Ana Takes Manhattan by Lissette Decos
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the story of Ana who is filming reality-tv shows about love and marriage while she’s trying to figure out her own journey with love. She takes a bunch of bad turns but eventually grows and finds her own way.

What made this book trickier is that Ana’s not a super-likable character. She’s pretty judgmental and even though you know it’s because of her fear, it becomes hard to feel compassion for her after a while. Her best friend also seemed like not the best character, to be honest, and it’s hard to tell why they are so close. The author tells us this often and has one or two examples of why but I didn’t find it believable. I did love Richard but there wasn’t enough of his character development in the story for me to get to know him enough.

In the end, it was an enjoyable and quick paced story but likely not one that will stick with me.

with gratitude to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Celeste Ng’s writing. I love her character development, I love her quiet but affecting stories. This novel, for me, didn’t have enough of the depth of her others but it was still deeply touching and one of those stories that stays with you because of how deeply it rings true even though it’s dystopian. I am so grateful for authors like Celeste Ng.

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The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book started out slow for me. It took me a while to understand and like Mimi and Art. But once I did, I fell madly in love. I thought the book did a great job making the reader experience Mimi’s confusion about Frank and balancing her own happiness with the need to take care of her bother.

Even though there are bits and pieces of this story I could criticize, overall I really loved it. It explores deep meaningful topics like family, parent’s death, connection, love, trust, safety, friendship, fear and loneliness. There’s so much depth and beauty to the real characters here.

with gratitude to HarperCollins and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meh. For me, this was somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars.

I read and enjoyed the Atlas Six and was looking forward to the sequel. I really enjoyed learning about each character and their backstory and the world building in the first book. Unlike many, the lack of explanation of the magic or the wordiness didn’t bother me in the first book. There was enough character building and enough plot to keep the book engaging and moving.

Neither of those things were true in the second book. The characters aren’t changing or growing. The plot was mostly nonexistent. Enough that it’s hard to tell the point of this book. Maybe it was just a filler book before the third one, but even then, it would have been better to have the book be half as long, move some of the plot points forward and get the readers ready for the conclusion instead of making us slog through a 400-page book that doesn’t really go anywhere.

I like these characters and find them interesting, especially when they interact with each other (as opposed to pontificate on their own) but this book just didn’t stand up on its own enough to hold my interest. Here’s hoping the third one does.

I will add that the audio is fantastic. A full cast makes the experience come alive when differentiating between the characters but it still wasn’t enough to save this book, for me.

with gratitude to Macmillan Audio and netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I heard about this book from my son who thought the premise was super interesting. He was so right. What a fantastic story and how well told. Extra interesting that it’s written by two Russian brothers back before USSR broke apart. I loved the science fiction in this story but not as much as I loved the characters and how memorable they will be for me. Excellent, excellent story.

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Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book about the return of a man back to his hometown island and the havoc that causes with the folks that live there, unearthing and old fire and murder that was never resolved and a romance that never died. I loved reading this one.

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