altlovesbooks
"It's possible that all these little moments that meant so much to me never meant quite the same thing to him."
This is me, trying very hard to keep an open mind, about a genre I don't normally read. I love that this genre exists for people, because I earnestly believe that there's a book out there for everyone, I just never connected well with romances in general. Maybe I'm too much of a realist.
I'll start with what I liked, because there are good things here for people who enjoy the genre. I loved the early days of Poppy/Alex's friendship, maybe because I can identify with that part. Just two awkward college students exploring a maybe friendship and being along for the ride as it slowly morphs into something more (in their heads). I thought that was done well, realistically, believably. I also did like how the author managed to build up some feelings about how things end up. I wasn't totally in love with the back-and-forth in time format of the story, but it did keep me reading to figure out A) what happened in Croatia (spoiler alert: not as much as I was expecting), and B) how they managed to resolve things.
Poppy started out endearing with how over-the-top she is in basically everything, but as the book went on, it started to become a bit much. I especially thought it was unnecessary after (late book spoilers)Alex and Poppy finally start being honest with each other about their feelings. Rather than confront things head on, Poppy makes jokes, deflects, and flails about to avoid being direct and honestly exploring her feelings. She seems a bit needy in both attention and affection, and that seems like a poor match for Alex.
I also have never seen two people who claim to be such good friends be so entirely unable to communicate with one another. Jokes, lighthearted conversation, anything superficial is fine, but having an honest, direct, deep conversation about the two of them seems entirely beyond them. Had they just said what needed to be said 8 years ago, they wouldn't be pining after each other for so long. Plot built on miscommunication/noncommunication drives me up a particular wall, so I admit this is maybe a personal hangup.
Finally, while I did like how the author portrayed Poppy and Alex, I didn't feel like enough of the story was actually dedicated to them. Instead, we get lots of short chapters with short, choppy sentences about the places they go together, but nothing that really shows their relationship developing at all. We just have to trust it happens at some point, based on the This Summer story happening concurrently with the flashbacks. Show, don't tell.
I promise I love my husband and am not anti-love/romance. But I just couldn't get into this one.
"It's possible that all these little moments that meant so much to me never meant quite the same thing to him."
This is me, trying very hard to keep an open mind, about a genre I don't normally read. I love that this genre exists for people, because I earnestly believe that there's a book out there for everyone, I just never connected well with romances in general. Maybe I'm too much of a realist.
I'll start with what I liked, because there are good things here for people who enjoy the genre. I loved the early days of Poppy/Alex's friendship, maybe because I can identify with that part. Just two awkward college students exploring a maybe friendship and being along for the ride as it slowly morphs into something more (in their heads). I thought that was done well, realistically, believably. I also did like how the author managed to build up some feelings about how things end up. I wasn't totally in love with the back-and-forth in time format of the story, but it did keep me reading to figure out A) what happened in Croatia (spoiler alert: not as much as I was expecting), and B) how they managed to resolve things.
Poppy started out endearing with how over-the-top she is in basically everything, but as the book went on, it started to become a bit much. I especially thought it was unnecessary after (late book spoilers)Alex and Poppy finally start being honest with each other about their feelings. Rather than confront things head on, Poppy makes jokes, deflects, and flails about to avoid being direct and honestly exploring her feelings. She seems a bit needy in both attention and affection, and that seems like a poor match for Alex.
I also have never seen two people who claim to be such good friends be so entirely unable to communicate with one another. Jokes, lighthearted conversation, anything superficial is fine, but having an honest, direct, deep conversation about the two of them seems entirely beyond them. Had they just said what needed to be said 8 years ago, they wouldn't be pining after each other for so long. Plot built on miscommunication/noncommunication drives me up a particular wall, so I admit this is maybe a personal hangup.
Finally, while I did like how the author portrayed Poppy and Alex, I didn't feel like enough of the story was actually dedicated to them. Instead, we get lots of short chapters with short, choppy sentences about the places they go together, but nothing that really shows their relationship developing at all. We just have to trust it happens at some point, based on the This Summer story happening concurrently with the flashbacks. Show, don't tell.
I promise I love my husband and am not anti-love/romance. But I just couldn't get into this one.