4 🌟

Beautiful memoir (Montgomery) and illustrations (Green) showcasing how animals can teach us on how to be a good creature.  Heartwarming and do take care when reading as it discusses grief, suicide ideation, and death. 

3.75⭐ rounded down

A Good Animal is a slice of life coming-of-age story about a sheep farmer in high school and his budding relationship with the new girl from the city. I really liked the prose here, and the depictions of farm life and showing animals with 4-H at the county fair were so visceral. The parallels between Everett's sheep herd and his relationship with Mary were also really interesting to see.

I do wish that the ending had a bit more to it, though. It just ends and there's nothing to link where he is now to where he ends up (as shown in the prologue). The whole premise of the book, of him being married with a kid, but still stuck on this girl from his senior year of high school (this is all in the prologue), also kind of left a weird taste in my mouth. Did he never talk about what happened with anyone? Will he always be stuck in the past? I get how a number of the events would stick with him, but I felt like there wasn't much closure for all of my concerns.

Overall, though, I liked it. If it sounds up your alley, I'd recommend giving it a try. You will learn a lot about sheep. And idiot teenage boys.

Story of My Life is a diverting summer romcom that entertained me enough and annoyed me a bit. (In other words, a pretty good review from me since I don't love contemporary romance.)

Our FMC was climbing her way out of rock bottom in a very endearing way, and she was not going to let anyone stand in the way of her comeback story. Well, her MMC kind of stood in her way a bit but her amazing best friend and townie friends ensured she kept on track. I admired her bravery to communicate with the MMC, especially when she had been so burned before. I do appreciate that we have some divorcee representation! The MMC was a classic grump and did have moments of thoughtfulness that really set him up for real potential, but his immaturity really drove me nuts. The supporting characters were actually very strong, and I really enjoyed the friendships and family relationships in this book. The book was obviously going for a Schitts Creek town kind of vibe, and it worked pretty well. The animal representation was gratuitous and nonetheless delightful.

I really liked how communication and consent was a consistent theme throughout this book... until the MMC blew through those boundaries. I really wish the MMC listened more to the FMC, especially when she was telling him everything you'd need to know! Also, I am not personally a fan of the majority of nicknames in romances, and "trouble" as her nickname was silly to me personally. The third act breakup was really tough to stomach. The MMC is in his late thirties and the FMC was honestly making things so easy for him.

This book could have been edited down about 100-200 pages and it would have eliminated some of this unnecessary interpersonal conflict the author cooked up. The humor was also very millennial (when will he escape Taylor Swift references in contemporary romance???), and coming out of reading Mate, I was not ready for another nonsense waffle-related insult. The pacing was mostly fine but the momentum did stall at times. Again, at a shorter page length, this wouldn't be a problem.

There is discussion of grief and abusive ex partners. If you're looking for a classic romance-author-needs-inspiration-and-moves-to-a-small town, you'll likely have a good time with this book. The other characters in this book were not as silly macho man as the MMC, so I might be interested in other books in this series.

My MIL lent this to me since my PhD is in Russian history, and my supervisor is a Soviet historian, so I knew about Lyudmila Pavlichenko already! My MIL and SIL both love Kate Quinn so I was intrigued.

tbh I was a bit apprehensive because sometimes it's hard to turn off my "school brain". The book was fine. I lovelovelove that Lady Death gets some spotlight for a Western audience because she really is cool. But a lot of the gaps Kate Quinn filled were too... flowery? I felt the romance swept us up a bit too much, and there was some repetition in places that I was annoyed at- things that an editor should catch since it's on the same page or very close together.

Again, this was fine- if you love historical fiction, then pick this up!