#TikTokTuesday - Post #1

The following are all series or standalones that have either become famous from being featured by different readers and reviewers on TikTok OR have been resurrected and have gained popularity anew.  I will be giving a very brief review of these, a rating out of five, and will finish by saying if I think that book or series is ~worth the hype.~

Series

Young Adult

• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo : I prefer Bardugo's other companion duology, Six of Crows, much more than her original books in the Grishaverse.  As much as I understand the appeal of the Darkling, and Alina's powers, I felt like it all fell a little flat for whatever reason.  There are definitely flashes of greatness in each book but I wanted more.  Overall I did like the system of magic she created and the world-building was gorgeous. 3/5 stars

Worth the hype? Yes because of Nikolai and also if you include Six of Crows, lol

• The Folk of the Air by Holly Black : CARDANNNNNN.  Okay, Holly Black is the queen of the Fae and if you haven't read any of her books, what are you even waiting for?  The second book in this series, The Wicked King, is my favorite and between Jude's bravery and cunning, Cardan's....everything....and the twists and turns that this series provide, I very much recommend. 4.5/5 stars

Worth the hype? YES

New Adult

• From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout : For me, reading and falling in love with this series was when I realized I needed to start reading more than young adult fantasy.  Since this has been published, I have been finding more and more of those exact series for the new adult/adult crowd that I would actually consider more "romantasy" because of how important the romance between the main characters is to the plot.  Armentrout's writing isn't perfect by any means but it's addicting nonetheless and I have devoured every book in this series since reading the first. 4.5/5 stars

Worth the hype? Yes

• Plated Prisoner by Raven Kennedy : I'm not going to lie, I seem to be in the minority on this one.  One of my good friends was pushing me to read this because she LOVED and when I finished the first two I was very...underwhelmed.  To me, there wasn't anything in this book that I hadn't already read a hundred times over.  Fiesty damsel in distress.  Handsome bad guy.  Another handsome bad guy that might actually be good and will probably become love interest.  Check, check, check. 2.5-3/5 stars

Worth the hype? No

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas : If you know me AT ALL you will know this is one of my TOP favorite series of all time and is written by my favorite author.  It was originally marketed as YA but as the series went on the themes became a lot more mature (especially when it comes to the spice) it was moved to adult.  PLEASE GO READ THIS SERIES AND THEN COME TALK TO ME ABOUT IT.  5/5 stars

Worth the hype? YES, YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!

• Addicted by Krista and Becca Ritchie : This series is a complicated rec for me because when I first started in on this world, I read Kiss the Sky first.  That book technically starts off a continuing series and at that point, the main characters of Addicted to You are in a better, healthier place in their lives.  The Addicted series itself deals with addictions of different kinds, anxiety, the recovery process--some pretty heavy, hard-to-read topics.  When I tell people to read this series I usually do it with the disclaimer that the first book is incredibly tough to read and the second for that matter, and that things start looking up for Lily and Lo after that.  The Ritchie twins write some of the BEST character-driven stories I've ever read and all of their characters have burrowed their way into my heart at this point. 4.5/5 stars

Worth the hype? Yes!

Adult

• The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake : I'm going to give it to you straight with this one, reading this book will make you feel stupid.  Just kidding...but also kind of not.  A big proponent of this book is magic of different kinds.  One type that two of the main characters has is physics-based and the way in which Blake talks about it sort of went over my head (but in a cool, impressive way).  In fact, each of the main characters in this book is too smart for their own good, and to make matters worse, they know it.  Because of this, Blake's writing can come off as almost...pretentious at times.  To me though, that was okay, and even made sense because in a world like the one in this book, with these specific characters that each have IQs higher than I could possibly imagine, it's no wonder that's going to translate into pretentious sounding writing.  Barring all that, I have read and loved almost all of her Draco x Hermione fanfiction works she wrote before publishing original work so I was already used to her brand of writing. 4.5/5 stars

Worth the hype?  While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm surprised it became as big as it did.  So...partially worth the hype??

Standalone

Romance

• The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren : I need to preface this mini-review by saying that overall I LOVE Christina Lauren's writing but their books are hit or miss for me.  However, when I say "miss" I essentially mean it was just good, not great.  The Unhoneymooners is surprisingly one of the ones I liked the least and it's honestly due to one tiny part that I don't think has bothered many other people.  In the book, the main characters Olive and Ethan take over a honeymoon trip that their respective siblings that just got married weren't able to attend due to getting sick.  They have always bashed heads to the fact that this is a hate-to-love, fake marriage situation with hilarious writing should have been the perfect romance formula for me but I wasn't a fan of how the "conflict" panned out at all.  I do have very specific thoughts about that kind of conflict in romances in general though so I think this was more of a ~me~ thing since many, many other people really loved this one. 4/5

Worth the hype? Overall I think yes most 9/10 people are going to love this

• Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston : I CANNOT say enough wonderful things about this book, these characters, this author.  McQuiston is on an auto-buy list for me at this point and I don't think that will ever change.  This is an enemies to friends to lovers that features the First Son of The United States, Alex, and Prince Henry. I...don't even know what to say other than reading this was like injecting liquid sunshine into my veins.  I can clearly remember the story putting a huge smile on my face that lasted for days and I don't know that I have ever been so hyped up about a romance in my entire life.  100/5 stars

Worth the hype? YES x1000000

• The Hating Game by Sally Thorne : This book is proof that you should never judge a book by its cover.  No, I'm serious. When it came out in 2016 with it's cartoon-y cover it was one of the first of its kind.  Now, nearly all romance books have that same kind of cover art but that was not the case at that time.  I thought this book was going to be cheesy and juvenile and boy was I wrong.  Funnily enough, this is another enemies to lovers book (I am a fan of these if you didn't already guess that) that features Lucy and Josh as two people with essentially the same job that are forced to work together after their companies merged.  When a promotion comes into play the two decide to duke it out and along the way Lucy realizes that Josh might not be so bad after all.  I'm not going to spoil anything else about the actual story but what you need to know is that Thorne's writing feels like it was made for me.  All of her heroines are slightly unhinged and hilarious in the weirdest of ways.  That might not make sense but if you read this book I think you'll understand perfectly. 5/5 stars

Worth the hype? Without a doubt

• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry : When I say People We Meet on Vacation really I mean every single Emily Henry book.  She has definitely taken the BookTok world by storm and rightfully so.  I will say this is my favorite out of the ones I've read which is specifically why I featured it.  Believe it or not, this Alex and Poppy's story is of the friends-to-lovers variety which does have a very special place in my heart.  After an ~incident~ between the two that you don't find out about until later, Alex and Poppy haven't spoken in a long time.  When she asks him to go on another trip with her, he reluctantly agrees and things progress from there.  There's something that's just so achingly beautiful about a well-written friends-to-lovers, I swear.  Another bonus here is that they go to some very beautiful places that Henry describes beautifully! 5/5 stars

Worth the hype? Yes