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Showing posts from May, 2021

How to Wake an Undead City (Hailey Edwards) - ★★★★☆

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This series was such a guilty pleasure. Urban fantasy usually doesn't have that much depth, and the romances are usually horrible. And when I say horrible, I mean cringe-worthy romances with extremely violent, nauseatingly attractive, possessive, and controlling Alpha males (who may or may not also be complete assholes, violators of consent, or male chauvinists). And of course, all those qualities would be considered attractive to the female protagonist (perhaps not initially, as many such romances begin with the protagonist resisting, and then falling victim to the charms of the Alpha Male). So what I really loved about this series was that FINALLY the female protagonist DID NOT end up with the Alpha Male. Yes, Grier was infatuated with Boaz (the sexually promiscuous, bad-boy type Alpha male in question) for the first three books, but eventually, the truth came out and Boaz was exposed as a lying, two-faced asshole. And then she ended up with the guy who actually cared about her a...

Last One At The Party (Bethany Clift) - ★★★★★

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This book is... it's... honestly, it's hard to even find the words to describe it. Funny how that often happens with the books I really love. When you look at the synopsis, you immediately dismiss it as just another apocalyptic novel. Wrong. Yes, it does involve a plague. Yes, it does involve survival. But this... it takes those elements and combines them into true art. I don't think I've ever seen what it means to be human summed up so completely. Yes, I know the whole "what it means to be human" thing is overused as a description, but this book does not disappoint. Last One At The Party is beautiful and gorgeous and heart-breaking. It's a tale of love and loss and finding yourself, of what it means to truly be happy. It doesn't gloss over the harsh details or dark realities of life; it artfully weaves them into words and story. When you're reading it, you don't even realize what you're feeling until it just hits you at the end with all th...