Disclaimer :
- All reviews and opinions are sponsored by yours truly.
- All descriptions 'About the Book’ are from Goodreads.
- All reviews are spoiler free unless mentioned otherwise.
[Also just to put it out there, these aren’t bad books by any means. They were just my least favourite from the bunch I read throughout the year.]
1. Can you Keep a secret - Sophie Kinsella
My Rating 2.5*
Goodreads rating 3.84
About the Book
Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets: Secrets from her boyfriend. Secrets from her mother. Secrets she wouldn't share with anyone in the world. Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.…Until Emma comes face-to-face with Jack Harper, the company's elusive CEO, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her...
THOUGHTS!
For the first 100 pages Sophie Kinsella had me howling and I truly thought this would be a favourite. Her writing style was for lack of a better word, smooth. It felt like an unfiltered entry in your everyday funny girls’ journal. This was my first ever Sophie Kinsella novel and her writing style did not disappoint. Now that I’ve given credit where credit was due let’s get into its shortcomings. As the book progressed there were a few sexist phrasesthat weren’t addressed as wrong which just didn’t sit well with me. Also, I’m a hopeless romantic but the romantic leads in this just didn’t cut it. Their connection didn’t feel believable and overall just made it more of a task to get through. All in all it was a pretty disappointing read especially because it started off so great and eventually resulted in my first and only DNF’d book of 2019.
2. Truly Devious – Maureen Johnson
My Rating 3*
Goodreads rating 4.04*
About the Book
Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym, Truly Devious. Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has a plan to solve this cold case. But Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy.
THOUGHTS!
Elingham Academy was dark but whimsical in an “everyone could be homicidal” kind of way. Maureen Johnson has a way with description that made my reading experience feel almost lifelike. I absolutely adored the scenery of this book. The main lead, Stevie, was a very strong one that allowed me to power through the unnecessary ( in my opinion) bulk. This book was unnecessarily long! A lot of details we were given seemed pointless and eventually amounted to nothing. It honestly wouldn’t have made this list if it didn’t drag on for so much of the book! Along with this, there were a handful of characters that got blurred after some time.
-- Reading tip: if you’re planning to read this trilogy, have a notepad with all the various characters and their descriptions. You’ll need it!
The ending was the most disappointing due to the fact that I thought that it would pack a punch that unfortunately never got thrown. Overall, I wouldn’t write off this trilogy entirely because of the 1st instalment because it definitely gets better in the 2nd one.
3. Radio Silence - Alice Oseman
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