NJ

This book had a nice, quirky concept but its execution was weak.

Our protagonist is informed of his impending death and offered a deal with the devil: for every extra day he is alive, he needs to choose something that will totally disappear from the world. From this setup, I was expecting to read heart-wrenching moral dilemmas about the ethics of making things disappear for the whole world while wanting to eke out a few more moments out of life. I also thought I would be getting a deep exploration of grief when confronted so directly with one's own mortality. Instead, it was pretty blah.

The main character is selfish and apathetic and doesn't seem to consider any opinions, thoughts or feelings outside of his own when choosing the things that can disappear. Granted, by the end, the devil is the one choosing which things disappear (no surprise here, he is the devil after all). However, even then he should have considered what it would mean when he accepted the bargain. For example, when he is considering whether or not to make movies disappear, he doesn't seem to think about what that absence would mean for his ex-girlfriend - who loves movies so much she now lives above a cinema. What would the absence of movies mean for her? Will she forever feel incomplete? He neither considers no cares about what the answers to these questions are. The protagonists self-centredness would be okay if the book was seeking to highlight how inherently selfish humans really are, but by the end, we are supposed to buy the idea that humans are actually selfless because the protagonist cannot bring himself to make cats disappear. However, even that final decision is selfish, he doesn't decide to keep cats around because he's thinking of other people, he seems to do it because of the sentimental value cats hold for him . Besides, he hardly seems remorseful for the other things he made disappear.

Additionally, there seem to be no real-world implications for the things that disappear. How did the world not come grinding down to a halt when the clocks disappeared. What happened to all the people who worked in phone manufacturing, or in the movie industry, or even in the clock industry. Millions of people must supposedly have woken up unemployed. How did the world simply go on, when big changes had been made. I think this concept would have worked better if each bargain gave him an additional 2 months - 1 year, then he could really sit with and consider the impacts of his decisions, see how the world was different because of the self-interested choices he had made.

This book promised to deliver one man's journey of self-discovery, but in my opinion, it fell short.

There are a few things I must preface this review with.

1. I read this book when I was way too young to read this book
2. For a long time, it was one of my favourite books
3. I reread it recently because it occurred to me that it probably hadn't aged well. I was right.

The hero is an abuser and a rapist. No matter how hard the book tries to rehabilitate him, and it does try hard, nothing can take away from his abuse or the rape. Also, if this were any other author, I would probably have given the book 1 star, but SEP was one of the authors that led me to read contemporary romance as a young teenage girl, and thus I am a bit biased. Also, no one writes banter quite like SEP.

However, the fact that I read this as a young teenager is the exact reason why books which romanticize abuse suck. Young impressionable people may pick them up and use them as a blueprint for a relationship. The very thought gives me nightmares. I may be saying this because I spent a lot of my younger years loving SEP, but I have to point out that this book was written in the 90s. It doesn't excuse the abusive content in the least but it makes me a smidge less ragey about it.

Running the plot of a few more SEP books through my mind, I am coming to terms with the fact that a lot of books I have considered favourites may sour on a reread.

I am realising that just as I had to give up on my OG historical romance faves, Julia Quinn and Lisa Kleypas, I might have to give up SEP, and that breaks my heart because I do love her banter.

There were aspects of this that I really liked. In particular, I loved Duncan and his vulnerability. However, in a rare twist for me, I didn't like the heroine. At one point she justifies her lack of open affection for Duncan by saying that as a cat owner, he is used to getting scraps, and it really irritated me. Nobody should have to settle for scraps of someone else's affection. especially not when they have made their desire to be wanted as clear as Duncan does. He's open and sweet and vulnerable, despite appearances, and I felt like the heroine never fully acknowledged that or showed reciprocal openness.

This was my first audiobook and I absolutely loved it! Ruby Dee narrated with emotion and it sometimes felt like I was in a conversation with the characters. Hurston's book is wonderfully written, the language is often beautiful and poetic. It was a joy to listen to.

This is a classic for a reason; nothing else I say can really do it justice

I read this book because I saw multiple reviews mention that it had some great grovelling. However, it felt a little flat for me. Even at the end, Alessandro was still a little too alpha for my tastes (probably a reflection of the time this book was written). Additionally, I felt like too much of the book was spent on their sexual chemistry and the rest of the relationship-building was glossed over. For example, after Alessandro wrangles 2 hours from her, I would have loved it if the author had spent a lot more page-space giving us examples of the quality time the two of them spent during that time. It was cute but ultimately a little disappointing.