The Year In Which Ashleigh has Been Promoted to 36 Books

[Ashleigh]

Review for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

4.25/5

Okay, I definitely very much enjoyed this book. The characters were enjoyable, likeable and I felt as if I was emotionally invested in all of them. I found the time jumping easy to follow and actually ENJOYABLE in the sense that I got excited when I saw we were going forward and backwards in time. It sped the book up and was fun to read!

The reason I gave this 4.25 and not 5 is I didn't really enjoy the (view spoiler)[Addie and Luc side. I didn't like that it turned romantic in a weird way. I would have been perfectly happy with the Henry and Addie vanilla romance. It's what I prefer. I am always turned off the good girl/bad boy dynamic and that was what it felt like to me. (hide spoiler)]

But beyond that, a great read which I felt lived up to the hype!

[Ashleigh]

Review for Outside Looking In

4/5

This was not a book I admittedly thought I would enjoy. I can't even remember how it ended up on my TBR to begin with, because it isn't something I'd usually read. But there it was, and there was an available copy at my library, so I read it.

And I actually very much enjoyed it. My search history over the two weeks perhaps will now raise the eyebrows of any authorities if they ever cared to check lol, but I found the concept of this book fascinating. I don't know how accurate it was, but I did learn about a time period I never knew even existed through reading this.

In fact, I admittedly wasn't even sure what exactly LSD was apart from it being an illegal drug.

What I liked about this was that the characters had major flaws. They were immoral, unlikeable and they didn't grow as people. They actually went backwards, which I personally felt was the whole point - analysing the effects of continuous use of a psychadelic drug.

Definitely not a favourite, but actually enjoyable nonetheless!

[Ashleigh]

Review for Ruthless Magic

3.5/5

Considering the prequel I read a few months before was a nice little surprise, I was a tag disappointed with book 1 of the main series. I did enjoy the whole thing about the Championship but was immediately turned off by the instant relationship/love at first sight aspect. In all fairness, I'm much more fond of the romances in books being slow burns so would have been happy to have waited for book 2, so it didn't sit well for me.

There were a few instances that I did really enjoy about this book, and one being Prisha. I liked her character. And I also enjoyed Rocio. Unfortunately, the narrator for Finn was not my favourite, but perhaps that is just taste.

I definitely found this book 'okay'. Not great, but certainly not terrible, either.

I will read book 2 though!

[Ashleigh]

Review for The Goldfinch

4/5

I liked this book a lot. While it took me some time to get through due to its length, I didn't feel that it was at all a waste of time. The story told through Theo's eyes was heartbreaking and detailed and I found myself feeling very said for him and the messed up and complicated life that he led since he was about 13 years of age.

Drugs, death, alcohol, it had it all and was quite devastating to go through everything with him.

This is definitely a book I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did. It was for a group read on Goodreads and I was a bit hesitant to start it because it's not my go to genre. But I'm actually glad that I did.

A sold 4 stars.

[Ashleigh]

Review for Terciel and Elinor

3.5/5

This was admittedly one of my favourites in the series, but I think I've just got to say it wasn't completely for me. Enough for me to keep reading, but definitely not one I will rave about for years to come. Despite it being right up my alley, I just couldn't get into the world. I'm not sure why, it just didn't stand out to me.

But I gave it a good go and if there is another book being added in the future, I might pick it up out of curiosity. I think the issue is that all of these books end in the same manner and it gets a bit repetitive. At least for me.

Like always, though, I do appreciate Nix's female characters. I really liked Elinor in this. I found her to be fun and adventurous and pretty cool to read about. In my opinion, he writes female characters in a more engaging way than he does male characters. I like that!

It was a decent series, but definitely not one I loved.

[Ashleigh]

Review for Anxious People

5/5

What a little gem this book was! This book was not at all on my radar, and the only reason I did pick it up was because it was a group read for the group Book Santas (and Lovers)

But, wow! I loved the convuluted storyline in this, the interconnecting plot and just how cleverly written it was. Assunptions in this were made that completely blew me away when that was turned on it's head, and it had me trying to think back on whether or not I'd missed something obvious. This happened on multiple occasions and I loved being tricked whilst reading!

The light-heartedness was great, too, and such a wonderful way to finish 2021. I promptly went and added all his other books to my TBR in the hope that the rest are just as enjoyable.

10/10 recommend this one!

[Ashleigh]

Review for Wounded Magic

4/5

I enjoyed this a lot more than book 2. Where book 1 was just about one event and it felt as if it dragged, I definitely felt that this book progressed a lot. Interesting things happened and I was intrigued by how it was going to progress.

Where in book 1, I found Finn's POV boring, I actually enjoyed him more than Rocio in this one.

This book was just a whole improvement in general and it made me keen to pick up book 3.

[Ashleigh]

I'm now all up to date for 2021!