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christyreads_n_rambles's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had a very hard time finishing this book it was almost my second DNF. The female character IMO is insufferable and continues to be that way throughout the book. It was hard to believe one person could have so much happen to them in one lifetime, not to say that it is impossible but it does feel like one thing after another and it was all big terrible things. I had higher hopes to say the least.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, Infidelity, Cancer, Child death, and Car accident
chloelj27's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Cancer, Child death, Medical content, and Vomit
chelle22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Car accident, Cursing, Deadnaming, Grief, Death of parent, and Death
kotashomelibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Cancer
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Infidelity
book_worm_mama_bear's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
L.J. Shen writes the most beautiful stories.
I AM A SPICE GIRL... lol no not the girl group but a girl who demands spice to like a book. Well there are a few author's who can write a story with very little spice and still make me glued to a book. L.J. Shen is one of those authors. This book like many of her others was a masterpiece and will live rent free in my brain for life. This story had twist and turns I never seen coming. Parts that made me tear up and characters that I love. The spice scale is a 2/5 but the plot, how it pulls you in all are top star. So if you liked any of L.J. Shen's books you have to read this one and if you haven't then let this be your first since it's a standalone.
I AM A SPICE GIRL... lol no not the girl group but a girl who demands spice to like a book. Well there are a few author's who can write a story with very little spice and still make me glued to a book. L.J. Shen is one of those authors. This book like many of her others was a masterpiece and will live rent free in my brain for life. This story had twist and turns I never seen coming. Parts that made me tear up and characters that I love. The spice scale is a 2/5 but the plot, how it pulls you in all are top star. So if you liked any of L.J. Shen's books you have to read this one and if you haven't then let this be your first since it's a standalone.
Content Warnings
Minor: Infidelity, Cancer, Grief, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness
chaotic_hyperactive's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Alcohol, Infidelity, Car accident, and Cancer
darknesslighttt's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
5.0
𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀: second chance, love triangle
𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀: death of a loved one, grief, cheating
I think you will either love this book or hate it. I loved it. Even from the prologue, I felt that this book would make me feel something. Even though I kind of suspected what would happen, it still made me suffer.
LJ Shen never stops to amaze me. Beautiful Graves is complicated, surprising, tragic, that takes your breath away and you will understand at some point why the author chose this name for the book.
This is not a typical love story, but a heartbreaking one. The author introduces us to a world with unexpected events, where life hits you hard but which make you grow, make decisions, love, suffer and most important forgive.
𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀: death of a loved one, grief, cheating
I think you will either love this book or hate it. I loved it. Even from the prologue, I felt that this book would make me feel something. Even though I kind of suspected what would happen, it still made me suffer.
LJ Shen never stops to amaze me. Beautiful Graves is complicated, surprising, tragic, that takes your breath away and you will understand at some point why the author chose this name for the book.
This is not a typical love story, but a heartbreaking one. The author introduces us to a world with unexpected events, where life hits you hard but which make you grow, make decisions, love, suffer and most important forgive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
nikitanavalkar's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Unlike a lot of readers, I don’t often shy away from love triangles. Sure, a few have made me rage in the past but I grew up on a steady Bollywood diet of these, and they call to me. And more often than not, I pick the right horse in the race, and the girl does end up with the right guy for her (according to me duh) if not my favorite guy. Speaking of this specific love triangle, I did have ideas about how it would go at the start but I was pretty quickly disabused of my preconceptions as the story went on, and soon I’d switched teams and you will know there was never really a choice if you look properly anyway.
As a long time reader, I also do pride myself on guessing certain twists in a story (maybe all of y’all do but let me have this), and I did called one major twist pretty early on. Some others, not so much. However the beauty of this story is such that even if you could see what’s coming a mile away, it’s like watching a collision waiting to happen, it’s stunning and debilitating and so darn painful but you can’t look away. Seriously I was on tenterhooks throughout this book because you knew a bad thing after the other is about to happen but you can’t take your eyes off it, all you could do is bear the brunt.
Let me go back a little and say that reducing this story down to a love triangle is doing it a huge disservice. It is so so much more; it’s about choices and their consequences, about how perfection is a mirage and we all are just flawed humans at our core, about familial love and friendship being as vital and enduring as (if not more than) romantic relationships, about second chances and third chances and repeated chances to make things right when you truly love someone, of how some things are so trivial in the bigger picture of life, and about loss and grief and healing in all its painful, messy forms. I swear I cried the most during the poignant friends and family moments. And in spite of all of this, the pace was perfectly set so that the actual romance got room to breathe and develop, not just become an I choose you at the end of a long bachelorette finale episode. It wasn’t conventional, there were stops and starts and oof, all the angst that naturally came with this specific set of circumstances, but our ✨ couple ✨ got time to work through it.
Everlynne as a heroine is possibly more flawed than your average fresh faced leading lady, even as she’s more real. I mean don’t get it twisted, she’s been through so much that’s effed her up, but her reactions to it are sadly, understandable. Of course she’s cynical and self destructive to a frustrating degree. The beauty of Ms Shen’s heroines is their lives might be so far removed from yours, but there’s always a touch of relatability. With Ever, it’s her constant need to mold herself to suit the world around, to shrink herself to take up little space. And the darkness in her calls to mine somehow, it’s raw, human. My only note for her is, girlll always, always heed those red flags. Compromise is for toilet paper ladies, not for love and marriage.
I won’t speak about the men because spoilers, but the characters are so finely wrought that you know where it’ll lead if you just follow the crumbs. I’m just going to say the journey to get to the destination is sublime; juicy and tragic and devastating, but sublime. Is it any wonder I started the book tonight and before I knew it was the morning after and I had gulped it down like it was my last drop of water in the desert? A big shoutout also to best friend portrayals, because Nora and especially Pippa are God’s greatest gift to Ever, always got her back if in their own ways, and I would be very much delighted if we got a Pippa book.
As a long time reader, I also do pride myself on guessing certain twists in a story (maybe all of y’all do but let me have this), and I did called one major twist pretty early on. Some others, not so much. However the beauty of this story is such that even if you could see what’s coming a mile away, it’s like watching a collision waiting to happen, it’s stunning and debilitating and so darn painful but you can’t look away. Seriously I was on tenterhooks throughout this book because you knew a bad thing after the other is about to happen but you can’t take your eyes off it, all you could do is bear the brunt.
Let me go back a little and say that reducing this story down to a love triangle is doing it a huge disservice. It is so so much more; it’s about choices and their consequences, about how perfection is a mirage and we all are just flawed humans at our core, about familial love and friendship being as vital and enduring as (if not more than) romantic relationships, about second chances and third chances and repeated chances to make things right when you truly love someone, of how some things are so trivial in the bigger picture of life, and about loss and grief and healing in all its painful, messy forms. I swear I cried the most during the poignant friends and family moments. And in spite of all of this, the pace was perfectly set so that the actual romance got room to breathe and develop, not just become an I choose you at the end of a long bachelorette finale episode. It wasn’t conventional, there were stops and starts and oof, all the angst that naturally came with this specific set of circumstances, but our ✨ couple ✨ got time to work through it.
Everlynne as a heroine is possibly more flawed than your average fresh faced leading lady, even as she’s more real. I mean don’t get it twisted, she’s been through so much that’s effed her up, but her reactions to it are sadly, understandable. Of course she’s cynical and self destructive to a frustrating degree. The beauty of Ms Shen’s heroines is their lives might be so far removed from yours, but there’s always a touch of relatability. With Ever, it’s her constant need to mold herself to suit the world around, to shrink herself to take up little space. And the darkness in her calls to mine somehow, it’s raw, human. My only note for her is, girlll always, always heed those red flags. Compromise is for toilet paper ladies, not for love and marriage.
I won’t speak about the men because spoilers, but the characters are so finely wrought that you know where it’ll lead if you just follow the crumbs. I’m just going to say the journey to get to the destination is sublime; juicy and tragic and devastating, but sublime. Is it any wonder I started the book tonight and before I knew it was the morning after and I had gulped it down like it was my last drop of water in the desert? A big shoutout also to best friend portrayals, because Nora and especially Pippa are God’s greatest gift to Ever, always got her back if in their own ways, and I would be very much delighted if we got a Pippa book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death
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