Transitive Verve

A biromantic ace protagonist who is also a black woman, with a Japanese-American male opposite. This book was soooo good, and actually, took on a whole lot of education and emotional labor. If you've never understood what being asexual means, I feel like this had a lot of good explanations. (I say this as someone who doesn't quite feel like I am ace, but I'm at the lowest of the low end of the spectrum of asexuality. In fact, this book really helped me figure out a lot of things.) I started reading it because I wasn't sure how it would go, a romance novel where the main character is primarily uninterested in sex (because isn't that a big part of the allure of romance novels?), but what I got was so much more than that. It wasn't just about romance, but about communication---there are a whole lot of communication issues in this book, mainly because Alice is trying to figure herself out (and how can you communicate your needs and wants when you're not quite su...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Synopsis (provided by publisher): Sex isn’t love. Love isn’t sex. And friendship is neither. The son of a French Olympic skier and a Malaysian fashion designer, Ronin Alexander has lived the life of a nomad, traveling the world to find his next adventure. Life takes a dramatic turn when he meets Evelyn, a beautiful scientist who owns a bath shop in Aspen, Colorado. They defy all the rules of relationships, falling hard and quickly in love. Their world intertwines with Evelyn’s two best friends, the Governor and his soon-to-be wife. The four become close—very close. When tragedy strikes, things from their pasts are unveiled—unimaginable truths ...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Synopsis (provided by publisher) : Dr. Elijah Hawkins needs … something. After his wife jumps headfirst into a midlife crisis, he’s left with his young son, Roman, and a lot of unanswered questions. That something turns out to be a someone—Dorothy Mayhem, nursing student, patient transporter, reckless driver, and emu owner. Dorothy studies humans, the neurotypical kind, through books and television. Then she emulates their behavioral patterns to fit in with her peers. But nothing can prepare her for Dr. Elijah Hawkins. Single dad. Brilliant pediatric oncologist. And the sexiest doctor at the hospital. When his failed attempts at aski...

Hi there! I realized it's been a while since I posted--the new school year has started, and things are busy, busy busy! I've been reading, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and write some in-depth reviews, but I thought I'd share with you what I've read since my last post, as well as some quick thoughts: The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Quick summary: A year after they broke up, Ella and Matt reunite. Matt is not over Ella, and Ella wants to be over Matt. As they relive the magical night that they first got together, Ella tries to figure out whether getting back together would be worth it. Quick review: This was a really cute story! If you're into realistic YA romance (realistic as in, not fantasy or scifi or supernatural), then you'll like this one!   Lifel1k3 and Dev1at3 by Jay Kristoff Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!) for both Quick summary:  Eve lives among the ...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Synopsis   ( provided by publisher) : A hit-and-run accident leaves Jersey Six orphaned and homeless on the streets of Newark, shattering her dreams of school dances, pink nail polish, and a diploma. Eight years later, a burn victim with amnesia wanders into Jersey’s barely-existent life. She resists his efforts to form a friendship until he reveals knowledge of the person responsible for derailing her future. Through their unusual friendship, she discovers a way to avenge the deaths of her foster parents. All she has to do is destroy the world’s biggest rock star. In the ultimate game of sex, lies, and manipulation, can Jersey discover t...

This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Synopsis (provided by publisher): Lights, camera—all Maeve needs is action. But at eighteen, a rare form of muscular dystrophy usually stands in the way of romance. She's got her friends, her humor, and a passion for filmmaking to keep her focus off consistent rejection...and the hot older guy starring in her senior film project. Tall, bearded, and always swaying, Cole Stone is everything Maeve can't be. And she likes it. Between takes, their chemistry is shockingly electric. Suddenly Maeve gets a taste of typical teenage dating life, but girls in wheelchairs don’t get the hot guy—right? Cole’s attention challenges everything she once believed about her self-image and hopes for love. But figuring this out, both emotionally and physically, won't be easy for either of them. Maeve must choose between what she needs and what she wan...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:  This is the fourth book of the Raven Cycle series. This review will contain spoilers for the earlier books. Here are my reviews for The Raven Boys , The Dream Thieves , and Blue Lily, Lily Blue . One favor. Whoever awakens the Raven King will be granted one favor. And while saving the life of the one among them who was predicted to die sounds like the pretty obvious choice, the arrival of more sinister entities in Henrietta brings with it some complications. Meanwhile, something is causing the trees in Cabeswater to die, and Blue, Gansey, and the rest of the boys need to figure out what to do before they run out of time completely.

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: This is the third book of the Raven Cycle  series. This review will contain spoilers for the earlier books. Here are my reviews for The Raven Boys  and The Dream Thieves . Blue Sargent has gained a new family in her Raven Boys, but now she has lost family as well: her mother, Maura, has disappeared into the caves of Cabeswater as the new school year starts, and Blue doesn't know what to do with herself. In addition, a new teacher has shown up at Aglionby Academy with a deadly agenda.

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:   The Dream Thieves  is book 2 of The Raven Cycle , and will contain spoilers for the first book of the series, The Raven Boys . For my review of The Raven Boys , please click here . Ronan Lynch, dark and dangerous, has a secret. His secret is that he can bring things back from dreams and make them real. But he's not the only one with secrets. And he's not the only one with this particular secret. As hit men and bounty hunters converge on Henrietta to find the Greywaren (the object that can bring things back from dreams), Ronan is being both hunted and haunted by his ability.  In the meantime, Gansey continues his quest to find Glendower, the lost Welsh king. But his friendship with the others grows complicated, as Ronan dives deeper into his ability and his family history, Adam learns what it truly means to be the one who has awakened the ley line, and Blue learns that there is no fighting the psychic ...

Thoughts at glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: This book is the sequel to Strange the Dreamer , and this review will contain spoilers for that book. Click here for my review of Strange the Dreamer . When human interference leads to mass destruction in Weep, Lazlo finds himself suddenly blue-skinned, the long-lost son of Skathis, the brutal god who could bend Mesarthium to his will and raped countless generations of human women to sire godspawn. Sarai, the godspawn daughter of the goddess of despair and the legendary god killer, Eril-Fane, finds herself now a ghost, and at the whim of Minya, who has the power to control ghosts and is hell-bent on taking vengeance on Eril-Fane as well as the rest of humankind. If Lazlo does not do what Minya asks, she will let go of Sarai's soul, letting it evanesce into oblivion. But in the midst of their battle with Minya, a larger threat looms, with its own score to settle when it finds the seraph-shaped citadel, as well as the lar...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: (as provided by the publisher) What happens when a high-heeled diva goes camping with her sister’s dog?  Avery Montgomery, fashionista and preacher’s daughter, needs a ride from Milwaukee to Los Angeles.  “Make my death quick, and please don’t tie me up. I’m claustrophobic.”   Jake Matthews, diva-hater, agrees to let her tag along on his annual but primitive trek to the West Coast.  “Okay, Princess, I’ll take you to L.A., but your crown won’t make it there in one piece.”  She’s desperate and out of options. He’s ruthless and out of patience.   Don’t miss this sexy, hilarious, and heart-warming...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: Many of us get the feeling that we were meant for something more. Something special . In real life, that doesn't always end up happening, but in this book, Lazlo Strange, who is born a no-name orphan and ends up the errand boy at the prestigious Library of Zosma, finds himself taken along on a journey that only dreams are made of: to figure out the mysteries of a long-lost city called Weep. Summoned by the famous Eril-Fane, christened Godslayer after he rose up against the gods that kept the humans of Weep in slavery, a caravan of warriors, thinkers, tinkerers, and Lazlo head to Weep in order to solve a problem that has long kept Weep isolated across the vast desert. And in the meantime, the long-forgotten children of the humans and the slain gods plan their revenge.

Thoughts at a glance:  **** (I really liked it) Summary:  Zuri Benitez is watching the world change around her. Having grown up her whole life in Bushwick (in Brooklyn), Zuri is seeing her neighborhood slowly being gentrified; her older sister Janae, who is back after her first year of college, is also different; and Zuri herself is getting ready to finish high school as well. That summer, though, when the Darcy family moves in across the street into the most expensive house on the block, they experience the biggest change of all as Janae takes a sudden interest in friendly elder son Ainsley, and Zuri finds herself constantly in the presence of snobby, judgmental Darius... ... and if you're at all familiar with the story of Pride and Prejudice , you can probably guess how this will go...

While my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it!) Summary : After the sudden death of her father, Annie Daschle, her mother, and her two sisters find themselves having to move in with estranged family in New York. Annie, who is 18 and who has spent her life in a small Texas town being extra  sheltered due to a congenital heart defect, is ready to make the most of their new life and is armed with her dad's old camera and a list of ways she wants to live out loud . Starting with, getting a job for the first time ever. And then she literally runs into one of the managers at bookshop/bar, Wasted Words. Greg Brandon, who never really notices any women, finds himself inexplicably drawn to Annie's sunshine and passion-filled approach to life. However, Annie's heart has always had a mind of its o...

It's been a while since my last review. I had a lot of personal things going on these last couple of months (which is a story for my personal blog, and not this one), so I haven't felt motivated to get lost in fictional drama when I've had a lot of real drama to deal with :/ I WILL be getting back into the swing of things and making up for lost time, but for now, I'm going to share a review that I posted back in January on Goodreads, but for some reason didn't put on my blog. The reason why I'm bothering to repost it here is because I had already reviewed another book from this series on my blog (it's a romance series, which means that each book is a standalone, but they feature commonalities/are related), and I'm about to start the most recent one, so I want all the reviews to show up here as well :) While my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and ...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary:  This is a large, photo-filled, coffee-table book about the musical Hamilton , which (in case you have no exposure to pop culture whatsoever [in which case, how'd you find my obscure little blog???]) is a hip hop musical about Alexander Hamilton. Thoughts:  While I do actually own a physical copy of this book (which is awesome, by the way), I chose to listen to this as an audiobook. The book itself consists mainly of the full libretto of the musical (with annotations from LMM himself about the various lyrics and musical lines, etc.), with short "behind the scenes" chapters interspersed throughout, lining up chronologically with the songs at times, and discussing the history of the musical itself from all different angles: the writing, the development, the choreography, everything. The audiobook gives you all the chapters first, with an introduction from co-writer Jeremy McCarter (as in, he wrote the chapter p...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) This is officially designated book 3.1 of the ACOTAR series, meaning that it's not a full novel, but it is a follow-up to the third book. It's kind of a sequel--an epilogue, really--that sets up the spinoff novels that will come out in the future. This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in the series. For those reviews, please see below: Book 1: A Court of Thorns and Roses Book 2: A Court of Mist and Fury Book 3: A Court of Wings and Ruin Summary: Hybern has been defeated, and for now, Prythian is trying to put itself back together and maintain the peace that they fought so hard for. For Feyre, now back with her beloved Rhys and their Night Court, it means settling into her duties as the High Lady. This includes not just the typical responsibilities to their people and their kingdom, but also sorting out the aftermath of everything they just went through (losing her father, nearly losing Rhys), helping ...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: Penny Lee doesn't really feel like she belongs anywhere or with anyone (especially not her oblivious, dresses-too-young mother), and when she heads off to college, the last thing she expects to find is a friend in the form of hot coffee-shop Sam. Sam, who is amazing at baking and trying to put himself through film school, has a bunch of troubles of his own, and when he basically lands himself in the hospital, Penny happens to be there to help him. They swap phone numbers, promising to be each others' emergency contacts. Thus begins a story of two people reaching out to each other, who previously didn't have anyone to reach out to before. As they each navigate their individual lives, Penny and Sam find that they need each other for far more than just emergencies.

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: Blue Sargent, daughter of a psychic, has been told all her life that whoever her true love is, he will die. Thus, she has decided that it would probably be in her best interest to avoid boys in any capacity, and most especially, the rich, douchey ones who attend the nearby prep school, Aglionby. But on this particular St. Mark's Eve, watching for the spirits of the soon-to-be-deceased, Blue sees the spirit of one particular Aglionby boy named Gansey. Blue, who has no psychic power herself, has never been able to see any of the spirits before, and the fact that she saw his carries significance, and not just because he's going to die within the next year. Blue suddenly finds herself caught up with (the real, alive) Gansey, and he and his friends' desperate search for proof of ley lines and a long-lost Welsh king of legend. But as their search awakens magical forces beyond their control, old secrets and dangers al...

Disclaimers: while my blog post itself does not contain any sexual content, this book does. This is a review for a book that is meant for mature audiences, and therefore is unsuitable for minors. This book was provided to me for free by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary : (as provided by the publisher ) Flint Hopkins finds the perfect tenant to rent the space above his Minneapolis-based law office. All the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted on Ellen’s application. Her references are good. And she’s easy on the eyes. Until … Flint discovers Ellen Rodgers, Board-Certified Music Therapist, plays music. Bongos, guitars, singing—not Beethoven administered through noise-cancelling headphones. The cut-throat attorney serves up an eviction notice to the bubbly, constantly humming redhead who's too sexy for her own good. But luck is on Ellen’s side when Flint’s autistic son, Harrison, takes an instant liking to h...