A&F

Me: yes

Hello everyone!! Today I will be giving a review of a book I recently read, aka We were liars by E. Lockhart! I’ll rate the characters, plot twist etc. and give an overall rate at the end! Remember, this is just my opinion!! Yours can be totally different and that’s okay! I’m always open for a good discussion :)

(spoiler-free :)

Characters

Out of the four Liars, Johnny was my favourite person. He was just always sarcastic, funny and sweet you know.

In my opinion, the main character Cady sometimes overreacted a bit, but I liked her personality.

Then we still have Gat, or the love interest. I absolutely adored the mysterious part about him, and that he had a different origin than the other Liars.

Mirren was also sweet, but sometimes a little too clingy to my liking.

And then we have their mothers. I’m sorry but they were manipulating their children to get the house and stuff they wanted without asking them if they were okay with it.

characters rate: 3,5/5

Storyline

Four privileged and spoiled children get to spend their summers on a private island. A perfect family, it seems, but they all have secrets. Cadence finds herself falling for the nephew of her cousin’s stepfather, Gat. But then she has an accident and spends her time living on antidepressants. And why do the Liars act differently all of a sudden?

The storyline was so good! It didn’t go too slow neither too fast and there was enough action to keep me reading. I also loved that it mostly happened on an island and that it was set in a modern time frame.

storyline rate: 4/5

Plottwist

Guys, guys, guys. I had heard from a friend that the plottwist was huge, but I didn’t expect it to be that huge. I won’t spoil it of course, but like holy crap that escalated very quickly.

plottwist: 4,5/5

Language

E. Lockhart managed to write a book without using too difficult sentences and words and still make it interesting. The language is adapted to teens who want to read a quick and light book, so if you’re looking for something like that, we were liars is ideal!

language: 5/5

Overall rate: 4,25/5

I hope I get some of you to read this book based on this review and if you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts!

Lots of love, A

Tension build-up is used in many stories. It can be difficult to write, though. Here are some tips to help you increase the tension.

Characters

by keeping topical questions about the characters unanswered.

by raising questions about the characters

Time

by speeding up/slowing down events

by giving events an unexpected turn

by inserting forward-pointing elements

by suddenly stopping of giving information

Space

by inserting atmosphere creations

by raising questions about the space

Perspective

by keeping the character in the unkown and providing the reader information

by keeping the reader in the unknown and providing the character information

by allowing the reader to follow the story completely through the eyes of the character and in this way to equalize the information knowledge between character and reader

These are just some basic tips that can help you. The 'how'is up to you!!

also me: *proceeds to write 109 words about that thing*

me after a while: *notices the thing doesn’t fit in the plot*

me: they have been through so much, I feel so bad for them

friends: you’re the writer, you don’t have to give them such horrible lifes

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 

Mysterious fantasy 

Character building is amazing

Amazing world building and a new kind of fantasy, very intriguing

I loved that the MC, Alex, was all dark and twisty. I was very interested in her and her personality arch.  

I sat on the edge of my seat for the whole book, I had so many questions throughout the book.

Overall, I absolutely adore Leigh Bardugo’s writing

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

A new and interesting kind of fantasy 

A very thrilling and exciting heist

I love the characters and their background stories and how they develop through the book. 

Awesome sexual tension

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson

Enemies to lovers and back 

Daggers to throat!!!

Badass female main character

Amazing character building and immaculate background stories. Amazing portraying of emotions of her past traumas throughout the novel. 

Betrayal

Vow of Thieves

Prequel to ‘Dance of Thieves’ 

Beautiful and heart wrenching romance

Betrayal 

Extremely thrilling and shocking

The tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Second world war love story

The writing is amazing 

The story is a true heartbreaker, full of sadness yet love and happiness

Amazing if you want a good cry, but still a good plot and a little happy ending

The Song of Achilles by Madelaine Miller

Greek mythology retelling of the love story of Achilles and Patroclus 

Great LGBTQ+ representation

Also amazing for a good cry

Here are some of my favorite books that I read this year. They are all from different genres if you’re wondering. I also added why I like them so much. Have fun <3

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

a lot of tension

action throughout the whole book

betrayal, so that’s good for your mental health :)

enemies to lovers trope 

I’m a simp for Maven and Cal

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

lovers to enemies to lovers and back to enemies

situated in Shanghai; it’s nice to learn something about the culture there

daggers to the throat present so that’s a pluspoint :))

A Thouch Of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

it’s a Hades story and I love Hades soooooo

modern representation of the Greek Gods, and she did it absolutely amazing

I also recommend her other book in Persephone's pov, A touch of ruin

A Game Of Fate by Scarlett St. Clair

Hades’ pov so we get to see things from his perspective and not only from Persephone’s

there’s, like, a lot of smut

overprotective Hades makes my heart melt

“if you touch her I will kill you” vibes

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

it’s a novel situated somewhere around the 18th century

secret romances 

may be boring in the beginning but after a hundred pages or so things get fun

classic language yet not too difficult

The Art of Breaking Glass by Matthew Hall

more of a psychological thriller

no happy end; it’s nice to have some variation instead of always a good end

TW: mentions of abuse (not much but still) 

different perspectives so you get to see different sides of characters

overprotective Bill is what I live for

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

very interesting to see how the protagonist’s brother doesn’t speak

time span of a few years so we get to see the characters evolve

the protagonist and his brother grew up in bad living conditions so it’s interesting to learn about that

love the friendship between Slim and Eli

literally simping for Alex, Eli’s pen pal, and Darren Dang 

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

again a modern representation of the Greek gods and heroes

demigods in the lead

popular myths are discussed

three best friends who always save the day

lots of action

My friend will do a part two. Stay tuned!

Writing smut can be very awkward, especially when you have no experience or still are a virgin( like me). If your plot is all about smut it is essentially that it is well written. Here are a few tips to make it easier to write.

Read other stories that contain smut. That way you can learn more about it. Don’t just read one, but multiple! It can help you to compare everything so you can choose what to add to your story and what not. (If you can’t find any smut stories, there are a lot on wattpad :)

If you’re uncomfortable with writing smut, just remember that it is a normal thing for two characters/persons to seek for pleasure in the other. It’s a common thing in the world and practically everyone does it, so don’t feel awkward because you write smut. 

When writing smut you don’t have to exagerate. It is okay if you keep it basic: better basic and good than too complicated and rather bad. 

You can always ask someone close to you who has experience with sex about it, if you’re comfortable with this. That way you gain more knowledge about it and it becomes easier to write smut.

I hope this helps you to make it less awkward to write smut and improve your skills.

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Writing tips

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Playlists for writing

Can’t immediately think of something but definitely more :)

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