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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: A Book Review

6/26/2022

Note: This review is spoiler free
Book: The Love Hypothesis
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Contemporary
Age: For readers 16 and up
Rating: 5/5

Waittt hold up? When was the last time I ever gave a rating to a contemporary book even remotely close to 5 stars? NEVER. I can’t even remember the last time I enjoyed one without full on cringing. I went into this book thinking I’d hate it. Teacher-student romance? How about no. YA Contemporary? Hmmm I can already guess the writing will be horrific. I’d already written it off as a cringy romance with a possibly toxic love interest like every other romance novel nowadays.

I was wrong. SO WRONG.

Until now

On the risk of sounding like I’m advocating this book using a “not like other books” trope, this book is NOT like other contemporary books and here’s why:

Things I liked:

Writing: In my opinion YA contemporary is hard to write without it sounding like wattpad style fan fiction. But this was surprisingly REALLY good writing.

Exhibit A-Humor: The Love Hypothesis did an excellent job of writing realistic humor without sounding like some author trying to write gen-z humor and failing miserably at it. The story felt more authentic to real life events and I applaud the author for that.
Exhibit B- Social Agendas: I love the way the author demonstrated the difficulty of being women in stem without shoving a wikipedia page on STEM exclusivity down our throats. Usually authors over exaggerate plot lines just so they can force a scene where they spew an oversimplified solution agenda to important social issues. It literally drives me nuts because the authors always portray it wrong and then act as if the complex issue is easily solvable by just throwing in a few lines about it on one page and then never speaking about it ever again. The Love Hypothesis is more subtle about it, which makes it more realistic.
Exhibit C- Conversations: Every YA romance author out there, PLS TAKE NOTE OF HOW NORMAL CONVOS ARE. I’m in love the TLH’s conversations because they’re SO realistic and funny. They’re not forced, or cringy, or long, daily monologues of how much the couple likes each other.

The Romance: THE DEVELOPMENT of the romance was just chefs kiss. IT WAS THE RIGHT PACE. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS SO REALISTIC. I felt like I was drunk on love the entirety of this book. (Note: For those who feel apprehensive about the teacher student thing; I felt much better when I found out that Olive is like 26 and Adam is like 30 something. He’s also not her teacher so that’s good. Just putting that out there in case that helps stomach the romance trope.)
ADAM: Adam pls step on my face. I would thank you for it. AND GUYS the brooding, unapproachable man ACTUALLY has a personality for once?! How cool is that! Ik some were complaining about this man’s lack of personality and I can see where they’re coming from but I honestly thought he was a step up from most of the YA brooding men I read about. This guy didn’t just growl, or snarl or smirk all the time, he also told jokes, paid attention to the little details about Olive and overall was a pretty chill guy. Besides we all know that Olive’s personality is enough for the two of them. And that’s how it should be. Women>>>>> men
Science: ASKJFAKJDFH I LOVED EVERY SCIENCE REFERENCE IN THIS. As a woman going into stem, the rep in this book was everything.

What I didn’t like:

Massiveness: ISTG Every two seconds:

The author: hE wAs MaSSiVe. hE wAs BiG anD TaLL
WE GET IT. IT STARTED TO GET REPETITIVE AFTER THE FIRST 3056883 TIMES YOU MENTIONED IT. PLS AND THANK YOU.

2. Miscommunication trope: I hope this trope burns and rots forever because it is insufferable and is the reason why everything bad is happening in the world right now.

3. Adam Liking Olive (SPOILERS): Was not a fan of the revelation that Adam liked her since that bathroom incident. I mean it's fine if he was like “Oh she seems so cool” but noooo he met her for five minutes and then literally never had a conversation with her in three years but apparently he was head over heels for her during that time. It was kind of like… dare I say it… instant love. 🤢 🤮

But guys this was such a good book that the minor instant love thingy was forgotten really easily. I loved pretty much everything about it and would like the whole book tattooed on my forehead 😌

Read review for It Ends with Us

Read Review for the Selection Series

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A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Series Review

6/12/2022

7 Comments

Note: This review is spoiler free except for the underlined portions!
Book: Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series
Author: Holly Jackson
Genre: Mystery
Age: For readers 14 and up
Rating: 5/5
First Book: 5/5 stars
Second Book: 4/5 stars
Third Book: 5/5 stars

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book 1:

A good YA mystery novel is SO hard to find. Nowadays they’re literally all the same 😑 It’s always set in some small town with a predictable story and a protagonist I couldn't care less about.
BUT
After years of searching, I FINALLY found a good YA mystery series.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder had EVERY essential in a good mystery book. It kept you on your heels, it wasn’t too predictable and the characters are actually likable (which for me, is rare in YA books). However, it wouldn’t be a bookconfessionssecrets review if my crabby self did not find something to be nit picky over.

What I loved:
Everything. 99.999999% of the book. The writing was flawless. The characters were chef’s kiss 👌 (I’d marry Ravi in a heartbeat 🤩 ). This book has absolutely no faults.

Exceptttttttt:

Things that were unrealistic/ annoyed me a little:

Unrealistic: Ok let’s first start out with how everyone AND their mom was eager to overshare and truthfully spill secrets to a self proclaimed detective. Most of Pip's witnesses gave personal information that no one would EVER give to a random stranger claiming to do a high school research project. Also apparently the police never bothered to talk to them back in 2014? If these witnesses were so willing to share information, it should have been easy for the police to investigate. So why didn’t they go and question key people like Andie’s friends?

Also can we talk about how fast everyone replied back to Pip? I can’t even get an email back from my teacher and she’s over here getting lengthy replies in less than a day 😭 . Teach me your ways please 🤧 🤲

2. Pip: Pip was an AMAZING character. But it lowkey pissed me off when she made the mystery her life goal or something. I mean this girl was OBSESSED. I yelled at her through the book when she skipped hanging out with her family to go look at her notes or whatever. Or when she procrastinated her college essay? 😭 Who writes a college personal essay six hours before it’s due?

SPOILERS UNDERLINED: Also sidenote but I wished we explored more of Daniel De Silva’s role. I’m so glad he wasn’t the murderer because that would have been boring. But in the end I wanted to know his connection to the drugs and Max Hastings.

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book 2 (Do not read this part of the review if you have not finished book 1):

Ok this one was not as good as the first book. The characters and writing was still phenomenal but the mystery just wasn’t as good ☹️ (it’s my least favorite of the trilogy). Butttt I was still super invested and finished the book in under 48 hours!

Also the one thing that really stood out about this book is that they didn’t just brush over Pip’s trauma from the last book. It played a vital role instead of just being acknowledged at the beginning and then swept under the rug for the majority of the novel, like some other mystery book sequels I’ve read.

Now onto the things that just didn’t make sense:

Release of the Podcast: Why on EARTH did Pip release the podcast while she was solving the case? Then couldn’t the person who kidnapped Jamie listen to her podcast and see exactly how close she was to solving the case? This would easily tip them off and give them a huge advantage….🤨 make it make sense. She should’ve released all the episodes AFTER she finished solving the crime.

Things that I didn’t like:

LACK OF RAVI: It was a CRIME to give Ravi such less screen time. He was literally a side character in this book and I. Hated. It. ☹️ I wish he got the same amount of screen time as he did in the first book. 😕

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book 3 (Do not read this part of the review if you have not finished book 1 and 2):

I LOVED this book. The actual mystery was disappointing and predictable but then the stuff that happened after was just…. SKJFKAJSF AMAZING 😫
And the way this book connected back to Andie’s mystery??? GAVE ME CHILLS.

Things I didn’t like:

PREDICTABLE: The first book in this series is literally one of the only mystery books where I didn’t guess the culprit. I was SO happy to finally find a YA mystery series where the author can ACTUALLY write good plotlines (yes I’m throwing shade to Mrs. Karen McManus over there 🙄). But this mystery in the final book was such a let down. The culprit was such an obvious choice that I didn’t even consider them an option because I was confident Holly Jackson wouldn’t make the answer choice so easy. They’re the first person I thought of when an Andie related clue was released. So disappointed honestly. The moment Pip found the Andie related clue, I was like ok, Pip will make them the number one suspect. But she didn’t. And I didn’t think they would actually be the real person because it was so dang obvious 😭
Pippa’s stupid decisions (Spoilers in this paragraph): When Pippa called DT’s number, I was like “huh, interesting choice”. Like she should have responded after he was in prison? He could retaliate somehow and crush her phone so he won’t have access to the phone number anymore. Or he could trace her call and come after her. And then two pages later she got kidnapped and I annotated in my book: “Girl I called it….Don’t say I didn’t warn you 😐😐” She literally should’ve have gloated in his face AFTER he was in prison 😭

What didn’t make sense (SPOILERS IN THIS SECTION):

Billy’s coercion into confession (Spoilers skip this paragraph): Anyone with a brain could read the transcript and blatantly see that the interrogator forced Billy into a confession. So then why has NO ONE besides Maria checked the interrogation transcript to see that the interrogator coerced Billy into confession???
Max’s house cameras (Spoilers): Why were Max’s cameras near ground level? Why would anyone place cameras in an easy to reach spot? It should have been placed by the roof of the house, where Pip could not have easily reached and duct taped it.
Ending: SHE DIDN’T KEEP CONTACT WITH HER FAMILY, RAVI OR HER FRIENDS IN TWO YEARS?! Why couldn’t she keep contact with her family? Ngl, I didn’t get her reasoning. Because even if she kept contact with her family but ended up getting implicated in the crime again, no detective would ever suspect that her family was in on the murder just because Pip maintained contact with them. If anything, it’s more suspicious to see that Pip separated herself from everyone she cared about after the murder happened.

What I Loved:

Ravi and Pip: I WANT WHAT THEY HAVE. The things I would do to get a Ravi in my life 😫🤲 Every scene with them I felt butterflies 🦋

Especially at the end of the book (SPOILERS): when Ravi implicated himself in the case by going to Detective Hawkins and saying he put the headphones in Jason’s room. You KNOW its true love when he’s willing to face possible jail time for murder for you 💔 Screaming. crying. Throwing up hysterically. I’m so lonely 😭

Anyways the title of this book was talking about me because every adorable quote that came out of Ravi’s mouth got me as good as dead 😵😍

Max Hastings:
Let me just create a separate column for this insufferable jerk. I want to smash Max Hasting’s nose into the rest of his face. I HATE HIM SO MUCH. In the beginning of the book Pip daydreams about beating him up and I remember thinking: Pippa that was so violent😟... do it again 😁 🤪

Moral of the story, READ THIS SERIES. I promise you won’t regret it. It has such intricate plotlines and the writing style is so good. Plus the character development is written amazingly! Easily one of my top ten favorite series!

Read my It Ends With Us Review

Read my One of Us is Next Review

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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood: A Book Review

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Series Review

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