Tag: love

Book vs. Movie: P.S. I Still Love You

On By Beth JonesIn Book vs. Movie2 Comments

Hi lovelies! Today I’m going to be talking about the differences and similarities between the P.S. I Still Love You book and the movie. This isn’t a review as such (although I may do a post like that about the movies soon!), it’s specifically comparing them to each other! I found the way the movie approached some topics really interesting, and as I only read the book in the week before watching the film, I picked up on tiny differences.

Fair warning that this will include a lot of spoilers for the movie – so please only read if you’ve watched it or don’t mind finding out major plot points! With that covered, let’s delve right in!

Differences

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Lara Jean’s first proper date with Peter K. Now, this was all pretty much the same, and it was lovely in both, but I noticed a big change in the movie. They go to a Chinese Lantern Festival. In the book, they go for dinner and walk around the university campus at night that they both want to attend.

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This was a bigggg change for me! In the book, John Ambrose McClaren never volunteered at the retirement village. He did reply to Lara Jean’s letter, and most of the other details remain the same, but he never actually volunteered – he’s Stormy’s grandson!

The Credits Scene In "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" Perfectly ...

This is a different GIF to the scene I’m referring to – but there is a party fairly near the start of the movie where Lara Jean is talking to Lucas about how she’s feeling, and then her and Peter K text from across the room, which Lucas teases them for. I didn’t remember this scene at all from the book, and then was shocked to discover the exact scene in the start of the third book, Always and Forever Lara Jean instead!

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The Starball is pretty accurate to how it happened in the book – the major difference being in the book it is a USO/1940s themed party. And although it snows in both, in the book Lara Jean and John Ambrose are snowed into the retirement home and have to stay there together!

Similarities

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I’m really pleased to say the Korean New Years celebrations are pretty much exactly how it happened in the book, and it was lovely. Even the sassy comments from Kitty were kept in!

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Although everything plays out ever so slightly differently, Lara Jean’s dad and Mrs Rothchild from across the street do date in both the book and the movie – and both times with help from Kitty!

holland taylor To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You | Explore ...

Stormy, who is a resident at the care home where Lara Jean volunteers, remains the exact same and I love her for it.

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It may seem like a small thing, but Lara Jean makes cherry turnovers in both the book and the movie. I’ve since made them myself and I adored them! In fact, Valentine’s plays out similarly in both the book and the movie too.

The "To All The Boys" Treehouse Scene Between Gen And Lara Jean ...

All of the treehouse scenes remained pretty much the same too, even in the flashback!

Overall, these movies are pretty good adaptations, and are some of the rare ones I really adore and think have done an excellent job. Even though there is some differences, they included the majority of the things I loved about the books, and made them beautiful for screen.

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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My Contemporary-a-thon TBR

On By Beth JonesIn Readathon2 Comments

Hi everyone! My friend Chloe told me about the contemporary-a-thon a few weeks ago which is running this week and I’ve decided pretty last minute to join in.

You can see in the video above how contemporary-a-thon works. It runs from today (February 10th) to Sunday (February 16th) and there are 7 different prompts. I’ve listed the prompts below and then I’ll cover which books I’m going to try to read this week and which prompts they fit into. Some of them only fall into the categories loosely, but I think only a week to read more than one book is ambitious for me, so I’m just going to try my best with 3.

Prompts

1. Read a contemporary book with green on the cover
2. Read a contemporary from a new to you author
3. Read a diverse contemporary
4. Read a backlist contemporary
5. Read a dark/hard hitting contemporary
6. Read a contemporary with an illustrated cover
7. Read a contemporary that is beloved by a member of the book community

Books on my TBR

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Goodreads | Waterstones

Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state candidate – as long as he’s behind the scenes. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is cancelled, her parents are separating and now her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing – with some awkward guy she hardly knows …
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer – and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural crush of the century is another thing entirely.

My current buddy read happens to fit prompts 2 and 3: read a book by an author new to you (Aisha Saeed) and read a diverse book.

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Longing to escape his island home, a boy named Hodaka runs away during his first summer of high school to find a new life in Tokyo. As rain falls for days on end and Hodaka struggles to adjust, he meets a girl named Hina who holds a mysterious power: With a single prayer, she can part the clouds and bring back the sun. But her power comes at a price, and as the weather spirals further and further out of control, they must choose what future they truly want for themselves.
Written concurrently with production of the 2019 film Weathering With You, this novel comes straight from director Makoto Shinkai, the mind behind 2016’s hit your name.! 

Weathering With You discusses climate change, so I thought it would be hard-hitting enough to fit prompt 5. It’s also only 172 pages long and I’m hoping to read it alongside my buddy read!

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Goodreads | Waterstones

In this volume we’ll see the Heartstopper gang go on a school trip to Paris! Not only are Nick and Charlie navigating a new city, but also telling more people about their relationship AND learning more about the challenges each other are facing in private…
Meanwhile Tao and Elle will face their feelings for each other, Tara and Darcy share more about their relationship origin story, and the teachers supervising the trip seem… rather close…?

And finally, we have Heartstopper Volume 3, which just about fits the rest of the prompts. It has green on the cover, to fit prompt 1, has been on my TBR since I read the webcomic almost a year ago, has an illustrated cover and is much loved by the bookish community.

I really hope I can get through all of these books by the end of the week!

Are you taking part in contemporary-a-thon?

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments
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It’s 1999 and the internet is still a novelty. At a newspaper office, two colleagues, Beth and Jennifer, e-mail back and forth, discussing their lives in hilarious details, from love troubles to family dramas. And Lincoln, a shy IT guy responsible for monitoring e-mails, spends his hours reading every exchange.
At first their e-mails offer a welcome diversion, but the more he reads, the more he finds himself falling for one of them. By the time Lincoln realises just how head-over-heels he is, it’s too late to introduce himself.
After a series of close encounters, Lincoln eventually decides he must follow his heart… and find out if there is such a thing as love before first sight.

This was my first read for my N.E.W.T.s TBR and I’m so glad it was because it was such a quick and enjoyable read. I’ve now read everything major Rainbow Rowell has written, and I don’t have a bad word to say about any of them. They all have soft spots in my heart for very different reasons, but Landline and Attachments do for their quirkiness.

Attachments follows Lincoln, who takes a job where he reads people’s work emails and feels creepy about it. Especially when he starts reading the exchanges of best friends Jennifer and Beth, he feels even more uncomfortable when he starts to fall for one of them.

I mean, evidently this book was made for me. Not only am I called Beth, but I was born in 1999! It was weird reading about the year of my birth, but also kind of nostalgic and super interesting. Having the book set in ’99 gave it so many quirks you wouldn’t see today, let alone the whole email concept and Y2K thing itself.

‘“I’d know you in the dark,” he said. “From a thousand miles away.”‘ 

Jennifer and Beth were immediately likeable and funny characters. The chapters are pretty much alternate between Lincoln’s prose and Jennifer and Beth’s emails. All of the chapters are short, but the fact Jennifer and Beth’s parts were shown in email form made it such a quick read for me and didn’t take anything away from the story. I still sympathised with them and found them both very relatable.

In fact, the entire cast of characters were just brilliant. Lincoln is so charming and lovable, and we can’t possibly feel weird about him reading Beth and Jennifer’s emails because we’re reading them too. It’s all very cleverly executed.

The larger cast was so heartwarming, too. I loved Jennifer’s subplot and really grew to like and sympathise with her. Lincoln’s weird but likeable friends were so great and different in their own ways. His mum, sister and Doris made me laugh and warmed my soul.

‘”There’s nothing you could become that I haven’t already fallen in love with.”’

Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Rainbow Rowell has a habit of writing somewhat cheesy romances that have just been….elevated. It was awesome, and made me nostalgic for Landline!

★★★★★
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Lady Midnight (#1) by Cassandra Clare

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions…
Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters’ help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Clare never fails to astound me, and I honestly think she may have nabbed my top spot on my favourite authors list! To prove a point, I started this book on Friday and finished it on Tuesday. And I know there are many fans who would have been able to read much quicker than I did, but for me, 5 days is pretty damn quick.

There’s something so special about The Dark Artifices, and it makes me constantly realise how incredible Clare is to write numerous Shadowhunter series with different characters and yet have them stand so far apart from one another. The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices all have very special places in my heart, and for different reasons.

“These pictures are my heart.”

I loved The Mortal Instruments so much, but I could very clearly see that Clare was developing her writing. Now on the third series, her writing is better than ever and it made Lady Midnight amazing for me. I could love no one as much as Tessa, Will and Jem, but I became so attached to Emma, Julian and his family throughout this book. The children are so diverse and vibrant and I love them all for it.

This book was full of twists and turns, especially after the initial couple hundred pages. I do think this book took a while to adjust to because it’s quite far removed from the other series, but as soon as it got going, I loved the differences. I literally couldn’t put this book down!

Also I would definitely like to point out that you really need to read Clare’s other books before this series! Not only would this spoil a lot for you, the cameos of other characters mean everything to me. I loved them.

“And if my heart was a canvas, every square inch of it would be painted over with you.”

I cannot even explain how much I adore the cast of this series. Each character was so great in there own ways and I admire Clare endlessly for creating such a vast range of characters. I can’t finish this review without a quick mention of the diversity in this book. Not only do we have gay faeries (and my favourite warlock you know who I mean), and a new Latinx Mexican friend who I adored, but also A CHILD WITH AUTISM. Ahh I could scream with how much I just appreciate this? Ty is so well represented, so well described and I’m so overly happy he is part of this world.

And I didn’t mean to descend into full on fangirling, but I think I managed to explain how much I love this book.

★★★★★ 
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: My True Love Gave to Me – Various Authors

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments
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On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me …This beautiful collection features twelve gorgeously romantic stories set during the festive period, by some of the most talented and exciting YA authors writing today. The stories are filled with the magic of first love and the magic of the holidays.

As this book is full of little stories, I’m going to review them all separately! This was such a fun read and it was perfect for the festive season.

Almost Midnight by Rainbow Rowell – 5 out of 5 stars
Let’s start this on a high! I’ve read this short story before and it’s honestly brilliant, 26 pages flies by with this year-by-year tale. It’s so simple but focuses on the characters which I adored, the ability to build characters in such a short amount of time is incredible. Perfect for New Year, as it’s set on New Year’s Eve hence the title!

The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link – 2 out of 5 stars
Honestly, this one really didn’t do it for me. The only real positive is that it did have a Christmassy feel, but otherwise it was downright confusing and a little weird. I’m all for a little weird, but I just didn’t know what was going on. At all.

Angels in the Snow by Matt De La Pena – 4 out of 5 stars
This story was so cute! I’m all for Christmas fantasy, but adorable festive contemporary romance is where its at. This story is one of Shy and the girl upstairs over Christmas, and it manages to not only be cute but be raw and honest and kind of beautiful in such a short amount of pages.

Polaris is Where You’ll Find Me by Jenny Han – 4 out of 5 stars
This story was so overwhelmingly Christmassy! You can’t get much better than a story set in the North Pole for Christmas, surrounded by elves. I liked the protagonist, Natalie, who was the only human to ever live in the North Pole. It made such a unique story which was so fun to read!

It’s a Yuletide Miracle… by Stephanie Perkins – 5 out of 5 stars
Perkins does it again! I remember this from Summer Days and Summer Nights – if anyone can write an amazing short, it’s Perkins. This story was unique, with likeable characters and a beautiful backdrop. I would read a whole book about these two happily.

Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan – 4 out of 5 stars
I always find levithan a little hit and miss, but I really enjoyed this story! It’s about a guy called Connor who asks his boyfriend to dress up as santa to keep Christmas magic alive for his little sister. It was a really cute contemporary with a cast of different characters who I enjoyed reading about, however I do feel like too many conversations with different characters were fitted into a very short story!

Krampuslauf by Holly Black – 3 out of 5 stars
I’m really not sure how to feel about this one. Build up a quirky contemporary with a group of friends and a New Year’s party on a trailer park, throw some drama in and then sprinkle it with magic. I think the magic was my main issue, because it just felt forced and like a last minute edition. It threw the story off kilter and threw me off too. Very weird.

What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth? by Gayle Forman – 4 out of 5 stars
Contemporary romance definitely suits festive short stories better than contemporary and a weird mix of fantasy. I’m still holding out for a full on fantasy though? Anyway, Forman really brought out holiday cheer with carol singers and pie and a little twist with Hannukah which I loved! It’s the story of (surprise) Sophie Roth, a college student who isnt yet home for Christmas. Its about new discoveries and making mistakes, and although it wasn’t perfect, I damn well enjoyed it!

Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus by Myra McEntire – 3.5 out of 5 stars
I can’t say I disliked this story, it was Christmassy enough and enjoyable. But I just found it strange and I felt so disconnected to the characters! It followed a guy who had to do community service for a church at Christmas, which was an interesting concept but it just wasn’t all there for me!

Welcome to Christmas, CA by Kiersten white – 5 out of 5 stars
Yes! I didn’t think I would find another story to match Stephanie Perkins, but this one sure did. It follows the story of a girl who lives in Christmas, CA and their Christmas traditions. It was heartwarming, heartbreaking and heartfelt. All in 40 pages.

Star of Bethlehem by Ally Carter – 4 out of 5 stars
Another story, another Christmassy town ! I really enjoyed this one too, although it lacked the depth that made me love Welcome to Christmas, CA so much. Still a unique and heartwarming tale of a girl trying to escape her life and ends up finding a family of her own.

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer by Laini Taylor – 2 out of 5 stars
This was so weird?? I don’t even know what was going on? I stand by the fact that fantasy doesn’t work as well as contemporary in these kinds of situations usually – world building just isn’t possible in 30 pages. I didn’t properly understand the world or the story, therefore I didn’t enjoy it. The pages were used to explain the town rather than the characters, and I related only to the protagonist. It didn’t feel Christmassy either! It did have a satisfying ending, however.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it was perfect to start the New Year with. Although the stories are very mixed, it’s great to give new authors a chance with books like this one. Sure, I didn’t enjoy a few but that’s bound to happen. And I loved a number of stories enough to rate this book highly! I’ll definitely be giving some of these a re-read next Christmas.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review1 Comment

Twelve Days of Christmas – Day 3

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Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her high school teachers who think the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules. Viv’s mum was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates Moxie, a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond and spread the Moxie message. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realises that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.

Honestly, I understand why everyone loved this book so much. And I definitely enjoyed it. But it’s just not up there for me…and honestly, I felt like it had a lot of problems. Really? Feminism is great. It’s brilliant. But have you ever thought it’s going too far the other way? I believe more in equal-ism than feminism. Girls are not better. We suffer the same, we should have the same opportunities. 

I understand how important this book is, I really do. And I can’t disagree that sometimes being a woman can still feel different than being a man. But I have to say that the biggest problem I had with Moxie was that it very much overshadowed men, and I would constantly feel myself thinking ‘men suffer too. Not all men do this to woman. They shouldn’t be grouped, and they shouldn’t be discounted. It’s so unfair.’

“It occurs to me that this is what it means to be a feminist. Not a humanist or an equalist or whatever. But a feminist. It’s not a bad word.”

Other than all of these issues, I did enjoy actually reading this book. The characters are pretty cool, and I loved the focus on family and friendship groups. It’s always good to be able to find out about parents and grandparents, which was great and gave the book an interesting dynamic. 

Even though the plot was pretty predictable, there was enough ups and downs to keep me interesting. I did feel the need to keep reading and find out what was going to happen to Moxie. 

But I also have to say that the issues were so many that it felt…forced? Like, I understand that girls go through some sh*t. But to have one issue after another with absolutely no support from any kind of authority felt so unrealistic? 

“After today it might be my favorite word. Because really all it is is girls supporting each other and wanting to be treated like human beings in a world that’s always finding ways to tell them they’re not.”

Overall, very very mixed thoughts on this one. In one way, it’s a step in the right direction, and we do need more books like this. But it’s also in the danger of taking the subject a little too far, and could be incredibly damaging to young girls and their views of guys.

★★★
3 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review8 Comments

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It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.
But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

I can’t even explain to you how much I adored this book, but I’m going to damn well try. Shirin is a teenage girl in America just after 9/11, and she is Muslim. I cannot even tell you how much I adored this concept. So often, YA is too focused on a romance, friendship, family, dystopia or fantasy world. Never, is religion the focus. And I absolutely loved that this book centered more than anything else around Muslim culture.

I may not have experienced this kind of discrimination first hand, but I have friends who have suffered because of their religion. I’ve listened to their stories, and every time, they break my heart into tiny little pieces.

“I didn’t believe it was possible to hide a woman’s beauty. I thought women were gorgeous no matter what they wore, and I didn’t think they owed anyone an explanation for their sartorial choices.”

I love how raw this book is. The events were so emotional and sad, but hit home so much for me. I cannot even begin to express how important this book is. This is so different to anything I’ve read in YA, and frankly, it’s about time that a Muslim teen gets to tell her story. In fact, we are way past that time. This should be normal, this should happen every day. But unfortunately, we still live in a world that experiences events just as Shirin does in this book. But stories like these, words like these? They’re the most amazing kind of start.

I loved Shirin in every way. She was such a well-rounded and well-developed character, and I loved the conversations she has with her brother, her teachers, her friends, her family. Everyone is included in this book and it was done so well. Ocean was a beautiful contrast to Shirin as a love interest, and it was brilliant how he broke down her barriers and had such a deep love for her.

“Different women felt comfortable in different outfits.”

Honestly, this might be one of my favourite books of this year. It has absolutely blown me away. Along with all of these compliments, it took me under 2 days to read this beauty. I have only one criticism for this book, which is that I wish Shirin’s parents would have found out about Ocean. I loved the relationship Shirin had with her family, and it would have been such an interesting scene to read about.

This book broke my heart a thousand times over, and glued it back together with strings of hope as strong and as bright as the stars.

★★★★★
5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments

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When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course. 
To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart. 
If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

It’s rare that a book completely lives up to the hype, but this one really did. I went in with mixed expectations, having loved They Both Die at the End but had mixed feelings about More Happy Than Not. But this one is definitely up there, and even above my love for They Both Die at the End. It’s definitely been my favourite Silvera novel and I’m so excited for What if It’s Us!

“People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we’re left unfinished.”

I found History is All You Left Me so raw and beautiful. It follows the story of Griffin, a boy who lost his first love and ex-boyfriend way too young. Griffin also suffers with OCD and I loved the way Silvera spoke about how he struggled through life with OCD. I found his disorder so believable and well written.

I began by having doubts about Jackson, but honestly I think that just shows how great the writing is, because I liked him more just as Griffin did, as they got to know each other throughout the book. I will openly admit I cried at least a couple of times throughout this story, and I closed the final page with tears in my eyes.

“Sometimes that’s for the best. Some pieces can’t be forced into a puzzle, or at least they shouldn’t be, because they won’t make sense.”

I also found the flashbacks really worked, and it definitely takes a talented author to write past and present like that! The plot also twisted and changed throughout, which isn’t too common in contemporary and it provided a reason to keep turning the pages. I really have to point out that I found this book perfect for reading in a couple of sittings. I usually have to have a break while I’m reading and I struggle to read in long sittings, but not with this book!

I just felt it would be very hard to get bored of the story, especially with the plot. I read most of the book on a long train journey and I finished it in 5 days! I honestly can’t find anything wrong with this book, and it’s going to have to be 5 stars. It’s beautifully written, emotional, honest and raw. What’s not to like?

★★★★★
5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments

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The stunning sequel to Gayle Forman’s international best seller, If I Stay – Now a major film starring Chloe Grace Moretz. If you had a second chance at first love …would you take it? It’s been three years since Adam’s love saved Mia after the accident that annihilated life as she knew it …and three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever. Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future – and each other. Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, powerful prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Sure, I enjoyed this book. I’d go as far to say I liked it. But loved it? Eh. Unfortunately, this book felt so flat and unoriginal to me. I actually really liked the concept of If I Stay, just because it’s not very often we’ll see a book written from the perspective of a ghost girl. But I felt like I’d read Where She Went way too many times before.

“But I’d do it again. I know that now. I’d make that promise a thousand times over and lose her a thousand times over to have heard her play last night or to see her in the morning sunlight.”

I really liked reading this from Adam’s perspective – it shook the series up and really worked. But I have to say, I had some problems with both characters. I didn’t appreciate how Mia treated him and I didn’t appreciate Adam’s attitude to most things, to be honest. I know we’re all flawed, but if so then this should have been more realistic overall and less like a fairytale. I felt flickers of emotion and warmth towards the couple, and I am happy with how it ended, but in the end I could have probably put this book down and never picked it back up again. It was predictable, and I just didn’t feel invested in the story.

“Or even without that. Just to know that she’s somewhere out there. Alive.”

Having said all this, I did enjoy reading this book. It’s quick to read and heartfelt from both characters. I did connect and feel emotion for them in parts, but overall I just felt…mediocre.

★★★
2.5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review9 Comments

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Feyre, Rhys, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. 
Yet even the festive atmosphere can’t keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated–scars that will have far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought. Because I’ve heard it’s a lot like fanfic, and I thought it might disappoint me because of it. In a way, I ended up loving it even more. Because this book is like Maas’ own love letter for the world she created. It’s like a fanfic for herself, and I’m sorry but how damn cool is that?

“Stars flickered around us, sweet darkness sweeping in.”

I relished this book, because I absolutely adore the world Maas made, and she made sure to show it off with this book. I felt like she took the time to really show us how Velaris looked to her, and I loved that. The winter scenes felt truly magical and so vibrant, I couldn’t stop reading about the beautiful swirling snowstorms.

I also love how this book didn’t rush. The whole thing was about the solstice and their beautiful family. Having the slightly different POV helped me understand their inner dynamics and I’m sure its something I’m going to take into the rest of the series. Also, the solstice really gave me a Christmassy festive feel which was so heartwarming!

“As if we were the only souls in a galaxy.”

The only slight issue I had was the weird sex scene at the end, in which Feyre shows Rhys their future son, and he…um..enjoyed it a little too much for my liking. If you sit back and think about that scene, it really creeped me the hell out.

But for the whole book to only have that one little setback for me, I still have to say I’m going to give it 5 stars!

★★★★★
5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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