April was the first full month that ROONIE has been active! I’ve been hard at work coming up with all kinds of bookish designs and products that I’m excited to share with you guys.
This month’s reads were all pretty good and I’m happy to share my reviews with you!
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Overall Rating: 5.0 Stars
Format: Physical Hardcover
This book will be getting an in-depth review as part of my Five Star Fix blog series, so keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, I can tell you that this book was an adventure and the last 150 pages were exquisite. There’s action, suspense, romance, betrayal - so many spikes of emotion and building tension that I could not put it down once I got to about halfway through.
Buy the book here!
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Overall Rating: 4.0 Stars
Format: Physical Paperback
This is the second book I’ve read by Freida McFadden. I was not blown away by Never Lie, but I’m glad I gave her a second chance because I really enjoyed The Housemaid! It’s a classic psychological thriller that follows a woman who was just released from prison and is desperate to find work so that she can stay compliant with her parole. She lands a great opportunity as a housemaid for a well off family, but quickly finds out that the wife is crazy, the kid’s a brat, and the husband may just be a little too perfect.
The writing of this book is so clear and easy to follow that I was just blowing through the pages and not even realizing it because the reading flowed so smoothly. The end of each chapter left me wanting to read just a little bit more to see how things would play out and lots of them were relatively short so you make progress pretty quickly. Watching Millie’s relationship with the family and Nina’s mental health evolve throughout the story kept me thoroughly engaged. As someone who has not read many psychological thrillers in a while, I was shocked by the twists towards the end of the book.
I gave this book four stars instead of five stars because of the last few chapters. The ending of the book felt just a bit too coincidental and easy for me. I would have liked to see the characters squirm a bit more to resolve their situation.
But the book here!
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Overall Rating: 4.0 Stars
Format: Spotify Audiobook
I was very impressed to find out that this was a debut novel for Jenna Levine. The story flowed smoothly and was very well developed. I’m also excited to see that she has a second book set to be released this year featuring none other than the endearingly overconfident and vexing Reginald himself.
Cassie and Frederick’s story is a very light and fluffy classic rom com. There are no overly dramatic high stake situations for them to overcome at any point and no third act breakup to recover from. The idea of her trying to help him learn how to live in the modern world after being in a coma for 100 years is brilliant and makes for multiple wholesome and entertaining moments between the two. The ending was a bit underwhelming with Cassie’s threat to the antagonists being a bit silly and working too easily, but it did not ruin the read for me.
The book features tropes like forced proximity, vampire X human, friends to lovers, breaking arranged marriage, slow burn and forbidden romance. Many would argue that you can also throw age gap in there. I understand that he is a centuries old vampire, but he looks and is trying to act Cassie’s age. I just don’t see it as a traditional age gap.
Buy the book here!
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
Overall Rating: 3.75 Stars
Format: Physical Paperback
It took me a while to finish this book and I never felt really connected to the characters, but that can be due to the fact that we get the whole story from just one character’s point of view. There were parts of the story that felt fast paced and others that seemed to drag, so the pacing was a bit inconsistent for me.
The story follows a cohort of theater students at a prestigious performing arts academy. They are flawed from the beginning but continue to spiral through the book. There are a plethora of Shakespeare references and actual scenes from his plays acted out in the book. Some of the meaning probably flew right over my head because it was difficult for me to understand at times.
This last few scenes and epilogue secured an extra 0.5 stars in my overall rating. While it still does not make total sense to me, it was an interesting twist that I was not at all expecting. I think the author left the ending just open enough that they could write a second book continuing the story.
Buy the book here!
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Samantha H.
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