#book wrap

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur ⭐⭐⭐✨3.75/5

Synopsis: Starting off strong with this cute queer novel following Elle Jones, a free-spirited astrologer who believes soulmates are real and wants to find her one, and Darcy Lowell, a no-nonsense actuary who just recently moved to Seattle after an awful breakup. Set up by Darcy's brother,Brendon, the creator of a popular dating app that Elle is signing on with to help implement a new feature, the two go on a date...and well it's a disaster. Except, when Elle runs into Brendon (while having lunch with her overly-critical, no-nonsense mother) he is ecstatic to tell her about how much Darcy liked her.

Turns out Darcy is tired of her brother fixing her up and so she makes up a story that the date went well to get her brother off her back. Elle is outraged about the dilemma Darcy's gotten them into but that rage turns into a clever plan for them to pretend to date until the end of the new year. We all know how pretend dating goes 😅

Review: A seriously cute read that I picked up to fulfill the "read a book with a constellation on the cover" for the 2022 PopSugar challenge. Elle and Darcy have great chemistry and their love story is very convincing. I really appreciated throwing in the issues each of them had with their families and how their relationship helped them grow to recognize they deserved better treatment but that their love didn't cure or solve all their problems. Also, so happy that homophobia and biphobia is practically nonexistent in the book. I can't give it higher than a 4 though because it's just a cute book. One you read to bring to the beach with you and enjoy the warm fuzzy feelings it gives you and enjoy the familiar, predictable plot and get your happy ending. On their own Darcy and Elle are hard not to love and really relatable. The astrology is a nice touch and actuary and Twitter astrologist are new careers I haven't seen much in books.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5

Synopsis: You know those movies where the guy from the big city goes to a small town and falls in love with the girl who shows him to slow his life down and appreciate the roses? Well, Nora Stephen's the heartless ex that the guy leaves behind in the city. Not an exaggeration either, it's happened to her 4 times. She's a literary agent known as the Shark but even though she's skilled she can't convince renowned editor Charlie Lastra to take on her client's book. A mistake he'll regret as the book becomes a huge hit and her sister Libby, an avid fan, convinces her sister to go on vacation with her to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, where the book is set, to experience small-town living.

Except, while she's there she keeps running into Charlie and she can't seem to stay away from him and his well-defined eyebrows. But she's not going to let him stop her from accomplishing her bucket list that Libby's concocted for her to finish by the end of their vacation. Another mystery there too: Why is Libby, who is her whole world, so insistent Nora find a guy in Sunshine Falls and how the heck are they supposed to save a dying business? And why has Libby started to keep secrets from her?

Review: Probably one of the most anticipated books of the summer and well worth the wait. Nora is a wonderful protagonist who loves hard but at the cost of herself. Charlie, oh Charlie. I could spend hours reading him and Nora banter. They had me laughing often and their chemistry was through the roof. What really stuck out to me in this book was not their love for books, but their love for New York. As someone from NY, it felt amazing to read a book about people who got why the city was so incredible. It felt like a love story to people like me who are workaholics because they genuinely love their jobs and while there's nothing wrong with small-town living it can never compete with my love for NYC. So what if I enjoy wearing pantsuits, am a snob when it comes to food, and don't like everyone knowing my business? It doesn't mean I'm heartless. I'm just as capable of falling in love as everyone else. And I felt such hope that I would find it after reading this book.

I just loved it all around. The side characters were great, with perfect pacing, and incredible dialogue. There were times when I really expected Henry to take the cliche route (making the cousin have intense chemistry with Nora a lot faster and adding a serious love triangle or serious miscommunication) but she avoids it and I'm so grateful to her for keeping it very real that true love isn't everything.

I have to give it a 4 instead of a 5 though because of Libby and Nora's relationship. The sister bond between them is such a big part of the book and I appreciated the added depth. However, there were issues in the execution. Libby's hard to like and I do think that was somewhat the point because Nora has stepped in so often to rescue her sister and it's more for the readers to understand how far Nora will go for Libby. But I just didn't get enough glimpses of the wonderful relationship these two supposedly have and sometimes I felt like Libby was just there as this annoying presence. It would have made Libby's secret reveal more emotional but by the end, I was like "Heck yes!" As an older sister myself and someone who relates heavily to Nora particularly when it comes to our controlling nature I would foresee her being more demanding of Libby to open up sooner and so the fact that she actually let up was a little weird to me character-wise. Plot-wise it made sense yes so she'd focus on her romance but character-wise it didn't make sense.

Adult Children of Emotionally immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD ⭐⭐⭐⭐4/5

Synopsis: Basically what the title says. You have parents who are emotionally immature and it meant you didn't get your emotional needs met as a child. We examine what that looks like as a child, potential reasons why, how it's likely impacted you, and how to move forward.

Review: I am not much of a self-help book type of person because I feel like the advice is usually obvious and repetitive. But someone told me to please read it and I'm happy I did. It's written in a way that it was very easy for me to identify that of the four types of difficult parents in this book I have an emotional parent and a driven parent. It opened my eyes to so many things I've been wondering about and answered questions I held onto for years but knew my parents weren't capable of answering. The book's structure is so easy to follow and it's not a hard read at all. I felt validated, heard and seen and I am grateful for that, especially for helping me change my mental framework for how to approach conversations with my parents.

Cons though are that if I were an externalist (a chosen coping mechanism) who read this book I would feel alienated and insulted and like I was beyond help. Another thing is I wish there had been a lot more focus on how to handle family dynamics as they bring up countless times dynamics between siblings. I really recommend if you feel like you're a child of an emotionally immature parent. I highlighted so much of this book. I think it's 85% highlighted.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

WHEN I TELL YOU I WANT TO CHUCK THIS BOOK AT EVERYONE AND ASK EVERYONE TO READ IT!!!!!

Synopsis: (I'm actually just going to copy and paste the good reads synopsis because I cannot mess with perfection).

A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Review: If you loved Hannibal the TV series please read this. Everyone is so heavily flawed in this book and I LOVE IT!!! The way this book is written? Exquisite. Pacing? Perfection. Sometimes books that flash between the past and present can get very muddy but oh, here it made it so much better. And I didn't have a preference for the time period which never happens. In fact I was happy we got those past flashbacks because I was so nervous about if Eli or Victor would survive in the end I didn't want to get there because I didn't want to say goodbye to either of them.

Victor and Eli (yeah they need their own section): Victor is supposed to be the one you hate-a self-involved, cunning, and ambitious sociopath who enjoys inflicting pain and using people for his own end--but you can't help but love him. While he has no problem killing he stops himself because he sees it as pointless and what use is a dead corpse to him? He's the anti-hero you root for. Eli on the other hand, for all appearances, is supposed to be the likable one. He's more approachable, and religious and sees killing the supernatural as compassionate because their near-death experience removes what he believes makes humans, well human (he's not entirely wrong either). He's doing the world a favor by taking out ExtraOrdinary people. Except, well the man is obviously batshit crazy and fanatical to the point that he's blind.

The chemistry between these two characters is insane. Technically, there's no confirmed romance between the two but I doubt that will stop people (very strong Hannibal and Will Graham vibes). But honestly, this book doesn't need romance. In fact I think that would ruin it. However, it doesn't mean a love story isn't here. Eli and Victor clearly are only capable of this much hatred because their love for each other ran so deep. Even in their hatred they're obsessed with one another.

All right I better stop before I don't ever stop. Even without their dynamic, you want to hear more about each character individually. The side characters are incredible and somehow we even managed to get a found family. The books gritty and dark, similar to a noir-style, and it doesn't shy away from violence but it's not so explicit I am uncomfortable.