Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Stora vackra liv by Emily Henry

64 reviews

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

This is absolutely not a thriller, despite what it’s being marketed as

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

Emily Henry we are so back!!!

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

I LOVE Emily Henry’s writing - DO NOT GET ME WRONG… but this one was not my fav.

In other Emily Henry’s books, the central plot IS the love story, and the subplots are about work or friendships, or family. In this story, the actual romance felt more like a subplot to me. It wasn’t Hayden and Alice’s story. It was Margaret’s (the lying old lady). The two storylines felt like they were competing for page time and the flip flopping pace wasn’t great. It felt like two separate books mashed together. 

I did love the storytelling of Margaret’s life when it got to the interesting parts, but I wasn’t a fan of her “telling her story” but not being fully truthful and wasting these journalists time. Not cool, Peggy. Not cool. 

I actually didn’t like Margaret in the end. She sucks. The manipulative old wench. She was quite selfish in her endeavours and I don’t know how they forgave her and wrote her story for her anyways. Kind of wish they touched on that redemption arc a little more rather than just stating it happened. 

Happy that Alice and Hayden got a happy ending though! Probs wouldn’t name my baby after an aunt I never knew that was an ex-cult member, but whatevs, it’s their baby! Good for them! 

No matter what, I’ll always love and treasure the beauty that is Emily Henry’s writing. She could write a refrigerator manual and I’d read it.

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Yes

If Emily Henry writes it, I will love it. This book felt a bit different to her others, but still very clearly Emily Henry.

I loved finding out about Margarets history and experiences. They were probably even my favourite part of the book and I was always curious to find out more.

Surprisingly I actually guessed all the big "twists" but I still like how they were executed.

Also absolutely loved all the parallels to 'The Last Great American Dynasty'!!!
Such a good book :)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional lighthearted reflective fast-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

Tornou-se minha obra favorita da autora. A abordagem da maternidade, criação dos filhos e história familiar foi brilhante, profundamente comovente.  Existem diversos gatilhos, aconselho os leitores mais sensíveis a consultar o StoryGraph para mais informações. 
Sem dúvida, lembrou-me "Evelyn Hugo", de Taylor Jenkins Reid, contudo, a singularidade da autora e seu estilo de escrita permaneceram evidentes. O desfecho surpreendente foi extraordinário, mantendo-me em suspense e sem fôlego até o final.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-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

Even having heard spoiler free reviews of this book, I was still surprised by what all made up this book.
If you're like me and first feel in love with Emily Henry for her fun lighthearted romances, this might not be what you want, but it is such a great book. Do know though this is like 60% the unraveling of the celebrity's story the other 40% the romance. 
Few things I liked
1. I love how the Male love interest is given good reasons for how he is acting in the situation they're in. I never had to go for chapters on en's asking what's his deal or just assuming he does it solely for tension.
2. I like the secondary plot being something completely different that interacted with the present plot. The main issue I had with Happy Place was the flashbacks, but with this book, they're done so well. 
3. For what a lot of people will call a "silly little romance" this book actually looks at and confronts the issue of generational trauma really well. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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

Although this was a bit of a genre change for Emily (not just completely contemporary romance, but also historical fiction), I really enjoyed this book. I liked Alice and her optimistic view of the world, and I liked Hayden's quiet and pensive vibes. However, I think I liked following the story of Margaret Ives and her family's history a bit more than Alice and Hayden's plot line. I found myself gasping out loud when finally hearing the "truth" from Margaret, and I appreciated how detailed Emily got with the Ives family. It was clearly well thought out and I liked how it was told to us over the course of the book, and had parallels with Alice. I did still enjoy Alice and Hayden's interactions, but I didn't like it as much as some of the other romances in the other Emily Henry books
lol they were kissing by page 20 but not going fully all the way til page 357, and then seriously everything wrapped up in the last 10 pages. Talk about some pacing differences! Also, it still felt a little fast for them to fall in love; even though it was a month, it felt fast.
I kind of wish that we'd had a dual POV with Alice and Hayden both, as I would have enjoyed seeing things thru his perspective. Regardless, I really enjoyed the story of both Alice and Margaret. I also really enjoyed reading this book as a buddy read with my bestie, which I think made it that much more special!

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