Fotografía de autor

Kimberly Karalius

Autor de Love Fortunes and Other Disasters

4 Obras 121 Miembros 8 Reseñas

Obras de Kimberly Karalius

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Miembros

Reseñas

This book reads like a chick-flick—delightful and enjoyable, but it doesn’t have too much substance. It made me very happy to read, but the only thoughts I went away with were of self-fulfilling prophecies and how we create our own futures.

In this semi-fantastical world, love charms actually work and Zita’s prophecies, available for residents of Grimbaud annually, predict the future. Fallon is stuck with a prophecy that condemns her to a life without love. This book centres on her dealing with this prophecy and on the group of students who begins researching other love charms to try and figure out if there’s a way out of their futures.

Grimbaud as a setting could be better expanded. It’s very intangible, as we have no idea what continent it’s on or time period it’s in. I’d like to know a little more about if this is a futuristic Earth or if this is just a country in an alternate world. The magic realism is unusual and sometimes hard to follow as there’s very little magic and I almost expect more to make it believable. A lot of people have strange names. While we’re able to suspend disbelief for the magic love charms and such, one aspect that’s not entirely believable is that parents are okay with their kids living in seemingly unsupervised dorms at the age of fifteen. This seems like more of a college environment.

Fallon seems very mature for her age, but she’s a very relatable character. Most people can relate to the idea of having no hope for love. Her determination makes her likable. She and Bastion have an interesting relationship that I was excited to see play out. At points, this book is very cinematic in an effective way. We see characters realise something and make a decision to go somewhere. This keeps suspense high.

In general, this book is fun and easy to read and flows quickly. The plot holds its own and is intriguing throughout.
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Denunciada
whakaora | 4 reseñas más. | Mar 5, 2023 |
This review originally posted at The Children's Book and Media Review

Fallon Dupree is excited to go to high school because she knows that when she is in the town of Grimbaud she’ll be able to follow a love fortune that is 100% accurate. When her fortune tells her that she will never find love, she is surprised and devastated. Fallon isn’t the only student with a terrible fortune, however. She becomes part of a rebellion that wants to overthrow the power of Zita’s famous love charms to give everyone a chance at love. She works with Sebastian, a boy known as the ultimate heartbreaker, to discover the secret’s behind Zita’s power and to fight to find Love.

The book is cute, but often unrealistic about how people would behave. It contains many typical tropes (such as the male love interest smirking in every interaction). Some of the motivations behind the characters in the rebellion are unclear and the characters themselves are underdeveloped. However, the setting is interesting and the idea is whimsical. Fallon’s obsession with things being just right in food and clothing is a unique character detail that is not often seen in fiction. The book does have positive messages about being willing to fight for what you want, especially when it has to do with love. For someone who doesn’t mind unrealistic plots and wants a light read, this book might satisfy a thirst for a little bit of love and romance in a story.
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Denunciada
vivirielle | 4 reseñas más. | Aug 4, 2021 |
First Kisses and Other Misfortunes A cute story with some very adorable characters. It's a fun little read, but not a game-changer. When I started, I hadn't realized that this was one of those novellas that takes place between books. You'll see in the back cover info that another book by the author is mentioned, I just didn't realize the tie in at first. The author does a great job of covering what's happened that's relevant to this story, so I didn't feel like it would be absolutely necessary to go back
To be honest, I don't think I want to go back and read the first story. I'm not big on crazy girlfriend stories, which is what it sounded like, though I can appreciate some elements to a romance, I have a hard time with books where the romance is the center of the book, just not a personal preference. But this one was adorable.
Okay, the romance is also at the center of this story, but it's a novella, so it's not drawn out and it's not about the lovers being separated or finding each other for the first time. They're already dating at the outset of the book but they haven't kissed yet. It's also not a book about a straight couple. It's my first book with a gay couple and they could not be more adorable. And normal. I really enjoyed that they were normal people and their relationship was treated as such. I don't know how other writers write gay or lesbian couples, but I have a feeling they have all the same issues as straight couples with prejudice and discrimination added on, but they are wholly accepted in their community so this story isn't about dealing with that.
This is one of those stories where I could hang out and read about Nico and Martin and  their friends doing whatever for more pages than this. But I could not have stood for the plot to be drawn out, which it isn't. It's concise and well paced and the tension between them was perfect which means that the story has a great blend of everything it needs to be entertaining. The magical realism really adds a little something special to the presentation of the events in the story too.
As I said before, it's not a game changer, which is the reason for the 3 star rating instead of higher. It's a great book, but not meant to revolutionize the way people write about or think of anything or any group mentioned.
and read the first story.
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Denunciada
Calavari | Jul 16, 2017 |
This was one of those books that nobody can quite put in a genre. Almost satirical, almost mystery, mostly chick flick. I greatly enjoyed the writing and the characters, and the romance was definitely swoon-worthy. ;P I would probably think it worth the buy if you're into interesting set-ups and adorable couples.
 
Denunciada
BMBracker | 4 reseñas más. | Feb 20, 2017 |

Estadísticas

Obras
4
Miembros
121
Popularidad
#164,307
Valoración
½ 3.6
Reseñas
8
ISBNs
9

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