Mini-Reviews

No True Echo by Gareth P Jones [ARC]

This book was just okay for me. I liked the characters, especially Eddie and Angus. The story and plot were engaging enough that I did want to finish the book, but in the end I feel like nothing really happened. There just wasn’t a satisfying “THIS IS THE ENDING” moment. I guess it just seemed like a lot of build-up and then a flash in the pan climax/resolution but then we don’t even get to find out what happens afterward… The Echo Technology was a really cool concept, but it felt like it should have been used in a more dynamic context. Overall, this book was enjoyable but forgettable. 3/5

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Red Girl, Blue Boy by Lauren Baratz-Logsted [ARC]

Oh gosh. I did not like this book. The characters were immature and unrealistic. Drew was okay, but Katie was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Granted, I don’t have much experience with the children of politicians, but I find it really hard to believe that someone would actually act like that. She’s so clueless! The romance seemed forced and I couldn’t picture Drew and Katie really being together if they were real people. The only thing I liked was the ending result of the election (I won’t spoil it). Overall, just not that great a read. (Also, they talk about High School Musical being an old movie. What??? When did that happen? How did I get to be so old?) 2/5

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Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Okay, this book was so great! I read it for a book club that I didn’t end up going to (whoops) but I’m so glad that I read it. It had been on my TBR ever since I finished Blackmoore by the same author. These books are seriously everything that is great about regency era romances. If you like Jane Austen, then I really think you’ll like these. The heroine in Edenbrooke is feisty (if a little too self-deprecating), the hero is definitely swoon-worthy, and the villain is…pretty gross really. There were a couple of parts that I was confused about…just one or two plot points that I don’t think were fully explained, but it was still so good! 4/5

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The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Honestly, I was kind of disappointed by this book. I really, really enjoyed her first two books because I thought they were sweet with fun, relatable characters. But with this book I didn’t feel as connected to the characters. I felt like I was supposed to remember more about Tim and Alice from the first book than I actually did. I honestly can’t remember much of anything from My Life Next Door, so maybe that was my problem. I didn’t particularly like Tim or Alice and didn’t really care if they got together or not. I really liked some of the scenes between Tim and Cal–I thought those were really sweet. Overall, it just wasn’t that great and I didn’t really find myself enjoying it as much as I thought I would. 3/5

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The Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano

Oh gosh. This book was such a let down. First let me say that horror is really not one of my genres but I decided to take a chance on this one since it was a free read on PulseIt. Some of the reviews on GoodReads said that it was really scary so I was mentally preparing myself for that. The book is written in a unique format–we’re reading the main character’s blog posts. I both liked it and didn’t like it. We’re reading summaries of events that have already happened so it’s almost like…there’s less potential for suspense. That wasn’t even the main problem though. I felt pretty unsettled throughout the book–which is expected. But then every time the book was gearing up for something really scary…it wasn’t. In the end, I just feel like nothing really got explained. There was this big deal with the spiders and the flies but I still don’t know what they had to do with anything. The cover is way freakier than the book actually is. 2/5