Jane

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2025-03-14

I've made it to 35% of this audiobook and nothing is really sticking to my head.

I think I'm just too tired and stressed to be reading this so I will DNF for now.

I am second guessing if I should put I rating on this right now because I do want to get back to it later on this year.

Pros:

- Prose is beautiful.

- Really good world building.

Cons:

- I don't know if it's how the voice talent performed Keishin, but every time he spoke, I got annoyed. He sounded arrogant and came of as a know-it-all douche.

-----------------------------------------------

2025-03-12

Just a few chapters in and I’m already rolling my eyes.

Hana and her father own of a magical pawnshop. Their occupation required them to be discrete and very careful.

I found it hard to believe that Hana would just start spilling all that information to Keishin just because he insisted on helping her and refused to take no for answer. Hana not only failed to secure the items in the vault (not really her fault) but she didn’t even try to keep their secrets at the slightest pushback from a random person (this was totally on her). She seemed spineless.

To think she had been training for this job since she was a child.

And what was up with Keishin being so nosy? And bossy? What a control freak! He literally just met Hana. Why does he feel compelled to bully himself into her life?

I know there’s magical realism here and I should suspend my disbelief. But the magic part was not what’s unbelievable here. It’s their actions that were unbelievable.

I do like the prose though.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The book was both an easy and a hard read. It’s easy enough to read however the events in it just makes me want to put it down due to frustration. People were awful, including Ji-won, and I felt the need to just hit some of them. Credit to the author for being able to evoke such strong feelings in me.

While all the men in this book were pretty much scum, I feel the real villain here was Ji-won’s mother. Instead of helping her children cope with having been abandoned by their father, that self-centered, attention craving woman sacrificed her children’s comfort, self-worth, and safety just so she would feel attractive and wanted. She’s also training her children to be doormats for men. I can’t even see the mom’s action as cultural conditioning because Asian women are conditioned to sacrifice for their family even if it’s to their detriment. Her actions were all about her. There was no thought to her children, to the family. And she did it all for a man that was mooch and treated her like shit. Arghhh.

Given her parents’ actions and beliefs, I’m not surprised Ji-won was messed up.

The many rage inducing scenes in this book made the end very satisfactory to me despite it being open-ended. If it didn’t end that way, I may have thrown my book at someone.

Audiobook Critique:

I am peeved how the voice talent, in the audiobook, would speak slower for 2 of Ji-won’s former friends. They sounded like they were pre schoolers learning to talk instead of college students.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was a well-done story. If it was longer, I would probably love it as much as Song of Achilles. But, alas, it is just a short story.

Despite the length, it did give us a compelling look into the life of a woman so trapped by her “husband”. The man was not only controlling, he was a woman hater who sees value in women so long as they fit in the extremely narrow parameters he sets for them.

This book was not just a retelling. It’s a commentary on the wild and harmful rhetoric and philosophy of the red-pill movement. This isn’t just about incels. It’s about men who use women and then blame them for being used.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At just 7% of this audiobook, I give up. This my 1st DNF here.

I don’t know if it’s because the audiobook narrator did such a good job at making the protagonist as this annoyingly passive, anxiety ridden, exhausting to listen to person. But maaaan, I dislike Jolene. She is the kind of person I avoid because they are an energy vampire. I could feel her sucking the joy out me as I listened to this book.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While I might not really say, I love this book so much, I did, however, enjoyed it immensely. I was quite saddened that this is a litfic and will not have a sequel. Or at least not with Marcellus. If he’s not a part of it, then I probably won’t want to read it.

Pros:

1. I loooooooove Marcellus. I was already thinking about borrowing this book when it was chosen as the Book Club pick for the month. The draw was the octopus.

2. Though the story did stray far from Tova’s interactions with Marcellus, very little of it felt unnecessary or filler. I’m not saying it’s devoid of it. But I can only think of 1 scene that I think this book could have done without or reduced.

3. The title of the book insinuates that it’s talking about the octopus or all octopi. But in the end it it’s about people as well.

Cons:

1. Not enough Marcellus.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Family drama, bad romance, and underwhelming magical realism.

This was another book that had more than 1 story going on. But just like with Magpie Murders, I wished they just stuck with one. Maybe if the author focused on just 1 story, they could have made it more interesting. Unfortunately, that was not what happened. In my humble opinion, I ended up reading 2 unenjoyable stories for the price of 1. And I want a fucking refund.

While Opaline’s story dealt with a lot of interesting topics (forced arrangement marriage, sexism, abuse in asylums, forced adoption), those were not the topics I expected here. It’s not that I’m opposed to reading about those topics, but I have to be in the right mood to read heavy topics.

Martha and Henry’s current day story was boring. Disappointing given how this was the part with the magical realism elements. A good chunk of it was about their “relationship”. I put that in quotes because I am unconvinced those 2 fell in love. I mean, I guess they can. But maaaan, both were so uninteresting. It’s like 2 soggy pieces of white bread getting together.

Also, the title of this book is “The Lost Bookshop” but if they were honest, this book should be called “The Lost Bookshop Owner”.

Not all was bad, I appreciated the prose.

I am on the fence about DNFing this book. I don’t want to be a quitter but at 66% of this book, I kind of no longer care about the ending.

Updated:

I did finish this book.

After much thought, I thought that Opaline's story is ok. The end to her arc had somewhat redeemed this whole thing.

Martha's story was still boring though.

I would have enjoyed this more if they just stuck with Opaline.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This book was doing too much. It’s a story within a story that also included an excerpt of another story.

The main reason I didn’t DNF this book was because I really wanted to finish my Book Club’s pick so that I can have a meaningful discussion when we do meet up. If I had picked this up on my own, I would have abandoned it within the first 100 pages.

Basically, there are 2 main stories.

1. A mystery novel that had the last few chapters missing.

2. The search for the missing chapters that bloomed into trying to figure out what really happened to its author.

This book started with the mystery novel. It progressed as stories usually do.

Frankly I could hardly get myself to be invested in solving who killed the so-called victims in the mystery novel. Both seemed like awful people. To me, they had it coming.

Then as things in that story finally got me invested, it abruptly halted because the succeeding chapters were missing. The story of this book suddenly shifted to the current day story about the missing chapters and the author of the mystery novel.

The current day story was even more boring than the story in the mystery novel. There were so many long-winded red herrings thrown in there that trying to scrutinize them for clues, as to who killed the author and why, was basically pointless. They all, in the end, didn’t matter other than to hammer home the point that the author was a <b>BIG HONKING DOUCHE</b>.

Were the missing chapters of the mystery novel found? Yes. Honestly, it was an interesting end to that story.

However, the rest of the book? Ugh. Self-indulgent. I should have just skipped all the chapters related to the current day plot about the author of the book. As for it’s ending, it was not really that interesting. It was similar to the movie Gattaca.

<b>Side Note: </b>

<spoiler>This is the 3rd book from my Book Club where a house/building burned down.</spoiler>

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was all set to rate this book a 3.5 as I read it.

1. Prose was good.

2. Pacing was good.

3. World building was not extraordinary but it was ok.

4. Characterization of the characters seemed good.

Then, starting at around Chapter 21, characterization fell apart. Let me explain.

1. Lorelei wasn’t consistent. At first, when she did seem to change a bit, it was still understandable given her past or her need to be pragmatic about the circumstances they found themselves in. However, the way she flipped flopped from admitting she loved Sylvia to selling her out was just weird. I tried to rationalize her actions given how she was essentially backed into a corner. But then she flipped flopped again when they reached the Vanishing Island. And yes, she felt guilty. But come on.

Another thing I found annoying was how some of Lorelei’s actions caused drama for drama’s sake. She’s a smart woman but would do small dumb things. Then she’d get in her feelings and pout. For months. Which all felt unnecessary and was just written to create filler.

2. My issue with Sylvia’s characterization was the opposite of my issue with Lorelei. She was too consistent. She didn’t change. Even after Lorelei sold her out to Adelheid, she was still professing how much she loved Lorelei.

She’s a beautiful and accomplished woman. For god’s sake, she’s a princess. Can’t she have some self-respect and standards?

I truly believe that Sylvia’s character, despite some sad background, was very one note. It felt like such a waste of a potentially great character.

3. The characterization of Wilhelm also did not sit well with me. He was congenial enough to be friends with the heirs of rival territories but those same people regard him as a person who will betray them at any moment.

That’s fine. He’s a king who’s trying to hold on to power. I understand how he can be viewed as opportunistic.

But then later on Lorelei was thinking that he was basically giving her a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” when he was handing her letters from Sylvia. Would a power hungry monarch do that?

So why did I rate this as such?

While it might seem like I have a lot of notes for this, it’s really just one big issue for me. Characterization.

Other items are just minor issues such as:

1. The overuse of metaphors. But those metaphors didn’t take you out of the scene unlike in ‘Home Is Where the Bodies Are’.

2. Some creatures’ names are so close to each other that I got confused but I put the blame on me because for some parts of this book, I was listening to the audiobook version.

Editor Issue

I found a mistake at Chapter 3 - page 42:

- In all fairness, she had hidden on a balcony until Ludwig coaxed her into his carriage at the end of the night, but she would not concede he point.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was torn about giving this a 3.0 or 3.5. The reason I settled for 3.0 is because, while I think this is well written and an enjoyable enough read, there was nothing really outstanding about it. I didn’t get particularly irritated when reading it. But I wasn’t exactly at the edge of my seat either.

Pros:

1. Prose is good.

2. Pacing is good.

3. Characterization is good.

4. Audiobook performance --- Great.

Cons:

1. The title was a bit misleading. I thought this book was going to go into how women related to the house were getting framed for crimes. Turns out a big part of the story was about a woman in a painting. So, it was a woman is a frame in Ardmore House.

2. I expected there to be more clues to lead to the actual perpetrator and that person’s motive. However, there were only quite a few of those so the ending was a surprise but not in a good way.

Would I read sequels to this book? Maybe. I don’t consider myself a “Mystery Girlie”, despite the fact I seem to be reading mysteries since the start of the year. But this was an okay book.

Side Note:

- This is the 2nd Book Club pick where the house burned down. As a person who pays a mortgage, it was very upsetting.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ll start this by saying that this was not how I pictured Robin’s story to go. In my head, I always pegged her as a bit alternative for no other reason than because she liked that style and liked to be contrary. In a way, I saw her as a bit like Eddie but not as extreme or so in your face.

Given that, I can’t say I disliked this. There were certainly aspects here that I loved.

1. It was interesting to see how her parents were such free spirits and yet they produced a child that was quite anxious.

2. I thought it was quite apt that the AIDS epidemic was brought up and how that affected Robin’s thoughts on how she will be perceived.

3. I especially loved the arc with her teacher, Mr. Hauser. It was both aspirational but realistic.

That scene, when Robin was lamenting how could he go now when she just realized she needs a mentor on her sexuality, was heartbreaking.

What took away from my enjoyment of this were the small inaccuracies either from the era or from the show.

1. Printers/photo copiers were not really readily available to students unless they were for school activities such as clubs. So, Robin couldn’t have been able to use one to print her resume.

2. During the 80s resumes weren’t needed for blue collar jobs. People filled out job applications and gave references.

3. Tammy Thompson was not a red head in the show. But this issue, I blame on the fact that the book came out before Season 4.

4. Steve was never mentioned as having been in the football team. If he was, then he shouldn’t have been so salty about how the Scoops Ahoy hat was ruining his best feature (his hair). Football helmets would flatten his hair more than the sailor hat.

5. While I get that Robin’s goal of seeing Tammy Thomson at the prom was needed in the plot of this story, it also went against how Robin was in the show. Robin couldn’t even handle seeing Vicki with her boyfriend. She couldn’t possibly have ever thought about going to the prom just to see Tammy. But again, I blame this on the fact that the book came out before Season 4.

What added to my enjoyment of this were the slight digs at Steve. The guy was just living his life and there he was, catching strays from Robin.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have been stressed these past 2 months so I picked this as one of the last things to read this year because I needed something easy to read.

It might seem weird that I rated this higher than some books that were objectively better. But it’s about expectations.

From the summary of this book and the reviews I’ve read, I knew that this wasn’t something deep and meaningful. I have been forewarned on the problematic scenes scattered in the story. I also went into this without expecting a lot of character development or world building.

This was supposed to be a fairly run of the mill fantasy. It will have some monster fighting. It will have “spicy” scenes (some of which are questionable by today’s moral standards).

So given those, I can say that my expectations were met. There were no surprises. There were no unexpected disappointments. What edged this to a 2.5 instead of a 2.0 was because it didn’t have any weird and annoying contradictory actions from the characters (cough – Of Jade and Dragons – cough).

Would I recommend this to others? Probably not especially if I don’t know them well. I also won’t recommend this to the younger audience. However, this does fit a certain niche of interest and I don’t see a problem with reading this book or books of the same ilk. I mean, we don’t always have to read award winning books. As I said to the girl who rang this book up for me in Coles: We don’t always have to eat vegetables. It’s ok to eat some junk food. And this the equivalent of junk food in the literary world.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was really stressed during the time I was reading this but couldn’t take my sweet time to read it because it was due to be returned to the library in just 2 weeks. I supplemented my reading with text – to – speech to finish it because I was too tired to “read” it. Given the circumstances, my rating of this book could go up or down later after I do a re-read.

This was the 2nd Emily Henry I’ve read and I can’t help but compare them. Overall, this was a better read than Book Lovers. Here, it’s more believable that they fell in love with each other.

1. The characters of Poppy and Alex were more fleshed out so we could see what about them made the other person fall in love with them.

2. Their affection for each other was cultivated through years. It wasn’t something that happened suddenly.

But despite the fact that this story avoided what I consider the major flaws in Book Lovers, I still felt like something was missing. That, while I could see them falling in love, I felt like it was wrong for them to get together that quickly after such a big conflict. The conflict being, Poppy basically asking Alex to perform boyfriend duties when he wasn’t her boyfriend, causing problems in Alex’s own relationship because he failed to set boundaries with Poppy.

There was so much time spent telling us about the different vacations they went to. Which was ok because it laid the groundwork for their bond. But I would have loved it if the story showed us how they repaired their relationship after Poppy made the grand gesture of coming back to her old high school and professing her love for Alex. I wanted to see what happened immediately after that. But what we got was them months later, happily living in New York. It seemed too convenient and I felt robbed of the angst I was looking for in this book.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As much as I don’t shy away from Celebrity Gossip, which should have made this right up my alley, I am not raving about this book. It’s a good book, don’t get me wrong. But it just wasn’t for me.

Why it wasn't for me?

For some reason, I felt no connection to the main characters. They were boring to me with the exception of their douche dad. We were given their sob story, which made me feel sorry for them, but I just could not get invested in them.

Maybe it’s because there was no clear goal in the story. To me, this was like having a friend who just wanted to rant but you thought they were asking for advice. So, for most of the time they’re talking, you’re wondering what exactly were they asking you to do. That’s basically how I felt when I was reading this.

Why did I give it this rating?

Well, as I said, this was still a good book.

1. The pacing was good.

2. The characters, though flawed, were not annoyingly contradictory which was something I’ve seen in the past books I’ve read (cough - Of Jade and Dragons - cough).

3. The party in the story really captured the 80’s vibe. The cocaine being offered around in serving trays was exactly what you’d picture you’d see in those kinds of shindigs.

Other notes

These aren’t bad for the story but if the story/characters were real, I’d be concerned.

1. As a person who struggled to buy their own place, reading the house burn down, messed me up. I know this is fiction and plot wise, the house burning down was very symbolic of leaving your past behind, but it was so upsetting to me.

2. There were so many beautiful women in Malibu but Hud could only fall in love with his brother’s ex? Really? Did he not have eyes? Was he just that lazy in finding a partner?

3. Jay was, in some ways, becoming like his dad. His interest in women were fleeting. He didn’t even like his ex, Ashley (the woman Hud fell in love with) that much. He was just hurt she broke up with him. Then he’s pursuing this woman, Lara, who he didn’t really think was that attractive. He seemed to be pursuing her because she wasn’t throwing herself at him and was, therefore, a challenge.

4. Their mom, June, was selfish and a hypocrite. She had too much pride to go after their dad for child support but named the diner after him to make money from his name. She should have swallowed her pride and went after Mick. The child support would have spared the children hardship and Nina wouldn’t have had to drop out of school.

Maybe an Unpopular Opinion

Casey was an unnecessary addition to the story. There was no real purpose to her that I could see. She wasn’t even needed to give Nina an incognito car to the airport. Nina could have just taken any of the other cars left parked at their house since so many party guests got arrested.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I considered DNFing this book.

1.

The summary basically sold this to me as a murder mystery. Well, there were murders and who committed them was a mystery however this was really more of a family drama.

There was hardly any investigation. Most of the book was about their family problems. It felt like the murder mystery plot was shoe horned in.

2.

I was not a fan of the writing style. At 1st it was fine. However, the inner monologues were too dramatic and long. I would have understood if it was just Nicole who has like that. But Beth was the same.

Example:

There was a scene were Beth saw her high school sweetheart at the door. Between seeing him and finally opening the door, she had this long inner monologue that made it seem like minutes passed. I kept picturing that guy seeing Beth see him and waited for minutes before she opened the door.

3.

Another issue with the writing style was that the author had a fondness for metaphors. I’m not opposed to that usually but it was over used. It also popped up in places where it seemed inappropriate because it took you out of the scene.

Example:

There’s a scene where they were all grabbing for a gun and the author wrote that they were fighting over it like it was their favorite toy.

The whole scene was supposed to give the readers this sense that things were frantic. That description pulled me out of that. It was so annoying.

I tried to get myself to finish this book by listening to the audiobook more. But I think it made things worse. The performances in the audiobook were not great.

If there were fewer inner monologues, I think I would have enjoyed this book. Personally, I think this might have worked better as a screenplay.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given that this book was about one of the most engaging characters in the MCU, it’s really boring.

I get that Loki lost his ability to sew chaos while in exile, but he would still have his usual charm and wit. Those were sorely lacking here.

Tony’s descent into obsession with avenging Happy was also not great. Plotwise, it would have been fine however I don’t think it was well executed. I believe he can get obsessed but not to the point that he’d kidnap a kid. He’s a douche but he’s not totally depraved.

The timeline was also problematic.

The whole thing happened in just a few months. The significance of Loki’s “redemption” is undermined given how he was only exiled for a few months. Heck, it hasn’t even been half a year. How changed could he be in just a few months?

On top of all this, we don’t even find out the identity of the person who tricked Loki and masterminded Thor’s death.

The only saving grace here was the scene between Loki and his mother, when he asked how could he hold up his arms to receive his parents love when his arms were loaded with the feeling of shame.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know that The Song of Achilles is a well rated book but never had the urge to read it immediately. However, I saw a 1-star review that basically said that Patroclus was a “Bella” to Achilles’ “Edward”.

As a person who has vowed to avoid anything resembling Twilight, I was disappointed because that meant the book was not something I’d like. But then I was intrigued. Can The Song of Achilles be that bad? How can it be rated that high but still have Twilight vibes?

I resolved to borrow it from my local library and find out for myself.

So, was it true that Patroclus was “such a Bella”? In a way, yes. But at the same time, no.

Patroclus was very much in love with Achilles. He followed Achilles even when it was more convenient, and safer, for him not to do so. But his devotion was more understandable compared to Bella’s. The relationship between Patroclus and Achilles developed through time. This was not a high school crush that speed up from interest to full on obsession in a matter of weeks. There was also a clear advantage to being with Achilles. Patroclus was an exile. He was sent to be soldier for a king when he has no aptitude for it. His life would have been worse if he wasn’t with Achilles whereas if Bella wasn’t with Edward, her status in life wouldn’t have been altered at all.

As much as my opinion of this book is the opposite of that person, who inspired me to read this, I totally appreciated that review. It got me to check out this book. It also gave me a good laugh.

Now that we are done with whether or not Patroclus is like Bella, let’s move on to the rest of my thoughts on this.

Based on my rating, yes, I LOVE this book. Below are my reasons.

1.

As a person who loved reading Greek mythology as a kid, I appreciated the prose. It was very much in line with how I remember those stories were written.

2.

The characterizations were also, in my opinion, on point. Yes, a lot of the characters here were awful, awful people. Including Achilles. But, again, it was in line with how those characters were portrayed in Greek mythology. They were kings, princes, and/or demigods of an ancient time. Of course, they were filled with hubris and ambition with little to no regard of others.

3

The romance here was top notch. The romantic build-up between Patroclus and Achilles was very much the type that I love.

I am a firm believer that love stories are better received when the readers feel that aspects of that romance are something that they can experience themselves. It’s a lot easier to picture someone falling for your smile than someone killing a horde of monsters for you. And as much as Greek mythology is very removed from a casual life of modern times, there were enough non-epic, simple, and normal scenes between Patroclus and Achilles that made their love very real and relatable.

One such scene was in Chapter 15 - Page 182, where Achilles was telling Patroclus how much he likes Patroclus’ hair, chest, etc. while touching said body parts. That was probably the one of the best foreplay scenes I’ve read. And I say this as a person who has read a good number historical romance books. It was so romantic and goddamn hot.

I loved the romance here so much that I wanted to highlight passages in the book. Unfortunately, the copy I had was from the library. As such, I cannot deface it. However, I will share a couple of them here.

Chapter 10 - Page 102: It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.

Chapter 15 - Page 183: I think: This is what I will miss. I think: I will kill myself rather than miss it. I think: How long do we have?

I do recommend listening to the audiobook while reading the book just to know how the places and names are pronounced.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The book basically has 3 POVs going on. The 1st is Libby in the current time. The 2nd is Lucy, also in the current time. Then last there’s Henry who is recounting what the heck happened in the past. Libby’s storyline is basically the catalyst for the “investigation”. Henry’s storyline gives us the backstory. Lucy’s storyline really didn’t add to the main plot. So much so that I initially couldn’t figure out if she was Henry’s sister, Clemency, or some other random person.

The three storylines go on and on until around 2/3s of the book. Then the last 1/3 kind of speeds through the juicy part of the past and the eventual convergence of the 3 storylines.

An ongoing theme in this story is choices. Bad choices. From everyone. Including the author.

All the choices of the adults in the house were bad

1. This is self explanatory.

The choices the kids took before, during, and immediately after the “big incident” were also bad

1. They didn’t carefully plan out their one chance of escape.

2. They didn’t stick together when they ran.

3. They didn’t try to find each other afterwards.

The other adults were also making bad choices

1. Dr. Broughton, who they ran to for help, didn’t contact the authorities or got them proper help.

2. The mom, Sally Thompsen, didn’t look for Phin.

3. The Lamb’s uncle didn’t try to look for Henry or Lucy.

As for the author, personally I am not a fan of the following choices she made plot wise:

1. Readers can pretty much guess how the adults in the past died.

2. Libby’s mother was sort of a surprise, sure. But given how it was revealed so late in the game, it didn’t have as much impact as it would have. Personally, I think that if it was revealed earlier, the 3 storylines would be more inter-related.

3. I think Lucy and Henry’s storylines should have been switched. Lucy’s POV in the past seemed more interesting given how it turned out that she’s Libby’s mother. As for Henry, what happened to Henry after the adults’ death seemed more interesting because, quite frankly, he seemed to have become quite nuts.

I was told that there’s a sequel to this. But I am unsure if I want to read it.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be transparent, I compare most contemporary romance/romance-comedy books with ‘Animal Husbandry’ by Laura Zigman. It’s a book I read back in my 20s (in the early 2000s). I may not remember all aspects of that book, and I don’t know if I would still love it as much as I did if I do a re-read now, but I remember how I felt when I first read it. And if I don’t feel that when I read a book of the same genre, then I probably won’t rate it high.

That said, Book Lovers didn’t come close to my experience when I read ‘Animal Husbandry’. So now we all know why I rated this the way I did.

This isn’t a bad read and it also isn’t the kind of book that you would immediately forget after reading. But it wasn’t outstanding either. It’s alright.

The premise was interesting enough. The protagonist, Nora, was positioned as the woman the man leaves when he finally finds the one. Not necessarily a woman scorned but more like the wrong match in a conventional love story.

Given that set-up, one should be rooting for the protagonist but I just could not. I don’t know if it’s because I just felt like she didn’t need to be in a relationship or if it’s because I just didn’t find her love interest, Charlie, very interesting. I mean…he’s a good match for her. He’s good looking and shares Nora’s core values. But other than that, he’s…blah. Actually, both of them were blah. While I am not a fan of over-the-top romance, that does not mean I clamor for…this.

I am not averse to normal people being the subject of romance. But the story should somehow convince the reader that they find each other very interesting. I didn’t get that here. Again, there was no build up. There was just attraction, some sad background, and then bam, they’re in love.

Maybe this is, again, an issue I have with the timeline. The whole thing happened in a month’s time. But I don’t think so. A month is long enough to develop a romance. So, I think it’s because I can’t buy into the scenario that two very much guarded, careful, and professional people would easily shift gears without much awkwardness. There was awkwardness but it doesn’t seem enough and it was very run of the mill. Dare I say it…tropey.

Quite a few folks loved this book because the protagonist remained true to herself and didn’t give up her life for the sake of love. It also had a guy who loved her for who she is and didn’t try to change her. Yeah, yeah. Applause for the protagonist and the dude. Boss Babes rule, and all that. But that whole thing was ruined for me by Nora’s sister.

Libby, who loves and understands Nora the best, undermined her by trying to trick her into doing what she wants. And yes, there’s a lot of issues going on between them that would explain why Libby would go this route. However, I think Libby’s actions infantilized Nora. It’s almost as if Libby saw Nora as a child that you have to play “airplane” with in order for them to eat what’s on the spoon.

Another thing I had an issue with is the title. The title is Book Lovers. While loving books was a big factor in the story, the pivotal plot point here is loving city life. Loving books seems incidental compared to how much loving city living factored into the issues that came up in the story. So yeah, I think there’s a mismatch with the title. But given how the author’s other book was titled ‘Beach Read’ when the story’s setting was by a lake, this issue seems to be part of an on-going pattern.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have not read anything that was described as “Cosy Fantasy”. This is probably the 1st book I’ve read tagged as such.

It’s a good representative of its genre. It was light, easy to read, and relatively small-stakes. It’s very feel-good.

There is a specific thing that I have an issue with. Had it been fixed; I would have liked this a whole lot more. It’s the timeline.

The bulk of the story happened within a week or two. While it made sense that the protagonist starts to experiment with magic almost immediately due to need, it would have been better if suspicion and the fall out from her actions were delayed. Let her worry about it, settle into the possibility that she got away with it, and then have suspicion build up slowly. But there was basically the worry phase and then someone immediately got suspicious and started a ruckus. There was no suspense. No build up.

It’s the same with the relationships that formed. In that short time, she developed tight friendships and a love interest. I am not a fan of that kind of pacing. I know this is a fantasy but I still find that unbelievable.

So, is this exactly what I want to read in a fantasy book? Not really. I have to be in a certain mood for it. But I won’t say no to reading more of it. In fact, I just saw a second book for this. It’s not a sequel from the looks of it, more of an off-shoot of a character that was mentioned in this book. And I am already thinking of getting it.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was another book I almost DNFed. Why? Because I was well into the middle of the book and I still could not get myself to care about the protagonist or any of the characters.

The summary of the book basically said that Ying went off to the capital to find out why her father was murdered. Uh, we all kind of find out why at chapter 1. The author may not think so but I do. The real question was who was behind the whole thing.

Given how Ying was supposed to be finding out who was behind her father’s murder, there was very little investigating. Sure, she found stuff but it wasn’t because she was intentionally looking for it. For goodness sake, the three 12 yr. old kids in Harry Potter did more investigating than this 18 yr. old. And she didn’t even have to contend with professors or a custodian roaming about the halls looking to give demerits to students. She could have done a lot more which makes me think that she wasn’t all that invested in solving her father’s murder. It came off as if she was more invested in getting into the Guild than finding the real culprit.

But even if she was, I still couldn’t get behind her actions. She wasn’t like Bruce Wayne who was left with no family to care for them, except Alfred. She had a family who probably needed her. You know, since their dad died. The whole thing came off as self serving. Which I could have gotten behind if they were more afront with it. Blind revenge-seeking rage is understandable. What Ying had was…not that.

And Ying had weird reactions to things in certain instances.

1. A person is missing from the assembly, Ying was immediately suspicious. It’s the 1st assembly and she doesn’t even know how things work in the Guild. There was no basis for it.

2. A person said something off putting to her benefactor and she was “seething” even when she basically had the same thought as that person.

3. Then she goes on blaming another person for being complicit in her father’s death. In reality that person was as guilty in her father’s death as Martha Wayne was in her and her husband’s death. How dare Martha wear a necklace that caused the mugger to rob and kill them. Yes, I am still going with the Batman references.

Other issues I had with this book were some word/phrase choices that just took me out of the setting because they were so out of place. Below is the list.

- parked (should have used the word “dock”)

- baby’s got an engine issue (sounds modern)

- scrap piece (scrap and piece are the same)

- cute (sounds modern)

- Bullshit! (sounds modern)

- Kid (sounds modern)

- rosary (sounds Western in an East Asian setting)

- restaurants (sounds modern)

- gang (sounds modern)

- tick off (sounds modern given its usage)

- bored (sounds modern)

What saved this book from becoming a 1 star were the flashbacks of her father. Those actually softened my perception of Ying. Whenever those come in, I could understand why she started this whole thing. Another thing that saved it was the ending. Possibly an unpopular opinion but I appreciated the ending given what happened in the plot.

So, was this downright awful? No. Would I recommend it? If the person was young and getting into fantasy, sure.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I read this book because it was the pick for the local library’s book club.

Writing style, pacing and all that jazz was fine. But given how I’ve heard so much good things about this author, I was expecting to be wowed. Needless to say, I was not. But that might be because this was not necessarily the genre she’s known for.

When I first started reading this, my first thought was that this was a very well done RPF and self-insert at the same time. It’s almost as if the author imagined what her haters think about her and what they would do if she actually died, and wrote that.

The premise of the story was interesting to me. Mostly because I didn’t really think that someone would think that they can pull off something like this in this day and age or that someone could really think that being a minority would help their writing career. But then again, we just had an author (Kim Crisci) try to do this very thing by saying her name is Kim Chi. Also, let’s not forget the whole Cait Corrain debacle.

From my understanding there were 2 big plot points.

1. The flaws of the publishing world.

2. Are writers allowed to write stories that they themselves have not experienced?

Now while the path the author took was ok but I can’t help but feel that it would have been stronger if instead of the fake author being white, and going mad with the pitfalls of being an imposter, that author should have been another minority.

1. All those scenes, where the fake author was being eaten away with guilt, could have remained.

2. It highlights the publishing world’s tendency to limit their roster of minority authors.

3. It also still hits the point that the fake author, despite being a minority themself, was still far removed from the what happened in the book through experience or even heritage.

Now I rate this as 4 stars because it is still a far better book than the Green Creek series books. But I doubt I’d want to read this again. I don’t even want to own a copy.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I loved this book. I loved it so much that I took pictures of certain pages and highlighted the lines that really resonated with me. Heck, I even found myself chuckling while reading this.

What made me love the book?

As an immigrant, a good number of the things tackled here resonated with me. Despite being quite western in a non-western country, I did still face some challenges when I migrated. I found myself being more cautious and hesitant. But at the same time, I felt I had more freedoms with regards to a good number of things. These were things that made me relate to the Expats in the story and even the narrator herself.

I also found myself relating to the Bridges when they broached the topic of the LGBTQ+ and political correctness with the Expats. It’s similar to how, I guess, many of us grapple with discussing the same topics with our elderly relatives.

So, if I loved this book so much, why didn’t I rate it 5 stars?

Well, this book was great but not perfect. There were some details that I did not believe. And yes, this was a sci-fi book so I really should suspend my disbelief. However, I really didn’t think a government agency will just let you walk out of the building after being part of an incident and destroying a very valuable tech.

I also believe that there were certain things that I think were important that weren’t stressed enough or certain things would have been come off stronger if they were tied more closely together. For example, below were 3 things that could have made a stronger impact if they were tied more closely together:

1. Graham found it hard to believe people did so little to help when WW2 was ramping up. The narrator explained that people did the things they did because they were blindly following what they thought were good orders from those up the chain in commend.

2. The narrator inadvertently changed the future by doing something different. She also broke certain protocols.

3. At the end of the book, one of the points made was that we don’t need a time machine to change the course of history. We only just need to do better or be better people.

If those 3 things were tied more closely together, I think the message (that we should do better and not just follow things blindly) would have been stronger.

Now, I’ve read a few other reviews on this book and would like to go over some of them.

Prose:

I am aware that the prose was not necessarily some people’s cup of tea. But, quite frankly, I loved it. It was what separated this book from the other books I’ve read in quite some time. It was this weird mix of formal and flowery.

Some have pointed out that the author had a penchant for using highfalutin words that could have possibly made it harder for readers to digest it. But so, what if the reader had to look up some words? There’s Google. Use it. I think we could all use to broaden our vocabulary.

On top of that, the flowery words were in character of narrator whose specialty was languages.

Marketed as a romance when it’s not:

Honestly, I don’t know how this book was marketed. So, whether the marketing was deceitful, I can’t really tell. But there was romance in it. But it’s probably not the kind of romance folks expect these days in books given its contemporaries.

The romance here was subtle. It was a growing affection brought on by time and familiarity.

From the way Graham was described, we can tell that he was passably attractive. Not drop dead gorgeous or eye catching. He was okay looking. The most striking thing about him was his personality or, as they put it, his temperament. He was quite charming.

But this one line from page 108, really sold to me how magnetic he was to the narrator:

- He filled the room like a horizon

One review mentioned that the romance was quite one-sided. In a way it was. Given how the book was written we can only see the story from the POV of the narrator. We don’t really get much inkling of how it was from Graham’s side because the narrator also didn’t know. And it made sense that the narrator would not have seen obvious signs of interest from Graham given how he’s a man from the late 1800s who had been taught to not be forward towards women he deemed respectable.

There wasn’t much time travel:

I agree that there wasn’t much time travel. But I didn’t go into this book expecting them to be jumping back and forth in time often like it was ‘Back to the Future’. The closest comparison I can make is that this is a reverse Outlander. Or maybe that movie ‘Kate and Leopold’ with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman. The bulk of the story was about how the expats were adjusting to the modern times.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First and foremost, this was an easy and enjoyable read. A welcome change of pace given the last 2 books I read before this.

A lot of the reviews will probably say that this is quite similar to The Boys, and I don’t disagree. I actually picked this up for that very reason. But despite the similarities, it does hit differently. While there is violence here, it is not as gory. There was a lot more focus on getting information and translating that data to something that inconvenience the so-called hero. So, they basically started with petty stuff and then they escalated.

This book was probably the best example of a tell don’t show style of writing. While I didn’t mind it much, there was a part near the end wherein I thought the scene would have been better served if the author showed the characters actually doing the action rather than telling the readers about it.

I rate this as 4 stars because I enjoyed it so much that I pre-ordered the next book when I was half way done with this.

Pet peeve:

The copy I got had print issues. Some pages were off-center so they looked like they had weird margins. It was so distracting.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What was supposed to be a book that focused on mystery with sprinkles of drama became the reverse. And I am supremely annoyed by it.

As expected, there was a death. And sure, I was invested to find out who did it and why. But there was so much family drama going on and other shenanigans that I forgot why they needed to solve it. I mean, yeah, the death should be solved but why it had to be solved by them kinda got lost.

In the 1st book it was clear why. In the second book, Bernie was the suspect and the pageant contestants could be in danger, so I could understand why they felt the need to get into it. But here? Why couldn’t they let the cops do their jobs for once? None of them were even the locked in suspect. Sure, Ronnie’s business was in danger, but again, I was not convinced of the urgency to solve it immediately that they had to wade in. And just to make it clear how fast the timeline of events was, the dead person didn’t even get buried yet when the whole thing happened.

Since the book went into the family drama more than I thought was necessary, I felt that there was not enough bread crumbing of the clues about the real culprit and the motive. They had only a little bit of it in the latter chapters but by that time, I was exhausted from reading the family drama that I didn’t really sign up for.

The family drama had its pros and cons.

Pros:

1. It gave us more background on Auntie Rosie.

2. I, again, thought that the portrayal of Lila’s family was believable. Unfortunately, there are families like that. The guilt trips, the demands to be in your private business, etc. are sadly very common in Filipino families.

Cons:

1. I learned more about Auntie Rosie, and it didn’t really paint that great of a picture of her.

2. The portrayal of the family was believable and like with book 2, it made me mad.

From what I understood, Auntie Rosie’s husband was a bastard. But she refused to kick him out or leave him. I’m not surprised her kid, Ronnie, was screwed up. She held on to his father, so he probably mimicked her and held on to him too only to be left behind. And in typical Filipino way, they probably never really talked about it. So, his acting out, while infuriating, was understandable.

The fact that her husband was a douche was not Auntie Rosie’s fault. But the fact that she didn’t grow a spine, stand up to him, divorce him, and show her kid that the way his dad treated them was not right…that was on her.

I did not doubt she did her best to show her son love. But Tita Rosie also showed him, by accepting her husband’s ill treatment and remaining married to him until this day, that it’s okay to be treated like shit

Ronnie’s comments to his mother were rude but he did have a point. He said she picked the wrong man and I agree. She essentially picked the wrong man everyday that she didn’t divorce his father. And since she was not divorced, Ronnie, again, was right. She was still a married woman.

What infuriated me the most was scene when they finally learned that about Ronnie’s kid. Tita Rosie’s first reaction was, ”Did you really hate me so much that you couldn’t even tell me about the birth of my first grandchild?” Uh, lady, the world does not revolve around you. The decision to not tell you about any aspect of his life was not about you.

There were so many parts in this book that had me thinking it was stuff from the AITA subreddit. In which my verdict for all of these was ESH (Everybody Sucks Here).

So why did I rate this a 2.0 instead of a 1.5? :

Despite the fact that I got so mad at so many parts of the book, my anger kept me engaged. So, I guess that was it’s redeeming quality.

Side Note:

The fact that the mother of Ronnie’s kid is Izzy’s cousin, and it seems like he and Izzy are going to be a thing…it gave me the ick. The same with having Lila and Tita Rosie being in a relationship or possible relationship with brothers. It gave me sister-wives vibes.

Audiobook Critique:

That is NOT how you pronounce "tuyo".

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given the foreword written by the author of the book, I can understand why this book was off to me, especially if I compare it to the 1st book. Though, to be honest, I’m not quite sure if the foreword actually set up my mind to notice the difference of the vibe or if the vibe was really just different. Regardless, this 2nd book in the series fell short of what I expected.

I am not saying it’s bad. It was good enough for me to consider it okay but I had quite a few issues with it.

The pacing was slower this time. For one thing, the homicide didn’t happen immediately. The whole thing started off with a threat towards the local teen beauty pageant. So, I thought this will somehow follow the trajectory of the movie Miss Congeniality. I expected Lila to embed herself in the pageant activities to ferret out the culprit and then have humorous scenes sprinkled here and there. But it did not go that way.

What I got was a good dose of Lila reflecting about her relationship with her mother. How she felt like she couldn’t get her mom’s approval if she wasn’t out there winning medals or something. Normally I’d feel a good amount of sympathy during such scenes. However, I couldn’t get into it because I kept on wondering if a child of eight could remember such slights so vividly especially since her mom died soon afterwards. Also, the slights were…slight. Relatively speaking. Always fixing her hair. Telling her to do her best. Were those actions and comments that trauma inducing? Could such things, that weren’t even reinforced after her mom’s death, be really that impactful?

I don’t know. It all felt…forced and unnecessary. Lila was already dealing with PTSD from the events in the first book. Why not focus more on that? Setting up Lila to have issues with her mom just seemed like a reach.

I was not that happy with the characterization of some characters.

1. Amir was just blah. I was hoping he would be fleshed out some more in this book but he has become more of an afterthought in this book. This was probably because the author was setting up the end of the love triangle but, in my humble opinion, it could have been handled better.

2. Dr. Jae was also not that fleshed out. Beyond him being sweet and cute, what was he? I still can’t understand what makes him interesting enough for Lila to want to be with. Was he more accommodating than Amir, sure. But so could a lot of other people. So why him? I will concede, though, that fleshing him out to the point that he had distinct quirks was not important since the book was, first and foremost, about mystery and not romance.

3. The characterization of the Calendar Crew, Bernie, Lola Flor and Tita Rosie were believable. However, it was so believable to me that it made me mad.

The whole ‘forgive and forget’ trait that a lot of Filipinos adopt is, quite frankly, unhealthy. Tita June’s and Bernie’s habit of talking shit about people, who were supposedly their friends and family, was sadly typical. The fact that they were welcomed back into the fold later on was also typical. Did they apologize, sure. Will they probably do it again. Fuck, yes.

I could forgive Bernie though. She was pitted against Lila since they were kids. Then in this instance, her life was on the line and people didn’t seem that to care about her. Sure, they were investigating the murder which does help her out. But no one seems to be checking up on her well-being. On top of that, Bernie had been actively trying to be a better person. Unlike her mom.

4. Lila becoming friends with Yuki just struck me as weird. Didn’t that woman cheat on her husband? I found it hard to believe that a person who got cheated on would become friends with a cheater.

Last but not least, I could not get invested in the effort to solve the homicide. The guy was a douche. I really couldn’t care who killed him. And in the end, I was kind of sad they caught who did it.