I feel like to really enjoy Ali Hazelwood and her brand of romance, you have to be someone who loves nerdy science talk and wacky banter, the more the better and preferably all in the same sentence. Lucky for me, that's exactly the sort of thing I enjoy.

Let's start with the science here. Hannah and Ian both work for NASA on engineering teams that land rovers on Mars. Yeah, I pretty much hyperventilated when I realized that was the setting of their romance. It harkens back to my youth when I dreamed of working for NASA, so you can understand my excitement. Then you add in the copious amounts of technical jargon that Hazelwood always sprinkles into her stories and my space-loving heart was just blown into smithereens.

Of course as always, the dialogue was on point and had me in stitches from beginning to end. It's not just the conversation between our two mains. It's also all the side chatter and even the inner dialogue. Everything felt so sharp and witty and thoroughly delightful.

One thing is that Hazelwood's stories do tend to rely excessively on the miscommunication trope. So it's with relief that I report the conflicts in here actually make sense and it's not just two people deciding not to say simple things to each other. And since it's a novella, the conflicts don't drag on and on, but rather is resolved swiftly and with satisfaction.

I loved this story so much! I only wish Hazelwood had saved the premise for a full-length novel instead so I could've had more of it.

Readaroo Rating: 4.5 stars

I don't think I've read a domestic thriller this fun since Gone Girl. And I'll tell you why.

Domestic thrillers are hard to write. Usually, there's only two relevant characters, the guy and the gal. One of them did it (whatever "it" is). Is it him? Is it her? Or is it some crazy combination of them both? And once you've read a few, you kind of have the genre figured out and it starts to feel rather repetitive. So it's rare for a story that utilizes this technique to grab me. And this one did.

We have the gal, Rosie, who is desperate to find her soulmate, so desperate in fact that she's coming across as a little bit unhinged. When her bum heart is replaced by the heart of a dead woman, she sees the opportunity to make all her dreams come true. Now enters the guy. For wouldn't it just be fate if she could capture the love of the man whose dead wife's heart now beats in her chest? It sure would, as long as he is the dream man she thinks he is.

I was sucked in from the very first page. Every moment felt essential and interesting, there to entertain me and keep me guessing. Just when I think I've got it figured out, another revelation had me gasping and reconfiguring the puzzle pieces in my head.

But this is a book of two halves, for what starts out as a domestic thriller doesn't remain that way. About halfway through, it morphs into the most interesting of mysteries. Not only did the twist there take me by surprise, but so did the slight genre shift. It feels like a gutsy move, to start a book as one kind of thriller and end it on a different one.

None of the characters were truly likable, yet they were all intriguing. I cared about them and I wanted to know more even though they were all shades of crazy. You know, there's a fine line between kooky characters you want more of versus those you just don't care about. And this book got it exactly right.

I mean, could the events in this book actually happen in real life? Um, I sure hope not. Do you need to suspend all disbelief to read this? Yeah, absolutely. But if you can, I guarantee you'll be in for a very good time.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Did we all read the same book? Because this was... not good.

In general, I feel like fantasy is a genre I can rely on. Give me an interesting premise, a half-decent execution, some badass heroes and heroines, and I'm pleased as punch. And yet, here comes One Dark Window, making me rethink my entire love for this genre. Because I'm hard pressed to point to even one thing that I truly enjoyed in here.

Let's start with our characters. Wow, were they dumb. Elspeth could barely do anything without first being told, whether it's to be quiet or to run. She and her merry band of allies make one misstep after another, including rushing into battles they shouldn't and distracting each other during crucial moments. I have a hard time believing these characters could even function, let alone save the kingdom.

Neither were they likable, especially our heroine. Elspeth is about the weakest protagonist to have ever graced a fantasy. She gets so easily offended at everything, hates every person she sees, and is constantly tearing up from hurt feelings. Boo hoo. She also seems unable to eat, losing her appetite at every meal, poor thing. But perhaps I'm too quick to judge, and what I attribute to her unlikable personality is simply because she is hangry?

The supporting characters aren't much better, and together, there is this feeling that it's a group of idiots just trampling around getting themselves into trouble. But not to worry, because the villains aren't any smarter either. At one point, one of our good guys gets into an argument with one of the bad guys, and—no joke, you guys—the argument was decided by glaring. Like the one who glared harder and longer was the victor and the other was forced to lower his gaze in shame.

Or another of my favorite scenes—one of our villains forces our merry band to play a game where everyone is compelled by magic to tell the truth, and each can have a turn asking a question of every other person. Ah, I could feel the tension in the air, for here's the moment when the truth will be revealed. And then comes the questions—who wants to marry who, who is better looking, who loves who. I tell you, I shriveled up and died a little on the inside.

The worldbuilding feels both so detailed that you suffer from information overload (why so many cards and characters?), but also not sharp enough that you really feel immersed in the universe. The way information is parsed out, one teeny tiny bit at a time, is to maximize the reveals later on, so you're often confused for no good reason in the meantime. And when the reveals finally do happen, they weren't even that surprising.

Of course, this wouldn't be a romantasy without the requisite romance and the one in here is about as bland as they come. Why were Elspeth and Ravyn attracted to each other? The book certainly doesn't make it clear. And not only that, but when they do finally come together, there is quite the ick factor because of The Nightmare in her head, watching the whole thing. Eww!

You know the scene that really cemented my disillusionment with this book though? When a character was cold (not magically cold, mind you, just cold from being outside for too long), and one of our idiots used a Scythe card to warm them up. Never mind that using magic costs the wielder irreparable damage. That I can look overlook. What I can't overlook is that the Scythe card doesn't work that way. It changes someone's emotions, not what they actually are (as the book had already explained at length). So instead of actually warming up the poor dope, they just made them think they feel warmer.

I have to draw the line somewhere, and when the magic system is written so wishy washy and without sharpness that even the author got herself confused, that's when I finally realized this book isn't going to cut it

Now, if you're wondering if you should give this a go, I suggest you read the version that everyone else read and definitely not the one that I did. Good luck.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

I found the first half to be as sharp and piercing as they come, but then the second half kind of lost me.

We start off with Keru and Nate each taking a turn inviting their parents to vacation with them. Keru's Chinese parents are strict and emotionally guarded, while Nate's white, working-class parents don't quite know what to make of their son's career in academia. So when you throw these characters together, surely comedy and conflict ensues.

And it does. That first part definitely had me chuckling and shaking my head, with its sharp, satirical commentary of the typical dynamics within a Chinese American family and a white working-class family. Add to that the factor of marrying outside of your race and class, and each scene felt like such a zinger. The frequent misunderstandings and earnest hurt feelings made for a searing and funny read.

But I'm not sure I was as enamored with the second part of the book. At times, it became too exaggerated and I had a hard time relating to the characters and their inflexible ways. It feels like in Part Two, they became caricature of the people they were in Part One, ever more obstinate and set in their ways. I saw less and less of the humor I had previously enjoyed, and I just felt sad for the characters.

This isn't that long of a read. It honestly feels a bit like one of those stories where the author came up with a specific situation and wrote a novel around it. As a result, that original premise of vacationing with the parents shines as the story's strongest part. The rest of it did feel less focused, as if it were there to pad a great scene out into a full-length novel.

But don't let me dissuade you. I feel like this is my usual complaint with literary fiction, that I always expect more than it gives me. I hope to walk away with food for thought, but instead, the rather directionless culminations always leave me more befuddled than enlightened.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

This book feels a lot like its more famous successor Big Little Lies, only without any of the fun or insight.

In both stories, we follow three women facing their own problems and dilemmas. Here in The Husband's Secret, we have Cecilia, Rachel, and Tess. Cecilia is at the center of this story. Her husband is the one with the earth-shattering secret, and before we are through, each of the three women will feel its repercussions.

Okay, if I had to pinpoint the biggest issue for me, it’s probably the bland and strangely indistinguishable characters. I had trouble keeping them and their children and relatives—of which there were many—square and straight throughout the story, and they somehow all blended together in my mind.

They also weren't exactly the most likeable of people. They were fairly wrapped up in themselves, and it made it hard to connect with them. Here we have these characters each dealing with their own bad fortunes and predicaments, and yet, I just couldn't make myself care. At times, I even caught myself hoping things wouldn't work out in their favor, which was rather discombobulating since I knew I was supposed to cheer for them.

And then there were the actual issues they were each facing. Their moral dilemmas should’ve been interesting and given me much food for thought, but here again, I just couldn't get into them. There was something that didn't quite ring true about the whole thing, as if I knew these characters were not real and neither were their issues, and I was being sold a story all along.

This all sounds terrible, but it really wasn't that bad. It just lacks the wit and spark I've come to associate with Liane Moriarty. Of course, this story is one of her older ones and every writer grows with experience, so maybe this was the necessary stepping stone on the way to writing bigger and better books. If so, I guess I'm okay with that.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars