Fiction/Science Fiction · Humor/Funny · Suspense

Folk med ångest – Fredrik Backman (Swedish title, English review)

43601208.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: “People with anxiety” is an unreasonably messy comedy about a hostage situation on an apartment viewing. A failed bank robber locks in with an over-enthusiastic real estate agent, two bitter Ikea addicts, a pregnant woman, a suicidal multi-millionaire and a rabbit head. Finally, the robber gives up and releases everyone, but when the police storms the apartment it is … empty. In a series of dysfunctional testimonies afterwards, we hear everyone’s version of what actually happened, whereupon a classic puzzle mystery develops around the questions: How did the robber escape? Why are everyone so angry and what is wrong with people these days?

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My thoughts:

“It makes you laugh, cry and love and in the end you sit with the feeling of complete satisfaction.”

The newest book written by Backman is here. With its release in April it is unfortunately not yet translated to English but don’t worry. I believe someone is already working on a translation to be publish. Backman is immensely big in other countries so it would surprise me if not.

The newest book is about a group of people I pretty much hated for like 60% of the book. They are obnoxious and extremely self-centered, angry and just unpleasant. Fortunately Backman is a king when it comes to writing deep characters with layers on layers. He knows how to captivate readers to a degree you feel like you put your own heart on the table and risk losing it. It is an immensely funny book but still has a serious undertone which make you feel all the emotions at the same time. He is good with captivating people and the human nature and it is the true, raw and brutal truth you recognize yourself in. The book offers some curveballs and surprises and if you are a weeper, you will probably cry at the end like I did. In the morning, 30 minutes before I was supposed to be at work. And it was wonderful.

The language is extremely beautiful, almost poetic without being pretentious and I do hope it’s not lost in the translation. It makes you laugh, cry and love and in the end you sit with the feeling of complete satisfaction.

They did a great work with the film adaptation (IMDB) of En man som heter Ove (A man called Ove) and I do hope they choose to do a film from this book to. It will (I just know it) be perfection.

Fantasy/Paranormal · Fiction/Science Fiction · Romance · Young, New adult/College

Throne of glass – Sarah J. Maas

40512568| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament – fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

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My thoughts: I’m a little disappointed actually. I know I can’t compare this to the ACOTAR series but it is hard not to. And to be honest, this is not what I expected from an author like Maas, who where one of my top favorite author in 2018. Very underwhelming after years of hearing that this is THE YA series to read. I expected more and not to walk away with an unsatisfying feeling.

Every reviewer and booktuber I follow loved Celaena. I however did not. She is arrogant, mean, lame and high on herself. She is such an over hyped character that it is a disappointment to read the book about her. To be that young, for having had such a hard life and after a year as a slave in the most notorious salt mines, you would expect her to be more humble toward life and not as vain and shallow. Her and most of the characters have no dept, no smooth development and the plot is slow and quite overrated. Maas have been raised to the skies for her strong, female protagonists and deep YA relations, but I saw noting of that here.

There is some attempt to romance and love/triangles but that just fell flat. It is not good. Nothing that got my heart pumping or the need to keep reading. You really get to know Dorian and Chaol and they both are so much better in my opinion than Celaena, which is supposed to be the main heroine character to love and follow. There is nothing unique or original. And the plot is just weird. There is some questionable decisions and there is more of a telling the story than showing the story. All the action and important parts, where jump over and later retell so that we, the readers, knew what had happens since last. No, not good.

To be honest I do not know if I will continue the series. At first I gave the book three stars but after a night’s sleep and the time of writing this review, I realize that I was too generous and lowered it to two. It is not as bad as a one star rating but certainly not as good as a three. It wasn’t as mind-blowing as I expected and it was nowhere near as well written as the ACOTAR series. Both in the character development, plot and settings.

Is it worth more of my time?

Contemporary · Mystery/Crime · Romance

Mallicks: Back to the Beginning – Jessica Gadziala

40360105.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: A girl raised by monsters.
A man who helped get her free.
A love that spans decades.
Let’s go back to the 80s to see how Charlie and Helen Mallick fell in love.

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My thoughts: Fantastic! Pure perfection. Perfect ending (maybe) on a perfect series. The story about how the Mallicks family started. This is seriously the best one I have ever read by Gadziala. Utter flawlessness! And I loved it all. I loved the history, how they met, follow their life and how they build their company. Follow the growth of their five sons, Ryan, Shane, Hunter, Mark and Eli. I already knew them from their own books but it was satisfying to get all the history. And we did get some deeper explanations on some stuff that just wraps the whole series in a big nice bow. It all makes sense now. There is no words to explain how perfect and wonderful this was. It certainly played on all my strings and emotions. And it left me with a major hangover and wonderful feelings of feel good.

I have nothing bad to say. I wish I could erase everything I read, just so that I had the ability to read it again, for the first time.