Steph📚

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren

4/5 ⭐️

*contains spoilers*

Dang the epilogue of this book made me ugly cry, it was so beautiful. I’m a sucker for science based romance novels, so I had a feeling I would like this book and it definitely lived up to my expectations.

A cute story about a company that uses genetic testing to tell you how compatible you are with someone and utilizes this technology in the form of a dating site to match you up with people who are compatible genetically and through answers to survey questions. While the real life possibilities of this are insane to even think of, I think it was artfully done in this novel. The story follows Jess and River, one of the inventors of the project on their “Diamond Match” pairing and how the company pays them to fake date for the image of the company.

The characters in this book are so easy to fall in love with and it doesn’t take long at all to see how River feels about Jess. He does little things that show how much he loves her and it’s so precious! It’s also so warming to my heart how quickly he falls in love with Juno, Jess’s daughter. I love seeing their relationship and his willingness to answer Juno’s thousands of questions about how things work melts my heart into a puddle. In the end when he helps her build her roller coaster and goes all out just so she can win the art science fair is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!! 🥺

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

5/5 ⭐️

*contains spoilers*

This was a really good book! It gave me strong The Roots of Chaos series vibes (another LGBTQ+ fantasy-type novel you should also check out if you're into that kind of thing) and I really loved the character dynamics.

The rivals/enemies to lovers trope in this book was awesome and I really enjoyed it. There were twists and turns throughout the entire thing and I really wasn't expecting some of them. Ryanne (I admit, I don't know how to spell his name, I only listened to the audiobook, so I'm purely using phoenetics here 🙈) being the Fae King was a twist I DID NOT expect at all, and it was so cool!

The relationship of the sisters in this book was really interesting to me. Usually, novels with sisters are die-hard love one another, die for each other types but this really wasn't that. The sisters had their own issues and it made it seem really real to me.

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

4/5 ⭐️

*contains SERIOUS spoilers*

The long awaited book from my author mother! Wild, wild, wild. This book was a trip! For the entire thing to happen in ONE WEEK is absolutely insane. There was so much packed into this novel and I loved it! The characters are all so badass and I love their stories and seeing how they all work together to save the world.

One of my favorite things about this book was that NOBODY died. Like nobody important died, thank god. That's not a common thing in books like this with battle scenes, but I'll freaking take it.

I know at the end of the last book everyone was so hyped up for the ACOTAR cross over in this book, but I gotta be honest it was a little disappointing for me. Bryce didn't really get to see any of Pyrithian which I was really hoping for. I do appreciate that she shoved her parents into the ACOTAR world though to keep them safe and honestly if ACOTAR6 doesn't have details about Ember and Randall's time with Nesta and Cassian, I may cry.

I think at this point I am so much more invested in other characters' storylines and interactions than I really am with Bryce and Hunt, but I still can't wait to see where they go. Lidia being related to Aelin was the best best best thing ever, I was so excited for that. I was desparate to ask my friends who had already finished if there was a TOG crossover and while not explicitly, the relationship of her to the TOG fae is epic and the way that it was introduced through her sons was awesome.

I think this was a really good book, I loved picking up on all of the little details. There were some elements that I wanted more which is why I knocked it down from 5 stars (specifically ACOTAR crossover, like cmon SJM) but I still loved this book and would give anything to read it again for the first time.

Same Time Next Year by Tessa Bailey

3/5 ⭐️

This book was pretty much just a cute romance story with a lot of spice. I know a lot of people don’t like Tessa Bailey’s spice writing style but I love it! She writes amazing scenes and I can easily connect with her characters!

If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

2/5 ⭐️

I understand this is a YA book, but the entirety of this book was written with a really childish vibe. Like even at the end of the book, she's supposed to be graduated from high school and starting college and I still imagined her as 15 because of how she acted and everything.

I think this book was very classic middle school/high school experience and I think it did a very good job capturing cliques and what teenage life is like. I loved the uniqueness of Autumn and how she wasn't embarrassed or afraid to do her own thing despite what others were saying to her. But it also was beautifully done showing that someone like that could still have depression and deal with not so great thoughts.

The end of this book is TRAGIC. There is no doubt about that. When I tell you my jaw dropped while I was reading it, I am not kidding. Of course there is illusion to what happens to one of the characters in the beginning and partway through, but dang, what happened to him was brutal. I also don't love that the book ends on such a big cliffhanger. We won't know or not if Autumn was actually experiencing what was alluded to happening (trying to write this without spoilers) and I kind of dislike that.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

5/5 ⭐️

Book Review

*contains spoilers*

SUCH A GOOD BOOK!!! This book is long and I admit I had a hard time getting into it, but once I hit the ~300 page mark, I was hooked. I read Priory of the Orange Tree first and I really think reading these two books in that order was amazing. It was so good to know what happens 500 years in the future and then be able to go back in time and learn more about what it was like for some of the people in the past that the Priory talks about.

In terms of quality of content of this book, it was stellar (slight pun intended)! The characters stories in this book makes it really easy to fall in love with them and I really enjoyed getting to know each of them. The King of Hróth is BY FAR one of my favorite characters ever. I have such a good relationship with my father and I saw that relationship between him and Glorian and it was beautiful. The fact that the King stood in front of his Queen to go together during ~that scene~ was literally so romantic and I was swooning.

I also loved the connections of the characters. One of my favorite things about the Priory was watching all of the characters come together in the end of the book. I wasn't sure that was going to happen here, and tbh it kind of didn't, but all of the characters were still connected in some way and I love that. Especially the East interaction with the West in Northern Hróth, and Glorian and Dumai's interaction (if you can call it that).

Reckless by Elsie Silver

3/5⭐️

Book #4 of the Chestnut Springs Series

*contains spoilers*

After reading Powerless and feeling like I lost some of the “country vibe” of this series, this book was refreshing to have Theo be the main character and hear about his bull riding career.

A pregnancy trope is NOT what I was expecting from this book and it is generally not my favorite, but reading Theo’s interactions with Vivi and Winter was adorable and it literally melted my heart!!

To Kill A Shadow by Katherine Quinn

4/5⭐️

This book was truly mysterious and I loved it! I really thought I had figured out who certain bad characters were, but could not have been more wrong. The imagery of the writing was perfectly done to describe The Mist and I really enjoyed watching the relationships between the different characters grow.

The start of this book felt so much like Fourth Wing for me. I mean the male main character is broody, in a position of leadership, and has a scar over one eye. The female main character has experienced some form of a handicap all her life (resulting in her gloved hands) and ultimately had not prepared for or chosen the path she was on by her own decision. Despite this feeling of being a very similar story to FW at the beginning, it all changed when they started their mission.

The Priory of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

5/5⭐️

*contains spoilers*

This book could EASILY take the top book of the year for me in 2024 and it’s January. Definitely an amazing fantasy book! This book was extremely well written, the world building at the beginning was perfect and I really enjoyed seeing how the characters fit together and connected.

I do think the ending felt a little rushed…which is crazy for an 800 page book, but all the action regarding the “defeat” that the entire book plans for was like around 50 pages. I felt like the major part of the battle and the sealing away was rushed and I wanted more.

I also think it’s crazy that this wasn’t exactly like a HEA! I was really expecting that but there’s no talk of Meg’s wedding, Loth doesn’t find anyone to love, and Ead/Sabran are separated for 10 years.

Sharing my 2024 Reading Reviews with y’all

First up is Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller.

4/5⭐️

This book was good! I always say I’m not a historical fiction girly and then I read a historical fiction book and I’m like ooooooooh 👀 so I think I should really delve into this genre more.

Without giving away too much: I could not for the life of me figure out the code mystery or the reason for the attacks, so that was good. I like a good mystery that can challenge me.

Not sure how I felt about the romance in this book though- overall watching them fall in love with each other was cute, but the celibate man thing was a little weird and I don’t think the backstory was enough to justify that decision. I also like my men in books to be well-experienced (iykyk) But! I did think it was so sweet how he looked up the books to learn how to do stuff.