I love to read. I will read anything, but I prefer well-crafted romance books, so if you are looking for serious reviews on any other subject this is definitely not the article for you (though it doesn’t hurt to branch out!). These are my ratings of some of the books I’ve read recently.
The Ballad of Never After – Stephanie Garber
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Ballad of Never After is the second book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, arguably one of my favorite series ever. It follows seventeen year old Evangeline Fox (I love her), who on her quest for a fairytale ending, ends up spun up in the fantastical world of The Magnificent North. I adore the first book, but I believe this one is the best book in the series. I will recommend this series to anyone at any time, and I will never not rate this book anything less than the perfect five stars it deserves.
A Curse for True Love – Stephanie Garber
⭐⭐⭐
The final book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, I was ecstatic for this to come out on October 24. To say the least, I am disappointed. This is partly due to the fact that the second book is exceptional and would be very hard to top, but I also think it simply wasn’t written as well. I love Stephanie Garber, and I would never call one of her books bad, but this one certainly isn’t great either. The plot seems rushed, there are too many unanswered questions at the end, the resolution didn’t quite give the aspect of closure, and as the last book in the series, I was hoping it would. The series as a whole is certainly five stars, but this book doesn’t quite reach the magnificence of the others.
Iron Flame – Rebecca Yarrows
⭐⭐
I do not hate fantasy books (you could not get me to hate magic, ever), but if I did, Iron Flame would make the cut. For context, this is the second book in Yarrows’ first fantasy series, which she is preparing to complete with three more books in the upcoming years. The first book in the series, Fourth Wing, blew up on the internet. I agreed: it was good. It was fast paced, the characters were smart, and of course, there were dragons. The world wasn’t exceptionally well built, but it was her first fantasy book ever so I wasn’t expecting it to be. I really like it, so when she released Iron Flame on November 7th, I picked it up from the bookstore and read it. I am not a fan. First, it took me forever to finish. This is a bad sign. The book is 623 pages, and I can knock that out in a day if it’s good. It took me a week. Second, I hated the two main characters. For context, again, I am not a judgemental romance reader; I will read practically anything romance and have a good time. Iron Flame follows the couple established in the first book, and I loved them in the first book. Reading the second book felt like I met two whole new characters. The main male character turned jealous, secretive, and controlling while the main female character kept telling herself it was fine because she loved him. I was annoyed for the majority of the time I was reading. The characters argued immaturely and repeatedly over the same tiny thing, and I got sick of it pretty quickly. Lastly, if fast fashion applied to books, it would apply to Iron Flame. Yarrows had the book out 7 months after the original. Typos, grammar errors, plot holes, the writing just feels cheap. Thus, I give two stars: one star for the magic and one star for the dragons (I love dragons). I would not recommend this book, but I will try the next book in the series to see if it is any good, and then I may end up recommending the series as a whole.
The American Roommate Experiment – Elena Armas
⭐⭐⭐⭐
A spin off from The Spanish Love Deception, The American Roommate Experiment is one of my favorite rom coms to date. It’s so good! I started this book skeptical, because The Spanish Love Deception did not receive any love from me when I read it last year, but I was pleasantly surprised. The book follows struggling writer Rosie, who ends up in a questionable living situation with her best friend’s cousin, Lucas (Rosie’s best friend, Lina, is the protagonist of The Spanish Love Deception, hence the spin-off. Also note that I don’t dislike Lina, I just dislike her book). I loved both Rosie and Lucas and I’m glad I gave this book a chance. If you like romcoms, I recommend this one.
The Cheat Sheet – Sarah Adams
⭐
I hated it (and it is not fantasy, so the hatred is perfectly acceptable). I don’t know why it’s popular (and it is popular). Both main characters are irritating so I guess they’re a perfect match. The female main character is a ballerina and she’s in love with her best friend who’s on the NFL and shocker he’s actually in love with her too (the miscommunication is tiresome). It’s not even the fact it’s predictable that’s the problem. I read romcoms all the time and the characters always end up together, but this one was insufferable. I hated the main girl from her first chapter, but lucky for me, it’s dual POV, so I got to the boy’s chapter with hope and…I hated him too. I passionately disliked every second of reading this book, but I did finish it (there were maybe three characters to hold this book together), so it gets one full star for being completable.