn’t speak of things like sexual assault/molestation – even though we got the talks about “if someone touches you inappropriately, tell someone”, no one really did… it just wasn’t something you did. So I totally understand Rose and her mother’s dynamic in that respect. So if I didn’t like the characters, what […]

Enter the Darkness by Sarah Bu..

Posted 06/20/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Let me be clear – I love horror novels. In fact, I don’t often find horror novels that I’m not a big fan of. That being said… I wasn’t a big fan of this one. For one thing, I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters. I didn’t have the “Oh I hope that one doesn’t die” or “I hope that one isn’t one of the bad guys” feeling about any of them. They were there and that was that. I will give the author credit for at least giving some background for the main characters, but other than that, I just didn’t feel connected to any of them. The writing wasn’t the best. I realize this was an “uncorrected proof” but the amount of mistakes – extra words, missing words, missing or incorrect punctuation, sentences that should have been one sentence instead of two or three – […]

Shannon in the Spotlight by Ka..

Posted 06/19/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

CW: Mental Illness, OCD, Anxiety I’m going to say it – I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. I’m not usually a fan of middle grade books, but I did enjoy this one. I like the way it portrays mental illnesses as nothing to be ashamed of. That someone with mental illness, whether it be OCD, anxiety, depression, or other mental illnesses can do the things they want and the things that make them happy. So often I read about mental illness in books and the person is defined by it. While Shannon’s OCD and anxiety feature in the book, they’re not who she is. I loved Shannon. I also loved Micah and Grandma Ruby. I admit, there weren’t any characters in this book I didn’t like, which is a rarity. The writing was great, the book moves along at a good pace, and the plot […]

This Delicious Death by Kayla ..

Posted 06/18/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

CW: Gore, blood, graphic depictions of violence I have to say, this is probably the best take I’ve seen on a zombie apocalypse ever. It’s not your typical take on it because for one, the “zombies” aren’t zombies, they’re ghouls. For another, they’re not mindless creatures incapable of doing anything but shambling along and eating flesh. What makes them even more unique? They can only eat human flesh – animal flesh or plant-based foods make them sick. I love it. While I’m not overly fond of Jasmine or Valeria, I love Zoey and Celeste. I love that most, if not all, of the friend group are part of the LGBTQIA+ community. The characters are well defined and we get back stories for each of them from the Hollowing, which gives insight into their experiences. Oh and I want slap the crap out Zoey’s parents, just saying. The writing is well […]

What Waits in the Woods by Ter..

Posted 06/12/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you haven’t seen the review I did for Terri Parlato’s debut novel, All The Dark Places, I highly recommend you check it out – go ahead, I’ll wait… Ok, now that you’re back, I’m going to tell you that this book is just as good. You’ve heard of the sophomore slump? That weird thing where the second book isn’t as good as the first or any subsequent books that come out? Well, this book doesn’t have that. What this book does have is a dual point of view that doesn’t take much to get used to because it’s very clear as to who is telling the story at any given moment. The main characters we deal with are Esmé and Rita. Esmé is our main character, the one who just came back from Syracuse after her ballet career ended. She came home only to find her best friend, Kara, […]