@vivavaleria@eldritch.cafe on the mammooth site. Reading mostly wlw rom-coms, with the occasional exceptions. I try to rotate languages, but it isn't really easy to find queer romance books in other languages than English. Reviews and comments usually in the same language as the book.
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Damn this book felt long and boring. Mostly, nothing happens except that Paul/Polly moves around Iowa City/Michigan/Provincetown/San Francisco and fucks around. No tension, no bigger story. I do have to appreciate however, how this book visits quite some different sides and forms and subcultures of gay and lesbian communities. Paul's shapeshifting allows it.
Der Luisenhof muss gerettet werden! Das steht für Kim, Franzi und Marie fest, denn hier …
Cringe, flach und sexistisch.
Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, lovers and …
Let me first stress how fucking American this is. The entire book plays during a “European Food and Wine Tour”, with the following stops: London, Paris, Bordeaux, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, San Sebastián, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Chianti, Rome, Naples and Palermo. Because, of course, food and wine culture only exists in France, Northern Spain, Italy and .... London.
Oh, no, excuse me, London is not a proper stop on this tour. There's no food and wine served in London. The tour only starts in London, and the first thing they do on the tour is a bus ride to Paris. Wait what? Who the fuck travels to London first, if the real start is Paris? One of the protagonists actually even lives in Paris, but travels to London for the tour start and the bus ride to Paris. Holy hell.
Of course, there are Europeans on the tour (from …
Let me first stress how fucking American this is. The entire book plays during a “European Food and Wine Tour”, with the following stops: London, Paris, Bordeaux, Saint-Jean-de-Luz, San Sebastián, Barcelona, Nice, Monaco, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Chianti, Rome, Naples and Palermo. Because, of course, food and wine culture only exists in France, Northern Spain, Italy and .... London.
Oh, no, excuse me, London is not a proper stop on this tour. There's no food and wine served in London. The tour only starts in London, and the first thing they do on the tour is a bus ride to Paris. Wait what? Who the fuck travels to London first, if the real start is Paris? One of the protagonists actually even lives in Paris, but travels to London for the tour start and the bus ride to Paris. Holy hell.
Of course, there are Europeans on the tour (from Sweden, Norway and Germany), totally stereotyped, and the author tried to incorporate words from the respective languages. And failed. No, Casey, Swedish does not have the character ü. Did you not have any editors and ARC readers?
Of course, Swedes, Norwegians and Germans are the totally typical audience of a "European Food and Wine Tour" that pretends European Food and Wine only exists in France, Spain and Italy. And totally the typical audience for a tour that starts with a bus ride from London to Paris, because Swedes, Norwegians and Germans don't know shit about European geography.
And of course everyone's bisexual in Europe. Okay, well, I love a queer-normative world, but the literally say "everyone's bisexual on a European vacation", as if that's somehow a Europe-specific property. Come on....
But mostly, I am just disappointed. I learned to love McQuiston's books "One Last Stop" and "I Kissed Shara Wheeler", with really creative and amazing plots that I love. This one however, is really uninspired.
Zwölf Jugendliche, drei Wochen allein auf einer einsamen Insel vor Rio de Janeiro - als …
Ich erinnere mich noch genau, wie ich dieses Buch früher im Sommer-Lese-Club der lokalen Bücherei verschlungen habe, und ich habs damals geliebt. Als ich es dann Ende letzten Jahres unter den aussortierten Büchern einer anderen Bücherei gesehen habe, musste ich es einfach mitnehmen, und nochmal lesen ♥
I like the characters, but the story itself is not really that good. A chosen one? The only one in the world? Looking for a magical sword? How creative. "Darker by Four", by the same author, was soo soo much better.
Jenny Lynton never planned to be an influencer. It just sort of...happened. When an unfortunate …
It's basically the most standard romance novel you can imagine, and there's not really any creative plot ideas.
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When …
This is a good book, for what it is. However, not much of it is really unique and mindfuckingly excellent. In fact, Casey McQuiston's other books, specifically One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler, are full of such amazing ideas and moments, that Red, White & Royal Blue just cannot keep up. They've set the bar too high.
Then again, AFAIK, Red, White & Royal Blue is McQuiston's first book, so one could see this as evidence that they only get better and better.
"Conni und Paul sind verliebt!", tönt es durch die Klasse. Conni ist sauer. Sie ist …
und erinnert mich an ICE-Fahrten meiner Kindheit, damals noch mit den Unterhaltungssystemen. Auf einem der Kanäle lief Conni und der Liebesbrief als Hörbuch in Dauerschleife :D
... as always with Adiba Jaigirdar's books. I like her writing style and can consume book after book of hers.
However, I just really dislike mono people's obsession with "cheating" and the entire drama and demonization about it. I don't get it, really, not at all. Yup, some guys are absolute jerks, and I love stories where the girls just team up and date each other instead. But is Zak's bigest flaw really that he had some dates with someone else?
Also, since when is app coding the top notch discipline of science? And usually spyware is an instrument of shitty dudes, not against them.
June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and …
Though I didn't really like the plot structure. In romance novels, I like extensive, well-engineered falling-in-love-montages, and this one didn't really have any. Instead, it's all about the first conflict, which isn't really that deep, and could've been solved within 10 minutes of just talking to each other. Honestly, why?
Ever wondered where your mind wanders when you're asleep, and where the dreams come from? There's a whole world of dreammakers and supply chains who can deliver you exactly what you need. The book is full of little stories about different dreamers and dreammakers and life in the shop, and it's all a feel-good atmosphere.
I absolutely loved Threads That Bind, so I was very excited for this sequel. And it was so good! She really managed to find a continuation and an ending that is actually satisfying! Oh also, I didn't really like the "love is fate" stuff in the first book, but this sequel finally gets over it!
Laylay und Zeeto reisen durch das Ödland auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit, Zeetos Leben …
Und so schön viel linke Kultur darin. Was ich weniger appreciate ist dass allen ernstes irgendsoeine Universal-KI die Rettung sein soll die mal eben alles löst. Come on...
Der Schauspieler Leo beginnt einen Job als Kleindarsteller in dem historischen Themenpark „Regency Park” und …
Pluspunkt allerdings für »sier« bei einem der Hauptcharaktere. Ansonsten liest es sich wie ein früher Entwurf zu einem Buch, das noch ein paarmal durch Lektorat und Revisionen gehen muss.
Imogen Scott has questions…
Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s …
Okay, maybe not obviously. In fact, this is the first Albertalli book that I actually like. But it is amazing, and I've read it in just two days.
Oh, btw, from the beginning it looks like this is a cheap girl-stumbles-into-the-wrong-conversation-and-jumps-to-conclusions-and-throws-away-everything plot - don't worry, it's not. It's really not :3
I also loved all the references to other sapphic authors. Casey McQuiston is named explicitely many times, and Imogen has three copies of One Last Stop in her bookshelf. The teacher is called Ms Dugan. And the book is dedicated to Sophie Gonzales. I love stuff like this, it's so cute. It's what I usually read the Acknowledgements chapters for (which I love).