Reviews and Comments

Enum & Valerie

enumeration@kirja.casa

Joined 3 years ago

@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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Lydia Schmölzl: Everything Under the Sun (Paperback, 2024) 5 stars

Kat mixt erst die Drinks und anschließend die Männer. Als Barkeeperin ist die Nacht ihr …

Na hömma, vergiss Kitchen Tables, dat hier is Ommas-Schrebergarten-Polyamorie!

5 stars

Ich shippe heimlich schon Rafael und Jonas, die wären schon cute zusammen... Und das ganze Ruhrpott-Setting fühlt sich einfach gut an, genau wie Lydias humoristischer Schreibstil. Auch du verdienst alles unter dieser Sonne.

Jennifer Dugan, Kit Seaton: Coven (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers) 3 stars

Emsy has always lived in sunny California, and she’d much rather spend her days surfing …

Cute graphic novel about a teenage witch

3 stars

... and found family. It's not really deep though, and the witch categorization is pretty similar to the one in Isabel Sterling's novels (no surprise, given that the authors are friends).

Bridget Morrissey: That Summer Feeling (2023, Penguin Books, Limited) 4 stars

When Garland Moore's husband gifts her divorce papers on Valentine's Day, it feels like she'll …

That Summer Feeling

3 stars

Cute bisexual lovestory. However, this is one of those books where the main arc passes pretty fast, but then there's still sooo many more chapters. So many more chapters that you begin to suspect a "person walks into wrong situation and jumps to conclusions" plot twist (which are the worst). Well that's not what happens, but still, at ~60% the plot is basically over.

June CL Tan: Darker by Four (2024, HarperCollins Publishers) 5 stars

A vengeful girl. A hollow boy. A missing god.

Rui has one goal in mind-honing …

Very very enjoyable

5 stars

This book is so full of cute absurdities, it's amazing. Hell's selection mechanism is AI driven? Homoerotic flirting between a human and a zombie? HELL YES! And even if the main romance arc is wlm, the entire book is so fucking gay.

Misa Sugiura: It's Not Like It's a Secret (Paperback, 2018, HarperTeen) 3 stars

Sixteen-year-old Sana Kiyohara has too many secrets. Some are small, like how it bothers her …

cute but not outstanding

3 stars

What's frustrating to me, is that all of the time, different poems are mentioned, are their meanings referenced, but they're not printed. Also, the main character says some shitty racist stuff at some point (and gets punished for it), but doesn't really make up for it later.

Zoe Hana Mikuta: Off with Their Heads (2024, Disney Press) 4 stars

In a world where Saints are monsters and Wonderland is the dark forest where they …

This is fucked up

4 stars

To be clear: This book is quite often called a "retelling of Alice in Wonderland", but I don't really agree with that description. The book is full of references - for instance, you'll find an Alice (Icca's middle name), a Rabbit (Caro's last name), a Red Queen who asks for chopped-off heads, a Hattie (the Red Queen's first name), a Cheshire (the apothecary's last name), jabberwockies, and, of course, a Wonderland. And regular nonsense. But apart from that, Off With Their Heads has nothing to do with Lewis Carroll's classic.

It is quite fucked-up though, and confusing (probably on purpose). Fucked-up girls in a fucked-up world, lovers-to-mortal-enemies, siding with the Queen or against her. Slaying saints.

Oh right, that is a consistent Mikuta feature: Every one of her books is about killing religious entities. In Gearbreakers and sequel, the girls slay gods. In Off With Their Heads, they decapitate saints. …

reviewed Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler (Daylight Falls, #2)

Dahlia Adler: Under the Lights (Paperback, 2015, Spencer Hill Press) 4 stars

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, …

A sequel thet doesn't feel like a sequel

4 stars

Both Josh and Van really are good characters from Behind the Scenes that desperately needed their own stories. Whenever a romance story is told from two alternating points of view, you automatically assume they're the couple. You're in for a surprise then...

reviewed Behind the Scenes by Dahlia Adler (Daylight Falls, #1)

Dahlia Adler: Behind the Scenes (2014) 3 stars

High school senior Ally Duncan's best friend may be the Vanessa Park - star of …

Not overwhelming, but enjoyable

3 stars

I am a bit disappointed how it all boiled down to "oops we didn't communicate" again. Same applies to "Cool for the summer" btw. None of Dahlia's books have a really elaborate creative plot, but they're still fun to read and hard to put to the side.

reviewed Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal (Blood and Tea, #1)

Hafsah Faizal: Tempest of Tea (2024, Farrar, Straus & Giroux) 4 stars

From Hafsah Faizal, New York Times–bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame, comes the first …

Read if you like coconuts

4 stars

The largest part of the book is about an elaborate heist, so if you like heists, knock yourself out. However, it's embedded into a larger major story, which doesn't really need that heist - it would work just as fine without it. Then again, the Spindrift Tearoom & Bloodhouse concept is pretty cool. And: coconuts!