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J Fitz

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  • 39
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Not as good as the first

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-21-25

This is half a book. It does not end satisfyingly at all as it sequel baiting. I enjoyed the first book mostly though the insistent meta jokes aren't my thing. It felt like they had an unreasonable amount of power creep for Shrubly at the expense of other characters. I do not plan to continue the series.

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Cant keep a good shrub down.

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-21-25

A fun and bubbly adventure of an eternally optimistic shrub. The reader does a great job bringing this story to life. The story does contain a lot meta humor which I personally don't care for in the story but it's few enough and spread out that it's easy enough to overlook.

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A heartwarming reconnection

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-18-24

An enjoyable story of two people reconnecting. I thought the story came down a little too hard on Morgan's career but overall handled compromise well. Though I am not a fan of the surprise at the end.

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Say "Yes, Chef" to love.

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-18-24

An exciting romance about two ambitious people balancing a budding romance while pursing their career dreams.

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Romanticizing a toxic romance.

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-18-24

This book got a visceral reaction from me. I was expecting a hallmark esq reconnection story with a Christmas backdrop. But instead we get a story about a a selfish monster who refuses to acknowledge and empathize with pain she has caused. Instead the author tries to gaslight the audience that she is justified in her actions.

This book wants you to root for Brighton's career and emotional wellbeing. But Charlotte needs to give up her career and her emotion wellbeing is ignored when its inconvenient for Brighton.

The author likes the character of Brighton so much that she frames Charlotte losing her dream career that she carved out in a city she loved and moving away from the small community she brought together as a good thing because that means Brighton won't have to compromise on playing guitar in dive bars in the town Brighton prefers. Charlotte asks Brighton multiple times to be given space because she, you know, abandoned her at the alter and Brighton refuses to listen. Brighton is asked not to reveal their relationship BUT she does. Brighton chooses to play a song that gave Charlotte traumatic flashbacks 3 days after Brighton saw Charlotte upset. When put in a situation that mirrors the pain she caused Charlette she doesn't connect the dots and instead she thinks she has justified anger, Brighton is sad her parents are on a vacation without her BUT Brighton's actions caused Charlotte to be separated from her psuedo-adoptive family for 5 years and its never mentioned.

This could have been a great story about facing the actions of your past and dealing with the consequences and growing as a person. But instead it just bends over backwards to remove all responsibility from Brighton because she felt sad while she was doing it.

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Characters make frustrating decisions

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-21-24

Characters consistently made choices that felt forced and hypocritical. There is a consistent belittling of the female leads experience. Her trauma is often brought up as a reason for her actions but then they just have the male lead be like "You may have been born into slavery and have been abused and experimented on and seen everyone you care about including your mother figure ruthlessly murdered BUT I signed up for an officer position in a war and saw people die of hunger so pipe down and do what I need you to do or I'll throw you in jail." it makes for a very unlikable dynamic where I just wanted her to leave the town the whole time.

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A great modern setting sci-fi story.

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-24-24

The concept got a little out there at times but the set up was solid. the author did his research to make the science feel real and plausible to the average reader. there are discussions of what other life would look like that I really enjoyed as it pushed the bounds of what I would have considered an alien life could be.

Overall it was a fast and light read much like the authors other work The Martian. Definitely worth the read.

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A classic but dated story.

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
1 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-30-24

This story is a classic and in a very real way started the cyberpunk genre as we know it today. But Because it is so structural to the genre it's easy to overlook all the interesting world building done because they are "normal" for every story in the cyberpunk genre. this unfortunately causes this story to seem to focus on other aspects that have since been developed to fit modern audiences making it feel like it's dated. I would still recommend this book to people who want to see where it all started.

I would not recommend this version though. The performance of this book was jarring for me. The tone and style consistently took me out of the story. it felt like reader was trying his best to dramatize up some hard boiled detective noir story, which while is charming in that genre was not what I hoped for in this one. His reading of female parts become eyeroll worthy as he nailed that breathy girl voice guys do when they want to jokingly appear to talk like a women. At times, I turned off the recording cause I could no longer ignore my disdain for the reading and put on music to finish out my commute.

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An unprecedented look into a persons life

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-15-23

A well written chronicle of the early life of LBJ. Expertly sets up the times and conditions in which a person can grow up wanting power over anything so long as they have it.

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Great performance

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-15-23

The books have always been surprisingly simple. But the length of this 63 hours just show how much there is. At least you'll be able to say confidently that you have not read all of Sherlock Holmes.

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