roselaina
This book was a solid 4 stars for the most part — the author did a great job with racial diversity, which I appreciated, and the lives of the women she picked were interesting. I wrote down several of them for further reading. However, I had to drop a star for the way she approached Charley Parker's story. Had the author merely stuck to the facts, it would have been a great story. However, instead, she blithely put her own label on Charley's gender (and sexuality, making a few throwaway comments that were borderline offensive) even though she specifically stated that there's no evidence clarifying Charley's feelings on the subject. And while her wrap-up segments for each chapter ranged from thought-provoking to embarrassingly saccharine, Charley's was, in my opinion, the worst of the bunch.
Listened on audiobook, and though the narrator took a few minutes for me to get used to, I wound up loving her.
Three stars is me being generous because of my love for Becky Albertalli and several of the side characters in this book. Plus a good amount of diversity! And musical references! And...that's really all the positive things I have to say. I'm probably going to take away another half star.
To be honest, I expected WAY better from this matchup. It dragged something awful, and I'm sorry but Ben and Arthur had the chemistry of like...two blades of grass. Plus the whole book was this really weird tug-of-war between realistic, down-to-earth elements and being so cliched and predictable that I physically cringed. (And no, that was not a shot at either of the authors because they both did both at different times.)
To be honest, the time I was most into this book was the 20 minutes in the middle when I thought this was all a big Gotcha and they were both going to have different love interests.
Plus there was one point when something happened and Ben worried Arthur was going to break up with him, and let me just say, if I was in Arthur's shoes? I couldn't have dumped him because by the time it would have occurred to me as an option, I would have already murdered him, brought him back to life, and murdered him again. :)
Yeah, I'm taking away that half star now.
*2.5
3.5 starsThe writing was a little rough in the first chapter or two, to the point where it was distracting. And while I was fond of Adrian and Camilla as characters, I wasn't feeling the romance as much as I'd have liked. They needed to spend more time together!However! I still enjoyed the book overall, and I absolutely adored every single side character. Like, bunches and bunches. Oodles and oodles. So much love I want to re-read this book solely for them. I want a book about every single one of them, from Mrs. Martin to Benedict. Most pressingly, Grayson, followed by Theresa. Not to mention this mysterious lady character Adrian mentioned briefly near the end. Don't think we didn't notice that, Ms. Milan. *eyes emoji
There were lots of positive qualities about the book, writing mishaps in the beginning aside. Milan writes diverse characters like it is simultaneously nothing and everything, and I appreciate that so, so much. While the book fell a little flat as a romance, it was still a solid story with many wonderful characters, and I will continue to read everything Milan writes, without a doubt.
In the author's note at the end, Cashore mentions that this was originally conceived and written as a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It probably should have stayed that way. This format did not work for me at all. There are a lot of positive qualities in the story and the writing, but for the last 2/3 of the book, I was too bored and annoyed to appreciate them. Hence why it took me 3 months to slog through all 440 pages.
I will certainly pick up Cashore's future projects, but this one was, quite simply, a mess.
