I have to stop reading y'alls reviews when I'm still reading the book because it really does fuel the unkind belief I have that we are losing reading I have to stop reading y'alls reviews when I'm still reading the book because it really does fuel the unkind belief I have that we are losing reading comprehension as a society.
Now I wouldn't say that any of the women featured here have snuck their way into being my favorite character, and at times they weren't the most fun to listen to. Still, most of the issues I had with them were actually addressed by the narrative and were brought up by characters in the book. It feels silly to penalize what was so clearly a deliberate decision on the part of Wan to craft this particular book.
I'll also say that I might not be the worlds biggest believer in the heist novel. I've read a few, and few have worked. I think that it's simply one of those things that works better in a movie where the moving parts feel cinematic in montage, but the feat of keeping all the moving pieces in the air in a book is harder. It's easier to pick out the flaws when there's nothing for them to hide behind. I don't think that's necessarily what I was doing here, but still actually reading about the heist wasn't as fun as reading about the planning.
I do appreciate stories about friendship; particularly stories where friendship starts to be tested and people start to call into question how real it all was and how much of it was self serving. Wan was able to strike that balance really well and have all the tensions really boil over in the third act. Honestly I thought that it was smart to move some of the conflict to the interpersonal connection of the three women and the strain the whole endeavor on their friendship and not rely on the actual heist to deliver all of the conflict and tension of the story.
So yeah, there were times where I did struggle to see the issues in their lives as they did. As an outsider it was easy for me to think that at times they were reacting in a way that felt outlandish, but it gave the characters somewhere to grow. Or even for them to convince me that I was simply in the wrong and not seeing things as they did. In the end it was an enjoyable time, certainly a good time, and one worth reading....more
From the first few sentences I could understand why this book was getting praised up and down every timeline I was on last year. I could immediately uFrom the first few sentences I could understand why this book was getting praised up and down every timeline I was on last year. I could immediately understand the appeal, and for once could feel myself agreeing with it and that was a really nice thing to experience.
Before this year I never would I have thought I'd be a second chance romance girlie, let alone that I could enjoy two of them in the same month and yet here I am.
Ama and Elliot's story was compelling in both the present chapters as we see each of them really in their element and being sort of forced back into a working relationship to make Ama's highest profile clients yet happy, and them in the past when Ama was freshly starting out on her own as a wedding planner. I will say that what made this second chance romance work so well for me was that I appreciated that in each of the timelines Ama and Elliot were each doing their thing, but at no point did it feel like either of them was settling? Particularly in the future, it was nice that Ama had continued to thrive without Elliot's more inventive installations and his shop had also continued to garner attention. They weren't coming back to each other because they had flamed out or things weren't working or everything in their lives was pathetic. They were coming back together on a similar level and were able to continue to push the other to be the best version of themselves and that was amplified by knowledge they had from their past and a sense of genuinely caring about this person.
I'm also slowly learning I like it when the couple isn't dating for most of the book. We get plenty of scenes with our couple because they were sort of dating in the past and we see that relationship playing out, but in the present it's mostly platonic. Platonic adjacent anyway, with them keeping things as professional as possible and the reader getting to see that side of them with each other. We get to skip out on a third act breakup in favor of a more comical third act conflict that also allows Ama to have a moment of confrontation with a character that's been undermining her the whole book while also reinforcing the care that Elliot has been harboring for Ama the whole book.
While I had been loving this experience I wasn't sure I was willing to read Soto's sophmore outing about the classical cellist? Then I saw Xander's blink and you miss it cameo here and I will be picking out that second book as soon as it's available.
As much as I loved Ama and Elliot I did also very much appreciate the care of all the side characters. I won't be holding my breath that the colorful stepsiblings that have taken over Sacremento are going to be making any future appearances, but they added a vibrancy that was nice to see. It was also refreshing to see stepsiblings still be an important part of Ama's life and that even though none of them were still connected to her via marriage they wanted to be there too. Even if part of that reasoning might have been a paycheck.
I don't think I need to tell anyone to read this because I'm so late to the party, but if you haven't go read it....more
Blessings to Libro.fm without whom I never would have had this book on my radar, which is wild because I've since learned that this is a BOTM selectioBlessings to Libro.fm without whom I never would have had this book on my radar, which is wild because I've since learned that this is a BOTM selection and the publisher won't let you forget that Yulin Kuang is attached to a couple different adaptations of Emily Henry's work.
To have me tell it, Kuang is lapping Ms. Henry in the adult romance game, but let's get into this book.
I'll be honest, I only kind of skimmed the description before selecting this from Libro. If you've been following me for any amount of time I hope it's obvious my love for stories set in Hollywood or are in any way tangentially related to Hollywood. Here we are following Helen, a YA author who is currently living the dream of riding their best selling series into a TV adaptation. She arrives in LA ready to take on the challenge of being a screenwriter for the first time, collaborating with other screenwriters on the show, seeing the characters she imagined coming to life in a new medium.
The only thing in her way is Grant, a man from her past with some pretty thorny connections to her family.
To this books credit the audiobook did come with a content warning about grief, which was important given the first chapter is thirteen years prior to the start of the book at Helen's sister's funeral... Thirteen years before the start of the story Helen's sister commited suicide [ I'm going to be honest the exact specifics have gotten fuzzy but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with her stepping out into oncoming traffic ] because Grant was the driver of the car that struck Helen's sister.
To be honest I wasn't sure how this book was going to make this a romance. After the book opened at the funeral I wasn't even sure that I had actually picked up a romance an that maybe I was playing into some subconscious sexism... The fact that Kuang was able to start there and end with a HFN speaks to the strength of the writing in my opinion.
I think that what was so smart about what Kuang was able to do here was use the setting of the writers room and the side characters working out character beats; particularly a believable way to adapt one of the romances from the books to the show as the template for setting up Helen and Grant. When I clocked that Kuang was referencing back to that particularly good scene in the writers room I had to give her her kudos. To me it was believeable. Other reviewers feel like there was a sudden switch that was flipped and really all I can say is that I have to disagree. I'll also say that this book has more sex scenes than I personally care for usually, but how they were handled really worked for me. In part because I think it tied back to that mirroring, and while sex is inherently an act of intimacy it was clear that for at least Helen it wasn't as intimate as it was letting Grant actually in; it wasn't as intimate as allowing herself to be emotionally vulnerable.
I'll also admit that I appreciated this book wasn't necessarily about these two dating. Sure, they might as well be at a certain point, but they aren't and so the third act conflict isn't a rushed breaking up and getting back together; but a culmination of the avoidance Helen has really been doing coming home to roost. It's here that you actually get to see her dealing with the fact that maybe she does what to be emotionally vulnerable with this man and what that is going to mean. This doesn't wave a wand over anything, but it was compelling storytelling.
I was gripped the entire time I spent reading this book. If Kuang is as booked and busy as the streets have been telling me I don't know if we'll get another book from them, or if their work as a screenwriter/director is going to keep them too busy for the forseeable future. If that book ever does drop I will be rushing out to read it because this was an excellent debut as far as I was concerned....more
Many months ago when I requested an ARC I had a sinking suspicion based on nothing but the title that this would be a Monte book™ and I am happy to reMany months ago when I requested an ARC I had a sinking suspicion based on nothing but the title that this would be a Monte book™ and I am happy to report that even though I didn't get to it until well after its release, it was indeed a Monte book™.
Told from three distinct POVs I wouldn't say this is like most thrillers or mysteries that I've read. Sure, there are characters that are hiding things from each other while dropping little hints to the reader, but the book isn't trying to beat you over the head with reveals. The experience is more akin to hearing your friend tell you their own convoluted family history over lunch; or them recapping the plot of a particularly messy episode of TV in order to convince you to watch it. The character work is mostly done in broad strokes, the ideas of who these people are and the role they play in the story being told. Again, more like a family history than a high octane plot propelled novel. Still, it works. The book reads like it knows that it's short, that it's been meticulously trimmed of any fat to keep only what is strictly necessary. It's possible that this approach won't be for every reader, but it was for me and I appreciated not only the story itself but how it was told. ...more
Of the works by Henry I've read I might say that this is the most successful?
That does come with a few caveats though, because it's me and of course iOf the works by Henry I've read I might say that this is the most successful?
That does come with a few caveats though, because it's me and of course it does.
I'm a girlie that wants dual POV in a romance and I think that's important to note because a lot of this feels like Daphne's story. Which in the context of the book and now characters view her, is important... but it doesn't necessarily feel like two characters shared journey. It doesn't feel like characters coming together, and at times it feels like a sequence of plot contrivances made up for a fictional story ( which is all a book really is, but truly good books transcend that into something that feels universal, y'know? ).
Anyway, this is the story of how Daphne's partner Peter leaves her for his childhood best friend, Petra. Now Petra being on this bachelor's trip should have already been a red flag, but Daphne moving into a house where her name was not on the deed despite the fact she was supposed to be marrying this man is wild. Hell, the fact that they bought a whole house before they were married seemingly so he could exclude her from having her name on the house should have been bad enough. But, newly single and not really interested in looking at the list of apartments that Peter left for her before running off to have a sexcation with his new girlfriend Petra, Daphne decides that it'd just be easier to move in with Petra's jilted partner Miles.
Now Miles really is the saving grace of this book. Daphne is almost too cookie cutter of a romance heroine, but that's fine. The two get along for the most part, giving each other as much space as is possible in the dingy two bedroom apartment that Miles used to call home with Petra.
It's not until a wedding invitation arrives for the pair that the duo decide to go out and drink at the utter absurdity of them getting an invitation. It's one of the first bonding moments the pair have. The next morning hung over Daphne realizes that she has RSVP'd to the wedding and when Peter calls to confirm that RSVP she makes up this lie about her and Miles being together....
It's here that we encounter our first issue. Dear Reader you might think that this little lie is going to be the premise for the rest of the book, that we are going to read about their fake relationship in the context of the book leading us toward that Labor Day wedding they RSVP'd to. I just want to do you the favor and let you know that's not actually what's happening.
You see when Daphne and Peter got together and were planning their life, they were living in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, the book is set in the great State of Michigan; more importantly Daphne's mother is living in the great state of Maryland. This is important because in the eighteen months she spent living in Michigan the only people she associated with were Peter's friends and she doesn't really have anything keeping her in this small town she finds herself in. Other than her job at the library and this fundraiser that was all her idea. It's this fundraiser at the end of the summer that we're really headed toward, something the narrative makes no secret about. It's this deadline that Daphne and Miles agree too when they set out to get Daphne to see just how great this small town can be.
The book is filled with some great side characters that you always get when you set your book in a small town and the main character has to get to know people. It's fun and cozy in the ways that you would expect and these friendship dates feel organic enough. Though on each one the reader and those around Daphne and Miles are always told that they aren't really together. Honestly the biggest plot hole in this book is everyone finding out that Daphne and Miles aren't really together and that fact never getting back to Peter or Petra; something that has to happen to keep the third act conflic in tact I suppose.
It's also important to know that Daphne and Miles' relationship with their parents are almost mirrored. I say almost because at least Daphne has a positive relationship with her mother whereas both of Miles parents were complicit in the abuse that his mother inflicted on him and his sister. The complex relationship that our main characters have with their various family members is explored for both, but only Daphne is able to get any kind of resolution. Partially because while we can't get his perspective, Miles' role in the narrative does seem to be to change into the kind of man that would be Daphne's perfect match. Not because he already is that already but because the narrative needs for him to shave parts of who he is to fit that.
The book does a lot of telling us who Daphne and Miles are, but the actions that each of them take don't ever really seem to match exactly this vision of who Emily Henry thinks that she's writing about. This feels really obvious with Miles and the way that we are meant to forgive him for some of the third act actions because he was also off being a manic pixie dream man.
Maybe I'm just a hater, but I do think that Miles knowing what he does and how he was supposed to be this champion for Daphne, good man or not and wanting to be helpful it does seem very silly to be helpful in the particular way he wanted to help in this story. Especially when he couldn't be bothered to say something...
Some of the issues with this book definitely have to do with wanting to use fake dating as a tool to incite these characters into being together, but it feels like almost anything could have pushed these two in that direction and as every character that crosses their path is immediately told the truth and all these excursions are framed platonically and extended to third parties it seems silly for it to even be part of the narrative. Even Petra and Peter's wedding serves as a plot contrivance that has nothing to do with the plot of the book, Peter and Petra have very little to do outside of being the boogeyman in our characters minds.
The community was fun to be in, and Ashley and Julia did a lot to make the book enjoyable. Miles really is a swoonworthy hero, but the fact we didn't get his persective did make a lot of what he was doing just feel off kilter and routinely undercut him as a character I was rooting for. Daphne... she might have been a little raggedy in the beginning and had a monologue moment at the end that seemed to say she didn't think Miles was going to be the one in a way most romance books want you to believe the hero will be the one... was ultimately fine? Just like the book. Lots of low lows, but it was ultimate a book that was easy enough to get through and definitely better than than pink book she tried to peddle as a romance last year. ...more
Between you and me I am never quite sure where this series is going to go when I pick up one of the book, I lock in for an experience and hope for theBetween you and me I am never quite sure where this series is going to go when I pick up one of the book, I lock in for an experience and hope for the best. In this installment we obviously have to spend some time with characters processing the character death that was at the end of the second book, something that gutted me more than I thought was going to happen. That's not the only thing going on though. We have to deal with the fact that Ampersand and Co definitely aren't the only aliens in the universe, but they also aren't the only aliens on Earth and what those implications have for our characters. Once again Ellis does a really good job balancing the human characters and their alien counterparts; interjecting the political backdrop of the mid aughts that is the setting. What we're building toward in terms of a series plot still feels mostly nebulous in favor of zeroing in on the questions that this specific book wants to answer. It's something that I think works, not only for this book, but the series overall. Like really good TV it has the sense of telling a contained story that will ultimately benefit the overall season arc. It's also just very refreshing to have a science fiction series that is so grounded on Earth and the characters having to wrestle with the issues they face with resources that feel relatable in an era that still feels close but also has a thin veneer of nostalgia. ...more
The good people at Berkley have been very kind to me over the years, I don't think there is a Hazelwood title that I have asked for that I haven't recThe good people at Berkley have been very kind to me over the years, I don't think there is a Hazelwood title that I have asked for that I haven't received early. The good Dr. Prof. Hazelwood and I have been through a lot together, our journey has had some high highs and some shockingly low lows. I went into this off the highest highs delivered by the good Dr. Prof. with Check & Mate and Bride, so no one is more gagged than I am to say that this book simply did not deliver... In fact, it's quite possibly my least favorite [ full length novel from ] Ali Hazelwood to date, something I didn't think was possible given how much I dislike The Love Hypothesis.
This is the story of Rue and Eli, the first true dual POV romance from the good Dr. Prof. and while I was initially excited I have never regretted something more in my life...
To start with the good, I really appreciated the business storyline in this. That's not too much of a shock given how I've tended to enjoy the B-plot in all of Hazelwood's previous works, at least starting with Love on the Brain. The company Rue works for might get their loans bought out by the hedgefund that Eli is a part of. Simple enough. Things get slightly more complicated when the connection between this biofuel start up and the hedgefund are teased out to the reader, given what could have been just a bland reason to have two characters meet into something that had some layers and added to the tension.
Just about nothing else worked for me. In part because this book does a lot of lip service, characters often proclaim to be one way while acting in total contradiction to their stated behaviors. Take Rue and Eli's first encounter. They're initially not brought together by the acquisition of Rue's place of employment, but a dating app. When their planned one night stand is run afoul by Rue's younger brother it's revealed that Rue is a one night stand girlie and while they never actually got around to doing anything other than Eli playing the part of a knight in shining armor this will be their only encounter. It's only when Eli shows up the next day and there's an obligatory moment of the two in a lab together that that goes out the window. We don't get a series of dates so much as we get a series of sexual encounters, this is by far Hazelwood's horniest book; complete with lots of discussions of the various kinks each of our characters have and the quirks that they bring into the bedroom and how best to navigate them, or in some cases prove that Rue does actually like being penetrated when it's by Eli's curative cock. There's no emotional connection here. You could say that is in part because of the way Rue chooses to express emotion, but this is a dual POV and Eli isn't giving anything either, he's just getting chapters to tease the business storyline and play the part of a guy falling first because ~fate.
There's also an examination of Rue and her younger brother's dynamic. Truly some of the worst writing in the book. (view spoiler)[We meet him under the assumption that he's a belligerent drunk hitting on Rue at the hotel bar she's meant to be meeting Eli at, it's not until after he's played the part of the good guy that we learn the man at the bar was her younger brother and not a romantic rival. This relationship doesn't come up again until later in the book when the narrative needs a reason for Rue to call Eli for help even though we just read about this man betraying her in a way that should cut deep. We do get some info on their relationship and family history; namely that they were abandoned by their father at a young age and then grew up in an unstable home raised by a mother that was either not concerned with making sure her children ate or was simply unable to ensure that. So while Rue was able to get out of that life with a figure skating scholarship and her brain her brother was left behind to continue fending for himself, apparently in ways that Rue looks down on. Understandably Rue is caught between loving her brother but wanting nothing to do with him, but she's also standing in his way? That father that abandoned them, he's dead and left them a cabin he used to own. Vince, the brother, needs the money selling the cabin would provide, Rue is uninterested and instead wants to buy out her brothers portion even though she does nothing to actually move the needle on that and instead just continues to avoid the man... It's all done so vague and coupled with other plot elements of the book it just continues this theme of "fuck you, got mine" that just did nothing for me... (hide spoiler)]
Even the corporate storyline started to feel a little foolish as we got to the end of the book. Rue and Eli were never really dating, so really this element of the story has to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to creating conflict in the story because Rue and Eli don't have any sort of friction outside of it. The genesis of this conflict and some of the resulting fallout could have been seen from miles away, but watching it play out was worse than I could have imagined. Some of the Harkness supporting characters just felt so silly? In a way I could understand given their timetable why they would feel some of the way they did, but again, it was playing into this theme of "fuck you, got mine" that makes sense in the context of a business transaction, but at the same time if you were going to have that attitude it does make you question why they could not understand why the other characters had made the decision they did.
At no point was I rooting for Rue and Eli... Partially because this book didn't seem to have any heart to it. The side characters all had nothing to do, the writing felt so flat and discordant from Hazelwood's previous works. If this wasn't a rushed book it almost feels like one that had been languishing in the drafts and was dusted off for this. It doesn't help that this is the second book getting published by Hazelwood this year, and maybe if this was the only release I wouldn't think that this was as rushed as I do.
I'm not sure who exactly would be best to recommend this book to as I really don't think there's anything done here that Hazelwood hasn't already done better in some of her other works. Only if you're truly against rereading and desperate to get your hands on their next story would I say this could potentially be worth your time....more
For a book with such connected characters you'd think I would have eagerly devoured this book, but honestly I had to restart this a coupThis was fine?
For a book with such connected characters you'd think I would have eagerly devoured this book, but honestly I had to restart this a couple times to get myself to care about the story I was reading.
I might have imagined this, but I believe an adaptation of this is in the works?? Again, could have been a hallucination, but it definitely reads like a book that would be better served in a visual medium.
For one reason or another this group of Black women have found themselves in Singapore and in search of community have found their way to a Black woman book club where they can get together and read and share in their lives. Like any good book club mess within the group is quick to form. There are marriage troubles, belief that a person could be the reincarnated version of their late father, a woman eager to prove to the people at the law firm where she works at that she is worth being made partner.
It's definitely the kind of story that you will enjoy in the moment, but very little of what transpires is deep enough to make a reader invested to the point where the narrative will stick with you long after the story is over. With summer right around the corner I think this could be the perfect selection to pass the hot months with. It was one of the Celebrity Book Club picks so I'm sure a lot of readers have already been exposed to this one, and if it happened to be one of the selections they skipped I can't say they missed anything but they won't be disappointed if they one day decide to circle back around to this one. ...more
This book is for the girls that get it, truth be told... I'm not sure I do? Normally I might think that this is a bad thing... like the book set out tThis book is for the girls that get it, truth be told... I'm not sure I do? Normally I might think that this is a bad thing... like the book set out to do something and it failed to accomplish that. Here... I'm not sure that it set out to do something, nor did it really fail, an the experience that I had in all of that was overwhelmingly positive, but having finished the book and slept on how the story played out so much of what happened feels as though it has dissipated. In some ways adjacent to cotton candy, but definitely more thought provoking.
The book is set at the University of Arkansas and we follow five women as their lives converge on the campus in various ways. We have Agatha Paul a new professor and celebrated author, Millie Cousins the RA at the least attractive dorm on the campus; and Kennedy, Tyler, and Jenna three girls who live in the dorm that no one wants to be in. The way the novel brings these women together, and the exploration of their lives is interesting. It's not quite slice of life there's a little something happening. If anything book toes the line of commentary, all of the pieces are present for that to happen but then it's mostly left on the reader? Not a bad choice, one that I think works at most points in the novel.
For the most part I think the book tells you where it's going to go. Agatha is here to teach yes, but is also working on another book and so the direction her writing is going does dictate the direction that the book overall goes in; with the other characters serving as the muses essentially. Even with a generalized idea of how the book was going to play out after the first twenty or so percent, Reid still managed to keep me invested. Up until the end, which felt very abrupt? A lot of that has to do with how the characters behaved overall, and the way that the story itself unfolded. It realliy did feel like there were missed opportunities.
Overall though the reading experience was really positive. I spent a lot of time highlighting passages of the text and feeling really connected to hose these characters were interacting with one another. If anything I think the book being just a little longer might have helped. As someone that really enjoyed their debut I didn't feel let down by this at all, and I do look forward to purchasing a copy for myself when the book comes out in January. I do have a hard time knowing how else would enjoy this though, as recommending this feels slightly harder than knowing who to suggest their debut to....more
I'm not sure I can persuade people to pick up a book about the invention of the polygraph... but if I can, I think that the audiobook was very engaginI'm not sure I can persuade people to pick up a book about the invention of the polygraph... but if I can, I think that the audiobook was very engaging. It was a day well spent. I learned some stuff, I had a good time. It's like a nice holdiay; you go to the place, sample some food, relax a little. That's how I would describe my time with this book.
That's not to say that the book is lighthearted. The history of the polygraph, especially as it is written about here can be a little dark with a couple murder cases at the heart of the history as depicted and the inventors and police all jockeying to try and get the polygraph admissible. So do know that, but at the end of the day I think it is time well spent. ...more
There was something about this book that just didn't quite click for me... And if I had to guess what it was it's that so much of this story just feelThere was something about this book that just didn't quite click for me... And if I had to guess what it was it's that so much of this story just feels like it's coming out at the wrong time... Even I can admit that's not really a fair critique of the book.
It's told in two timelines, one set in the past where our main character, Rachel, is on holiday with her friend and gets pulled under the spell of a man a decade older than her and then Rachel when she's roughly a decade later back on the island with her husband. It's the way that the book is so short and bounces between these two points in time and the moments in each timeline that added to this mostly feeling like an incomplete thought. In the past the reader can clearly sense that Rachel is being abused in some way, but there's also a larger threat looming. Then in the present we see Rachel and her husband having troubles in their marriage and Rachel returning to the man that was clearly trafficking her in her youth. So in terms of making the reader feel ill at ease, the book succeeds...
The biggest issue is that the culmination of the novel feels very been there before and the journey to get to the conclusion already wasn't the smoothest. In the end it's not so much that the book is bad necessarily, but that it's forgettable, there's no way to sever this book from a book that covers similar ground because the characters themselves are so bland and the way that the book is written doesn't feel distinctly its own.
The writing might be decent, but the third act is clearly rushed. So much of the narrative eventually becomes montages, flashes of scenes that feel half finished when compared to what the book spent the early runtime lingering on. In the end it's hard to recommend this, not because of the subject matter, but because even without reading it the odds are most readers will have already consumed this very story and there isn't anything more added to the conversation by having spent time with these characters....more
When a fake dating romance is a single perspective you just know the story within is going to be raggedy... So the fact that I was at least entertaineWhen a fake dating romance is a single perspective you just know the story within is going to be raggedy... So the fact that I was at least entertained by this memoir-esque experience, well that's a win in Henry's column. Our heroine also had regular bathing habits, which already puts it above the other Henry romance I've read, People We Meet on Vacation [ my review of that can be found here ].
Like People We Meet on Vacation this story is told in two timelines. In the present we follow Harriet as she returns to the Maine cottage she and her friend group have assembled countless times before. Only this time she's flying solo after her and Wyn, also a member of this friend group, broke up. Or at least she think she's flying solo, it's not until she arrives that she's shocked to learn that Wyn is also their after being bullied to attend because surprise, two of their other friends are now engaged.
I'm not going to lie to the public, this premise just on it's face sounded a little foolish. This idea that a group of people who have been so close since their freshman year of college and routinely take vacations together now that they've all graduated and gone onto their professional life and yet Harriet has been able to keep this secret for months? In fact so much of this current trip seems to be pressure from a lot of members of the friend group pulling away from one another to the point that the fake dating can never really get addressed in the way I feel like it should.
Instead what we get is a heroine who is heartbroken and always wet for this man she claims emotionally devastated her... but because this is a romance and this has to have a happy ending it feels like the narrative can never really dive into all the ways that their romance was never going to work on all this excursion to the past timeline where we see the two of them engaging in an almost entirely physical secret relationship up until the point they're losing the college housing they've been in and thus have to come clean to their friend group about the relationship they've been carrying on.
Part of what endears a reader to a friend group, a group that claims to be each others family, is knowing that these people feel safe and confide in one another. Instead the reader is thrust into the middle of what feels like a mass break up of characters pushing thirty and a main character horny for a man she claims to hate but never moved on from... So while some of the antics are objectively entertaining, it's hard to move past the artifice and embrace the narrative that Henry is attempting the tell.
Then we get to the third act, and while I'm all for doing what makes you happy... I dunno... it was giving mid life crisis. Ultimately it read like a happy for now that isn't entirely satisfying because as a reader I cannot believe that Harriet and Wyn's story ends in with him being a bachelor in Montana and Harriet living out her days in the Pacific Northwest with a collection of tie dye cardigans and messy buns and more pets than she should reasonably fit in her studio apartment. ...more
I was tentatively excited to pick this up as Sass' debut, Surrender Your Sons [ my review here ], was a surprise hit. While their follow up didn't worI was tentatively excited to pick this up as Sass' debut, Surrender Your Sons [ my review here ], was a surprise hit. While their follow up didn't work for me as much as I would have hoped, this at least was a return to a darker story like the debut. As bad as it feels to call a book about queer people being slaughtered by a serial killer, this was a fun time. I didn't quite expect for the novel to go as far as it did, for the murders to start as soon as they did or for the scenes to be as descriptive as some of them wound up being.
Unlike other books I've read I really felt like I was watching a teen horror movie play out as I read through this book. The middle dragged slightly, simply because I am never invested in playing detective. I think it's very admirable that these boys wanted to clear their name and get the person that was setting them up unmasked, but I had a pretty firm idea of who was behind it and was just waiting to see if I was right, so these boys could play detective for as long as they wanted as far as I was concerned.
Speaking of our two POV leads, I loved them. 2023 seems to be the year of me reading queer books with protagonists that break the mold of what I've come to expect from queer representation in this age category, and while I was side eyeing Dearie quite a lot in the end I did really enjoy him and Cole and the way the two of them interacted as well as the way they interacted with the other prominent characters.
This book comes out right in time for the Spooky Season and I think that any October would be thoroughly lacking if this wasn't included....more
The patrons voted for me to pick this up, and part of me wishes that I hadn't.
There's no denying that Acevedo has a way with words. The way they cobblThe patrons voted for me to pick this up, and part of me wishes that I hadn't.
There's no denying that Acevedo has a way with words. The way they cobbled together these sentences was nothing short of a masterclass, the way that the book felt alive based solely on the way that the narrative was conveyed was some of the best parts of this particular reading experience....
Sadly, I just didn't vibe with the actual narrative being communicated via the pretty prose. While I think the extensive history given about the women of this family and their gifts™, that was also what kept me from fully engaging. Some of the women in this family truly felt like they were given the shit end of the stick, and while I get that has to happen to someone it didn't make me enjoy the reading experience any more. If anything the narrative felt circuitous, always spinning its wheels and pulling out new tricks to distract the reader that no forward momentum was being made. While I have liked a slow, slice of life novel in my time, this sadly was not one of them. I do think that there is an audience for this, I just don't know who comprises such an audience. I do expect this book to really impact some readers when it releases and I wish I could have been one of them, ultimately I think that this book will be memorable for the reasons that I don't think the book wants to be....more
The book hinges on some miscommunication, technically, and that seems to be a point of contention for some readers. For me it reThis was a cute time.
The book hinges on some miscommunication, technically, and that seems to be a point of contention for some readers. For me it really felt like children being children. And I don't think that miscommunication was outlandish or frustrating in anyway. It mostly served to kick off the book and even that didn't impact the story as much as it could.
Here we are following Liya as she attempts to revive the wish granting side hustle she and her grandmother had going before she passed, only this time it's with her long time friend and family antagonist [ calling them a rival feels a little silly, but there's definitely some animosity happening ] Kai. Liya's family store has come on some hard times, a fact that she comes across on her own and believing that her parents are keeping this from her sets out to earn some extra income for the store. Kai's family runs a bakery next door and he's dealing with his own parental issues, and he jumps at the chance to help Liya because he's been fostering a crush and is excited to have his friend back in his life.
I might have taken forever and a day to get around to reading this arc, but this feels like the perfect time as the kickoff to the book is centered around the kickoff to summer and kind of goes on from there. I was nervous that the wishing aspect of this book was going to take it into a magical place, and I suppose in a sense that it does depending on how broadly we want to take the word magic. But Liya and Kai were refreshing as characters and the journey's that each of them go on were a joy to read. It was a fun, fast read, that I think is perfect for this time of year....more
If anything could have save this book it was the length.... I have been on record as saying that I think you need 350 pages MINIMUM to tell a good stoIf anything could have save this book it was the length.... I have been on record as saying that I think you need 350 pages MINIMUM to tell a good story in a contemporary setting whether it's a slice of life story or a romance and I get a lot of push back on that, particularly from the romance readers... but this was a hot mess. I'm sure that there is an author alive that could have taken some of the elements present and fashioned a story that worked better, but even then I think the results would have only been marginal.
Told in dual perspective, this is the story of two childhood friends that had a falling out in the early years of their high school experience that are now coming back together the week of their high school graduation as they embark on a whim of a roadtrip to see the band that Caspian's mother used to play in and Sydney can escape the ultimatum her parents have dropped into her lap. If that was all the book was trying to do, it might have succeeded. Instead the first twenty percent of the book is taken up with establishing Caspian getting dumped and the poor relationship that he has with father, and maybe that he'd also like to pursue something in the music industry. Meanwhile Sydney has been the family fuck up and when she's presented with either taking this internship her mother has lined up for her at the hospital where she works or move out of the house she's not entirely sure what she should do.. What happens next is said ill planned road trip that I alluded to earlier where long hidden romantic feelings are sort of explored, the reasoning for their childhood fallout has to be addressed, and the ways that both of their parents have failed them all crammed into 200 pages of navigating the various ways in which neither of them was monetarily ready for this foolish road trip all around the western United States.
It didn't help that I found some of the things happening to be a little unserious, the ways that things were transpiring to just make no logical sense, and the fact that I just could not bring myself to care about these two kids getting together. Even if I could, the reason that their friendship imploded I just couldn't see them forming anything that felt like a healthy relationship. It does help that it's YA... so even if I did believe they could get together I would also believe that five years down the road they would have still decided to call it quits.
Ultimately there was just never enough pagetime for the characters to really feel like they reached their ultimate potential and that's all because I think that there were just a few too many things going on for each of them for any of it to feel like it could satisfy the reader in the end....more
This was a pleasant surprise. At the start of this book I thought that it would be similar in someways to another recent read, Ride or Die [ my reviewThis was a pleasant surprise. At the start of this book I thought that it would be similar in someways to another recent read, Ride or Die [ my review here ]. Mostly because in both books we are introduced to main characters that we are told do things that might be a little risky.
We're introduced to Mafi as the school's ghost, a person that is known to get revenge on those that have been done wrong and who Mafi believes to be telling the truth. In getting this revenge she might do things that are a little impulsive, but it's never the less fun in some capacity. It's something that I could get behind, and I fully expected the book to be full of Mafi going on these missions precipitated by the notes left for her.
What I got instead is something more akin to a traditional contemporary book. The element of Mafi getting vengeance was still there of course, but so was a well crafted romance between Mafi and her brother's former friend and teammate, a new friendship with a classmate, a complicated family story that really managed to take center stage while never feeling like it was taking time away from any of the other developments happening.
I started off feeling as though I fully understood everything that was going to happen. As I started to read I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Mafi and her world opened up in a way that was a joy to read about, even when things started to get. more complicated for her and things weren't going at all in her direction.
This feels like one of the books that has slipped through the cracks, a truly underrated gem that I think a lot of readers would get something out of and I hope that young readers in particular do eventually manage to get their hands on it because I think it is most definitely a story worth experiencing for yourself. ...more
I regret taking so long to write out this review because so many of the somewhat finer details of the book have left me.
As for the things that I did I regret taking so long to write out this review because so many of the somewhat finer details of the book have left me.
As for the things that I did enjoy about the book, it was the relationship between Chloe and her father. Of course so much of the story is the struggle between the future each of them envision, but I like seeing that they had a strong relationship with one another even as Chloe getting older might have put a strain on it. I liked the platonic relationship that Chloe had with people...
Really the only thing that didn't work for me, was the romance aspect of the narrative. I rate books largely on my own personal enjoyment, and I think something about how the romance was executed left me feeling mostly ambivalent about it all. Partially because I think that I'm just outside the window where I could have enjoyed it, and partially because there were just a few too many things happening in the narrative for me to be fully invested.
For actual teen readers though I think they'll have a good time, and there is a lot to say about the importance of all kinds of relationships; familial, romantic, and platonic in a way that I think they will enjoy more than I did....more
I was a little thrown off by the beginning of this book... The first hundred or so pages had me worried that I wouldn't enjoy the story that was beingI was a little thrown off by the beginning of this book... The first hundred or so pages had me worried that I wouldn't enjoy the story that was being set up. Thankfully the initial thing that we were working toward wasn't the entirety of the narrative, and while the middle of the book felt a little messy at least there seemed to be something that we were working toward.
Of the two romances in the book, I wasn't invested in either one. Now I am a grown man reading a book intended for children, and so I do think that there are elements at play in the Cristina/Oz situationship that a younger me might not have picked up on. As it stands I thought it was clear from jump that some fuckshit was going to go down and so the enjoyment for me was getting to see the breadcrumbs pay off. As for Clement's romantic life... I'm willing to see how the sequel plays out before I judge him too harshly. Of the two I guess his was the more interesting as I wasn't sure how Zachary was going to come back into the mix, and I never would have guessed that it was going to go down the way it did, even given some of the breadcrumbs.
The thing that really kept me going even when I wasn't sure if I was really going to like how the book was playing out was how important the family was. I've read books where there's a family secret or a person is trying to get to the bottom of what happened to a family member, but here Cristina and Clement and their various relations felt authentic in a way that endeared me to them. I was invested to know why their grandparents suffered the way that they had, and if their grandchildren were going to be able to get vengeance on the people that were behind their suffering.
In some ways I see why this story is going to continue into another book. There's certainly material for it that to happen, but part of me almost wishes this were a self contained story and that if it had been then maybe there could have been time to firm up some of the middle that felt like we were padding time and casting anchors into the future that we could deal with in the present....more
I was fully prepared to make this my new favorite book... Again, I'm writing this review a long after finishing, but I think that's probably to this bI was fully prepared to make this my new favorite book... Again, I'm writing this review a long after finishing, but I think that's probably to this book's benefit.
As a summer release, I think this is a fun time. Kids that are out of school looking for something that will be highly engaging will definitely find that with this book. They'll likely have a better than than I did...
While the setup was good, getting these two characters together and getting them to agree to these missions was initially fun that lost it's luster for me pretty quickly. The narrative started to feel a little one sided, where the reader saw one character struggling to accomplish things that the other side was able to do off screen and with very little fanfare. It's the kind of narrative that might work cinematically, but here I was left to question if it was working as a novel.
I suppose that some of that works this had been compared to should have led me to understand that there would be an element of thw ork that was a little unserious, I don't think I was as prepared for that as I could have been. In the end it amounted to a book that I thought was okay, but not the new favorite that I had been expecting....more
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