Popular Opinions Book Tag!

1. A popular book or series that you love

Mistborn & Warbreaker (basically any Brandon Sanderson)
They’re SERIOUSLY worth the hype!

2. An underhyped book or series that you love and wish was more popular

Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan – Criminally underrated. It’s a sci-fi romance and it made me cry! I rarely cry at books but this touched my icy heart.

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney – A recent release I’ve not seen around much! I absolutely loved this!

3. A romance (love triangle or OTP) that you love

I’m not a massive fan of love triangles but it is done perfectly in The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson. I also love who the main character ends up with.

4. Your favourite genre + a popular genre that you want to read more often

My favourite is fantasy for sure!
One I want to read more often: Sci-fi!

5. A popular or beloved character that you love or a character that you feel deserves more love

I’ll answer both because why not!

A popular character I love – Tyrion Lannister. He’s amazing. You cannot argue otherwise.

A character I think deserves more love is Lia from The Remnant Chronicles. She’s one of my faves of all time. Underrated!

6. An autobuy author

Brandon Sanderson
He could release his shopping list and I would read it.

7. A popular book trope that you love reading about

Enemies to lovers!
Everyone loves this but yeah, it’s definitely one of the best. Especially if the romance is slow burn. *Swoon*

8. A popular series that you are excited to read

The Gentlemen Bastards Series by Scott Lynch
I’ve heard so many great things about this series. Hoping it lives up to the hype. I’ve had the first book on my shelf for a while, this year for sure!

9. A popular book + film where you love the story in both formats

I’m going to change this to tv, because I cannot think of a film…
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen & BBC Pride and Prejudice
When I say perfect adaptation, I mean it. It is probably the best book adaptation ever. It’s just perfection.
You may be thinking, there’s a P&P film with Kiera Knightley and…. Just no.

I wrote a whole post about BBC Pride and Prejudice, check it out for my full thoughts!

I tag whoever wants to do this! Definitely link back/leave a link if you do, I’d love to read your answers!

The Most Unlikeable MC EVER? | Book Review: Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

Synopsis:

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.

When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.

In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script. 

My thoughts:

I really wanted to love this.
I really wanted this to be a new fave.
But it really wasn’t good.

The Good:

The Rep – Mixed race main character, trans rep, bisexual, mlm, anxiety/panic disorder

The Storyline – The story was interesting, I will give that to the author. It was very plot driven, there’s no likable characters to really latch on to. I only finished this book for the plot aspect, I’m usually more of a character driven person. It had so much potential! Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, I wish the characters were better so that the plot worked better.

Trans joy – Yay! I’m so glad this was about trans joy instead of suffering and struggles – not to say that’s not important but I feel that joy is often left out.

Tumblr blog – I like Tumblr, like when Tumblr is included in books. I find it really relatable as someone who has been on that platform for like decade. (wow, when did I get so old?)

The side characters were way more likeable than the main character. I really liked Devin, e was the best by far. I also learned about the pronouns e/eir/em – which I had not previous come across. The topic of pronouns was discussed a few times, I learned a few things which is great!

The Bad:

To balance out the joy there was toxicity.
Toxic relationship between Drew and Noah, they are an awful combination.
But then again even though Drew was a terrible boyfriend, Noah was an awful person… so *sips tea*

The Ugly:

Noah.
When I say Noah is the most insufferable character to ever exist, that is an understatement. I don’t mind unlikeable characters, as long as they’re interesting and their motives and behaviours are founded.
Noah is just an entitled asshole. Very little character development happens. Noah lacks self-awareness completely and is just awful to everyone around him. He’s a brat, spoiled and thinks he’s too good for everything and everyone. I don’t think I’ve ever found a more annoying character to read from in my entire reading history. Noah is the literal worst!

It makes me laugh that the synopsis says, ‘In this charming novel by Emery Lee’ – when in fact it is not charming at all.

Rating: 2 Stars

Most disappointing read of the year so far.

June Wrap Up | 2021

Hey guys!
I’ve been in a bit of a reading, blog and general life slump, so this post is a tad late. Better late than never, right?

June wasn’t a great reading month for me. I really couldn’t concentrate on anything. I only managed to read one book and one novella.

Firstly, I read Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

I’ll try and have a review up soon. (I’m so behind on reviews!)
I really enjoyed this. It was so different and unique from other YA fantasy. I love the setting and the magic was really cool. The romance was right up my street too. I cannot wait to read the sequel!
Rating: 4 stars

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

To squeeze an extra read into June, I picked up this novella. Which is part of the Amazon Forward collection – they’re all free on Amazon kindle for Prime & Kindle Unlimited members. It was an interesting and quick read. I’d recommend the Forward collection to any sci-fi fans or even those trying to get into the genre, they’re all very short.

Rating: 3 Stars

How was your reading in June? Hopefully, better than mine!