Review// Roomies by Christina Lauren

Author: Christina Lauren
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: December 5, 2017
Book Length: 368 pages 
Publisher: Gallery Books
Review: 3/5

Goodreads Synopsis:

Marriages of convenience are so…inconvenient.

For months Holland Bakker has invented excuses to descend into the subway station near her apartment, drawn to the captivating music performed by her street musician crush. Lacking the nerve to actually talk to the gorgeous stranger, fate steps in one night in the form of a drunken attacker. Calvin Mcloughlin rescues her, but quickly disappears when the police start asking questions.

Using the only resource she has to pay the brilliant musician back, Holland gets Calvin an audition with her uncle, Broadway’s hottest musical director. When the tryout goes better than even Holland could have imagined, Calvin is set for a great entry into Broadway—until his reason for disappearing earlier becomes clear: he’s in the country illegally, his student visa having expired years ago.

Seeing that her uncle needs Calvin as much as Calvin needs him, a wild idea takes hold of her. Impulsively, she marries the Irishman, her infatuation a secret only to him. As their relationship evolves and Calvin becomes the darling of Broadway—in the middle of the theatrics and the acting-not-acting—will Holland and Calvin to realize that they both stopped pretending a long time ago?

My Review:

This book sounded so great to me from the synopsis, and although I liked it, I didn’t love it, and I’m a little sad about that.

I liked the idea of the plot so much, but I think it fell short for me. As soon as I figured out that a musician was the heartthrob of this story, I was instantly sold. However, I wasn’t exactly sold on Calvin and Holland’s relationship.  I could tell the author was trying to make them click as the book progressed and they actually got to know each other after the marriage, but I never felt the spark. There were times I liked Holland and found her relatable, but other times when she was acting so immature that I couldn’t stand her – the same goes for Calvin. Maybe they were meant to be after all because they were both annoying and childish 🤷🏻‍♀️

I picked this up partly because of the synopsis and partly because Autoboyography by Christina Lauren was one of my favourites, but in this case, I just wish I liked the characters more. Regardless, I would definitely consider reading more Christina Lauren books and am glad I read this as it had been on my radar for months.

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Review// Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: March 5, 2019
Book Length: 368 pages 
Publisher: Hutchinson
Review: 5/5

Goodreads Synopsis:

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

My Review:

“To be honest, I thought Daisy’d get tired of trying to write an album pretty quickly. I underestimated her. Let me tell you this. Don’t ever doubt Daisy Jones” 

I had a feeling I would fall in love with Daisy Jones just as I had fallen in love with Evelyn Hugo and guess what – I was right. Badass takes-no-bullshit female protagonist? Check. Rock band? Check. Characters that felt so real, I wish they existed? Check. This book was practically made for me. What I didn’t anticipate though was falling in love with The Six and all the other characters too. I am going to miss Camila, Karen, Graham, and yes, even Billy. As I was reading, I was kind of getting A Star is Born vibes, so if you liked that movie, there is a good chance you will appreciate this book. It took me by the hand and brought me back to the 1970s – an era I have never lived through but feel like I have experienced in some small way because of Daisy Jones.

The book is written in an interview-style format, which I wasn’t sure I was going to like, but I thought it worked well for the subject matter. I think it’s hard to write a whole novel in this style and still have it flow, but TJR did an excellent job. However, if there is one thing I disliked, it would be that the ending felt a little rushed. As quickly as Daisy Jones and The Six rose to fame is as quickly as it felt like falling action took place – a little bit too quickly in my opinion. I loved the book as a whole, I just wish there had been a bit more time taken in ending it off less abruptly.

I heard that there is going to be a TV series out based on this book, and I am really excited to see it all come to life – I’d love to be able to search Spotify for the Aurora album and listen to all the songs whose lyrics read so poetic and emotional. This was an excellent book and one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

– Catherine

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Review// The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Series: The Kingkiller Chronicle #1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Book Length: 662 pages 
Publisher: Penguin Group
Review: 5/5

Goodreads Synopsis

Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet’s hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.

My Review:

An absolute adventure from start to finish. If you are into fantasy and haven’t read this book, you need to!

The writing was beautiful – poetic, even. If you are a fan of world building, you will definitely enjoy this book; Rothfuss did an excellent job in that regard. The characters all had so much personality and dimension, making you fall in love with even the most secondary ones. I loved all the scenes with Kvothe and Deanna, Sim and Will, and Auri the most, although there was something to be said in every chapter that held my interest. The book is basically a story being told within the story, and I liked that it took the time to go back and forth from past to present a few times as it really set the tone.

The only thing I dislike is that I didn’t get enough; I needed more because now I have so many questions! Unfortunately the series is not currently finished, and I’m unsure if the author will be finishing it, but regardless, I can not wait to pick up the next book.

– Catherine

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Review// Darling by Rachel Edwards

 

Author: Rachel Edwards
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: February 7, 2019
Book Length: 352 pages 
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Review: 2.5/5

If it weren’t for this being my book club book this month, I don’t know if I would have finished it. Not going to lie though, sticking it out to see what ridiculousness was going to happen next for me to roll my eyes from here to Mars about was worth it.

Let me start off explaining a little bit about what this was about: Darling, a middle-aged single mother of 6-year-old Stevie, meets Thomas, the single father of a 16-year-old Lola, at the grocery store. Flash forward a few months, and these 4 become one ‘happy’ family. Except, this is no Brady Bunch – Thomas’ teenage daughter, Lola, isn’t too keen on having a step mother; can you blame her? Well, surprisingly, you totally can, because Lola is a nutcase. These two ladies are at war; can they both make it out alive?

First off – the positives:

• A biracial couple as the main characters! – I have said this before, but I have wanted to read more of that. Was it done well? No comment (yet).
• The alternating narrators between Darling and Lola – the writing wasn’t the best, but I liked how we got both perspectives.
• The mystery – a lot of the book eludes to Darling having a negative past, and all of the speculation made me want to continue reading to find out what that was.
• The plot twist – I was surprised, and it added half a star to my overall rating.

Now for the negatives:

• Many. Extreme. Scenarios. – Think of any scenario, and this book probably had it. It just felt like the author kept adding random events for shock value, but I didn’t feel shocked because there were far too many [Pregnancy; Bulimia; Sex Tapes; Murder; Incest; Pedophilia; Affairs, etc].
• Zero spark between the love interests – I don’t even know what to say to further explain myself on this. It just is what it is; they didn’t really seem like a couple.
• Lola – Yikes. Do not get me started on the writing in her chapters. “And I was like, I hope Will doesn’t get with Emma lol like seriously I’m soo much prettier #hatethatbitch #hesmine.” That’s not even a real quote, but all of her chapters sounded exactly like that. It felt like the author was trying to sound too much like a teenage girl. As a former teenage girl, I can assure you we don’t sound like that. Note to authors out there writing teenage characters: #DONTRYSOHARD.
• Darling – I know the book is named after her, but I couldn’t care less about her chapters. Lola’s were annoying, but Darling’s were mostly boring.

I thought that this could be so much better, because the plot doesn’t sound that bad; I think that the execution was lacking though. In addition, characters can make or break a book for me and because I didn’t particularly care for either of the main ones, this felt sort of like a chore to read. This wasn’t the worst book ever, but just not for me.

– Catherine

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The Television Tag!

Hello! Okay so I don’t normally talk about this on my blog, but I thought it would be fun to do something different. This tag was adapted to blogs by Sam @ Fictionally Sam and I was tagged by one of my favourite people, Kelly, over @ Struggling Bookaholic to participate in it! So thank you to both of them, you should definitely check out the content over on their blogs as well 🙂

1. Favorite shows?

Alright, I’m going to be super basic with this right off the bat and say that Friends is definitely up there. Watching it just feels like being rolled up in a blanket burrito in bed – comforting, warm, and really stupidly funny. Some other shows I love are How I Met Your Mother, Queer Eye, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Black Mirror, Nailed It, This is Us, and How to Get Away with Murder.

 

2. Favorite genre?

I like sitcoms a lot! I really enjoy following a story-line and becoming attached to characters and how they develop as the seasons progress. I also really like drama – especially if it has a criminal or sci-fi theme to it.

3. Least favorite show?

I can’t even think of what my least favourite show is. If I’m not feeling something, I usually stop watching it before it has a chance to develop into something I hate. I kind of just allow myself to become indifferent to it, which is probably why I can’t think of any examples right now.

4. Most re-watched show/favorite show to binge watch?

Although I haven’t re-watched it the whole way through chronologically more than once, I like watching random episodes of Friends. My favourite shows to binge watch though are usually reality shows like Are You the One? or RuPaul’s Drag Race – something where each season is its own separate thing that’s super light and entertaining where I don’t have to focus too much.

5. Do you prefer watching things week-by-week or binge-watching?

Binge watching for sure because watching an episode week-by-week sometimes starts to feel like a chore and I stress myself out thinking about having to watch it in time for the following week. I would rather watch TV at my leisure

6. Favorite television characters?

Monica and Chandler from Friends; Barney from How I Met Your Mother; Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder; Will from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

7. Favorite television ships?

Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother; Jesse and Becky from Full House; Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World and others that I can’t say because I think they would be spoilers for people if they are currently/decided to watch those shows.

8. Show you could never get into?

There was a lot of hype around this show at the time that I tried getting into it, but I could never get into Suits. I don’t even remember there being anything wrong with it, I just remember having very little interest in continuing after a few episodes so I never watched again.

9. Show you fell out of love with?

I wouldn’t say I fell out of love with it because if I picked it back up again, I know I would enjoy it, but my answer for this one is Nashville. At the time, I knew that some very serious plot moves were on the horizon that I didn’t want to see happen, so I stalled for as long as I could until I eventually stopped watching altogether (oops), but I would still recommend it as an awesome drama.

10. Cancelled too soon?

Thankfully I’ve never really had a problem with this because most of the shows I get into have been around for a while prior and have a foreseeable closure.

11. Guilty pleasure show?

Nailed It has been a guilty pleasure show for a while. It’s about amateur bakers trying to replicate really intricate desserts and it is hilarious!

12. What are you currently watching?

Right now I am watching Queer Eye, slowly making my way through Season 3 through a film of tears.

I’m not going to tag anyone because I just wanted to do it for fun, but if you do want to participate feel free to ping back my post so I can check your answers out!

– Catherine

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