Whisper Of Reviews // sprinkling the salt, disappointments, but some rare gems.

So honestly I have a lot of books I need to review SO LET’S GO AND DO IT AND JUST REVIEW THEM OKAY.

there’s not much to say except there are no themes for these books, they are just?? books i want to review and talk to you about!!

The Epic Crush Of Genie Lo by F.C Yee

1. well, that was the most freaking boring and confusing crap I’ve read in a while.
2. i was SOOO EXCITED FOR THIS BOOK BC CHINESE MYTHOLOGY!! IN A FANTASY NOVEL!!!
3. this book is horribly downright boring
4. i mean, how does anyone enjoy this? like, i couldn’t care less about the mythology stories i don’t know, the stories were kind of dumped on me and i just skimmed them because they just didn’t grab my attention…
5. genie is so annoying. she literally gets pissed of for nothing. her first reaction to everything is to punch someone in the face OR she screams “shut up! shut up! shut up!”
6. OH AND QUENTIN. i know 0 about apart from that HE IS  SOOOOOOO GOOD LOOKING.
7. the writing is so awkward guys. soooo awkward. the author tries to pull some realistic crap by putting “ughhhhh” in there and it just made everything seem tacky.
8. i actually don’t give one crap about the plot. they have to fight daemons? cool, can you give me something more?
9. every character was just a name to me
10. scenes felt so random, chapters felt unfinished, . overall didn’t enjoy.

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thank you to Abraham books for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest. 

A Taxonomy of Love by Rachel Allen

Read my full review here.

• Can you hear those vague squeals from the other end of the world? THAT ME
• I actually liked…a CUTE CONTEMPORARY WHO AM I??
• This is about a boy with Tourettes called Spencer who loves insects and animals and helping everyone out and is so dorky and smol and ruins so much yet you still love him.
• I LOVE HOPE SHE’S SO FREAKING BAD-ASS AND DOESN’T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. (Did I mention she reads Laini Taylor’s books?)
  
• ALSO SISTERS!! IN BOOKS!! Jamie and Hope have such a realistic sibling relationship, I LOVE!! They do everything together and squeal and talk and have sibling fights and tell each other everything and just #GOALS.
• That cover which is just darn gorgeous.
• the way it handled grief so well and at the same time funny and swoony. Perfect balance.
• And I want friends like Spencer’s because they watch movies together and watch the stars and I am jealous okay?
• basically, it’s not ‘ASDFGHJKL’ it’s ‘asdfghjkl’ my feelings right now are just hey can i coddle this book?
• SO CUTE. READ IT. CUTE. NESS.

thank you to Abraham books for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest. 

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Saints and Misfits by S.K Ali

Read my review here

• I didn’t like it. (even tho the author personally sent me a signed copy)
• THE BOOK HAS NO ACTUAL LITERAL POINT. Most of it is Janna going COMPLETELY crazy over forehead boy (Jeremy). Anyways, that is the only thing our character thinks about and WOW, it’s SO boring listening to her ramble about him and his forehead!! AND THE ROMANCE HAS NO CONCLUSION.
• Things happen and are never mentioned again! I don’t even know who half the characters are and where they came from. I don’t understand the point of literally anything in this book WHAT IM SO CONFUSED.
• I had problems with the whole sexual assault thing too. Janna stands up to Faruq, who has sexually assaulted her, and calls him an “oozing slime fest”. HONESTLY?  This whole scene seemed so ridiculous and crazy and it seemed like sexual assault was being made fun of.   Everything about this scene was eye-roll worthy and unrealistic.
• Janna was A N N O Y I N G. In fact, I don’t think I liked ONE CHARACTER IN THIS BOOK.
• Janna also judges a friend when she finds out the friend has only just started wearing the hijab.  LIKE YOU HATE PEOPLE FOR HAVING EXPECTATIONS FOR YOU AS A MUSLIM GIRL AND YET YOU HAVE SO MANY YOURSELF!! hypocrite or what.
• BORING
• but i love the cover!! muslim hijab teen!! pretty!!

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thank you to the author for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest.

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Blake

Read my review here

• I WAS SO EXCITED FOR THIS BOOK BC EVERYONE RATED IT FIVE STARS
• i just don’t get how i didn’t like this?? and i am so sad and disappointed. 😦
• i’m not taking away from the rawness and empowering and important messages of this book. in fact, i appreciated this book tackled rape and feminism. but i finished this book just feeling very…hollow. the book had no impact on me. at. all.
  
• i think the problem with girl made of stars is that it had too much emotion for me that i just became numb.  every scene is hard-hitting, powerful, despairing, full of anguish and pain. i need some sort of balance. if everything is so emotional and heartbreaking, i’m not going to feel anything.
  
• i’m NOT saying there’s anything wrong with the book being really heavy. personally, though, i couldn’t attach myself to the story. everyone and everything felt broken and sad and drab to the point where there was no point??
  
• the writing was wonderful, it was raw and beautiful and it didn’t shy away from the truth.
• i didn’t really enjoy this book. i felt nothing. i felt the book was just one big message and there was nothing behind it. i was kind of just reading, waiting for something to hit me, waiting for something to happen but nothing ever…GOT me.
• lots of good discussions about music and feminism and consent and rape and sexual assault, amazing!!

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thank you to HMH teen for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest. 

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

• I really enjoyed this book and hardly found myself bored. I heard this book was about fairytales and so that was exciting!!
• I loved learning about The Hazel Wood, SO MUCH FUN!! however, I think I enjoyed the normal-real-life scenes better. I feel like we got SO SUCKED into the Hinterland, when we came out of it, I just felt so muddled
• So the idea of the Hinterland was good but we were thrust into it and I felt so overwhelmed. It was dark and creepy and good but I’m just so not sure about a lot of things.
• Really good, but I left the book feeling SO DRAINED HONESTLY.
• There’s no romance but small hints at one to be honest? Like the author sets one up but nothing ever happens. The ending was SAAAAAD for me, I was so sad dude.
• The plot twist was…meh I guessed it. Wish it was a LITTLE LESS PREDICTABLE
• Also, a messy scene where Alice is arguing with the police and then Finch tries to tell her that’s she so privileged as a white person because if it was him, he would be screwed but she ignores him :///

🌟🌟🌟.5

thank you to penguin random house for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest. 

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christio

• This book has 1) a pretty cover 2) hate-to-love romance and 3) evil sirens who seduce boys and kill them with their voices.
  
• We have Lira, a siren, daughter of the Sea Queen, who disobeys her mother and as a punishment, she is turned into a human!! She can only turn BACK into a siren if she steals Prince Elian’s heart.
• This is where Prince Elian of Midas comes in. He rescues Lira from the bottom of the ocean and takes her on board the ship. But he’s a siren hunter.
• Elian is a sweet cinnamon roll, he wants to appear all brave and such but he’s really just soft and polite on the inside. SOFT. PIRATES. Ahhhhhhh. Elian also has amazing friends. I mean, TORIK WAS HILARIOUS I’M HOWLING!!
• Lira was a very cut-throat and kick-ass and I LIKED THAT. She kind of reminded me of Lila Bard from A Darker Shade of Magic and as you can tell, I LOVE GIRL PIRATES SERIOUSLY GIMME ALL OF THEM PLEASE AND THANKS.
• Ohhh it was a good romance BECAUSE hate-to-love WHICH IS ONE OF MY FAVE TROPES EVER!!! I really Liked Lira and Elian as friends and then I wasn’t really shipping the romance?!! Also it took over so much towards the end.
• OKAY BUT EVIL SIRENS AND HATE TO LOVE ROMANCE AND BLOOD AND MURDER AND GORE AND THE OCEAN AND PIRATES AND HEARTS AND BETRAYAL?!?! Of course, I loved it. 1000% my type of book!!!

thank you to hot key books for providing me with a review copy. my review remains honest. 

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Have you read any of these books and what did you think of them? What’s a recent read that was disappointing? Do you like fluffy contemporaries? AND THE UK HAZELWOOD COVER IS UGLY, right? tell me what you’ve been reading