Category: Reviews

Wicked PLL Book #5 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

Another PLL book down and I gotta say this one had a lot going on but not a lot at the same time? I mean in terms of the girls and A and secrets there wasn’t a lot but there was a lot in relation to Alison and maybe her not seeming like herself at points. So even if I feel like I don’t have much to write this will probably end up being super long lol.

First off secrets! And we will start with Aria as always lol. I find her secrets are always the easiest to talk about. And Aria’s secret is that her mom’s boyfriend is interested in her. So Aria meets this mysterious artist guy at a gallery and she flirts with him because she doesn’t know who he is and then a few days later he shows up at her door to take HER MOM on a date.

This is when Aria realises the guy is older and she needs to step back. Unfortunately, the guy doesn’t take the hint, one thing leads to another and they end up kissing and Aria is freaked out. This guy then says she’s been giving him mixed signals and it’s so disgusting because he is TWICE HER AGE. Like bro – no get out. He threatens Aria saying if she says anything about him to her mom that he would twist the truth to make it look like Aria was hitting on him. DISGUSTING.

Like Aria just got out of an inappropriate relationship and now this creeper is dating her mom and hitting on her. It is the worst and I thought we were done with these creepy-ass old men but I guess not.

So yes, that’s Aria’s thing.

Then with Emily, she realises sexuality isn’t black and white as she ends up having a crush on this guy she met at church. That’s it lol. Her secret was even easier to talk about than Aria’s omg. So yeah Emily dates this guy, she’s worried that A might tell him the truth but also everyone at her school could also spill the tea so eventually, she just tells him and he’s cool with it and all is fine. It’s a whole load of nothing other than Emily not keeping her cool about anything.

For Hanna, we have her maybe getting back on top of her game as she decides to team up with Kate and tackle Naomi and Riley the mean girls. However, she then ends up second-guessing her new alliance after thinking that maybe Mona had been in contact with Kate before she died and they were somehow always working together to pull her down.

So before Kate can expose Hanna for her secrets, Hanna blurts out to everyone at a party that Kate has herpes. Yikes. This backfires for her though as Kate tells her dad and now Hanna can only ever hang out and associate with Kate, effectively ending her popular girl reign. But also it sounded like Kate had been planning something to take Hanna down, we just don’t know what it was…though it could still come up we’ll see.

Also due to Hanna getting popular again, she ends up ditching Lucas who she was dating for like five minutes. And Lucas sees what she does to Kate at the party and breaks up with her for good. So I guess there’s not much worth mentioning with that. I was hoping they would last longer than that but it makes sense, will they reconcile now that Hanna is forced to hang out with her herpes-ridden stepsister? Who knows.

Kate also says to Hanna she doesn’t have herpes so I don’t even know what she had or maybe she just lied about a secret to get Hanna on side but I imagine Kate has a lot more up her sleeve, so we see how that goes.

Meanwhile, Spencer is dealing with the biggest crisis of them all. After admitting she lied about the Golden Orchid she is failing miserably as all her teachers think she’s lying/cheating on her schoolwork and she’s been kicked out of all her extracurriculars. OH and that’s not all, her grandmother died and left money for all natural-born grandchildren which didn’t include Spencer!

So Spencer is not a true Hastings?! This is exciting because this must mean that the Peter Hastings/Jessica DiLaurentis affair from the TV show came from the books. Though not sure how the fallout of this will go. Spencer signed up for this adoption service that’s supposed to help her find her birth mother and there was a potential match…looking forward to the drama.

I am hoping something good comes Spencer’s way soon though like her parents have barely spoken to her lately and have all but disowned her it’s awful. I guess she is hooking up with Andrew but is it just a hookup? Or will they become the smart power couple they are destined to be? Either way, I just want something good to be going for Spencer lol.

It also amazes me that we are this far into the series and the girls are still not friends. Like on the TV show it was so easy for them to fall back into being friends and hanging out. But I suppose the TV show would have sucked if they never talked or anything, in the book they only talk when they have to which I guess highlights just how much Alison brought them together as they are so different.

Also in this book, Ian’s trial for Ali’s murder is about to begin and he is on house arrest until the trial starts. But he sneaks out to talk to Spencer and he insists that he didn’t kill Alison and that the night in the woods he saw two blondes. One of them was Ali but who was the other one? *cough* twin *cough*. It wasn’t Spencer and she thinks he is making it up but maybe he isn’t…

Ian also says that he had always flirted with Ali but they were never serious about it and then all of a sudden she changed her mind. How strange. Almost as strange as when Alison decided to dump hanging out with her old friends and make friends with Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna. Turns out they hadn’t always been BFFs. Along with this, there are other subtle things that prove with Alison had seemed to switch to a different person, like Emily mentioning to her something that happened before they became friends and Alison lying about it…I wonder how long it will take for them to find out the truth.

Probably a long time, I mean new A has just arrived and they are only taking it seriously by the end of the book. At first, they think it is Ian, but then A lures Spencer and the girls out into the woods behind Spencer’s house and they find Ian’s body there. It looks like he’d been strangled to death…so A killed him. Not sure how the police are going to deal with this.

Also, Wilden in this book has been acting sus. He so far hasn’t been totally useless and has actually wanted to help the girls but he seems to be having serious conversations with someone on the phone…not sure what that’s about. But also he must be tortured because the girls seem to have him on speed dial and call him every 5 minutes which is so different from the TV show lol they learnt early on that they couldn’t trust the police on the TV show.

Then finally the only other thing worth mentioning is throughout the book they talk about this Time Capsule day and how Alison had found a piece of the flag to decorate. All the girls had shown up to her backyard to steal it from her but she said it was too late it was already taken. Aria had then headed back into the woods to go to her house when she ran into Jason, he had the flag piece and he gave it to Aria and said nothing. This is weird but obviously significant, especially as Aria had kept the piece and not turned it in. Is there something sus about it? I am not sure but I’ll be interested to see if it comes up again.

And that is us at the end of another PLL book. I am intrigued to see where we go from here. Obviously, Ian’s death is going to be a big thing. I’m wondering if Peter Hastings will be exposed for being the dirty cheater he is and Spencer can get some of her life back. I also hope Emily learns to chill out lol, Hanna will be suffering with Kate and it looks like Aria might move back in with Meredith and Byron to get away from her mom’s creepy boyfriend. So lots of fun things to look forward to.

I’ll probably be back in a few days because I can’t stop reading these – they’re so good. So stay tuned!

June 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I feel like this is going to be a short post mainly because all I’ve really been reading is PLL.

Flawless PLL Book #2

Full blog post here.

I feel like I don’t have lots to say about these because I already wrote full blog posts on them. But this book was cute, I enjoyed the stories that were told. I wasn’t expecting Spencer to be one to lose herself in a boy but even the smartest of the girls make stupid mistakes when it comes to boys.

Also was not expecting a death so soon in the series, but leads me to wonder how many more we can expect as time goes on.

It’s In His Kiss

I was not sure about this book considering how much I disliked the last Bridgerton story. However, this one was completely different and I enjoyed it a lot.

I think it was interesting because there was more than just the love story going on. There was a hint of a mystery and also learning more about the man Hyacinth was going to marry. He had a backstory and it was good and he got along well with Hyacinth in a way that didn’t make me want to vomit.

Plus there was a good amount of Lady Danbury thrown in as well which was nice.

So yeah, glad I didn’t completely give up on the series. That being said there’s still one sibling book left and then a happily ever after epilogue kind of book for everyone. So we see how it all ties up, I expect nothing less than it to be all wrapped up in a nice bow but that’s perfectly fine for a series all about eight siblings falling in love with their perfect partner.

Perfect PLL Book #3

Full blog post here.

I enjoyed this one, I still can’t get over how different Aria is in the books compared to TV. Everyone else seems similar enough but they changed Aria a lot and I guess it’s because they didn’t want her to seem too out of place with everyone else.

Also interesting that A slipped up with that text to Hanna, I thought they would have been smarter than that. But we’ll see what happens next and what leads to that big reveal.

Currently Reading: Unbelievable PLL Book #4

We are heading into July reading another PLL book. They are very easy to read so I find myself reading pages here and there when I can. I mainly am dying to get through this one to see how the girls all find out about A, I mean I suspect Hanna tells them but I need Mona to go to all the lengths to prevent that from happening. I mean she did hit Hanna with a car…but still.

So yeah lots more PLL in the future as there are 16 books in that series, and I still have two Bridgerton books to read and I bought some books this month so going to try to sprinkle those in as well. All in all, I’ve got a good lot of books to keep me busy for the rest of the year and I’m not mad about it.

Perfect PLL Book #3 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

Here we are book 3 and we have lots to discuss.

First of all, Aria and the fact that her mom can’t stand to look at her after the fact she knew about Byron and Meredith. Gross. I mean I know her mom is mad at her daughter but that’s still your daughter…yet she still says she can’t see Aria for a while so Aria is staying with Sean’s family.

Also, Aria painted a red A on Meredith’s chest for adulterer and I thought that was kind of fun, though nothing comes from it and I thought for sure Byron was gonna freak out about it.

Even though Aria is with Sean that doesn’t stop her feelings for Ezra as she ends up hanging out with him and telling him about her parents and everything going on and they reconnect… but not for long! Because A tells Sean about Aria and Ezra and Sean calls the POLICE. HA.

Yes, that’s right. Ezra Fitz went to JAIL. FINALLY. That’s why I needed to talk about Aria first I needed to get this out because this is what I needed lol. Instead of dragging us through their whole messy-ass relationship, they gave me what I needed. A brief romance that ended with the child predator being arrested. Thank you.

Needless to say that Aria and Sean are over and Aria is a bit homeless now because her mom still doesn’t want to see her, she’s not talking to her dad and her boyfriend has dumped her. Not sure what is next for Aria but I imagine something kooky is just around the corner.

Next, we have Emily, who wanted to tell the police about A. Poor girl. She hasn’t learned that you don’t do something A doesn’t want you to. Well, she finds out the hard way when A outs her to the whole school at a swim meet by posting photos of her and Maya around for everyone to see.

Unlike on the TV show where no one at school really finds out or cares, everyone at school is fetishizing Emily which is pretty gross. Like all the boys wanting to hang out with her to see her kiss a girl. Bleh. But also not surprising.

What’s really gross though is that her parents want her to try a gay conversion therapy camp place. And Emily thinks she should do it and “fix” herself until she realises that’s not how it works and she can’t change who she is. This is not good news for Mrs. Fields who definitely wants her child to be straight and is threatening to send her to Iowa to live with her aunt…

Thank God this is not what happens on the TV show because it would not have gone down well. Obviously, Emily’s mom is upset but she eventually comes around to everything, I don’t know if that will happen in the book though. I’m not sure what will happen for Emily now to be honest but she can’t just be shipped off she’s one of the Liars.

Then there is Spencer who is being made to see a therapist by her parents. Which I think is a good call, though it’s probably not best to be seeing the same therapist as your sister, there is definitely some conflict in that. Not to mention Melissa’s appointment is right after Spencer’s which is again not good.

Spencer finds out that she’s been suppressing horrible memories or traumatic events in her life as she is having a mental block on the fight she had with Alison on the night she disappeared. Through therapy and time she discovers that the night that Ali disappeared, they were fighting over the fact Alison was dating Ian and Spencer couldn’t have him. Yikes.

Alison apparently told Ian to kiss Spencer as a test to see if he would do anything for her and he did. And now Alison was holding her relationship with Ian over Spencer. And Spencer was angry with Alison and so she pushed her, and Alison fell and hit her head. So Spencer realises that she hurt Alison that night but she is sure she didn’t kill her…well she definitely didn’t carry Ali into her backyard and dump her body where the police found it at least.

So that’s one revelation. It’s good to know they kept key points about the girls similar to the TV show. Like the relationship with Ian and Spencer not remembering what happened that night. Though they made Spencer out to be on drugs when that happened on the TV which was a bit extra but there you go.

Anyway, on top of that Spencer and Melissa fight after A lets Melissa know that Spencer stole her essay for the Golden Orchid. Things get heated and Spencer ends up pushing Melissa down the stairs. Which is pretty dark, like I didn’t expect this from her but now her family thinks she’s dangerous. So it’ll be interesting to see where that goes.

And finally, we have Hanna who spends this book trying to prove to Mona they are still besties after she misses her Friendaversary with Mona to be questioned by the police about Alison’s disappearance. Naturally, Mona doesn’t want to listen to any excuses though, and kicks Hanna off of her birthday party court and uninvites her to the party completely.

But this gives Hanna the excuse to make friends with Lucas. Apparently, he was cool in school until the rumour of him being a hermaphrodite circulated around and now he is a nerd. But he is nice to Hanna and he invites her on a hot air balloon ride of all things and they bond haha. Like why would you trust anyone who you are hanging out with for the first time to take you up in a hot air balloon that’s such an easy way to get murdered but anyway Hanna makes it out alive.

Plus after Hanna gets humiliated at Mona’s party her and Lucas have a moment where they makeout so I’m wondering if they start to become a couple or not. Which I would be all for because we never got that on the TV show, and if Caleb is not going to show up I feel like Lucas is a good option for Hanna.

At the end of the book, we have Aria looking at an old video of her and the girls and making the connection between Alison and Ian and then thinking maybe Spencer had something to do with Alison’s death since she was crushing on Ian. And we have Hanna who receives a text from A but this time with a number that she recognises…looks like she knows who A is.

As Hanna is rushing to tell the girls, BAM! She gets hit by a car.

She knew too much. – A

Yep. Can’t say I’m surprised I saw the TV show. Similar events play out in season one at Mona’s birthday. Except for the girls at Camp Mona for her birthday and not at a Planetarium. Though I gotta say that Hanna getting hit by the car in the books makes way more sense than on the TV show.

The TV show says Hanna knew too much because she saw Noel Kahn write on the back of Ezra’s car while he is with Aria. But that ultimately leads nowhere because Noel is not A. But in the book? Hanna definitely knows who the real A is and that’s more interesting.

This book also has an A chapter but it’s not as cringey as the one from the first book. It also confirms that Mona slipped up when texting Hanna and it’s not a tactical slip to make her think A is someone else. So I guess if you were paying enough attention this is where you would figure out who A is, as before this I feel like there are not super strong hints that you can tell who it is?

Also interesting that Mona is pointing the girls toward Spencer killing Alison? Of course, she could have been lurking in the shadows that night and thought it was her. In the book, Spencer gets a text that alludes to the killer being right in front of her, while she’s standing at a mirror. So Mona could have easily seen them fight but not what happened next.

Well looks like all will be revealed in the next book which is exciting! I am looking forward to seeing where things go from here. I like seeing the elements they pulled out from the book for the TV show. I do think some of the things A made the girls do early on in the TV show were harsher than in the book. Particularly in relation to Hanna and bingeing and Sean/Lucas. But we’ll see what happens when new A comes into play.

Flawless PLL Book #2 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

We are back with our second PLL book review! I feel like I couldn’t put it down I just had to know what happened. I also found out that when I had intended to read the series a few years ago, I was actually halfway through this one and stopped. Thank you Kindle app! But also don’t know why I stopped reading, there could be 100s of reasons but part of me thinks maybe it was because of exams and school. But that doesn’t matter now because I finished it this time!

So I think it makes sense to talk about each girl individually and all their drama because the girls are still not close yet. Yes, they discussed A briefly at Alison’s funeral but they are still keeping secrets to themselves. It is only at the end of the novel that they come together as Spencer spills some tea about The Jenna Thing, but we’ll get to that.

First off let’s talk about Aria, I feel like she didn’t have as much going on this time compared to the other girls. I also find her drama kind of boring. Thankfully Ezra Fitz was nowhere to be found in this novel. Not like in the TV show where he shows up at the funeral and he and Aria kiss. Bleh.

In this book, Aria is being pressured by A to tell her mom about the affair that Byron had with Meredith. Like I said I find this kind of boring. I guess because it matches up with the TV show. We know what happens, A writes a letter to Ella and she is devastated and can’t believe Aria knew the whole time. Ouch.

Aside from that, we see Aria get close to Sean Ackard who is Hanna’s ex. This was hinted at on the TV show but Aria shut it down because she could never do that to bestie Hanna. Except in the book she definitely does do that and doesn’t give Hanna a second thought because she and Sean broke up and Hanna and Aria aren’t friends. Savage.

I wasn’t expecting this pairing to happen and I don’t really know if I like it. Plus there’s the whole aspect of the girl code which was so obviously broken. I mean okay Aria and Hanna weren’t close anymore and Hanna had broken up with Sean but I still think it would be weird to date someone that your old friend also dated…but eh it’s high school and as long as Aria is hooking up with people her own age I can’t be mad. I just don’t see it lasting.

Meanwhile, Hanna is dealing with so many more issues. Like the fact she totaled Sean’s car and has to work at Sean’s family’s burn clinic to pay off the debt. Not cute. But still better than the dental clinic she had to work in on the TV show.

But also, Hanna’s dad is back and he has ulterior motives for wanting to see Hanna as he wants to bring his old family and his new family together. Gross.

Similar to the TV show the events unfold with Kate and Isobel as expected. That Kate ends up getting Hanna in more trouble by lying to Hanna and then exposing her terrible behavior to her dad. Except in the TV show, Hanna’s grandmother can see right through that crap. No such luck in the book, Hanna has no one to defend her and it looks like her dad may never speak to her again. Eep.

I honestly hate how none of the characters in this book have good parents lol. Like Hanna’s dad goes AWOL and starts a new life for himself and when he sees his daughter is clearly struggling he just pawns her off to her mother and goes back to his new family. And then Hanna’s mom is obviously a shitty parent who is never present and is sleeping with a cop to keep Hanna out of jail…I suppose that’s a “nice” thing to do for your daughter? But still shitty parenting lol.

Anyway, aside from the Kate drama, Hanna is also bullied by A into confessing to some girls at school that she has been making herself throw up. Which is horrible, but I am also glad they address Hanna’s eating disorder more in the books than in the TV show. Like in the TV show they mention it once and just act like it’s no big deal but it’s clearly still a very real thing in the books and I hope that Hanna can get it under control. I just wonder how far Mona will push her on it.

Next, we have Spencer who is totally head over heels in love with Wren. And it makes me sick. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he is a full-ass adult who is hooking up with a teenager and it’s DISGUSTING. He calls Spencer not two days after breaking up with Melissa and then the first time Spencer hangs out with him they have sex. Ugh. Hate it.

I can totally see from Spencer’s point of view why she thought this would be okay but Wren is just an adult who took advantage of a child in that situation and it makes me want to barf.

But after Spencer sleeps with Wren she becomes the classic girl in love who is very clingy to Wren since she thought they had an amazing bond since they had sex. And it’s surprising to see Spencer fall like this I feel like in the TV show she is much stronger and the Wren thing doesn’t last as long. But yeah, naturally Wren gets annoyed with all of Spencer’s calls and texts and tells her it’s over.

And to make things worse, Spencer finds out from Melissa that Wren has actually been seeing her too. So not only is Wren scum for sleeping with a minor but he’s also been sleeping with her sister the whole time too! I hate him so much. And in the TV show, he ain’t much better so I guess he did deserve to be turned into a diamond.

I don’t know if we hear much from Wren after this book but I’m hoping not.

Also, Spencer stole her sister’s essays because she was way behind on school work and too busy focusing on Wren. But she also stole the essay on the TV show and if things play out the same then we know she kind of gets away with it. So not super important to note.

Then there’s Emily who is still struggling with her sexuality but she ends up making friends with Toby Cavanagh who saves her from a bad encounter with her ex Ben. Again, these events play out kind of similar to the TV show, except the dance they are at is homecoming and Toby doesn’t die.

I gotta tell you I was not expecting Toby to commit suicide. Like in the TV show he is Spencer’s main love interest and he actually seems like an okay guy! I am surprised they kept him around considering how quickly he is killed off in the books. This makes me wonder if Spencer has a different main love interest in the books or maybe none at all. I think I would prefer if the focus was on the drama and not the relationships so I’m fine if Spencer doesn’t have someone but we’ll see how it plays out.

It also turns out that Toby was the one who forced himself on Jenna and not the other way around like on TV, and that’s why he kills himself. He thought everyone knew his secret and he couldn’t live with it anymore. Even though the secret Emily was confronting him about was actually that she thought he killed Alison. Yikes. This is the tea that Spencer spills to the girls when they find out that Toby has died.

So yeah things took a turn at the end of the novel. All the girls think Toby was A and that they would be free but then Emily gets a text from A telling her “it’s not over till I say it is”. And then that’s the end of the book.

No A chapter at the end which is nice, I think it was good to end on that message because it’s a good cliffhanger and definitely makes me want to find out what happens next. I am hoping there is more deviation from the TV show because I find myself guessing what happens and that’s not always fun. I want to be shocked lol.

I am wondering if Jenna ever comes back to Rosewood properly or if we never see her again now that Toby is gone, I am wondering when Emily embraces her sexuality with Maya as it could still be a while, I wonder if Wren comes back though I really hope he doesn’t…and I also want to know what Hanna’s mom plans to do since her daughter is so ‘out of control’. And of course, I wonder if the girls will be able to figure out who A is now that Toby is gone, even though they aren’t really speaking at the minute.

And so that’s where we leave the girls for now. I am not sure what will come next exactly, other than Spencer’s essay thing kind of working out for her, Aria trying to keep her family together, and Emily trying to be straight lol. But I’m interested to see what A pushes them to do next. After all, I feel she is just getting started.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am finally starting to read the PLL books! I have wanted to do this for years but I’m finally committed to it now.

I also don’t know what to call these blog posts because I guess they are reviews but mainly it’s just going to be me comparing the books to the TV show and also trying to piece together clues about who A is.

First of all though disclaimer: I already know who A is in the books. How could you watch the TV show and search A theories without being spoiled? So I know who it’s going to be and now I wanna see if there are hints to see if I can figure it out or guess.

Anyway yes, so here we are PLL. I’ve actually read the first book before. Back in 2013 when I thought I was going to read the series. I got to the second book and stopped for whatever reason lol I swear I’ll get through this time.

So the first book is basically the pilot of the TV show. We are introduced to the four girls and who they are now that Alison is missing. The TV show also reveals the girls were at a sleepover when Ali went missing but we do not know this in the first book.

Mainly the things I focused most on in this book were the differences between the TV show.

For instance, everyone is hella rich in the books. So I don’t think Hanna will be having any money troubles.

They also have pets! How wild lol and Emily has a whole ass family of siblings and her dad isn’t in the army. How strange. Also, her mum is racist towards Maya’s family which is not cute.

The appearances of the girls are also different in the books but I won’t be mad about that because that always happens when doing book adaptations to movies/TV.

So yeah those were things that were strange to me. Also, A sends the girls a lot of messages in the first book. In the pilot, I think they all get one each. But A seems relentless in the first book, texting Aria nonstop about Ezra, leaving notes for Hanna and emailing Spencer. I like this though because it really shows how forceful A is.

Also A is Mona in the beginning so tell me how she be laying high in a field at Noel’s house and sending all these messages to Aria at the same time lol. I mean she was maybe acting and wrote a script to auto send messages but for real how did she know Aria was gonna see Ezra?

I think that’s the biggest thing I wondered about while watching the show is wondering how Mona even did it all. I mean they say some crap about her mental illness making her feel omnipresent or something but there had to be more. So I am hoping the book gives me some insight.

There was also the A chapter at the end of the book which, apparently back in 2013 I loved but today I read it and it was kind of cringey. It gave me some Gossip Girl vibes like very much “and who am I? That’s a secret I’ll never tell” sort of thing. Probably could have done without it.

Though I wonder how often these A chapters happen or maybe it’s just at the end of each book. I don’t know if I like it though. We’ll see how it goes from here on out.

Another thing that was wild to me is how they write Aria and Ezra. I mean I’m 100% against Ezria because it’s creepy, I might have felt differently back in the day but now I can’t stop being like “HE IS HER TEACHER AND SHE’S UNDERAGE”. So I’ll probably complain about them a lot in every blog post lol.

Anyway, the way Ezra is written is like he might as well be Aria’s age. I mean him getting jealous over her flirting with Noel is so icky. And even when he is hurt when he thought Aria told someone about them. “I really liked you” bro get over it she’s 16 and you’re in your early 20s…

Yeah, it’s all icky and I hate it. The way they write it in the book also makes it so casual and I hate that too. So yeah not a fan of Ezria can’t wait for it to be shut down. Hope it happens soon lol.

It’s also wild how they write about Wren and Spencer and how he immediately is way more attracted to her than Melissa and stuff. Like there’s no build-up, I wish there had been more to it…not sure what else I would have wanted lol but it just seemed a tad unbelievable.

Not to mention the way Spencer’s family treat her it’s so gross. How about being angry at the 20 something student who is preying on your 16-year-old and not your 16-year-old???

Yeah, that’s another inappropriate relationship. Ick.

Aside from all of that, the book is a strong start into something interesting. I’m excited to get into the series for real this time. I’ve read bits and pieces about the book series online so I’m interested to see how it all plays out.

And of course, I’ll be blogging about it along the way. This is the kind of series I feel I’m going to have a lot of thoughts about. So stay tuned for another post probably very soon!

May 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I read quite a bit this month! Proud of myself considering last month was a bit of a fail reading-wise, but we soldier on.

Talking As Fast As I Can

I finished this one on the 1st May so I guess technically an April read? I covered it in my last post as well.

It was a nice one. Nothing super special I feel but a nice insight into Lauren Graham’s time as Lorelai in the Gilmore Girls reboot and some other fun anecdotes about her career as an actress. Would recommend it to any Gilmore Girls fan out there.

Sweet Water

I wasn’t planning on reading an Amazon Prime First Reads book this month, but I started it when I was out of the house and wanted something to read.

This one was actually a good one! Amazon Prime First Read selections can be hit or miss and I always have a love/hate relationship with the ones that I choose. But this one I liked. I’m not saying it was amazing though, murder mysteries are always touch and go with me.

I think this one had a good pace, I hate when a novel drags something out when they don’t need to. I think the mystery was just enough but nothing crazy that you couldn’t guess what was going on.

So yeah, this one would be on the higher end of 3 stars compared to others I’ve read. And I usually end up rating a lot of books I read 3 stars lol so I guess that’s saying something.

Cinderella is Dead

I read this one very quickly, credit to the fact that we were getting work done on our house and the electricity was off for a few hours haha.

I’m not usually one for fantasy books, which sounds ridiculous when I tell you I loved Twilight and Vampire Diaries in my teens lol but yeah I don’t know they just don’t usually have an appeal to me. So I was taking a chance with this one it sounded interesting.

I ended up really enjoying this, I think it was a good twist on an old story. I wasn’t expecting the plot twist at the end either. Honestly just a great story and something that kept me wanting to go back to see what would happen. I’d definitely recommend it if you enjoy fantasy/fairy tale type stories.

Pretty Little Liars

IT. IS. TIME.

I have been wanting to read this series basically since I watched the TV show, was disappointed in the ending and found out the books are better. I have read the first book I think twice before with the intention of reading more and I just haven’t. But I’m doing it this year.

So I actually managed to finish the first book in the series yesterday which means I can officially include it here! Yay! But because I want to talk more in-depth about the books they will be getting their own blog posts.

I want to discuss everything, the secrets, the drama the “who is A” of it all. I mean I know who it is already because the internet spoiled it for me long ago but I need to know if there are clues. I wanna relive my 16-year-old self’s life of being immersed in the PLL universe. So be ready for this because I am so ready for this.

But don’t worry, I will still be breaking up the series with other books in between. How many I couldn’t say but there will at least be a couple Bridgerton books thrown in there.

Anyway yes, that’s my reading for May, I don’t know if reading will pick up now I’ve started a series like PLL, in my head, those books are easy reads and not super long so I feel like I’ll get through them quickly but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

April 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one is going to be a short one because I managed to read ONE book the whole month haha.

I actually didn’t even think I was taking that long to read this one book but I guess I did because well…the facts are it took me almost four weeks to read this book.

I’m not mad about it though, these things happen I feel like because I was off for Easter and not travelling etc I wasn’t reading much and so it’s not a big deal. We will just work on reading a bit more next month to make up for it.

So the book I read this month was:

When He Was Wicked

This is the 6th Bridgerton book and I did not like it lol.

First of all the first couple of times, I did some reading on it I was falling asleep while reading. Like partly because I was tired but also the story was not exciting.

The story goes that Francesca is married to John the Earl of Kilmartin and she has a wonderful life. However, Michael, John’s cousin is secretly in love with her. Eh. John ends up passing away very suddenly and so Francesca becomes a widow, and long story short she and Michael fall in love.

And I really did not like it. I mean I will give credit that because Francesca is not a virgin the love scenes were different than the usual “first-time” ones which have been in every other Bridgerton book so far. So that was something.

But Francesca’s constant indecision and vague “I can’t marry Michael just because” thoughts were so annoying. I am an indecisive person so I hate to see it in someone I’m reading about too. Just because I know it’s annoying when I can’t make up my mind never mind a fictional character. And there’s not even precise reasoning behind the indecision other than Francesca refusing to see Michael as anything but a friend really.

I also found that Michael’s plan to essentially trap Francesca in marriage by impregnating her is not the vibe. I know she never rejected his advances but it did not sit right with me at all.

So yeah, I was very glad to be done with this one. I suppose I could have just stopped reading it if I disliked it, but I’ve made it so far into the series I have to see it through to the end now. I probably won’t read the side books to the series but if I at least get through the main Bridgerton siblings that’ll be enough. Not sure how the other books will go but I can feel myself getting a bit fed up with them so I’m hoping to end it soon.

That being said I am still enjoying the TV show and am hoping for some creative changes to make some of the stories a bit more modern and more tolerable so…we’ll see how that goes.

Currently Reading: Talking As Fast As I Can

I kind of want to count this as part of my read books in April since I managed to read a lot of it in the last few days. But it’s not finished and it’s not even like I have 10 pages left either. I’m about 3/4s of the way through.

This is a non-fiction book written by Lauren Graham where she shares some stories of her time on Gilmore Girls and how she came to be where she is today.

The book is okay, for a non-fiction book. Lauren’s writing style is basically the talking style of Lorelai Gilmore which makes for an easy read. If you watch Gilmore Girls then you know, the characters talk fast so the book’s pace is fast. If you can read at the speed they talk haha.

But yeah I think I will finish it up in the next few days and I’ll be onto something else.

Reading plans for May consist of, reading the last of the physical books I bought a few months ago. I feel like I’ve had them for ages and I don’t know what’s been taking so long to read them – I guess I have been reading some Kindle books in between.

Another big goal is to actually start the Pretty Little Liars book series. I want to read it this year and I have officially finished my TV show rewatch so I want to get into the books when I can. Hopefully, by June I will have started into them, from what I hear they are better than the TV show so I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring to the PLL universe.

I’m not sure how much I will read in May, but I’m hoping it’s more than one book haha. I do have a holiday booked at the end of May but I’ll be with friends so not sure how much reading will get done, so better work on getting some books in before then!

March 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This month I was busy and so I feel like I wasn’t reading as much but we managed to finish one yesterday which makes a total of 3 books! Which I would say is about the average for me, so not bad.

Lie, Lie Again

When I started this one I thought I was going to really like it. But as I was reading it, I was realising the story wasn’t really going anywhere? I mean I thought there was going to be more mystery and drama.

The story follows three women who live in the same apartment complex. They all have their own secrets, which sounds interesting and mysterious but two of them have very basic and boring storylines. The most interesting one was Sylvia and even then it fell a bit flat for me.

I think it could be good in terms of a TV show but there are so many of them out there. So no, the book’s not super original but it was an enjoyable read. I just wish there had been a bit more drama or suspense to keep it a little more interesting. Still better than Open House though.

Loveboat, Reunion

I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago and I was so excited to get my hands on the sequel!

This book follows the story of Sophie and Xavier, they had a wild romance during Loveboat which ended up in flames. Now they are both trying to prove themselves as they return to the real world, Sophie as an AI uni student hoping to woo her professor and Xavier as a high school senior repeat who is struggling with dyslexia.

Honestly, when I first started reading it took me a while to figure out what was going on. I do not remember the first book at all lol so maybe I should have reread it before diving in here. This is a common theme for me with anything, even new seasons of TV shows I just never remember what happened beforehand. But oh well we figure out enough to keep reading.

Still, I really enjoyed this book! I was glad to learn more about Xavier and I was rooting for him and Sophie to work things out in the end. I definitely think I favoured Xavier’s storyline over Sophie’s; hers seemed a bit more surface level to me compared to Xavier’s struggles but I like how they intertwined.

I would highly recommend this book if you enjoyed the first one, I think it wraps up the Loveboat story nicely.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

I feel like I read a lot of murder mysteries but this one I could not put down. I loved this.

It’s not like there’s anything in this murder mystery that is super different from others but I liked the main character Pip a lot. And I enjoyed her determination to solve this mystery. Plus I think it was one where you couldn’t immediately guess the storyline and those are always the best.

I will 100% be picking up the other two books in the series to see what happens next.

And that includes another month of reading. I do not have a currently reading at the moment since I just finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder yesterday. Though the next book I know I will be reading is another Bridgerton one since it is due. I think it’ll be the first Bridgerton book about a sibling I know little about so it will be interesting.

Other books I plan to read in April are books that I bought physical copies of a few months ago and should probably get around to reading. That being said I don’t know how many books I’ll be reading since I know I’m busy towards the end of April but we’ll try to read what we can.

So far I have read 8 books out of 22 and so I think I’ll reach my goal in a few months’ time. Yay!

February 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Not a bad month for reading! Read more than I thought I would so that’s good. So let’s dive into my thoughts.

Open House

Started this one in January, ended it on the 2nd of February and honestly I just wanted it to end. Like it was okay when I started but as the story went on I just felt like it was dragging and I just wanted to know who killed the girl.

Even when we found out it wasn’t that shocking or original. Which is fine because nothing is really original anymore and I love a good cliche from time to time. But this one did not do it for me. I was bored.

Plus like I said in my last post, I hated that it constantly changed the point of view. Sometimes I don’t mind that from a book but this one changed too much. I would have preferred if it had switched less, or if it at least only switched between the sisters. But yeah, anyway glad I finished it so I can move on to something else.

To Sir Philip, With Love

The 5th Bridgerton book. This one was about Eloise and her story was interesting. I have to say I did enjoy this one more than the last one.

Eloise is probably my favourite Bridgerton sibling, she’s opinionated and knows exactly what she wants and is not willing to settle for less. And I was happy for her to find love.

Not that her love interest was the best by any means haha. But still it was a cute story. I can’t tell if half the reason I like it so much was that it was better than the last book I read but I still enjoyed it.

It’ll be interesting to see what the rest of the novels will be like as we move on to the lesser known siblings. I hope their stories will be enjoyable or at least tolerable as we are heading towards the last few books. Can’t be stopping the series halfway through.

Release the Best

A nonfiction book! I rarely read these haha. The only times I really read them are when they are written by a YouTuber or a drag queen and this time it’s the latter.

Usually, when I read these I don’t expect much, I don’t mean it to be rude but most of these books are written by people who have never written books before and they are usually just okay. I enjoy reading them because I support the person who wrote them and I’m not expecting life-changing stuff from them.

But Bimini really brought it, they did their homework and I found their book to be educational to me. They discuss a lot about gender theory and growing up queer and finding themselves and I think that was really interesting. As a straight cis-woman, these are things I am not fully educated on so doing some reading on it was useful to me.

Bimini also gives us further reading resources at the back of the book so I know there are places to go if I want to delve more into the subject.

Overall it was an okay read, sometimes it got a bit rambly in places but that can happen sometimes, not a big deal. Still, I did learn some things from it so it was definitely worth picking up. Plus I love Bimini so of course, I’m going to support them, they are iconic.

Currently Reading: Lie, Lie Again

I started this book on the 26th of February and I think it’s going to be a good one. So far I’ve only read 50 pages but I have a good feeling about it. Which is more than I can say for the last Amazon Prime First Reads book I read – yes I’m looking at you, Open House.

But that’s where we are with reading. I actually finished Release the Beast halfway through February and I think I could have squeezed in another book for this month but I took a break from reading for a week or so. It’s not the worst, and I’ll still reach my Goodreads goal but sometimes I think “I definitely could have read more” lol.

What’s ahead for March reading is maybe another Amazon Prime First Read…maybe I have so many from last year I didn’t read so they’re always an option. Though I did buy a few physical books last month so they will take priority. And another Bridgerton book – the way I’ve been reading them is they’re every 4th book I read, so this month I read To Sir Philip, With Love which is the Bridgerton one, then Release the Beast, currently reading Lie, Lie again and then a third book and then we are back on Bridgerton. It’s been working out well.

Plus I am supposed to be heading back into the office again from March so I will have lots of extra reading time on the commute so I imagine I’ll get some good reading done in March. That or I’ll be tired and won’t read at all, we’ll see how it goes.

January 2022 Reading Wrap Up

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

I don’t always like to do big book reviews when I read so I thought each month I would list the books I read and give you a short paragraph on my thoughts.

If you want to know more of my thoughts then I can link to a longer review if I post one, but recently a short couple of paragraphs on Goodreads is enough for me.

If you wanna know more about my reading habits in real-time you can check out my Goodreads but I thought it would be cool to have these summaries too to see how much I read per month.

So without further ado, here are my reads for January!

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I started reading this one at the end of last year and I kind of wanted to finish it before then so I could start afresh with a new book this year. But realistically, I read the first 30 pages two days before the new year so the majority was read in January.

Once I got properly stuck into this book, I could not put it down. I was obsessed and it was so good. Evelyn is an icon and her story is one that I think everyone should read.

So we started strong and I give this all the stars and recommend it 100%

The Girl that Reads on the Metro

I picked this up last year, thought it was going to be a cute read. I guess it was to some degree but overall a bit of a letdown.

I found it hard to really enjoy the story since I ended up rereading paragraphs sometimes because I lost track of what was going on. Not sure if it was due to the translation or just me reading through things too quickly but it wasn’t my fave.

Also, the poetic writing style was not for me. It was definitely beautiful writing and I can appreciate that but sometimes I could do without all the fluffy description because I just want to know what happens.

So yeah, this one was not the best and I almost considered giving up on it but because it was short I held out. Definitely was not my thing.

Currently Reading: Open House

This one I am currently halfway through. So far it’s okay, not my favourite mystery. The constant switching point of view kind of bothers me though because I would rather you stay on one person for at least a few chapters before moving on, some chapters are only 3 pages long so it’s a lot to keep switching. But we’re halfway there so might as well keep going haha.

And that concludes the January reading wrap up. I’d say it was an okay month for reading, there were weeks I didn’t read at all and others where I read a lot. Can’t complain though as we start off the reading challenge of the year quite strong.

This year in terms of books I am choosing to read, I don’t have much of a plan. Mainly my goal is to finish the Bridgerton series and start the PLL book series. And maybe read more of the Amazon Prime First Reads books, I get a free one every month from prime and yet I haven’t been reading them lol. They can be a bit hit or miss but they’re free so can’t complain.

So yeah, lots of books to be reading, don’t always make time for them but we do what we can. I can’t imagine I’ll be reading many books next month as February always seems very short but who knows? I might surprise myself.