reviewing 5 recent(ish) reads including the beautiful ones, it ends with us and we hunt the flame 

It Ends With Us feels like a novel of abuse apologizing, because of how much it wanted us to think her abuser was actually a good person. This was recommended to me as a contemporary romance and as someone who has experienced domestic violence, I would never have read it if I knew what it was. I was infuriated by this novel.

A coworker of mine is getting back into reading and picked up reminders of him by coho and just told me she had to stop reading because she felt trauma dumped on and she has enough going on in her life that she doesn’t need that on top of everything else

I felt the exact same way about we hunt the flame. I could not believe how slow it was, I swear we were in the same scene for 100 pages lol. And I didnt believe Zafira and Nasir’s relationship, it was almost too reliant on the idea of enemies to lovers as a trope without having the substance to make me believe they actually went from enemies to lovers

…and so I TAKE BACK MY HALF STAR!” I listen to RU-vid book reviews while I am driving and when I tell you I had to pull over because I could not stop cackling 😂

Oh my goodness!! I started We Hunt the Flame last year and I was intrigued the first 50ish pages then they went on a ship and the jokes came. I put the book down after that. I was thinking of picking it up again in hopes that the jokes were just a one off. Now you said that it’s throughout the book. 😮. This hardback book was given to me a couple years ago as gift so I feel compelled to finish it….before I die.

I’m with you. I don’t understand the CoHo hype. Her writing is sub-par, and her characters feel like caricatures.

This is the most random group of books ever Lol (Also, I would have loved to meet you and Sam in Dublin 🙈)

I'm definitely going to try The Beautiful Ones after the way you talked about it. You have such a beautiful way of talking about books you love.

I've wanted to try a Sally Rooney book, just out of curiosity, and your more positive feelings about Normal People give me hope that I might like it. 😄

I am so happy that you loved the beautiful ones and normal people bc same!!

I need to read The Beautiful Ones! Loved Mexican Gothic.

YAY The Beautiful Ones!!! 💞💞💞 I was told by multiple people it was right up my alley and everyone was right lol. and yes! SMG does messy/morally grey characters in ways I actually love?! also love your earrings!

Sally Rooney is a surprise fav of mine too 😂 it’s really interesting why people like things, because sometimes that is more interesting than the shared love haha

I just read my first Sally Rooney, too (Beautiful world, where are you?) and was shocked I liked it as much as I did 😂

the special guest at the end!!!!!! 😭❤️💕💕💕

you literally made my night! 😭😭 edit: that 'james patterson presents' on kingdom of the wicked is funny and concerning all at once.

I don’t get the Hoover hype either. It boggles my mind she has so many trash books published and so highly rated/well-received

I just finished kingdom of the feared and the whole trilogy feels like that XD great vid!

I loved your review of Kingdom of the Wicked, I DNF'd that so fast hahaha

Love your reviews so much! Your appreciated ❤

I haven't read We Hunt the Flame but I really feel you on the "I'm not the audience for these books" regarding YA. Though it was for the hunger games lmao (I reread them on a whim and I really liked them when they came out, but now that I'm almost 30 I'm like oooh these are definitely YA novels) Anyway I said this on another video but it bears repeating: the weird adulation of these authors and novels that involve seriously messed up relationships and power dynamics really makes me feel some kind of way. I also feel some kind of way about the people who slam colleen hoover but then get defensive of their "dark romances" and i'm like...is it...not the same? is it not still romanticizing abuse and domestic violence, even if it markets itself that way? it's all very odd to me and i really do not like it

Sally Rooney is an author that I've been really debating whether or not to pick up

I felt the exact same way about We Hunt the Flame when I read it. I did not enjoy It Ends with Us when I read it years ago either. I am tempted to reread it to evaluate it because I took a course on Intimate Partner Violence last year. However, after hearing you talk about it I do not know if I can suffer through it again. I may pick up the Sally Rooney book and The Beautiful Ones after your reviews!

You have saved me from the Colleen Hooper, thank you. Just taking that off my TBR.

That you put yourself through reading Hoover and Maniscalco... that doesn't seem very healthy. :D Hope you had some great reads after that!

I have seen Colleen Hoover's books everywhere, from bookstagram to bookstores in my country. At first, I was not interested to read any of her books, since I am not a fan of romance, but I decided to give her a try by reading Verity. It was labelled as a phychological thriller and since it's a genre that I like, I thought that it woouldn't be a bad idea to give it a try. Let me tell you this: I was so, so disappointed. The writing was so plain, to the point the plot was underwhelming and the characters felt bland. At one point, there were more sex scenes (which contributed nothing to the developments of the story) than plot and the characters were poorly written (except Verity). I do not think that I will read any other of her books and it's clear that she's not for me. I love these type of videos, you always give a full insight of your opinion about books and you always pinpoint the pros and cons.

Will you try the other Sally Rooney books? Beautiful World is my favourite and I would love to know how you feel about it!

did you watch the normal people show? i think it did a really good job of lifting up the energy of the book but making it better lol idk if i'll read another rooney book but i enjoyed the mess.

Did you hear that Colleen Hoover continued the Ellen Degeneres thing on the sequel? 🤪

I am starting to wonder if I didn't understand It ends with us😅 for me it started as a romance novel (not my cup of tea) with the story of Atlas and Lily, then Ryle appears and for me too was a big red flag from the beginning. But what i like is that it was presented as a romance novel guy, because I feel it is how usually is presented men that want to control everything in our lives, he is jealous, he is overbearing and so on. But we started watching his wake up calls and Lily doesn't see them. I felt outraged I even throw the book away before going back to the reading. And when we learnt about Lily's father abusive behaviour 😱 like how the mother perform a funeral like that to that bastard.. and Lily follows the same pattern as her mother. Why? That was soo awful. I really had a bad time reading this book but I still gave it 4⭐😅 because all the feelings I experienced. What about Ryley's sister? How he defended him? Now that I am analising it again I felt disgusted about so many things that happen in it. I still feel is good that girls know how these abusive guys act so they can see the red flags before the relationship go farther. I might be wrong. I am 30 it is not like I am 14

But he's so cute though. Couldn't tell he needs a groom session. And seriously. Letters to Ellen? I almost want to read COHO just to see what the hype is.

Normal people was sooooooo messy, I gobbled it up. Iit thought I would not vibe with the writing style .

Personally, it ends with us is one of my favorite books of all time. I was in an abusive relationship at 15 years old with an 18 year old. This book honestly hit so close to home which is why I loved it. Throughout the story we are led to believe Ryle is perfect. After the first action of abuse he shows towards Lily, the audience is led to forgive him until the next time just like Lily. The whole point of this book is to show why abusive relationships can be so detrimental to a person. Many people who haven't been in one will say "well why didn't they just leave?" It's not that easy to "just leave" and this book shows that. It shows the audience how easy it is for a narcissist to manipulate people into giving second, third, and hundredth chances. It shows why it's so hard to leave an abusive relationship because in an abusive relationship your self esteem drops to the point you believe they are treating you this way our of love or fear of losing you or whatever it may be. I understand why a lot of people don't like this book but it truly shows how easy it is to find yourself in a hopeless situation with no idea where you went wrong. This book felt so validating to me and showed me that it wasn't my fault for being abused, it was manipulation that I didn't see coming soon enough.

Is was great to see a review with a range of both positive and negative reviews. What I would like was for you to get or give more reasons why you like/love a book as you do when you are a negative review. Don’t get me wrong l love your critique. I just want as much details with books that you love.

i went through my kindle comments from when i was reading It End With Us for the first time and it was sooo satisfying to go back and see how right i was about Ryle and his red flags. Also, why did lily have to be 15 while Atlas was 17/18!?? it changed absolutely nothing but it DID make me feel uncomfortable. And the way she just threw in that he self harmed randomly?!! i was SCREAMING