Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James
Just as expected, I loved this book. It is a romantic comedy novel and it was written by Julie James, the author of The Thing About Love, which I LOVED! I aspire to become an attorney, so when I read the synopsis for this novel, I knew that I had to read this novel, and I liked it!
Payton is a successful attorney, in fact, she is extremely good at her job, but so is JD, the one person that she hates the most. They are always competing day to day in simple tasks like who gets there first in the morning, but they will soon face the biggest competition that they could ever expect. They both want to become a partner at the law firm that they have been working on for years. Truly, there is no difference between who has worked harder, both have worked until late and both have succeeded in trials, but regardless, they still have to prove who will be better. And of course, when both Payton and JD are presented with the opportunities to sabotage the other, they will take, leading us to hilarious scenes that will make you have a good and hearty laugh.
I know that the summary that I am providing this time is really short, but this novel doesn´t really have much to say about. I mean, its plot is very limited and the book itself is pretty short. Yet, that doesn´t make it bad, if anything, it actually made it better because it was a quick read, simple, easy to comprehend, very thorough and it was charming in its own way without dragging the plot too much.
I do want to point out that I had very high expectations for this novel because I have read The Thing About Love by the same author, Julie James, and I loved it! So much that I have already read it several times. And I will say that this novel didn´t disappoint. This book will have a lower review, but that´s just a matter of me not staying with the novel so much because this novel delivered every aspect that it was wanting to portray and show.
Regarding the characters, I really liked them, but they didn´t really feel special like the others. I liked that they were pretty human-like. The characters truly brought a different aspect of life that at this age, I think is very important, but people don´t seem to mind, which is the whole topic of college and money. I really liked that the characters came from different financial backgrounds and brought different mindsets.
Another thing that I thought was very interesting was the way their relationship was. I think that the characters don´t really mind the other character like some characters do in some novels, which lead us to characters that connected after a while and not right away in the assignment as the others.
The only thing that I disliked was the way the scenes felt and the nature of the things that were happening. I thought that some parts were very forced.
On the other hand, my favorite part of the novel was how funny it was! I am still laughing about some of the scenes while I am writing this review. I honestly laughed so much that I still remember them and I even laugh in the middle of the night. So, truly brace yourself because you are going to be dying of laughter with this one!
I also loved that she displayed the hardships of being a certain gender because even today, I know that being a female that aspires to become an attorney is seen as different since it is still a career that is considered for men. S, it was interesting to see something so close to me represented in this novel, which was shocking given the fact that this novel was published in 2009, almost ten years ago! It was truly interesting to see how little the field has changed in all these years.
Lastly, regarding the writing. I just absolutely love James´ writing because she has this amazing way of combining hilarious, dramatic, melancholic and even powerful scenes to create a true masterpiece.
I apologize that this review is so short, but I truly recommend Practice Makes Perfect because it is a short novel that will make you laugh and cry, both at the same time! I´m warning you! You will have to pick up this novel when you have a free schedule because you are not going to be able to put down this novel!
4 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
How (Not) to Marry a Duke by Felicia Kingsley
First, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this novel. This is one of the first NetGalley books that I have received since I have started to blog. And, I would also like to apologize for giving such a low rating for this novel.
As unexpected as it might sound, I was unable to actually finish this novel because I was too stressed and bored to continue and this novel.
This is a story about an arranged marriage. Well... sort of. Jemma Pears is the daughter of a hippie couple and by hippie, I mean that they are always naked in the house and they believe that they are spiritually connected to each other. So, yeah. Jemma´s grandmother has refused to be a direct part of the family, but she did leave certain instructions before she passed away. Jemma was to inherit billions, yet she could only get the money by marrying a man with a title, which is going to be extremely difficult for her since she isn´t the normal type. She likes hot salsa dancers and she is never holding back with her words.
On the other hand, Ashford, the Duke of Burlingham, is now in a big financial trouble. He has just inherited the family name, yet he barely discovered that he is to pay millions and if he doesn´t soon, he will be arrested. And he won´t let his mother, the crazy noble-woman, know because she will DIE.
So, Jemma and Ashford are united by a common friend/worker that they have and they are to get married just for the money.
When I first requested this title, I was sure that this was the type of novel that I would love. I mean, they are obviously going to hate each other because they are completely different and of course they were going to fall in love and of course there was going to be a lot of drama, especially because there was a crazy old woman that was going to hate Jemma so much.
But, honestly, this novel didn´t meet my expectations.
First, I want to talk about the things that I actually enjoyed about this novel.
As I stated before, the plot promised me that it was going to be a fun and refreshing story, one that would make me feel good and happy. I think the plot itself is extremely fun and it is a good one, it´s just that the way it was executed was bad.
Another thing that I liked was that it included the two points of view, which allowed each of the characters to have a voice and it also made the story much more special and funny in different aspects since the characters were different.
On the other hand, there were many things that I disliked. For instance, the start is rather slow to be considered a short, romantic comedy novel. It literally took me like 30% of the novel to get to the part where they have to start living together. Yet, on top of that, the start is very boring. Imagine if the story is both boring and slow! I had to force myself to continue the novel and I told myself that I would do so at least until I reached the part where they were forced to live together since it was going to be inevitable for them to be together and of course, that would´ve led to some character and relationship development.
In addition, the characters were really annoying to read about because they are literally walking stereotypes. In this world, Ashford is cocky and a horrible human being just because he has some money and a title, Jemma has a horrible fashion sense because she was brought up by hippie parents, and of course, because Jemma´s parents are "hippies," they walk around the house naked and of course, Ashford´s mother is completely horrible because she only knows about class and ranks.
Also, I really want to mention how the characters are annoying in the sense that their tones are always extremely childish and that they don´t really care about anything else rather than themselves.
Lastly, I think that since they were obviously depending on each other, Jemma and Ashford could´ve handled the situation better, keeping in mind that they are adults that have more than 25 years.
I have given this novel a very low score, but I want to mention that it is because I highly disliked this novel, yet I did keep in account the good things or the things that I enjoyed about this novel.
1 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
I have been wanting to review things related to
books for some time now, but as a high school student, I don´t really have the funds to get several things to start reviewing, so I was incredibly lucky to be able to work with Murder, She Sent to get this month´s box to review!
I want to give them my most sincere thank yous for trusting in me for this review. I think the way they were able to help me really displayed how much they care for the customer service and how much they are willing to help book lovers, this was also displayed with the meticulous way the box was prepared.
First of all, the box is beautiful! When I first got it in the mail, I was so excited to open it and be able to see which exciting things they had packed for me! I truly believe that if I were to get boxes like this every month, I would always be looking forward to them because they are the happy kind of surprises.
I really liked the way this box subscription worked because what they do is that they find a theme for the box, which has to do with the book that they sending that month and then they find items that could go along with that theme. So, for instance, for the August box, the theme was S´mores and in the box, I got all different kind of cute items.
My box included:
- A super cute handmade and delicious-smelling, soap.
- Adorable s´mores keychain.
- A patch that has made me like patches.
- Super cute bracelet
- A S´mores survival kit, which is adorable, that includes a small kit to make some s´mores.
- The novel: S´more Murders, by Maya Corrigan
- A signed bookmark by Maya Corrigan
So, as you can see, the small box includes a lot of things and I overall very impressed with the box.
the box costs $35, which can be a little more expensive than other boxes, but they do include a lot of things that are hand-made and you can clearly notice it once you get the box.
I believe my favorite thing about it was the shredded book pages that they had in each box! I thought that it was super creative and at the same time adorable!
I truly recommend this suscirption box because their items truly show that they care about what they do in every item that was sent and they are very easy to be in contact with, which only demonstrates that they really care about their customers.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Love, Sua
Just as expected, I loved this book. It is a romantic comedy novel and it was written by Julie James, the author of The Thing About Love, which I LOVED! I aspire to become an attorney, so when I read the synopsis for this novel, I knew that I had to read this novel, and I liked it!
