Review of 'Take a Hint, Dani Brown' by Talia Hibbert

 

I read this straight after reading Get a Life, Chloe Brown, and I just didn't quite connect with Dani as much. I loved the Chloe Brown book, but felt like there was less of the family side of things in this one, which I really missed, and I just felt like I understood Chloe and could resonate with her a lot more.

Take a Hint, Dani Brown is another smutty romance from Talia Hibbert, this time about the tough witchy sister of the family. When Dani's friend Zaf asks her to fake date him to help get publicity for his charity work, Dani's up for it, especially as she doesn't do 'love' so knows there's no risk of that happening. But when Zaf starts to fall for her, Dani's stuck at a crossroads.

This was a cute romance, but I just didn't enjoy the smut in it. It felt a bit jarring with the rest of the narrative, and it's something I struggled with in the author's other book too. I loved Zaf's character: a Muslim man who loves reading romance books, who works on his trauma with a therapist, and who cares so deeply for Dani. It was really refreshing to see a male lead in a romance book with a proper backstory and layers to his personality, and if I'm honest I liked him much more than Dani as a character.

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Review of 'One of Us is Next' by Karen M. McManus

 

Karen McManus is fast becoming one of my favourite YA authors. I've now read all of her books she's got out so far and cannot wait to sink my teeth into the next few. This however is probably my least favourite I've read. It was partly because it's been such a long time since I read One of Us is Lying that I kept losing sense of the links between the characters, and partly just because it didn't grip me as much as her other more recent books.

One of Us is Next takes place at Bayview High, a school that's still reeling after the death of a student and a gossip site that ruined a lot of lives. After the site was taken down, a few copycats had emerged and none of them had very good gossip, which is what everyone thought was happening when group texts start going out, starting an elaborate game of truth or dare. When the first person challenged refused to interact with the texter, and has her biggest secret spilled to the entire school, everyone starts to take this much more seriously.

This was a good read - I enjoyed it and I did get gripped into wanting to know who was behind everything. I found the plot did get interesting, but it was a bit of a tricky read to get into if you haven't read the first book recently. I was also a bit disappointed in the ending: it felt a bit meh and I wasn't convinced by who did it and why. I'm still glad I read it - it was a good YA mystery, but just not as good as the others I've read by the author.

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