Bio
I'm an Avid Booktoker, and enjoyer of Romance, Fantasy and More!
    When I was in 2nd grade I earned the achievement of "greatest reading improvement of the year!" meaning I went from a 2nd grade reading level to a 9th grade reading level. My family was astonished, my siblings and dad all had pretty severe learning disabilities (JOKES ON YOU I DID TOO!) and neither of my parents were particularly academic. I'd go on to read more and more books way out of my age range, and as personal trauma's in life forced me to grow, so did my reading desires.
    I remember asking when 50 Shades of Grey came out if I could read it (i.e. I was born in '96, the first book came out in 2011, you do that math lol) and then finding and falling in love with Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost while in middle school! My parents were NOT amused when I asked to get a copy of Halfway & a copy of the newest Vladimir Tod from our local borders - Mom only came home with one of them.
    Books would quickly become my safety net, my place to hide away from the world, and to figure out what my personal values were. I was dealing with my battle of being a church kid, while also very much adoring Vampire books. They'd remind me over and over in these fantastical worlds that I could be that strong independent person, and all I had to do was keep fighting. To nobodies surprise, I always was good at reading the books assigned in school - My favorite being East of Eden, and The Scarlett Letter, but were surprised that I would end up almost failing every single math and science (STEM) related class. It turns out my teachers growing up were wrong when they told my parents I didn't have a learning disability, and I really did.
    I would go on to be the first in my family to have a degree, I graduated from California State University, Northridge, in 2019 with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, and now also have an A.A. in Deaf Studies, and plans to go back to Graduate School to snag that masters (I failed out with a 79% because I was not prepared to be in that environment but thats ok!). I'm also studying the Korean language right now, and plan to take my TOPIK test within the next few years.
    Why do I tell this all to you? Well, I'd like to become friends, and for you to get to know me well, and to hopefully learn to trust my reviews of books as I post them. This is a new thing for me, I never saw myself as being a blogger, but honestly? I'm on tiktok, and instagram for books, why not write my reviews too?
I hope you join me on this new adventure! Thanks!
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center Background:
For my first review, I figured i'd start with one that recently was actually not a 5 star read! This book was a quick, whitty, romance with a lot of tropes and adorable moments, mixed with some anger, frustration, and cheering when the FMC figured it out!
To start, we meet our protagonist, Hannah Brooks is your normal run of the mill worker, so you think - until you realize she's in fact a Bodyguard. Her job is to protect the high paying targets that she gets and make sure she never has to use her martial art abilities (yes she's a black belt!). She has a lovely boyfriend, Robbie, who also works with her, a best friend who she has no problems venting to, and even lives next door to, and a boss who has her best interest at heart.
The story begins the day after Hannah's mom dies, a mother that she wasn't extremely close to, but would end up guiding...every aspect of this book in some regard. All goes downhill when she discovers that her and her boyfriend, Robbie, are competing at work to secure a new position in London! Eager to win the position, it doesn't alarm her that she'll have to live at least one year thousands of miles away from Robbie...well then he just solves it and breaks up with her (this is all in the first chapter!)
When she finally goes back to work after a forced bereavement vacation, she gets her newest client, none other than the famous, and gorgeous, movie star Jack Stapleton. It all goes downhill from there learning that the only way Jack will actually agree to the bodyguard thing is if Hannah pretends to be his girlfriend, and whooo does she pretend alright.
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center Review:
Now, with the backstory out of the way, my first immediate thought to this story was "cute!" and thats about it - I read it in about a day, and wasn't overly excited to devour it. While it was adorable, and really well paced, I felt like had it been maybe 100 pages longer, with more drama in it, then maybe I would've been more engrossed. Essentially, the relationship moves pretty fast, with Hannah having to move into his parents house with him, and while I enjoyed all the interactions with his family, I felt like it was really lacking in a lot of ways when it came to actually forming bonds.
Of the entire cast, I'd say that Connie Stapleton was my favorite, she was the witty comedic relief character, while her husband (I can't even remember his name!!) was basically a throwaway. That was something I noticed with multiple members of the cast, many had their own backstories that were just not touched on - with two of Hannah's Coworkers apparently having feelings for one another, but you'd only know at the end, the hints were there...technically? However, they were NOT really apparent. Jack's character was...ok? I wasn't exactly enthralled by him, nor was I excited for the possibility of him being the MMC. He did grow on me, however he really just wasn't communicative with Hannah, and if he really hoped to have some sorta relationship with her, he wasn't exactly going about it the right way.
It felt like he ended up throwing his entire life away (he owned a house in another state then just gave it up for his family and Hannah?) for a few months relationship...which I guess is sorta common in RomComs, I just felt like this was an extra outlandish book.
One of the major positives was that the big "oh no" moment was actually not drawn out, it was like...a chapter at most, and I wasn't terrified about what was happening next, did it kind of come out of left field? Yes. Was it a nice little "oh!" moment? yes! I was pretty happy with how it was handled, and how nobody ended up dying, even though they talked about how many ways Hannah could murder a man multiple times.
Now - I know it looks like I must've hated this book, but honestly I didn't. If I had to choose to read that, or The Atlas Six (which I'm reading right now, about 100 pages left) then I'd pick The Bodyguard. It was cute, and fast, and thats exactly what I think it was meant to be. Was it a literary masterpiece? no. Was it a good Book of the Month pick for me? Yeah I'd say so! it was compared to Emily Henry's various RomComs and I just can't agree, it paled in comparison to be honest.
The Atlas Six by Olivie blake Background:
The Altas Six was a bit of a roller coaster from the beginning, and it never really take a moment to catch your breath.
The story begins with (my favorite) two characters: Libby & Nico, at their graduation. These two rivals cannot wait to be out of each others sight, until a mysterious man offers them a "internship" of sorts, that Nico agrees to in a heartbeat. As the reader goes on, we begin to meet all of the Six who are being invited to begin the process of joining the Alexandrian Society - where only the best mages in the world are able to attend. For one year, they will all train, and master their crafts together, with limited access to the Library of Alexandria herself, and at the end the group must decide all together to eliminate one student from the lineup.
The Atlas Six by Olivie blake Review:
First off, this book was insane - and when I say that its a roller coaster from start to finish I mean it. However, thats not always the best way to talk about a book. For the first 200 or so pages I was bored out of my mind. I almost DNF'd it way too many times to count, but something in me told me to just continue, finish it, you'll feel so accomplished when you do! I was right of course, but until I reached the last 150/200 pages or so, I was bored out of my mind. I had to make sure I was in complete silence to read it, and I had to make sure that I had no distractions. My fiancé, upon reading a bit of it said "you need a thesaurus to understand this SAT world extravaganza," and I couldn't agree more. I can undersatnd that its Dark Academia, and as such may be a bit wordier, with bigger words for simply things, but I felt like Blake took it a bit too far, and there were times where I (a former gifted kid) had times where I had to reread about 10x just to understand that someone was casting a specific spell.
All of that aside, I think the characters for the most part were great. Blake did a good job at making us very quickly hate Callum, only to be surprised that (spoilers) Libby would be the one eliminated, kinda, and that the rest were a bit of a toss up. The relationship between all of the characters evolved in a way that I enjoyed, and was content with, but was abruptly taken aback by the very random threesome that happened, which I assume will lead to more romance between Tristian & Libby.
The inclusion of Libby's beu being the main "bad guy" with Atlas was also a surprise, but I felt was rather poorly executed. We got very limited hints about it, and then BAM right in your face. However, when Tristan meets Ezra I was fascinated by learning more about Ezra's powers. The random inclusion of Parisa's background was appreciated as it made her a bit more human, though I do really still hate Callum.
In all, this book is getting a 2 1/2 star from me. This is due to the overly complicated and dense...nothing that happens during the course of many chapters. This book is more slogging along than anything, its boring, and the only redeeming quality thats making me buy and read book two is the last bit, and the random in your face ending of Libby being kidnapped by Ezra. Though it was really touching seeing Tristan & Nico realizing it wasn't really Libby's body.
The Atlas Six by Olivie blake Review:
Knot My Type by Evie Mitchell: Background
This is a short and sweet story about a wheelchair user named Frankie, and a BDSM teacher named Jay! They meet after Frankie is in search of a kink accessible instructor to teach her about how to use rope safely in bed, for those who aren't able bodied to discuss on her podcast. Over time the two begin to bond, and they do quickly fall in love. Unfortunately, Jay has a bad past due to another Podcaster who used and abused him in his youth. The mother of one of his friends. Through trials and tribulations these two go back and forth on various accessibility issues, they learn how to safely rope play together, and they make it through!
Knot My Type by Evie Mitchell: Review
First off, this is an adorable, really quick read. Its under 300 pages (maybe closer to 200) and VERY simple. That being said, it was rushed to an almost extreme, and the relationship blossomed like it had taken years. The author did include a few time skips, but because of that, and the length of the novel, it felt overly rushed.
The characters of Jay & Frankie were...lackluster to say the least, both starting out so strong in the first chapter, than sizzling out very quickly. This book was meant to be a sorta guide and inclusion to the kink/accessibility communities, and I felt like it was a let down.
This book unfortunately got ripped apart by my book club (@TheRippedBodice) and while it had a few redeemable qualities, it was just executed very poorly. I think had the author included minimum 100 more pages, and actually hired an editor, it could've blossomed.
The build up to meeting the "ex" of Jay's was barely noticeable, and even when they fought it made no emotional impact on me - I felt bad for Jay, but honestly couldn't care less. The character was overtly evil, and that really showed. It also never touched on the fact that this was a friends mom, what happened with the friend?
Something one of my fellow book clubbers noticed was that they're meant to be in this small coastal town, but...everyone has this amazingly affluent job, they have a BDSM CLUB? I'm not saying its impossible, but I grew up in a small coastal town and we sure didn't have one. Where was everyone getting the steady income to do these things? Going off of that, Frankie and Jay acted like complete strangers, having know of each other in passing, but if its such a small town, wouldn't they know more about each other? Anyway its a 2 star for me!