“They say there’s a fine line between love and hate. But I don’t think there’s a line at all. They’re the same thing. What we love we hate for loving. What makes us more vulnerable than love? What hurts so much? It’s a tightrope that we walk. Wavering from one side to the other. Desperate to keep our balance. But sometimes you can’t. Sometimes it tips and there’s nothing you can do.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: creeps, cigarettes, scars, coffee, vodka, diaries, cemeteries, anoraks, keys, tiaras, elephant plushies, wedding dresses, birthday surprises and missing pens. 



Samuel, the day we met I knew I’d finally found what I’ve been waiting for.

You.

Happiness, at last.

Then you left me.

And now I am alone.

Everyone I love leaves in the end.

But not this time.

I’m not giving up on us.

I’m not giving up on you.

When you love someone, you never let them go.

That’s why for me, this is just beginning.

For a debut novel, I have to say I’m very impressed. The plot was really good and the story was very well written. It was really interesting to see a life from the point of view of someone who has a strong obsession for someone else and the extreme the situations they put themselves to.

I think the only two reasons why I didn’t rate this higher was because of the pacing of the story and the main character. Regarding the pacing, I have an unpopular opinion. The book felt a bit monotonous. I felt like the story didn’t develop a lot throughout the pages, it was a lot of the same things. The only part that was really surprising to me was the ending. I was really shocked and I would have never predicted the story ended that way.

Now our main character, Constance. Well, Constance wasn’t my favorite main character. To be completely fair, I know she’s supposed to be crazy and obsessed – because that’s the whole point of the book -, but even feeling the smallest empathy for her, I just couldn’t connect to her as a character. There were so many times I thought “Girl… you need to get a hobby. Like, a real one.” It was so frustrating to see her making decisions! But I applaud the author for that. It’s a good book if you have strong feelings for it… it means it did its job!

Friendly reminder: this is only my point of view on the book and from what I saw, it’s an unpopular opinion. There were a LOT of people who loved this book that don’t share the same opinion as me, so I would still recommend checking it out!

xoxo,

“The thing is, girls can tell. There’s a little voice in our heads that says get out, get out, but men spend years telling us to ignore it. To tell ourselves we’re wrong.” – 4.25/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: diary entries, cheer practice, rivers, scholarships, interviews, wigs, big coats, videos, gunshots, championships, drugs and a lot of secrets.



The troublemaker. The overachiever. The cheer captain. The dead girl.

Like every high school in America, Jefferson-Lorne High contains all of the above.

After the shocking murder of senior Emma Baines, three of her classmates are at the top of the suspect list: Claude, the notorious partier; Avery, the head cheerleader; and Gwen, the would-be valedictorian.

Everyone has a label, whether they like it or not–and Emma was always known as a good girl. But appearances are never what they seem. And the truth behind what really happened to Emma may just be lying in plain sight. As long-buried secrets come to light, the clock is ticking to find Emma’s killer–before another good girl goes down.



Well, this book has A LOT going on… but my experience is very positive!

What I liked so much about this book was definitely the mystery. The plot is really well made and (in my humble opinion) the outcome of the story was not predictable. And that kept me interested the entire book. After finishing a chapter, I got more and more intrigued and I still couldn’t put my finger around what was going on.

Another thing I really liked about this book is the format. The book is composed of a mixture of interviews, “normal” chapters, reports, tweets, blog posts, etc. It really made the book even more interesting! There are also several points of view in this, but it’s made tastefully and you will not be confused by the characters.

I will say the only thing that didn’t make me rate this higher was the timeline. It was a bit confusing and sometimes I had a hard time trying to figure out if the story was in the past or present within the same chapter – especially in the last chapters. But to be honest, it didn’t bother me too much.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! For me it was the kind of mystery that I couldn’t figure out the truth until the very end, and that was really satisfying for me as a reader.The truth is: it’s a VERY heavy book, in a lot of ways. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the book deals with very serious matters that I personally wasn’t expecting to read. So here’s your warning: if you’re considering reading this book, please know there are major trigger warnings for sexual assault and substance abuse.

xoxo,

“Sometimes staying in the box we’ve made for ourselves is so easy. It’s comfortable and familiar in there. And a lot of times, the people around us want us to stay in there, too, because that’s how they’ve always known us: in that box. (…) But sometimes we start to change, grow, and the box begins to get small and cramped. And yet, we fight to stay inside because the walls are high and climbing out seems harder than staying.” – 4/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: Oreos, bears, bands, bows and arrows, moon circles, songwriting, mobile apps, slides, signs, festivals, popsicles, make-up wipes, fireworks, playlists, bingo nights, videos, followers, spilled coffee and no Wi-Fi.



After being betrayed by her best friend, Avery is hoping for a picture-perfect summer. Too bad her parents have dragged her and her sister to a remote family camp for the entire summer. And that’s not even the worst part. Avery also has to deal with no internet, a cute but off-limits staff member, and an always-in-her-face sister.

But what starts as a disaster turns into a whirlwind summer romance as Avery embarks on an unexpected journey to figure out what she truly wants and who she wants to be.



Another perfect summer book from the amazing Kasie West! I think this may be one of my favorite books from her newer releases (of the last couple of years).

I was really into the camping theme in this one, but I have to say it reminded me a lot of Camp Rock. I don’t know if it was the camp aspect, or the music/songwriting or the shy girl who can sing paired with the rockstar but… it was impossible not to remember the Disney movie. Not a bad thing, just interesting!

I liked the romance, it was cute! I think they had chemistry together but things developed very fast with their relationship. I wouldn’t consider it insta-love, but it all happened very quickly – well, the book is not that long, to be fair. I think they made a cute pair, though!

I also really liked how this book is not only about romance, but also about family bonds. It was nice to see how her relationship with her parents and her sister developed over the summer. It was obvious she didn’t have a very close relationship with her sister because there was a lot of miscommunication and lack of interest in each other’s lives, so it was very satisfying to see them fix their relationship throughout the book. It was definitely my favorite part of the book, to be honest.

If you love cute, fluffy contemporary young adult romances, you really need to check out Kasie West books. I always recommend her. I personally prefer her older books, but I would still recommend her newer ones… and this is one you should definitely try!

xoxo,

“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.” – 6/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: fishermans, white paint, sake, hair ornaments, gifts, obis, okiyas, elaborate hairdos, manners, jewelry, debt and beautiful gray eyes.

This story is a rare and utterly engaging experience. It tells the extraordinary story of a geisha – summoning up a quarter century from 1929 to the post-war years of Japan’s dramatic history, and opening a window into a half-hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation.

A young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. She tells her story many years later from the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Her memoirs conjure up the perfection and the ugliness of life behind rice-paper screens, where young girls learn the arts of geisha – dancing and singing, how to wind the kimono, how to walk and pour tea, and how to beguile the land’s most powerful men.

I don’t have enough good things to say about this book other than that it is absolutely beautiful and a new personal favorite. 

This historical novel published for the first time in 1997 by Arthur Golden is an absolute masterpiece! This book is about a very young girl from a small village in Japan who is taken from her parents to become a Geisha in Gion. It follows her life experiences and her path to becoming one of the greatest japanese Geishas of all time.

The author claims the story and the characters are entirely fictional, but the representation of japanese culture is incredible and you will learn a lot about the Geisha culture and traditions (the good and the bad).I think this would be a great book to pick if you love historical novels! I fell in love with this story and I think – I can’t believe I’m actually saying this – it’s probably my favorite book of all time.

xoxo,

“Look at someone every day for long enough and you stop seeing what everyone else sees. You start to see what no one else sees, what is kept hidden from most people.” – 3.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: rivers, creepy ladies, newborns, depression, folk tales, motherly love, CCTV footage, good police officers and a set of interesting twins.

After a traumatic birth, Lauren is alone on the maternity ward with her newborn twins. Her husband has gone home. The nurses are doing their rounds. She can’t stop thinking about every danger her babies now face. But all new mothers think like that. Don’t they?

A terrifying encounter in the middle of the night leaves Lauren convinced someone or something is trying to steal her children. But with every step she takes to keep her babies safe, Lauren sinks deeper and deeper into paranoia and fear. From the stark loneliness of returning home after birth, to the confines of a psychiatric unit, Lauren’s desperation increases as no one will listen to her. But here’s the question: is she mad, or does she know something we don’t?

Loosely inspired by the ghostly folktale The Brewery of Eggshells, where a mother becomes convinced her twins are in danger, Little Darlings offers a fresh perspective on modern motherhood, postnatal psychosis and the roles women play. It has always been thus: folk tales do not spring from whimsy; they warn us and teach us, and speak to the fear in us all.

After seeing this book everywhere on Instagram, I knew I had to pick it up! I honestly didn’t love it as much as I thought I would, but I still enjoyed it for what the story was. 

It’s not the kind of thriller that will keep you on the edge the entire time, but I admit there were some scenes there that made me shiver – especially with the things the twins did… yikes!

The writing is good and the pacing was okay. It’s an easy book to follow and there are not a lot of characters to keep up with. I really liked Lauren and the female officer – they were definitely my favorite characters. They were so strong and loving in their own individual way. And for some reason, I really didn’t like Lauren’s husband – well, I do know why, but you’ll have to read to know why I don’t like him!

One thing that really stood out for me from this story was the motherhood aspect. I think the author did an amazing job describing the feeling of love and protection over the babies. I don’t have kids of my own, but I could feel her love, pain and struggles as a new mother. I can only imagine how troubling it must be to read this thriller as a mother!

Overall, I liked it. I think maybe the popularity of the book gave me expectations that weren’t met in the end for me… but I did enjoy it.

xoxo,

“In life you face obstacles, and you have to fight through them. If you’re lucky enough, you find someone to fight for you, too. I was lucky.” – 4/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies, heritages, tree houses, family secrets, stolen kisses, elite families, broken homes, bad decisions, sweet grandmas, grief and love triangles.



In the follow-up to Abbi Glines’s #1 New York Times bestseller Until Friday Night—three teens from a small southern town are stuck in a dramatic love triangle.

Willa can’t erase the bad decisions of her past that led her down the path she’s on now. But she can fight for forgiveness from her family. And she can protect herself by refusing to let anyone else get close to her.

High school quarterback and town golden boy Brady used to be the best of friends with Willa—she even had a crush on him when they were kids. But that’s all changed now: her life choices have made her a different person from the girl he used to know.

Gunner used to be friends with Willa and Brady, too. He too is larger than life and a high school football star—not to mention that his family basically owns the town of Lawton. He loves his life, and doesn’t care about anyone except himself. But Willa is the exception—and he understands the girl she’s become in a way no one else can.

As secrets come to light and hearts are broken, these former childhood friends must face the truth about growing up and falling in love…even if it means losing each other forever.



Since I like this type of YA books, this was another good read for me. I usually go for more romantic books like the first book in this series, but I’m loving this series and how different the books are. 

The books in this series are companion novels, which means they are placed in the same universe but each book focuses on different individuals within the group of characters. This is one of my favorite formats because I like to see how different the characters are and how they all interact. It’s still a romance book, but not like the first one. This story is way more complex than the first one. Both main characters have a lot going on!

This book has a love triangle, which made it very interesting, but I’m thinking about how unnecessary it was. The story would have been perfectly fine without it.

I wish there was a more complete conclusion to the story. At least one more chapter or an epilogue to describe a bit better what happened in the end. But it honestly doesn’t bother me that much.

I’m loving revisiting these books! They are perfect for a binge reading session.

xoxo,

“Team first, always.” – 2.75/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: injuries, cupcakes, hockey sticks, hair dye, text messages, photographs, parties, varsity jerseys, cute bulldogs, sleepovers, practice and championships.

Tomorrow, the Wildcat varsity field hockey squad will play the first game of their new season. But at tonight’s team sleepover, the girls are all about forging the bonds of trust, loyalty, and friendship necessary to win.

Everything hinges on the midnight initiation ceremony—a beloved tradition and the only facet of being a Wildcat that the girls control. Until now.

Coach—a handsome former college player revered and feared in equal measure—changes the plan and spins his team on a new adventure. One where they take a rival team’s mascot for a joyride, crash a party in their pajamas, break into the high school for the perfect picture.

But as the girls slip out of their comfort zone, so do some long-held secrets. And just how far they’re willing to go for their team takes them all—especially Coach—by surprise.

A testament to the strength and resilience of modern teenage girls, We Are the Wildcats will have readers cheering.

I feel like this book could be really good, but I’m honestly a bit disappointed.

For starters, the concept for this book is a bit weird. This story is about a team of teenage hockey players that work together to fight their abusive coach. That sounded so specific, but I honestly didn’t care about that too much when I first picked it up because I love reading books about sports and team spirit.

When I first started reading this, I felt confused (and incredibly bored, but I’ll get to that in a minute). In this book we have six different points of view from six different girls on the team. The thing is, they are all teenage girls who play hockey, so it was really difficult to not mix them all up in the first half of the book. Sure, they all have different stories and backgrounds, but in the beginning you don’t know everyone that well, so that makes reading difficult for the first chapters. I personally think two or three points of view were more than enough – or even no points of view, just narrated in third person would work perfectly fine.

I really liked all the characters in this, especially all the girls in the team. It was really nice to see them supporting each other and their devotion to the team was very inspiring. Can’t complain about the characters, I was very happy with everyone!

A big thing that contributed to me not loving this book was the pacing. It’s so incredibly slow that I considered DNFing this five times. I get that the author was maybe trying to give some context about each girl’s life to the reader, but it was too much. Since there are so many points of view, she wrote a lot about each girl instead of focusing on the story, and unfortunately the first half to two thirds of the book, there is nothing interesting happening.

On a positive note, it does get a bit better. I’m glad I didn’t DNFed this book, because I got into the story after about halfway through the book.

Which brings me to the grand finale. I just started to feel invested in the story, and then you get THAT ending. I was so disappointed with the way the book ends. It just felt incomplete and I wish there was a continuation to the team’s final decision. I wish there were less pages about background story and more of actual story development.Overall I was a bit disappointed with this book. If you want to pick up a Siobhan Vivian book, I would recommend Stay Sweet from the same author. There is also a “team” of girls working together, but in a different setting… I personally liked that one better!

xoxo,