The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

Women go-getters are a common factor between Kinsella's main characters ... err from the two books I've read of hers lol. Right? Right. It's good because it's what makes her books relatable. And funny. And ... predictable. Wait-what? I guess most chicklit are. No laugh-out-loud moments for me but I threw quite a lot of "heh" and "sniggers".

This is a great in-between read for me.

Three stars.

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel

It's hard to touch controversial issues when writing fiction. I don't know if the story was trying to make any point other than entertain but I found the whole thing so judgmental so if it was, then everything that the characters did inside the story defeats its purpose. Yes, it talked of how people should empathize with people with disabilities and how they can function in the society. It talked about how they are judged but I think the book itself was judging. Even the people who were trying to help the people who needed help were judgmental. 

If one tells a lie that one cannot support then the cover is blown. I think this would've been a great plot if enough research was made. It's like putting one issue over another without the right foundation. It will eventually fall apart. It's so muddled with emotions that doesn't make sense. One might argue emotions rarely do but emotions do have a source. Every bit of reaction is a cause of a previous action. The story puts one issue over another and a pile like that just won't stand. 

All that being said, I would like to congratulate myself for finishing this book.

1 star.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

A mediocre plot can be amazing if delivered with great story-telling. Uprooted, however, is not mediocre. It was action-packed and there were so many things going on that readers would be constantly on the edge of their seats. I loved the story, I thought it was an amazing mix of fantasy and romance with a lot of beauty-tames-the-beast feels which every woman loves and don't you disagree. 

BUT! Issue #1: I think there are pages that the story can do without (maybe 50 of them? give or take?). I was about 10% into the book when I had to stop because the descriptions were repetitive. Specifically how the spells were cast. More specifically how they "let it flow out of" them. It was all over the book you can't miss it. That and there were just parts that I wanted to skip completely. I understand how there's a calm before the storm as in other-stuff-before-the-twist but I thought making a point about how politics worked and how the citizens in the capital were petty was too much. Especially since Sarkan already talked about it before Agnieszka went there.

AND! Issue #2: The voice used in story-telling is confusing. It's not because each scene calls for a different pace. It's experiencing a simple story telling using simple prose and vocabulary for one chapter and then suddenly going Alice in Wonderland feels. It didn't happen throughout the book. But it happened.
It was ...
Chapter 1: The ball is red. 
versus
Chapter 2: The spherical object is a of a color at the end of the spectrum next to orange and opposite violet. Like rubies and blood and it was scarlet.

I think I liked parts of this book but felt meh during the other parts.

Oh and apparently, 417 Goodreads users marked this as YA ... um ... no. Lol. Although I had the same first impression of the book due to the opening, there are other parts that are a bit too adult to be young adult. 

3.5 stars.