After 9 days of dragging myself through it, I finally closed the last page of Tress of the Emerald Sea and let out the longest, most exhausted sigh 🫠💨 This book tested me—mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I went in with high hopes (I mean, it’s Brandon Sanderson!!!), but whew… this was not the magical ride I signed up for. It was slooooow. Painfully slow. Like, “where is the plot??” kind of slow 🐌. The whimsical narration couldn’t make up for the fact that NOTHING really happened for 80% of the book. And to top it off, it was written in third person POV—my mortal reading enemy 😩. I tried, besties. I really did. I kept telling myself, “Maybe the next chapter will get better. Maybe something big is coming.” And finally, in the last 20%, it did start picking up—but by that time, I was already emotionally detached. I was just flipping pages to say I finished it 🥲. Honestly, I almost DNF’d. This being my first Sanderson book feels like such a missed opportunity because now I’m scared to touch anything else he’s written (except the first book in Mistborn series, I'm still giving that a chance 😤). Giving this a 2.5 stars because the ending did sparkle a bit and I appreciate the creative worldbuilding… but yeah. This book made me declare a no third-person POV ever again rule (with rare exceptions). I’m a first-person girly for life and this just confirmed it 💁🏻‍♀️📚.

Best among the three! Ian Floyd, what a book boyfriend you are!

"A book set in NYC" That was the prompt I got from my TBR prompt and this is the book I picked. Well, this was an easy and fun and fast-paced read, nothing fancy, nothing big, and not disappointing as well. A little bit of hate because the MCs are a little frustrating sometimes (in a tolerable way, they kept miscommunicating), but in general, I love it. And their first kiss, that was chef's kiss💯 This book is a not-so-meet-cute love story. But the ending was cute. I love the trio friendship. And plus points to this book because I love their names. Hayes and Francesca? Gorgeous.