Reviews tagging 'Death'

Stora vackra liv by Emily Henry

269 reviews

hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book has everything: beach setting, career driven woman, hot grumpy man, mommy issues,
career driven woman NOT giving up her life for a man
AND
a plot twist that actually surprised me.


Slow start but becomes a fantastic whirlwind in the second half. 

Minus .25 because personally I hate
a pregnancy epilogue.

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Loveable characters: Yes

Great start, slow in the middle, super fast ending. Idk how to feel about that pace 

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What to say about this! I went into this book with low expectations despite loving Emily Henry as an author, because I'd heard some mixed reviews from other folks. I did like it, but I definitley liked it less than her others. It feels unfair to compare newer books to her holy trinity (Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation and Book Lovers) but this felt like there were too many different pieces going on at once, which made all of it feel pretty rushed.

This felt like it was trying to be three stories in one... a drama about traumatic family relationships, a mystery about the life of an older celebrity woman who is surrounded by secrets, and an Emily Henry romance with cute banter and fun characters. And it had pieces of all of those, but I wish we had committed to one or even two of those plotlines. Alice's mom sucked and maybe it's because of my own mommy issues but I just have trouble believing that every problem she had with her mom was solved after one emotional confession. I did like the two main characters, but I felt like they were underdeveloped. It was pretty instalovey and overall just felt very rushed. I wish we had spent more time getting to know them. Again it feels unfair to compare it to Emily Henry's past books but sue me, I'm doing that. And the whole Margaret story just felt so much like Evelyn Hugo, PLUS with Julia Whelan narrating? Girl I was waiting for Mick Riva to show up. 

It's still a 3.5ish. And I'll continue to read every book she writes so really no harm done 🙂‍↕️

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional lighthearted slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

3 - 3.5 stars. I didn't dislike this book, but I had a hard time getting into some parts of the story (specifically, the biography portions of the story...especially in the beginning). I realized the twist very early on in the story, but it wasn't enough to get me to stop reading. To me, this book has more family type drama than it does romance. So if you are into a biography/family drama/family dynamics with a bit of romance sprinkled in, you'll love this book. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. 😕 

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