Tag: 5 star read

Song of Achilles

A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner.


How do I even begin to write this review? I haven’t written a review in awhile (I’m the worst I know), and when I decided to get back to it, I said I wouldn’t review anything I haven’t recently read. But then I remembered this book (how could I ever forget it?), and I couldn’t not write this review. Now I’m sitting here and I’m trying to put into words how I liked the book, how it made me feel, what it meant to read it, and I’m coming up with nothing. No words to describe the absolute masterpiece that was Song of Achilles.

Here’s my best shot. Reading Song of Achilles was a journey. I first opened the book with high expectations and worry that it wouldn’t meet them. I thought it started slow, but quickly realized that was the point. This wasn’t a book about high action scenes, or epic adventures. Of course, both can be found in the book, but above all else this was a book about love. A love many dream of. It’s a book you fall in love with slowly, and when you realized that it happened your too far gone to stop it.

I won’t wax poetic about the book anymore. I’ll leave the review like this; this is the type of book readers think about for the rest of their lives. That they go back to over and over again. This is a god tier book. Five undeniably deserved stars. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time.

Rating

Love on the Brain

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project—a literal dream come true after years scraping by on the crumbs of academia—Marie would accept without hesitation. Duh. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school—archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. Perhaps it’s her occipital cortex playing tricks on her, but Bee could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally, backing her plays, seconding her ideas…devouring her with those eyes. There’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?


Ali Hazelwood, you have done it again. I have once again devoured a story you have written. Another love story, Gina? Yes. I’m apparently in a mood, and Ali Hazelwood has delivered. I was worried after her debut, “how will she do it again?” “She’s an exceptional writer, but will her story be as good?” The answer is, she’s amazing and I will forever read her stories.

I loved the characters. Nerdy scientists may just be some of my favorite characters to read. They were quirky, but not in an unrealistic, creepy way. They developed nicely. I laughed, and cried, and felt a whole range of emotions. The side characters were charming and fun, and while I wished I got to see more of everyone, I would not have wanted to take anything away from the story.

The two main characters, Bee and Levi, made my heart feel large and my head hurt. Normally the lack of communication trope makes me irrationally angry, but in this book, it was almost charming. Trope-wise it had one of my all-time favorites: when the man falls first. There’s just something so romantic to a story when you see a man fall in love with the woman, and then patiently waits for her to catch up. And let me tell you, Levi was patient.

Overall, I won’t say this book wasn’t without its flaws. I’ve read too many books to say any book is truly perfect. However, this book was exactly what I wanted it to be. Funny, romantic, quirky, emotional. It had it all. I am desperate for another novel by Ali Hazelwood.

Rating

Book Lovers

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.


I’m writing this review fresh out of finishing this book, tears in my eyes, smiling so hard my cheeks hurt. My boyfriend is rolling his eyes at my, very typical, show of emotions. This won’t be a long review. I don’t have much to say without sounding like I’ve been paid to gush about this book.

Let me start by saying that Charlie Lastra is everything. You start with this grumpy, gruff man. You love him for his grumpiness, because let’s be real, we all love the grumpy/sunshine trope. Then you get to know him, and this character made my heart swell, and I just could not help the smile whenever you got to see a little bit more of him. Then there was the chemistry, and there was so much chemistry between him and Nora. The chemistry was enough to make a person combust.

Besides the romance you got a beautiful story of sisters and family. Having three sisters myself and being so close to my family it was so lovely to see a story that includes the importance of the family connection. That there are flaws and fights and things on the inside aren’t always what is projected on the outside, but family truly is everything. That family can be your best friends, not despite the bad, but because the good is so good it puts everything else into perspective. I love stories about family and this one was written so exceptionally well.

Overall, this book was so well rounded. Emily Henry writes exceptional love stories, but more than that she writes exceptionally stories all together. That romance is so much more than the love. It’s about all that goes on around the love story. That without all of the other stuff, love isn’t possible.

Rating

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