The Thing About Love by Julie James
I don´t know why, but I have always found the FBI world so fascinating! I believe that it all started when I read Beautiful Redemption from the Maddox Brothers by Jamie McGuire.But besides my weird fascination with the FBI, I have always wanted to read more romantic comedy novels, so after reading Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, I started looking for them as a crazy lady and of course, after digging the internet for weeks and months, I came across with Julie James, the greatest writer of attorney/FBI romantic novels.
The Thing About Love tells the story of FBI agent Jessica Harlow, who moves to Chicago, her hometown, looking for a fresh start after a divorce from a famous Hollywood producer in Los Angeles. On the other hand, we have John Shepherd, who decides to start working in Chicago, his hometown, before going to the privileged Hostage Rescue Team after he was cheated by his girlfriend.
Agent Harlow and agent Shepherd are introduced in a meeting with their supervisor, where he tells them that they will be working in an undercover assignment to trap a Florida politician. But there is so much more to their relationship. They already met in the Academy, where they started hating each other. Yet, regardless of what happened in the past, the two agents must work together to bring the politician down and get their assignment done.
Okay, so I want to start talking about the plot. The story of characters falling in love after they have hated each other for many many years has been used a lot! In fact, I literally stumbled upon this novel after reading one that has the exact same development, yet this novel brings me such joy as it is being told. I loved how the one thing that makes it different, literally takes the story to a whole new level, that being that they are both FBI agents. I admired the way James was able to find a balance between relationship progress, action/FBI scenes and of course, hilarious moments. The Thing About Love narrates so many different stories as it goes on that it is really easy to be hooked. I mean, the backstories of the characters are great and the way their relationship started in the Academy is entertaining as well. On the other hand, the current story regarding the politician project is even more exciting because they will take you throughout the action-packed investigation, all while including their hilarious bickering in almost every scene. A promise that I can make is that you will find this novel super interesting and it will keep you entertained for hours.
Another thing that I absolutely loved about this novel is the characters because of course Jessica and John were incredible and love both very much, but the surrounding characters are also great and they create even funnier scenes, like how they are always fighting over their law schools. As I said, I really liked the way John and Jessica were created, meaning that I loved their backstories and the way that they acted because they were so logical and perceptive, like I want for characters.
Also, I loved their relationship and the way that James exhibited a relationship with people that wanted more for the other than for themselves and the way that she truly showed the ways that people lie and sacrifice things for the other person really made this relationship much stronger and even a little more realistic. It was very entertaining to see how their bickering turned into interest and then into the eventual relationship that they have.
A bonus point for this novel was the way that they talk about genders in their work field because I believe that it is something that is relevant that would happen in real life and seeing it portrayed in the novel made it much more realistic and created more well-rounded characters. Also, it was very funny the way they mocked FBI novels because they were literally in one.
Julie James truly took all the funny scenes and the action scenes and turned them into so much more and into things that really had a purpose for the story development.
I 100% recommend The Thing About love by Julie James because it is funny, action-packed, realistic, romantic and it truly takes the reader to a crazy FBI journey.
5 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
This is the third time that I have the first novel of the series. I read it for the first time a couple of weeks after it came out and I completely fell in love with it, I was charmed by the different abilities of the characters and by the simple, yet different welcoming that the author offered us from the very beginning. The relationship that I have with this book made me go above and beyond that, I completely fell in love with the way the three main characters worked and progressed throughout the novel. A year afterward, Glass Sword came out and I read the first book once again before reading the new installment and once again I was completely lost in this dystopian, yet fantastical world. So, two years forward, I have decided that since the series ended, it was time for me to take the time once again and re-enter the world that became so dear to me. Now that I read it years later, I did notice different aspects of it that have made me simply enjoy more the story.
Red Queen happens in a country that we come to know as Nortia, its society is divided in two: Silvers and Reds, these being the color of the people´s blood. Yet, Silvers have different abilities, some families are able to control fire, enter people´s minds or even control metal. Our main character, Mare, is a Red and as a consequence, her family is extremely poor, which is the common life for Reds. All of Mare´s brothers have been sent to war as a consequence of them not being able to find a job and Mare is sure that her fate is the same since she wasn´t able to get a job and cooperates to her household by stealing from other people, specially Silvers. By her desperate attempt to save not only herself but her best friend, she makes the choice to connect with people that are working in the underground market and she soon realizes that there is a whole new world out there that is trying to make a change for the society. Yet, Mare moves on with her life and her life completely changes when she meets a young man that she was about to steal from. After somehow getting a job at the palace, Mare´s life changes when she realizes that she is completely different from what she was thinking. She has the complete power to control lighting.
First, I want to talk about Aveyard´s incredible way of narrating and writing a novel. The first thing that has caught my attention every single time that I have read this novel is the intricate way in which she describes and exhibits, not only Nortia but the society that they live in. She is able to take this complex bubble, which holds a whole world, and presents it in a way that every single detail seems fascinating, and I truly believe that it has nothing to do with the story being super creative, which it is, but it has to do completely with the fact that her writing is just so incredible because the words that she uses makes it seem as if it was real.
Also, I loved the perfect mix she was able to get between romance and action, meaning that it wasn´t just too full of action or dramatic scenes like most dystopian novels do, but it had several romantic scenes that made me swoon over the two princes that I absolutely love at the moment. Something that I want to point out is that since she was able to reach a balance between the different type of scenes, we did get only a few scenes for each prince, but those were just so memorable and showcased them greatly that I believe that any more scenes would have been too much. Also, Aveyard did a great job giving the stepbrothers a distinction because every word and movement that was narrated matched the character, which I thought would be very hard to achieve in a novel that is so complex as this one.
Red Queen is pretty fast paced and I really enjoyed that because I don´t like following the same problem over and over again, so Aveyard was always able to keep my mind going and wandering around the different problems and important scenes that were happening throughout the novel.
I think the only thing that I felt a little disappointed with was that it followed the typical dystopian pattern. In the sense that it first introduced everything and then, problems and more problems happened and several of them were pretty easy to predict beforehand and the surprise factor was not always present, but I do understand that dystopian novels are harder to write and therefore, the similar pattern is usually the easiest way to get the novel done.
On the other hand, I want to discuss the characters. I am not going to talk a lot about them since I preferred to discover different aspects of their personalities as the story went on since they all have only small scenes throughout the novel that truly make them shine. But I would like to mention that I absolutely adored the different powers that each house had and the way those powers changed their personalities and the way they acted regarding their surroundings.
I think I didn´t hate Mare, I just disliked her because she is like other dystopian female leads. She acts without thinking about things and later blaming herself and she is too headstrong, which causes her to get into trouble and get emotionally hurt. Yet, I highly enjoyed her personal comments because they were usually funny and it felt nice to be able to laugh after going through so much with the characters and the atmosphere.
Lastly, I want to mention how I found it so detailed the ways that the characters were planned because every single detail about each one of them was so intricate that it truly enhanced the reading experience for me.
Overall, Red Queen is a super creative, fun and swoony first installment to a series that will take you to another world, which you will find fascinating and inspiring after following characters that are sometimes heartwarming and other times heartwrenching, all while delivering to give you laughs and tears.
4 1/2 out of 5 Stars
Love, Sua
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Once I was obsessed with Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren, I started looking for other books that were similar to that one and I found out that there was a whole world out there of romantic comedy books that I still had to discover, and once I did, I was charmed and completely fell in love with them.
The Hating Game tells the story of Lucy and Josh, both are executive assistants to co-CEOs and we could say that they are complete opposites. They were working for different publishing houses before both companies decided to merge. Lucy is always full of life, she does everything to really create good relationships with people and she is always called nice, she also very much enjoys wearing bright colors and is often very bold with her color choices for clothing. On the other hand, Josh is extremely good with numbers, which makes others see him as brutal when it comes to the reports that he often receives and sends back because of the many mistakes that other workers make, he can be described as cold and lonely, always believing that relationships with others aren´t as important as one´s job. As you can clearly notice, their personalities are bound to clash. It is clear that Lucy and Josh absolutely hate each other, yet everything in their lives seems to circle around the other. For instance, they are always so anxious to make the other suffer without making the other co-workers notice, they are always planning to get in the plans of the other and they are always looking for ways to make the other stress, which is why when the announcement regarding the new position as CEO is made, Josh and Lucy are more than ready to compete against each other. Yet, both seem to know so much about the other that it may seem like they have spent a lifetime together, although they do utilize that information to make fun of the other.
I just loved everything about this book! I fell in love with the plot, the scenes, the words and the characters!
I want to start by talking about the book overall. I loved how funny it is! Everytime that I read it (which I have done about four times now), I laugh so much that my family thinks that I am crazy since they were quite used to me crying all the time while reading. The way the scenes are constructed are brilliant, they are so easy to imagine and be part of and you are able to feel all of those crazy emotions, like the shame, the warmth, and the laugh.
I mean, the plot is one of those that most of us have either seen or read already several times because it follows the usual romantic comedy storyline, yet the way everything is narrated is so fun that I didn´t even mind the fact that I knew how things were going to be, I was so trapped in this story that I was simply lost in this world.
Regarding the characters, I was simply charmed by both. They were so good at their jobs, yet they were so childish, and from time to time they were so cruel to each other, yet they were so humane and they had such a heartwarming relationships with themselves that it really made them seem real and overall well-rounded characters with whom who could cry and laugh. I loved reading about their struggles, especially with family, and the way they reacted to those problems. I believe that by having such traits, the characters really reminded me that even people in real life have personal struggles that they hide and that those could be potentially limiting them in some sort of way.
One of the things that I liked the most about this novel is the way the relationship progressed as a whole. It was interesting to understand how their feelings started changing with each other and how even though we don´t get to read both points of view, we can start noticing their changes in character, which made their relationship more significant and in this case, Josh´s actions and words much more special. Also, I loved how slowly things changed, in the sense that they didn´t just become friendly with each other from night to day.
Lastly, I absolutely loved the details! The small things were what really made this novel outshine others because it truly demonstrated how much the author cared and how much thought she put into the story. For instance, I absolutely loved the shirt´s pattern and I still think about it almost every day.
I can truly recommend this novel because it will bring you a lot of laughter, yet it will also bring you a little bit of warmth in your heart. Sally Thorne truly takes the rom-com genre and takes it to the next level in this hit-novel.
5 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
I believe that Morgan Matson is one of my favorite authors, in fact, I was so excited for her new book Save the Date, which came out this year and hopefully I will get to post its review ASAP. This is the last book that I needed to read to complete my collection of her books before Save the Date. I have reviewed all of her other titles and I absolutely love them and fangirl every time that one of her other characters are mentioned in one of the novels, like in this one, although I will address that later.
What I absolutely love about Morgan Matson is that she is always able to balance family relationships, friendship, romance and personal reflection for the main character perfectly, which creates the most enjoyable novels and stories with unforgettable characters and this time, it wasn´t different.
Second Chance Summer narrated the story of Taylor, a teenager from Connecticut, who lives with her mother, father and her two siblings, Warren and Gelsey. It has been years since she has visited Lake Phoenix, in fact, the family hasn´t gone for such a long time that they have rented their home until now.
Taylor´s family decides it is important to spend time with each other after they realize that her father is ill and he asks for another summer at Lake Phoenix, where they were once the happiest. But when the family arrives at their home, Taylor starts to get memories of the life she left behind her. For instance, she remembers how she fell in love with Henry and how close she was with Lucy, her best friend, but she also remembers how bad everything ended and how coward she was.
Once the Edwards family gets settled in their home at Lake Phoenix, Taylor suddenly realizes that too many things have changed. For once, Henry is now her next door neighbor and they will have to meet even when they don´t want to. On the other hand, when Taylor finally gets a job at the beach snack bar, she realizes that Lucy, her former best friend, works there too, which puts them in an awkward situation since they will have to eventually talk to each other.
Now, Taylor has to make the most of her summer with her father while accepting her mistakes and moving on from them and cherishing her memories with friends and family.
I want to start this review by mentioning that I have always spoken about how much I love Matson, in fact, I even mentioned it at the beginning of this review, but I would like to say that this is probably my least favorite novel from her, not because I didn´t like the characters or the way the story was balanced, in fact, I absolutely loved those points about this story, but what I didn´t really like was how after finishing the novel, I was craving more for character and story development, including Henry´s character and story. I liked how some stories had an ending and how the story actually showed development, especially in the relationships. I absolutely loved how each relationship in the story evolved as the pages passed by, I specifically loved Taylor and Lucy, Taylor and her father and Warren and Wendy. But after ending the story, I didn´t feel satisfied with the story as I was with her past novels. I believe that maybe I had too many expectations for the author since I have read more of her newer novels and just like every other author, she probably evolved and learned how to communicate her stories better.
Now, going back to the relationships in the story, I absolutely adored how natural they were. I liked how Matson was able to craft a story where the characters weren´t forced to be in a certain place to meet, the characters were actually crafted to interact with each other and move from there. For example, Lucy and Taylor work together, which makes them notice each other and realize that there are many things that could change between them. The relationships were my favorite thing in this novel.
On the other hand, I liked the characters. I enjoyed Henry, although not as much as I enjoyed other Matson´s male characters, like Roger, Clark, and Frank. I just wanted more from him. Besides, he smells like bread and frosting, I want a boyfriend that smells like a cupcake too! As mentioned before , what the story was lacking in my point of view was progression for each story, it just seemed like we only saw how the characters were guided to the beginning of very large paths, like their relationships, and I didn´t really like that.
But I did enjoy reading about the Edwards family because they just seemed very normal and each of the members were different and brought something new to the story. Also, it was interesting to read the story from a character that didn´t consider herself special at all within her family because it definitely brought a new point of view.
In addition, I just want to mention the dog because it was so cute and refreshing to read about.
Something that I really liked was the way that the summer was portrayed because everyone created their summer lives in a small bubble where they knew that there was nothing outside of that since they were all holding onto something that was so precious that was going to be taken from them, but never returned, which was their father. I think that story itself was very emotional because the presence of her father always brought a certain bittersweetness to the stories, but it actually led to the beginning of so many things. Yet, at the same time, I didn´t like how these gave the freedom to the characters to do whatever they wanted because it created so many stories that at some point, the reader had so many things to focus on when there were really important things happening in another side of the novel. In addition, I felt like at the end of the novel, I didn´t really know Taylor because there was nothing that was said about her other side of life in Connecticut, which I think would have helped us understand our narrator better.
However, I really liked the writing because Matson gave us the perfect combination of past and present in their Lake Phoenix bubble, which helped us understand what really happened and how the characters developed in order to get to that point.
Lastly, I really liked the character development from Taylor because she grew up in the short time that we got to know her, she realized what she was lacking and she changed it. This was something that I really liked about the main character.
Overall, Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson is a refreshing summer romance novel, where you will be able to immerse yourself in a story surrender by the beach with childhood friends while shedding a couple of tears while understanding that the line that separated a human being from life and death is very, very thin.
4 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
I don´t know why, but I have always found the FBI world so fascinating! I believe that it all started when I read Beautiful Redemption from the Maddox Brothers by Jamie McGuire.But besides my weird fascination with the FBI, I have always wanted to read more romantic comedy novels, so after reading Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, I started looking for them as a crazy lady and of course, after digging the internet for weeks and months, I came across with Julie James, the greatest writer of attorney/FBI romantic novels.
