A Deadly Education left me with very mixed feelings. The opening line held so much promise. It offered conflict and an intriguing dichotomy right from the get-go. Such as, why would anyone want to kill the very person who’d saved their life? What more when they had saved them more than once? I wanted answers but didn’t feel like I got much by the end of the book. Is this one premise supposed to span across the entire series? Evidently, but the opening of the story arc for it didn’t turn out as solidly as I had hoped.
HOW TO FIND LOVE IN THE LITTLE THINGS by Virginie Grimaldi
Depending on how you look at it, quarter- and midlife crises books can add to the disillusion or be rather cathartic. Personally, I thought How to Find Love in the Little Things tended towards the cathartic.
VENGEFUL by V.E. Schwab
When I first heard that Vicious, a book that was published as a standalone, was going to have a sequel, I wasn’t all too excited. I didn’t think it needed a sequel. Plus, I didn’t want to be disappointed by yet another title shoved into a series that it wasn’t supposed to be a part of.
CHRISTMAS CAKES AND MISTLETOE NIGHTS by Carole Matthews
Technically, Christmas Cakes and Mistletoe Nights is a sequel to Cake Shop in the Garden but it stands quite well on its own. I actually only realised that it’s a sequel due to the summarised info dump during the first couple of chapters — think throwback highlight reel at the start of new seasons of TV shows. Once that’s done and dusted, it’s back to regular writing and storytelling.
FAMILY AND OTHER CATASTROPHES by Alexandra Borowitz
Good satire makes you laugh while simultaneously reflecting on the subject matters. Rooted in reality, it makes you wonder how serious these characters are (very) but then on second thought you realise that they’re world views are so black and white, they couldn’t be for real. With that in mind, Borowitz used satire very effectively in Family and Other Catastrophes. Emily was so neurotic but with the kind of mother she had, it kind of made sense. Her sister Lauren, was fully committed to feminist social activism, in stark contrast to their brother, Jason, who was a desperate divorcé and quite the sexist.
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