RaveThe Nerd Daily... a steamy romcom that invokes the forced proximity/stuck together, accidental pregnancy, and there’s ‘only one bed’ tropes ... First off, I adored this book, especially Lizzie and Rake’s steamy chemistry, and it was more enjoyable than A Brush with Love ... It was great seeing how Lizzie and Rake’s feelings for each other grew throughout the book after being forced to spend lots of time together ... I appreciated the thoughtful inclusion of ADHD representation and the realistic way in which Eddings’ described neurodiversity /// There wasn’t much about this book to dislike but, even though it provided some funny moments, I found some of the descriptions of the erotic pastries to be a bit much. It also seemed as though there were some missed opportunities, such as it would have been heartwarming to have seen Lizzie’s parents finally come to accept, understand, and unconditionally love Lizzie flaws and all ... a steamy and funny rom com that I highly recommend picking up!
Laura Sebastian
PositiveThe Nerd DailyI found this book to be a bit confusing because it was constantly switching between the past, present, and future visions. It was frustrating because when Elaine is scrying the future, she is only seeing one of many possible outcomes; nothing is guaranteed and Elaine struggles to figure out how to obtain the future she covets. It was quite scary for me to read about all the ways that Elaine and her friends’ futures could go catastrophically wrong. Whilst this book was slow to start with, it got significantly better once it got going! First off, it was very interesting that Elaine was the main character instead of Arthur. It was also great to see how Elaine, Morgana, and Gwen were strong and powerful on their own and were constantly challenging the traditional expectations of women in Camelot Half Sick of Shadows had a little bit of everything, including action, adventure, quests, romance, royalty, friendship, magic, and so much more. Lastly, my favourite thing about this book was that I thought that the ending was totally fitting yet unexpected! Fans of retellings and Laura Sebastian’s other novels...are sure to love Half Sick of Shadows.
Emily Henry
PositiveThe Nerd Daily... a contemporary friends-to-lovers romance novel and would be of great interest to those who enjoy travelling. Considering that most of us are not able to travel right now due, this book is the perfect way to escape reality and take a mental vacation this year ... This was my first time reading a book by Emily Henry and it was really enjoyable! I was hooked right from the start because I wanted to know what happened on the Catalina trip that forced Poppy and Alex to stop talking for two years and whether Alex and Poppy became more than friends. It was great reading about all the previous trips that Poppy went on (with Alex as well as for her job as a travel writer) because they also sounded super cool. As mentioned, this book is a great way to escape, but it would also be an excellent summer read because of all the travelling ... The are a few minor negatives about this book including that it’s slow to start, but once Poppy and Alex got to Palm Springs, the action started to pick up and the book became more engaging. Then there’s the regular switching between past and present, which was a bit difficult to keep track of, and it was also frustrating having to wait until towards the end of the book for a flashback of what went wrong between Alex and Poppy during their Catalina trip ... an enjoyable read with a unique plot and quite the satisfying ending! It would be a great read for fans of Talia Hibbert, Jojo Moyes, or Robyn Carr, and this jet-setting novel would be perfect to read during summer while sitting by the beach or pool.
Everina Maxwell
MixedThe Nerd DailyEven though it was slow to start, Winter’s Orbit became an engrossing read ... I found that this book was easy to read but it was challenging for me to picture the world of Iskat in my mind; it would have been nice to have some more worldbuilding descriptions and/or some illustrations. I also found some of the names (people, places, technologies, etc.) and political elements to be confusing and hard to follow; I would have preferred less political details and more of a focus on Kiem and Jainan’s relationship and/or the murder investigation. I also found it frustrating that it took Kiem so long to uncover the truth about Jainan and Taam’s relationship ... I thought that the storyline was well organised, and the concept was unique ... This book was action-packed with hardly a dull moment and it had a satisfying ending; it made sense, but it left some plot lines open for a potential sequel.
