What I've Been Reading Lately


Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig - Liked this but didn't love it? I can see why it's such an important book though and Matt Haig the author is a great person to follow on Twitter! A really quick read and will deffo recommend to people in the future. 3 stars!

People Like Us by Dana Mele - I read this through one uni lecture and blew off another one to curl up in a corner and bury myself in this book, haha. I COULD NOT TEAR MYSELF AWAY. Mysteries and thrillers are so hit and miss for me, especially YA ones but as soon as I finished PEOPLE LIKE US I wanted desperately to read it for the first time again. The twists! The turns! The way every time I thought I knew who the murderer was I was proved wrong! AHHH! 5 stars!


Sadie by Courtney Summers - Oh my god, I think I held my breath the whole time I was reading Sadie. I've never read such a desperate, haunting and bitterly sad book before and it hit me hard in the feelings. This is the only book of Courtney Sunmmers that I've read and I'm now super keen to read all her other previous books but I need some time to process the impact SADIE had on me first. 5 stars!


One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus - Maybe if I hadn't read PEOPLE LIKE US and also to a cetain extent SADIE beforehand, I would've enjoyed this one. But I thought it was quite shit and really don't understand the tremendous hype around it. I hate books that use mental health for plot twists like this book did as I think it's such a tasteless and lazy way of creating twists. Left a bad taste in my mouth. 1 star!

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur - I've got an off-on relationship with Rupi Kaur. On one hand I think she writes beautifully but on the other hand I don't love a lot of her poems. There were a few good ones in The Sun and Her Flowers though and I liked how the book was constructed into growing/blooming/etc parts. I found some of the poems boring unfortunately and it also really irritated me how she recycled one pretty poem about bees and flower in a few different ways throughout the book which really didn't need it. 2 stars!


The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang - No one told me about the insta-love, oh no! Still enjoyed this one though and will definitely pull out next time I hear someone asking for cute contemporary romance recs. Loved reading about an autistic heroine and how much family featured. Will probably pick up the next book in the trilogy when I'm in desperate need of a HEA. 3 stars!


The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare - In two words: *chef kiss* Honestly, Tessa Dare's books have been partly responsible for me not completely losing my shit at uni at times this year. They've got me through frustration, tears, stress and despair and made me smile and keep my sense of humour through it all. I think The Wallflower Wager is my second fav in the Girl Meets Duke series and it was SO MUCH FUN. 5 stars!


All the Julia Quinn books - guess who discovered Libby and thinks it's the best thing ever?? ME. I enjoyed a couple of Julia Quinn's books but it wasn't until I'd worked my way through about five more that I realized that they're all basically the same with slightly different storylines. Not helped by the writing style which is easy to read but sometimes so basic it felt poorly written. Definitely prefer and recommend Tessa Dare and Sarah Maclean if you're looking for a good historical romance. Average rating was 2 stars!


What have you been reading lately? Anything that you really loved or especially hated?