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This book shall be my go-to reference for enjoyable stories that leave you with no answers for what is going on. We don't even know if they're on earth or not. Everything written in the book is learned through the main character who has never known life outside of the bunker. It adds an extra flair of surrealism as she gets to see and witness all these new things that the other women with her took for granted.

This copy contains an afterward referencing Jacqueline's family having to flee their home during the Nazi invasion and the likelihood that the other bunkers full of dead bodies was influenced by the concentration camps. This added an entirely new level to the book for me.

Another audiobook that was well-done. The narrator did a really great job at conveying the innocence that the MC would have had due to not knowing the world and that information being held from her because what's the point in teaching it since they will all die in the bunker and she will never experience a semblance of what life once was.

This is one that I will be buying a copy of. Highly recommend.

I listened to the audio book for this one, and I highly recommend it. Ellis Evans did a really great job bouncing between goofy fun conversations and serious moments. I gave it an extra star because of it. I laughed out loud in my car many times.

This has been toted as being a enemies-to-lovers romance, and that's absolutely not it at all. They are "entered" into a competition to prove that they should be the one that will marry Iris (all 3 involved characters have no interest in this marriage), but they're going along while trying to figure out what the driving factor is between this push for an arraigned marriage. There's a lot more political drama through this book, so just be prepared for that. This is another moment where I'm glad that I don't read the blurbs before I read.

This is my first holiday-themed book, so I'm not sure if it's quite my jam yet. But the characters were adorable, and there was a lot of communication between all, not just the MCs. It also didn't feel like there was a lot of random fluff thrown in, and the steamy scenes weren't just thrown into random spaces for entertainment purposes. The steam was a little diluted with a lot of talking (consent, consent, consent) and Coal's insecurities were a constant point of discussion between the two.

I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if we got to see a little from Hex's POV. This was straight from Coal's perspective only. Even just an epilogue with a peek through Hex's eyes would have been fine. It just emphasized the feeling that he's more of a background character. I wanted to see more of him.

I'll be picking up the next in this series to follow with Kris' story.

SPOILERY Interesting take by having Santa be the holiday mafia boss with capitalistic greed.

Very light spoiler that pertains to the progression of the book

I did really enjoy the view of history that I've not seen covered in a book before. I got through the first part pretty quickly due to not wanting to put the book down. But then it just started dragging. I was avoiding reading because I didn't want to be reminded that I had this on my phone waiting to be finished.

SPOILERISH I also got to the point that my first though when being introduced to a new character was "ok and how long until they die?" END SPOILERISH

This should have been a DNF for me, but I'm still going to give it 2 stars because I really did appreciate Min Jin Lee bringing forward the racism and disparity that Koreans faced during that time. I cannot begin to fathom leaving your birth country and then have no country want to claim you as a citizen.

I just wish some of the parts would have been slimmed down a little more.

This book was pretty dang intense. I don't think there was actually a happy moment that happened throughout. Even in the day-to-day events, it just felt like everyone trudging along. My biggest gripe is that it drags on too much. It took a surprising amount of time to even get to the murder that spurs the rest of the book on. It has magical realism woven throughout, but it blurs the line a little too much for my liking. I'm still not entirely sure what was going on with a lot of parts.

It's labeled as a murder-mystery, but there's no real mystery or even suspense through the book until the ending. If you go into it expecting a coming-of-age story with magical realism blurred throughout, you'll probably find it more enjoyable. The expectation that was given through the marketing was not met at all. A quick reminder of the reason why I try to never read the blurbs for books. I would be willing to give Alering's next book a go, though.