Rebecca Doctor
This was a rec from a Desi reviewer on YouTube and I really liked reading a romance from such a different cultural perspective. Did he really need to name his penis though that was an intense ick
When I was 17 I read the Bell Jar, and I thought no one had ever understood me like Sylvia Plath understood me. I don't think I've felt that in a book since until now, at 28, I read Everything I Know About Love. In the final chapter when she whipped out the Plath fig tree quote that I thought about daily for all of my early twenties and still rattles around my brain at 3am occasionally I nearly keeled over and died right there and then. Deceased. Dolly Alderton gets it.
if you would like to read a fun, quick romance with well-developed characters then look no further than this series
It's bloody hard to rate some of these books because I'm mostly responding to their place within my expectations and their genre but let me tell you, this book is leaps and bounds better than the first one in the series. There's so much grounded and believable characterization and relationship depth. They're both extremely attractive and likable. Is it trying to change the world or make you see the things differently? Absolutely not. But is it trying to be fun? Yeah, and it succeeds. It's a nice, escapist time.
I liked the characters and the setting but I was confused by all of the americanisms (why does a British block of flats have a ‘superintendent' rather than a caretaker), I found it hard to buy a ginger man as a romantic lead (personal preference) and Chloe was always referring to her nipples (off-putting).
0 brain cells were engaged in the reading of this book. Fun, fluffy nonsense, five stars no notes. My first ever historical romance and the library copy I read had a way less daunting, way more contemporary looking cover so don't be put off.
When I was a teenage girl I was obsessed with The Bell Jar (as most teenage girls are). Quoted in The Midnight Library was the passage on the metaphorical fig tree, sprouting endless possibilities which ripen as I sit starving, unable to choose. It pushed me further into the comparison I had been making between this modern offering on mental health and the Sad Girl books of my youth - not just Plath but the Virgin Suicides and Girl, Interrupted and a slew of other highly aesthetic novels. This by contrast is a parable in plain prose. No room for interpretation, let alone romanticisation.
I think this is what Gen Z are asking for in their portrayal of mental health. Clear, unproblematic and medically correct, but I felt like I was being forced to eat my vegetables. Nora was neatly diagnosed with situational depression and then presented with other situations. I didn't feel like I was uncovering character or plot with excitement, just plodding through a thoughtfully worded formula towards a predictable end. The mystical elements were likely intentionally plain but it didn't make it a fun read. Most of all I struggled with the sparse descriptions of feelings. Nora's actions are described, but her feelings are mostly described in terms of if she is more or less depressed, or even just feeling less or more. The thing I really loved about the Bell Jar and those other books, the thing that made me cry in relief and shared pain, was the deep descriptions of feeling. The beautiful, relatable metaphors. I thought of that fig tree almost daily for almost ten years. Whenever I hear my heartbeat still I think of Plath's wrist, and the words ‘I am, I am, I am'. These were the things that made me feel seen. I don't think that I could get that from a book like this. I guess as it's so popular some people must be able to relate, and I suppose it's good there aren't so many Sad Girls reblogging Bell Jar quotes and Gifs of Cassie from Skins anymore but give me a messy, beautiful, personal book instead.
Also, I'm now 2/2 for books quoting that exact passage about the fig tree this week. Weird.
Lesson learned again; if I want to try a new genre then YA probably isn't the place to start. Just not my bag.
Truly made me want to play video games and loved the world building but some of the interpersonal stuff felt a bit rushed to me idk
When I decided to get back into reading I decided some light and breezy YA would be the perfect place to start. I logged into TikTok for maybe the fifth time in my life and searched for the book recs of the yout and this popped up. Without knowing anything except it contained romance and fairies I downloaded the eBook and my god it's an irritating read. Dreadfully composed, with dialogue that makes me convinced that the author has never actually met a human person, I would not have advanced so far if it wasn't the only entertainment that I can access on my phone when I've got no 4G on the tube. Obstinately refusing to download another because I'd spent money on this one, I recently had the revelation that it's worth the £8 or so to read something, anything else and I probably won't complete this after all.
After hearing the hosts of When in Romance gush about another Mia Sosa book that I hadn't liked so much I decided to give her another shot. Unfortunately I wasn't so keen on this either- it has a fun, fluffy plot but I didn't really vibe with the characters or the reasons for them not being together. It's a fairly quick read though. 2.5 stars
I like Beth O'Leary's cosy, warm, fuzzy worlds so I liked this but it wasn't my fav of hers
You've heard of the horse girls, but in high school I was one of the other fabled types of teen girl, the Greek Mythology girl. I think at age 15 reading this would have made me feel extremely clever and that feeling alone would have made this at least a four star read. Unfortunately though, at 27 I am fully aware that my favourite parts of mythology are mysticism and ritual, which were sidelined in this for some of my least favourite parts, bloodshed and homoeroticism.
I'm now a filmmaker so it is with warmth that I recall one of my first ever ‘films'; a 25 minute epic retelling of the life of Achilles featuring a flash through white transition of everyone except Achilles and Hector disappearing from the battlefield that I was particularly proud of, even through my entry to film school. Friends and nerdy mythology kids uniting to doss about in togas with plastic swords and fake babies. To my dismay, my particular favourite vignette (Achilles being dipped into the river Styx with his mother only holding his heel, and in fact all heel related mythology) was omitted from this. It was nice that my carefully preconceived and long forgotten images of boats and sails and sea nymphs flashed up before my eyes but I'm surprised that the TikTok girlies hold this rather dry offering in such high esteem. I have to assume that it made them feel clever.
I 100% buy this premise as I live in London and I've literally seen similar offers on Spare Room. Probably a 4.5/5 star read for me, it's so cute and nice
A friend was laughing that this was the top rated available audiobook at the library and I looked it up to find it had amazing reviews - I too needed a quick audiobook download and it really surprised me how nuanced and grounded this was? Started* for the joke of hey this exists isn't that funny, continued* for the considered perspective on sex work, solid world building, internal discussion on ethics and exploration of interracial relationships? *you notice I purposely didn't use came and finished here that was intentional also I looked up how much 24 oz is in ml that's 709ml! Best part of a litre omg
LISTEN. I KNOW Ali Hazelwood's books are all the same. I know her male love interests are always monstrously large and her women are always sexually inexperienced. these are not deep books, but they are FAST PACED (I read this in about four hours. that's less than some youtube videos), full of juicy personal drama and! bonus! everyone involved has a demanding job that they love (relatable!)
If you took an Ali Hazelwood book and replaced STEM with sports, and communicative and professional twists and turns with violence and physical peril you'd probably get something like this. The typical romance novel three act structure ends around midway and the rest is notably less fun, often feeling like merely a vehicle to get us to the next sex scene which really started to drag imo. Pretty mid, I feel it could have done with a good editor.