Things have been busy around here, as usual — I’ve been working away on revising the older books in my series, something I’ve been needing to do for a very long time. I may do a post about that sometime soon. And that’s on top of normal life, promotion, side jobs, and more!

But in the meantime, I want to make sure I stay on track with these review posts, so here are another five of them for your reading pleasure!

Continuing on my read through the Divergent series, I re-read this one through audiobook. And just like my first time, I really enjoyed it. I loved the characters and the ideas and the world.

I also really love the movie of this one, though I know that a lot of people don’t, and there were things that were definitely changed. But still, I’d call this a solid second installment. But stay tuned for the final installment…

This one was given to me right before I got married, nearly six years ago. I was at a conference and a longtime family friend pulled me aside to give me some wise counsel on marriage and to hand this to me. I read it in one sitting that evening.

I’ve returned to it a few more times over the years. It’s very practical — some of the “100 things” are just a sentence or two, while some make up a longer portion with more indepth exploration. But all of it is helpful and a good reminder for our relationships. Definitely recommend this little book.

Okay, so this one is controversial. I read it because it was suggested by a friend for book club, and I thought it sounded interesting, so I voted for it. It ended up getting booted out of our book club lineup, but I was still curious. Part of the reason I’d wanted to choose it was that I thought it would make an interesting discussion, so when I found that the friend who suggested it went ahead and read it, I decided I would check it out too, then we could just discuss it between the two of us.

For beautiful writing, engaging characters, and emotional impact, I could easily have given it at least four stars. But I had to knock off one due to the sexual content being much too graphic for my taste. It doesn’t show a whole lot happening, but things are discussed and described in terms that I was just very uncomfortable with. The controversial nature of the book, the relationship of a grown man with a much younger girl, I actually didn’t mind as much due to how it was done. I just wish it could have been kept a little cleaner. As it is, I really can’t recommend this one.

This might be my favorite of the three books I read on intermittent fasting. I still recommend Delay Don’t Deny as an introduction to those interested in fasting, and I still think The Obesity Code is a fascinating deep dive into the science behind this method of eating.

But this book in particular gave, I felt, the best overview of fasting and what it is and how it works and the best ways to get the most out of it. If I had to recommend an order to read these in, I might suggest first Delay Don’t Deny, then this one, then The Obesity Code if you want more indepth information about it all.

Well, this was a disappointment.

I had seen the movie when it first came out, and thought the movie was very bad (which it was) but held onto hope that the book would be different when I finally got to it. And it was different. It was SO much worse. It was very clear that the author had no plan and had started the series with no idea where she was going, and the efforts to wrap everything up were clumsy and confusing.

Basically everything from both previous books is revealed to have been a lie, which I already hate. But also the characters just fall flat in this one. We end up spending a bunch of time in Four’s head for the first time, but I was always confused because apparently the way Four thinks is so much like a teenage girl that I couldn’t distinguish it from Tris. Also, I just didn’t find anything in it very interesting or likable. So sad to see a series I love end in this way.

Well, today’s reviews were really all over the place! Different ratings, different genres, different focuses. That’s how I love to read — keep it fresh, keep a sense of variety, try new things, but also revisit old loves. And I’ll continue this pattern for the rest of my 2022 book reviews!

In the meantime, as always, let me know your thoughts if you’ve read any of these. If not, are you planning to add any to your to-read list?