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Chloe Liese’s books are full of textured and real characters who care deeply, manage to surprise you and worm their way into your heart. This one was no exception even though I do think some bits were wordier than needed.
3.5 stars I really dislike it when book blurbs mention well-loved, well-read books in order to get you to buy a book. I feel like it pre-biases the story. I understand why they do it (it’s a quick way to tell if this book is your cup of tea) but the thing is, there’s so much more to a book than it’s plot. Every book about time travel and love is not the same. Every book that happens non-linearly is also not the same. For me, what matters most when I compare books is how they made me feel. How were the characters developed. Did the love feel the way it feels in a different book? Did you find yourself cheering for them in the same way, did you find yourself mourning the same way? When you compare it to another book on some of the plot elements alone, you’re losing me before I even read your book because what if the feeling is different (but also lovely?) Now I don’t like this book because you promised me something and delivered me something else. And that’s a shame. All of this is to say that I don’t think this book felt like “Time Traveler’s Wife” or “Oona Out of Order” for me. It was quieter than both and yet it still was a lovely book on its own. For me, the biggest element of this book was not the time travel or the love between the two characters, it was the mental health and anxiety that the main character was grappling with and how she got in her own way so often and made her own life harder than it had to be. Her growth in this story, and her ability to both trust herself, trust her strength and put herself forth is the best part of the story in my opinion. This is the story about a woman who meets her future husband by way of a magical phone text exchange. I didn’t really care about the logistics of time travel as some might have, it’s so not the point of the story. I loved both of the characters but I did think the story lacked a bit of texture and depth. I wanted to understand more about why her dad was the way he was. Ewan seemed too nice and perfect almost. I wanted to know more about him, too. I loved the premise of the story and how the character changed multiple times as a result of what she knew. All this is to say, I really enjoyed my time with this story and the characters and the story drew me in. I look forward to reading more of this author. With gratitude to netgalley and Alcove Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
When the library emailed me saying this book was ready, I put the book I was listening to on hold to switch to this one because I’d been waiting for it for so long and I wanted to see if it was as good as I’d hoped it would be. I think the book was beautifully written. The premise is interesting and could have been taking ten different ways and could have been executed in ways that fell short. But this author focused on how the value of a human life is not about its length. It reminded me of the quote by Diane Ackerman “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.” It’s not just the length that matters even though we tend to focus on that more than anything else. The book also is about human connection and how our lives intersect and have a way of intermingling. How people can rely on each other. How there’s always people who bond through adversity and those who use fear to take advantage of the situation for their own gain/power. It was quite the read.
For reasons unclear to me, it took me a long time to read this book. I checked it out of the library over twenty times before I finally sat down to read it. I tried listening on audio and decided it was never going to work out, so I read the book and I am glad I did. It was beautifully written and what a journey to read. Madeline Miller is a talented writer and it absolutely shows in this beautifully told story of Achilles and the Odyssey.
4.5 stars I haven’t read YA in a long time but this was a fast and involving read. So much angst. Drew was my favorite character. He surprised you. He grew. He was funny.
Not sure why I postponed reading this for a long time but I am glad I finally read it. I didn’t see the twists coming really and i really liked them.
I know most people liked this book but it not only annoyed me but it also left me feeling uneasy for a whole day after i read it. This is not really a mystery, it’s more like a slasher movie in a novel. Not a lot of time for any of the characters to be developed. It wasn’t for me.
Like others in the series this book is full of exercises to help you connect with yourself, figure out your values and what guides you, figure out how to cope with things that make you anxious or get in the way of your peace and figure out your purpose and goals in life. There are many many different exercises so at least one is bound to appeal to anyone who is on a journey to find and cultivate more peace in their lives. Each exercise is relatively short and impactful. Recommended. with gratitude to edelweiss and quarto group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Unfortunately this one wasn’t a good fit for me. I know Banville is an excellent writer with an incredible command of the English language. And yet this story was full of unlikeable characters, 2 dimensional women, really long run-on sentences that became indecipherable. It might easily be that I missed something and that this novel is smart on some level that is beyond my understanding. Alas, it did not meet the mark for me. with gratitude to netgalley and Knopf for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a rich and layered novel with a long cast of generations of characters that span 150+ years and revolve around traveling through the country and a train with passengers connected in seemingly non-obvious ways. There are a lot of characters in this novel and yet they are each layered with rich backstories and it’s easy to get attached to each and every one of them. An excellent excellent novel.
I tried but finally DNF’ing at 39% so I will not rate this one. While some of the ideas in the book are interesting and welcoming to me, the style in which this is written is really hard for me to follow and causes the ideas to lack depth in a way that makes my mind meander.
I discovered Kolbie Blume randomly on Pinterest and fell in love with her art and her videos. I then signed up for her two 10-day challenges which was life changing and filled up all my days with beautiful art. And then I finally tracked down her books and got them. I think doing it in that order was actually the best fit for me and allowed me to hear her voice as I read the book and completed the projects in this book. I highly recommend doing it this way. I liked the seascapes one a little more than this one, just for the projects but both of Kolbie’s books are awesome. |
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