All the Worlds Between Us by Morgan Lee Miller

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

4/5 stars

Quinn is an out lesbian and a star swimmer who only narrowly missed out on trialling for the Olympics - a fact the school mean girl won't let her forget. Her life is swimming and swimming alone, along with occasional arguments with her twin brother over their car.

She has an on-off relationship with swim teammate Riley, currently more off than on but Quinn is debating starting things up again. That is until she has a weird moment at a party she's forced to attend as her brother's ride with Kennedy, her former best friend who kissed her then moved away...

This was super cute and I loved how confident Quinn was about her identity and how she didn't want to compromise herself for the sake of someone else. I found the relationship really realistic and well-written, though there are a couple of scenes not suitable for younger readers 👀

My only criticism was that we didn't get a happily ever after but it did feel like there was hope for the future.

Steff Out x

How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

 

3/5 stars

Grace is on a mission. To kill the family of her millionaire father one by one leaving him for last. When he got her mother pregnant he refused to acknowledge what he'd done and the later existence of his daughter. Grace wants revenge and her rightful inheritance.

I thought this book was rather slow-paced and sluggish with overlong chapters. I kept reading out of curiosity for how things played out, not because of any sort of anticipation. Grace didn't have enough personality to be likable or not and her plans were all rather vague.

I did have hope it could redeem itself (although I was seriously questioning her lifelong best friend's personality transplant and total lack of trust) but then we had a suprise narrator which was just absurd and then the ending was ridiculous and incomplete at the same time.

Steff Out x 

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

 

4/5 stars

Yadriel is a brujo. Or at least he should be. His failure at the feminine bruja healing and his trans status mean his father refuses to let him go through the ritual so he goes and does it alone.

Shortly after the family senses that cousin Miguel has been killed but no-one can find his body so Yadriel gets the idea to summon his spirit and hopefully find out what happened.

Well, Yadriel does summon a ghost but it's not Miguel. It's Julian, a boy from school. He also died in a mysterious manner and Yadriel wants to find the truth.

I loved the characters and culture and I find Aiden's writing engaging and easy to follow. My only tiny criticisms were that I wish we'd seen more of Julian's friends and Yadriel's mum. Also the pacing could have been a little better. The middle section was full of character development but then the last quarter or so felt very rushed and I'm not sure I totally understood everything that happened.

Steff Out x

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

 

5/5 stars

Beautiful, perfection. This series now ranks in my favourite favourites.

We have the same cast of characters but in a more sort of way because they have grown so much, especially Sal! The one who has been through the most trauma and was the most timid but he's now taking charge, having big ideas and challenging the adults on his own terms, my heart 🥹

And little Lucy, it's so much harder for him to make the right choices but he does and he's lovely and I want to give him a hug! I LOVED Talia's comments about her beard and I love her confidence in herself and her appearance!

This book went more in depth about trauma and how it can influence a person and how the government is still totally shit and ignorant and unwilling to accept when they've done wrong.

The ending was perfection and I want an infinite number of these books.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 

5/5 stars

So this was a re-read before reading the sequel. I first read it back in 2022 and it was a 5 then and it's still a 5 now.

Linus works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth and he's been sent to investigate a rather unorthodox orphanage based on Marsyas Island. Unorthodox in the sense that it houses several children considered especially dangerous including Lucy, son of the antichrist, and Sal, a dog shifter who can pass his condition on with a bite, plus Chauncey so rare his species is completely unknown, there are also concerns about the master himself one Arthur Parnassus.

Overall I love this book, the characters are so well-written and the way the relationships develop and they grow into a family are so heart-warming. Found family at it's best 💕

Steff Out x

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

 

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you.

2/5 stars

This book felt confused as to what it wanted to be. It read a lot like a crime thriller, especially in the sections from the cop's point of view (also either refer to her as Jo/Joanna or pick a surname that isn't a common first name, I would get confused whenever her first name was mentioned because Harper so often is a first name) but then there's all this stuff about changelings at the beginning of most chapters.

As for Lauren I really wanted her to officially ditch her useless, unsupportive husband. He was definitely having an affair even if he didn't admit it.

The changeling stuff would have been better if they'd gone into more detail about it and done more research, it was just there and barely. It all felt very vague and incomplete and even the ending wasn't really an ending, it just stopped and it didn't feel like much had changed.

Steff Out x

A Pirate's Life for Tea by Rebecca Thorne

Ebook provided by NetGalley for review. Thank you!

4/5 stars

This was super cute and fun and I still really enjoyed it but slightly less than book one.

For a start I missed their friends back at the tea shop. For another although I was glad the thing with the dragons was solved, at the same time it kind of wasn't. I also thought that the "dethroning" of a certain ruler was a little abrupt in the end. And I wasn't entirely sold on the "meet your heroes" part of the storyline. I don't know if they added enough value as a character.

All that being said, I loved Bobbie and Serina's relationship and their growth as characters. I eagerly await the next book. Also 5/5 for the anniversary short! IYKYK 👀🫦🥵

The book comes out next month! October 3rd to be specific. Go buy it!

Steff Out x