can't stop reading bestsellers after everyone is done talking about them.
and guess what. it works.
this has many of my favorite tropes in it — funny smcan't stop reading bestsellers after everyone is done talking about them.
and guess what. it works.
this has many of my favorite tropes in it — funny smart women dating less funny less smart men; banter; pen pals — and many things i didn't know were my favorite — thinly veiled SNL coverage (shoutout to 13 year old me); devastatingly handsome men who wear wigs.
it's nothing particularly memorable, and neither the best Romantic nor the best Comedy, but it's fun!
it was, in fact, a totally fine enemies to lovers story, featuring two peoplethis was a satisfactory romance.
what is was not was when harry met sally.
it was, in fact, a totally fine enemies to lovers story, featuring two people who suck (which is not a criticism). i just...don't know why it had to claim itself to be a gender-swapped retelling of when harry met sally.
the only commonality is that this is enemies to friends to lovers set in new york. these people are not harry, nor are they sally. there is no carrie fisher. there is no magazine writer with mustache. there is no b-plot superior romance. and nothing is up to that impossible par.
so i wish it wasn't set in the first place!
bottom line: read this book and pretend it has no claim upon that perfect movie.
my heart is broken. i feel like i'm dying. the world holds nothing for me anymore.
i'm three starring this book.
i adore emily henry, and i have since hmy heart is broken. i feel like i'm dying. the world holds nothing for me anymore.
i'm three starring this book.
i adore emily henry, and i have since her magical realism days. i'd happily read her to-do lists if she released them once a year, and i'm sure even those would have more banter and loveliness and whimsy than your average full-length release just by virtue of being written by her. i'd say the same about her grocery lists, but i already do read those. (the woman writes a mean substack.)
there were a few things i didn't love about this book. it tries to fit so much into a few hundred pages: our protagonist, daphne, is left by her fiance weeks before her wedding, causing her to: move in with miles, her fiance's new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend; realize she has no friends; begin a quest to find herself; get over the fiancé and fall in love with miles; join a variety of community groups and neighborhood activities; make her current job her dream job; repress some CLEAR mommy issues i thought we were going to address, and fully get over her daddy issues.
all of this is happening so much.
it comes at a cost, which is that typical emily henry magic (and i don't just mean the bygone magical realism i mourn every day and never shut up about).
this book is not quite as funny — jokes feel forced, sometimes to the point that you can only identify something as reaching for funny because the character "joked" or "played along" instead of "said."
it is not quite as polished, with writing feeling a bit unconfident, full of words italicized for emphasis and, you know, the whole verbs that aren't said thing. (there are a LOT of dialogue attribution words that aren't "said.")
and the characters have none of their usual better-version-of-reality charm. miles' nick miller archetype would never work for me personally, but my real issue with him is that his character traits fade once we're supposed to see him as a romantic prospect. our side characters, ashleigh and julia, feel like interchangeable joke-bots to the point of being vaguely threatening. (when they pop up on page in tandem i feel a sense of unease.)
and to be honest, daphne has no self awareness. because there's so much happening in this book, everything has to be incredibly simple: daphne's issue with her dad, AND daphne's issue with miles, AND daphne's friends' issue with daphne all has to be the same. it makes for some moments of ridiculousness — like how can daphne be melting down about being wronged on the same city block where she realized several hours earlier she had wronged someone in that exact same way? how could she be so unwilling to give the grace she expects for herself? and how could emily henry set scenes of this book on a cherry farm in michigan when she knew what it would do to me, specifically?!
sorry. that's the last time i'll bring up magical realism. i think.
ol' daph just has too much to figure out about herself. i think this abandonment would be so completely traumatic even if she HADN'T built her entire life around her fiancé only to be left entirely alone, and even if it WASN'T eerily similar to her daddy issues, and even if she DIDN'T have a bunch of unresolved things going on up in ye olde memory palace, that the last thing she'd be doing is sticking around someone else's hometown flirting with her new roomie.
especially since what she ends up doing is repeating the exact same cycle with no awareness at all.
and in the worst offense, miles' illiterate texting style reminded me of the himbos i used to date (date doing a lot of heavy lifting here) in my wayward youth. which should be a jailable offense in and of itself.
bottom line: like anything emily henry has ever written, this is better than a lot of books. it just isn't better than most emily henry ones.
---------------------- currently-reading update
me arriving to the world's biggest emily henry fan contest but my competition is all of goodreads
(GUYS IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING)
thanks to the publisher for the e-arc
---------------------- tbr review
i would like to request that no one talk to me about anything that isn't this for the next 3 to 5 business years....more
i read this, as always, in a futile, neverending quest titled The Search For My Next Comfort Read, Or Generally A Romance Book I'll Actually Like, Noti read this, as always, in a futile, neverending quest titled The Search For My Next Comfort Read, Or Generally A Romance Book I'll Actually Like, Not Because I Think I'm Above Romance (It's Honestly One Of The Genres I Like Most When At It's Best) But Because I Am Picky And Have A Bundle Of Unpopular Opinions Where My Heart Should Be.
and as always, i expected to fail in that.
but guess what.
i found at least SOMETHING here.
this wasn't a perfect book, but what it was was cute and frustrating and angsty and OHMYGODTHESECHARACTERSARESOSTUPIDPLEASEJUSTTALKTOEACHOTHER.
which is what i look for in a romance.
both of the prior installments of this series missed the mark for me but i knew there was potential. there is so much i love in this! small towns, friendships, banter. and though there were things i didn't like about this (theater kids) there was more that i did.
bottom line: let's call it a win.
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)...more
this was cute and fun and short and basically the literary equivalent of cotton candy (gone before you know it and not AS satisfying BONUS STORY??????
this was cute and fun and short and basically the literary equivalent of cotton candy (gone before you know it and not AS satisfying as you think it's going to be).
but i would sell my right arm for more brown sisters content, so.
seems like a small price to pay relative to limb loss.
at no point was i able to tell where this book was going.
and at no point did i really want to.
at the very beginning of this book, you think you have mat no point was i able to tell where this book was going.
and at no point did i really want to.
at the very beginning of this book, you think you have met your male lead, due to the fact there is banter happening and an allegedly good-looking man is present. but then you read about a series of unfortunate events, of the X-rated variety rather than of the charming evil children's book category i prefer, and you're like, never mind. can't be him. he's bad at sex.
but it is.
it is him.
and the romance in question will come to fruition (if you'll forgive the disgusting and accidental pun) as our female lead teaches him how to, you know. hanky panky. get the car rockin' so you don't come a-knockin'. attend a session of sexual congress. knock boots. delight in the afternoon.
whatever you want to call it.
unfortunately, even in the face of these bizarre and frankly undesirable circumstances, i found these characters to be the unthinkable: boring. and it turns out that is kind of an important part of a romance book. or maybe a book in general.
on top of that, i found all of the morals around this arrangement to be pretty off-putting and blah. fairly immediately, because i forgot to mention that finn (the guy) is a c-list (generous) celebrity writing a memoir (okay) that we are supposed to pretend anyone would care about (they would not) and it is ghostwritten by chandler (the girl) (his employee), the ol' mind palace jumps to oh, this is sexual harassment.
no matter how shy or freckly or Old World Charming he is, your boss asking you in a shared hotel / airbnb situation to teach him how to hanky panky is...pretty high on the Icky And Illegal charts, no?
even later, once these two are In Love, their conversations veer into a new grosso dynamic i like to call You Should Follow Your Dreams And Stand Up For Yourself, But Not With Me Tho.
because don't worry — chandler decides to chase her dreams and write books of her own. she just inexplicably decides to finish this one, even though it will mean a lifetime of lying, first.
generally and beyond all of that insanity, there's a lot we're trying to accomplish here—social issues we attempt to address range from aging parents and ocd and anti-semitism to bullying and hollywood and Finding Your Passion.
none of it is discussed satisfyingly or fully, or even in a very fun or interesting or non-"what is happening what are we doing here" way.
but that's par for the course.
bottom line: not even one moment of this made sense to me.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc / 1.5 stars)...more
just that it be the cutest thing in existence and make me happy and fill the void within me.
not a recipe for disai didn't ask for much from this book.
just that it be the cutest thing in existence and make me happy and fill the void within me.
not a recipe for disaster at all!
unfortunately, it seems that those expectations were "too tall of an order," an expression which reminds me of when i go to a diner for breakfast which of course means pancakes and a side of crispy bacon and a cup of coffee that is somehow simultaneously too strong and also water and i bypass the "shortstack" option and i go right for the big boy and i am overwhelmed by a mountain of buttery syrupy goodness.
but here it means i didn't like this book that much.
it has a cover that implies that it will be quirky, and cute, and funny, and romantic, and possibly sexy.
besides maybe that last thing, this wasn't really any of those. it was heavy!!! which is fine. i think romance has as much right as any other genre to Contain Emotional Multitudes.
but i do feel like the rest of the book felt shallow because of everything going on - not enough time for romance, or humor, or, you know. character development.
the little things.
bottom line: back in my resting state (having unpopular opinions and craving pancakes).
if you've ever wanted to read a sciencey, quirky romance filled with tumblr-esque pop culture references and toddler-age memes about a huge, serious, if you've ever wanted to read a sciencey, quirky romance filled with tumblr-esque pop culture references and toddler-age memes about a huge, serious, no-nonsense dickwad man who manages to have gleaming abs and marvel-esque biceps despite being a nerd who ostensibly lives inside of a laboratory, lifting nothing heavier than chalk and bunsen burners, as he meets a goofy not-like-other-girls Woman In Stem whose various traumas and backstories and mildly inconvenient past relationships mean she's searching for a daddy to daughter her up looking for love in all the wrong places, i.e., not looking at all because she doesn't need a man, only science, bad internal dialogue, and her own personality (read: allotted ration of problematic personal relationships, adorkable food obsessions, and single nerdy non-academic interest), plus a sex scene or two that will include at least one turn of phrase cursed to sear into your retinas for the rest of time...
i have a good feeling about this one, she says for the infinitieth time
update: well.
i wanted to like this book. in fact, i was convinced i would, due i have a good feeling about this one, she says for the infinitieth time
update: well.
i wanted to like this book. in fact, i was convinced i would, due to the following factors: 1) it seems like i haven't liked a romance in a while, which is unfair, and life is supposed to be kind and sweet and nice to me always; 2) i have liked other books by this author, or actually one other book, in the singular, which is still more than most can say; and 3) i wanted to.
but alas. apparently — and this is news to me — i don't make the rules???
huh.
regardless, this was immediately girl hatey, in an insane, like, 2000s level, toward not one but two women! the only other two women, in fact, who exist in the first chapter at all and aren't our protagonist.
which is kind of a feat, if you think about it.
on top of that, while there were moments when this was funny and even charming, it wasn't ever close to enough to overcome the terrible beginning or how unlikable our main characters are.
good god, those main characters! hallie piper (oof) is a not-like-other-girls lab-created disaster whose only two personality traits are having red hair and getting on my nerves. she is, apparently, immediately Special, not like these Dumb Other Women, and is also hot, which is where the tragedy occurs.
she attracts the attention of a straight-up nightmare monster. but sadly this not descend into a gory horror bloodbath. she lives happily ever after with the gruesome figment we meet in chapter one.
he is our love interest, jack.
he objectifies. he harasses. he doesn't take no for an answer. he repeatedly deliberately sabotages a relationship his so-called best friend is really excited about, via childish antics and blind entitlement.
he is, worst of all, boring.
i'm forced to say it. this book has a 4.04 average rating, but it's cringey, outdated, unromantic, silly, creepy, and weird.
so here we are again. here it is:
bottom line: i'm back in my unpopular opinion era.
this committed the biggest crime than a romance can commit: it isdoing the unthinkable (reading a booktok book)...
and receiving my karmic retribution.
this committed the biggest crime than a romance can commit: it is not fun!!!
there is literally no tension here. these people fell in love in 2 days, ten years pass, they are still in love with each other and there is no obstacle. not even a miscommunication. not even a separation. not even a trope.
the love interest is so perfect and boring. i thought this would have some SPICE to it. some BANTER. but no. the dialogue is unforgivable.
keep the jesse eisenberg interview out of your mouth...do not mention andrew garfield x chicken shop girl...chris evans is also boring but even the gq article this steals its entire plot from is more interesting than this.
bottom line: making fiction more of a snooze than life is almost impossible. this achieves that and also makes it look easy....more
don't mind me, just constantly attempting to find a romance i truly love in the midst of being the worst and most critical and pickiest person alive <don't mind me, just constantly attempting to find a romance i truly love in the midst of being the worst and most critical and pickiest person alive <3
and constantly failing.
the beginning of this book is fun, but afterwards it just feels odd.
the pacing...what the characters want...the side characters...it all feels not only unrealistic, but kind of all over the place? this was really promising, but the way it unfolded didn't work for me.
in the shock of the century.
bottom line: what's the definition of insanity again?
first: this is the most insane title of any novel i've ever seen in my life.
second: actual book stuff.
the armenian culture in this was fascinating, defirst: this is the most insane title of any novel i've ever seen in my life.
second: actual book stuff.
the armenian culture in this was fascinating, deftly entwined in the story, and wonderfully written...but unfortunately, the other parts didn't work for me.
the romance fell flat, and i couldn't root for our main character, who was constantly lying, borderline cheating, and putting herself above everyone else. i thought some of the things she did were unforgivable, and she was very easily forgiven, with essentially no character development.
also, i don't like authors who post about reviews. i just don't.
bottom line: not for me!
2.5 + thanks to the publisher for the e-arc...more
and not just because it's february. tragically, they have remained low since december 14, a time when the hearts of each christmas spirit levels: low.
and not just because it's february. tragically, they have remained low since december 14, a time when the hearts of each and every person should dance with ideas of baking an inedible number of cookies and feeling capable of smiling somehow, even though it's winter and that should be physically impossible.
because december 14 is the day i read this book.
i would have preferred more festive fun, less people being so terrible and annoying, but we take what we can get i suppose.
and this book - the rough equivalent of a stocking full of coal - is what i got.
bottom line: i did not know i was on the naughty list, but it seems obvious in hindsight.
-----------------
beginning to plan how i will christmas harder than anyone has ever christmas'd before
lately i have been in that awful scary terrifying horror movie-esque liminal threshold that is: everyone watch out.
i'm back in my YA contemporary era.
lately i have been in that awful scary terrifying horror movie-esque liminal threshold that is: i'm not currently in a reading slump but i have spent a large chunk of the last 5 months in one and i am forced to live in fear that my smallest mistake or ill-timed decision could send me plunging back in, doomed to a fate of failing my reading challenge for the first time and facing derisive laughter the world over.
or at least the book internet world, which is bad enough if you ask me.
so i have been seeking out books that are not short (who cares about completing my reading challenge if there are napkins with more pages than my average book length) but feel short. quick, easy to read, and above all (as i face down the monster that is Seasonal Depression): fluffy.
enter the YA contemporary.
when i first reentered this space in, like, 2016 or some made-up sounding year like that, i made my name in reading this lil ol genre.
which might sound nice, until you remember that i made my name (such as it exists, meaning barely and not in a nice way) in being a hater.
fairly recently, i forced myself to stop reading so many teen romances (lol) and focusing on the unthinkable...books i actually stood a chance of liking.
but here we are. falling back in.
the publisher sent me this book and...i liked it.
welcome to the waking nightmare of chaos and malfeasance that is my daily life.
this book is cute! it's fun! it was silly and goofy and easy to read! at a time when above all i needed all of those things! what else is there to say.
beyond, you know, all the stuff i said about myself.
bottom line: we're back, baby.
------------------ tbr review
when i used to read exclusively YA contemporaries, i was never in a reading slump. something to think about.
welcome to a rom com in which i liked the rom but not the com.
it's honestly soooo risky to make a book's main character a standup comedian and then alwelcome to a rom com in which i liked the rom but not the com.
it's honestly soooo risky to make a book's main character a standup comedian and then also include huge chunks of his standup in said book.
it was a high risk low reward sitch...and there was no reward, if you catch my drift...
but i thought this romance was nice and i liked the characters' family storylines and generally i enjoyed this so whatever. i can try manual memory deletion of the other stuff.
bottom line: 50% enjoyment isn't bad! if you're me.
the thing about this book is that it is, ostensibly, a romance. we are all, by reading it, agreeing to a social contract in which we will receive apprthe thing about this book is that it is, ostensibly, a romance. we are all, by reading it, agreeing to a social contract in which we will receive approximately 300 pages covering life's grandest topic: two randos deciding they like each other more than anyone else on earth.
fun stuff. just one problem:
these people do not like each other. and i do not like them either.
they're always yelling at each other in, like, various states of undress. in between taking turns completing gratuitous acts of charity-level kindness while monster people look on and criticize them and/or innocent bystanders.
it's absurdly unrealistic, but, far more offensively, it's annoying.
i read books i don't love all the time and i never have a problem finishing them. until now! this was a nightmare to get through.
bottom line: a book unpleasant enough to make me write an actual review.
this book made me hungry (literally, because there is so much discussion of yummy sounding food and also the very mention of france is usually enough this book made me hungry (literally, because there is so much discussion of yummy sounding food and also the very mention of france is usually enough to make me crave soup / steak frites / macarons / fries / crêpes of the savory or sweet variety, etc.) and hungry (figuratively, because i was left wanting more).
it was silly and cute, but it wasn't really my cup of tea, which is a nice way of saying i didn't like it.
it had the vibe of a cozy mystery more than a romance, and while i WANT to like cozy mysteries, i have a similar relationship to them as i have to oysters, or to blazers — being the type of person who enjoys them seems elegant and fun and totally out of my reach.
they rarely align with my sense of humor, or my reading preferences. i felt like i wanted more from these characters and their stories, even as everything from emotions to instalove to menu building felt bizarrely over the top.
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