Now that I've finished the series and had some time to think it over, I'm going to update my rating of Gemina to 5 stars. It was an amazing and thrilling story that had me turning the pages until I finished it in just two days. It's been a while since a series has worked its way this deeply into my thoughts and my imagination the way this trilogy has, and Gemina is the best of the three books in my opinion.

All the things I loved about the first book are here: the unique format, the fast-pacing, and a crazy, mind-bending story. The action in this story kicks off immediately and is non-stop throughout the book. The illustrations in here are particularly lovely, and it's a joy to see them interspersed within, adding a lot of richness to the story. I found Hanna to be a completely kick-ass heroine, and while this book has a bit of silly teenage love in it, it was kept small enough that it felt less dopey than in the first book.

I had heard so much goodness about this series before I started, and it more than lives up to my expectations. I'm so glad I waited to start the series until all three books are released. It means I could read all three books back-to-back without having to pause or even take a breath in between.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Illuminae is a non-stop, action-filled space saga, the first in a trilogy. There is so much going on in this book, kicking off with a planetary attack, followed by fleeing on a spaceship, then a possible pandemic, and the mystery of what's really going on behind the scenes. And that's just the beginning.

The format of this book is a dossier, compiled with a collection of interviews, memos, video and audio material, and illustrations in chronological order. The format is so interesting and really works for this book. It contributes to the tight pacing, compelling me to keep turning the page just to find out a little more.

There were a few flaws with the book, the biggest being that the female protagonist sometimes comes across as too sarcastic and filled with angst. Her relationship with her boyfriend was eye-rolling in its teenage silliness, but maybe that's realistic and I've just forgotten what it's like being that young. The other silly thing in this book is its completely unrealistic portrayal of hacking. But those are only small moments in the book which I can overlook.

While it's not a perfect book, I greatly enjoyed it for its unique storytelling and found it tremendously entertaining. I look forward to reading the next book in this series. If you decide to pick up this book, I recommend going with the physical book instead of the e-book or audio CD, just because I think otherwise you'll miss some of beautiful illustrations which contribute to the story.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

The Power of Habit is an interesting read on how our habits affect our lives more than we may think. The book is divided into three parts, examining the habits of individuals, organizations, and societies.

I found the first part on the habits of individuals to be the most engaging and insightful. Duhigg is a great writer and slowly leads the reader to his conclusions with fascinating stories and experiments. While his conclusions aren't revolutionary (but are rather straightforward if you have spend some time thinking about this on your own), it was still engrossing to see it all laid out in written form.

I found part two and three on the habits of organizations and societies to be less compelling. At times, it feels like Duhigg really stretched hard to tie the stories he's telling into the themes of those sections. Some of his conclusions feel very hand-wavy, as if he fit the facts around a predetermined conclusion instead of the other way around. And he left out a lot of the complexities and nuances that contributed to why and how things happened the way they did, which came across as over-simplifications of the real world.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

In The Good Daughter, a crime is committed to two young sisters and their mother, and then many years later there is a crime in the same town that dredges up old feelings and secrets.

While the book is advertised as a mystery/thriller, it read to me more like a drama for the first 450 pages out of 500. It's an interesting drama for sure, but I went into it wanting more of a mystery, and I think this is a case where what I got didn't align with my expectations.

When I think of a mystery, I think of red herrings and clues that eventually lead to a eureka moment. Instead, the mystery of the first crime was my least favorite sort of mystery, where it wasn't unsolved but rather that the people involved just chose to keep secrets from each other. The new mystery doesn't really have clues. At some point, someone notices something and then they know what happened.

I think this story is still enjoyable for what it is, and Slaughter is clearly a skilled writer. But just know that this book falls more on the drama side than a mystery or thriller.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

In An American Marriage, Celestial and Roy have been married for only a little over a year when he is wrongly convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison. What follows is the five years that they spend apart while Roy is in prison, and then after his conviction is overturned and he is once again a free man. In the meantime, she has moved on with a mutual friend. When he returns, Celestial has to make a difficult choice.

The writing in this book is beautiful. There were many insightful and moving passages on the incarceration of blacks in America, the ravages of time when innocent people are locked up, and the complexity of love through hard times.

What took away from the book for me was how unlikable Roy is after he gets out of prison. He treats Celestial like a piece of property, repeating over and over that she is his, as if she isn't a real person with thoughts and emotions of her own. To me, when you love someone, you would do anything to see them happy, even if it means they are with someone else. Celestial, in turn, seems resigned to be his property, saying that really she doesn't have a choice. To read this sort of messed-up dynamic is really frustrating and spoiled what would otherwise have been a great book.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

In The Wedding Date, Alexa meets Drew when their elevator gets stuck during a power outage, and they hit it off. Drew needs a date for a wedding and she agrees to go with him. What follows is a cute romance, fluffy and not too serious. The conflicts in this book are mostly the result of a lack of communication between the two characters. And I did find Alexa's extremely low self-esteem and sensitivity to perceived slights to be a bit annoying. But overall, I enjoyed this book. I was looking for a light fun read and this fits the description perfectly.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Going in, I thought Beartown was going to be about a down-on-its-luck hockey town trying to win a championship. But it turned out to be so much more than that. The central conflict, which I won't give away, is portrayed with so much heart, complexity, and raw emotions. It felt so real that I had to read this book slowly, taking deep breathes and frequent breaks just so that my heart didn't burst.

There are so many strong and lovable characters in here, including Maya, Kira, Peter, Ana, Amat and so many more. It's great when an author can capture one real three-dimensional character in a book's pages, but to craft so many of individuals and make them all come alive is astounding.

This book covers so much, about loyalty, sacrifice, love of self versus love of community, belonging, bonds of family and friends, morality, what we teach our children through our actions and our words. And Backman does it all in a cohesive tale. At times during the first half, it feels like the book could have been more concise, but Backman's beautiful writing and wise insights more than makes up for the slower initial pace.

Simply put, this book blew me away!

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Honestly, How to Stop Time is awful. To start with, where is the story in this book? I kept reading and waiting for the story to begin, and then I reached the end. The book is told from main character Tom's perspective, and alternates between (a little bit of) present day and (vast majority of) flashbacks and memories. The flashbacks and memories are so boring, as if the long convoluted tales had all the exciting parts taken out and only the mundane and pointless left in.

Tom is an extremely unlikable character, always afraid, sniveling and whining constantly about how awful it is to live a long time. His conversations are so awkward and weird that I find it hard to believe anyone would give him a job or grow to like him. In fact, all the dialog in this book were awful, making it hard for me to stay focused on the story. Tom is perpetually bemoaning the fact that he lost his great love... 400 years ago! How anyone could have not moved on in 400 years is beyond belief. And in the middle of every conversation, he checks out and daydreams about his life in the past.

Probably this book is trying to be deep about time and growing old, but it never achieves that. It was one cliche after another, interspersed with sentences of utter nonsense. How the author could have taken such a promising premise and turned it into such a bland non-story is just mind-boggling.

Readaroo Rating: 1 star