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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
First of all—THIS was the famous BookTok book??? OH MY GOD. I was SO hyped to read it (my first Ali Hazelwood book), but… wow. Just wow. There were so many irritating things that yanked me out of the story when the whole purpose of fiction is to →immerse← me.
The author weirdly, obsessively tried to show Adam as “DICK / UNAPPROACHABLE / ANTAGONISTIC” but in his actual dialogues? He was SO SWEET. And then Olive, our FMC, who was supposed to be “likeable”… well, she just annoyed me the whole time.
Her inner monologues were →HE IS A DICK / HE IS SUCH A JACKASS / HE IS THE WORST← on repeat, while Adam was literally giving cinnamon-roll energy. Like girl, relax.
Example: that CRINGE moment when she texted him to tell him he was “mistreating his student” (aka her friend). Excuse me?? He’s the PROFESSOR. His “strictness” does not make him the VILLAIN. And the man even explained himself in a long text… only for her to reply: “FUCK YOU ADAM.” SERIOUSLY???
BUT MY GENTLEMAN, CINNAMON-BUN, PUMPKIN-PIE SWEETHEART—Dr. Adam Carlsen—just let her get away with it. No clapback, no drama. Honestly, I gave this book 2 stars only because of Adam. He was supposed to be the “grumpy dick,” but all I saw was pure sunshine.
Now let’s talk about the →HEIGHT←. Halfway through the book I regretted not highlighting every time his height was mentioned, because MY GOD. Every. Single. Page.
“He is so tall.”
“He is so huge.”
“Why does he have to be so tall?”
DAMN, unless this man is literally 16 FEET TALL, DO NOT MENTION IT ON EVERY PAGE.
The lack of Adam’s POV made things worse. If I had actually seen him being mean, then maybe Olive’s rants about him being a “jackass” would’ve made sense. But all I saw was a strict professor doing his job. That’s it.
And don’t even get me started on Olive’s character writing. One page she’s crying about her mom, the next she’s laughing and rolling her eyes. Like… MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. Her emotions jumped so fast I didn’t know if I was supposed to be sad or amused. And the word “→weeping←”? It was EVERYWHERE. That word was itching my brain each time it popped up.
There was zero character depth. Her dialogues were cringe, half the time it felt like filler ranting. And the love story?? Two pages before she’s calling him names, then suddenly →BOOM← she’s in love. WHAT. SHUT UP. SIT DOWN.
Okay, but let me give credit where it’s due: Adam as a flirt? →CHEF’S KISS←. He didn’t blurt, his words didn’t feel cringe, and the whole “scared of needles” scene had me giggling and kicking my feet. The book would’ve been so much better if the author didn’t try so hard to force a fake “he is grumpy x she is sunshine” dynamic—because honestly? Adam was the sunshine.
Seeing Olive as a PhD student with that level of cringe monologue made me side-eye HARD. And my annotations?? FILLED with CAPITAL LETTER SCREAMS. This book frustrated me so much, my fingers are tired just writing this review.
I’m pretty sure I’m done with Ali Hazelwood’s writing. I was so excited… now I’m just exhausted. But at least I’m out of my reading slump—because I NEED to cleanse my brain with something better.
→ The spice, though ← … the spice was AWESOME. Awkward, shy, desperate, hesitant—very realistic. If the book had been written better, those scenes would’ve landed perfectly.
Final verdict:
1.75/5 Stars → story / plot / characters
3/5 Stars → spice
The author weirdly, obsessively tried to show Adam as “DICK / UNAPPROACHABLE / ANTAGONISTIC” but in his actual dialogues? He was SO SWEET. And then Olive, our FMC, who was supposed to be “likeable”… well, she just annoyed me the whole time.
Her inner monologues were →HE IS A DICK / HE IS SUCH A JACKASS / HE IS THE WORST← on repeat, while Adam was literally giving cinnamon-roll energy. Like girl, relax.
Example: that CRINGE moment when she texted him to tell him he was “mistreating his student” (aka her friend). Excuse me?? He’s the PROFESSOR. His “strictness” does not make him the VILLAIN. And the man even explained himself in a long text… only for her to reply: “FUCK YOU ADAM.” SERIOUSLY???
BUT MY GENTLEMAN, CINNAMON-BUN, PUMPKIN-PIE SWEETHEART—Dr. Adam Carlsen—just let her get away with it. No clapback, no drama. Honestly, I gave this book 2 stars only because of Adam. He was supposed to be the “grumpy dick,” but all I saw was pure sunshine.
Now let’s talk about the →HEIGHT←. Halfway through the book I regretted not highlighting every time his height was mentioned, because MY GOD. Every. Single. Page.
“He is so tall.”
“He is so huge.”
“Why does he have to be so tall?”
DAMN, unless this man is literally 16 FEET TALL, DO NOT MENTION IT ON EVERY PAGE.
The lack of Adam’s POV made things worse. If I had actually seen him being mean, then maybe Olive’s rants about him being a “jackass” would’ve made sense. But all I saw was a strict professor doing his job. That’s it.
And don’t even get me started on Olive’s character writing. One page she’s crying about her mom, the next she’s laughing and rolling her eyes. Like… MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. Her emotions jumped so fast I didn’t know if I was supposed to be sad or amused. And the word “→weeping←”? It was EVERYWHERE. That word was itching my brain each time it popped up.
There was zero character depth. Her dialogues were cringe, half the time it felt like filler ranting. And the love story?? Two pages before she’s calling him names, then suddenly →BOOM← she’s in love. WHAT. SHUT UP. SIT DOWN.
Okay, but let me give credit where it’s due: Adam as a flirt? →CHEF’S KISS←. He didn’t blurt, his words didn’t feel cringe, and the whole “scared of needles” scene had me giggling and kicking my feet. The book would’ve been so much better if the author didn’t try so hard to force a fake “he is grumpy x she is sunshine” dynamic—because honestly? Adam was the sunshine.
Seeing Olive as a PhD student with that level of cringe monologue made me side-eye HARD. And my annotations?? FILLED with CAPITAL LETTER SCREAMS. This book frustrated me so much, my fingers are tired just writing this review.
I’m pretty sure I’m done with Ali Hazelwood’s writing. I was so excited… now I’m just exhausted. But at least I’m out of my reading slump—because I NEED to cleanse my brain with something better.
→ The spice, though ← … the spice was AWESOME. Awkward, shy, desperate, hesitant—very realistic. If the book had been written better, those scenes would’ve landed perfectly.
Final verdict:
1.75/5 Stars → story / plot / characters
3/5 Stars → spice
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
THIS BOOK IS THE UNFINISHED, UNFILTERED FILTH OF MY BOOKSHELF.
Today I looked at it lying on my floor; not with interest but utter distain. Why did I even read it? A little thing going between me and my friend to read our worst rated books.
Now, the disgusting book itself was a difficult read indeed, and that’s not subject to it’s poor choice in grammar or the little attempts it made to be “witty” ,but because of how infuriating and insufferable these characters can be. Olive and Adam ARE the MOST problematic characters I’ve ever crossed, what’s worse is the author herself is a professor, A WOMAN IN STEM, and she produced this THING (I stopped for a while, I had no idea what to call it- I, myself, do not want to epithet IT).
Instead I’ll call it the “IT FACTOR”, even a red flag.
The “IT FACTOR” is the evidence that modern literature is a waste of time, that it has not as much excitement. This is the book that spikes up horrible crowds of mums asking if a book now has ‘SPICE’ to it.
Not just single-handedly ruining literature for me, putting me in a reading slump, BUT also endorsing these unintelligent tropes that mindless slugs follow for SOME reason (-I have yet to know why).
In the end, I did not finish it, but I get a sizeable way through. AND you cannot tell me to ‘read more, give it a chance” BECAUSE I WILL MOST CERTAINLY NOT.
This review goes for any new up and coming TikTok “romcom” (as to quote the book). I do not like it, will not read/ reread these. These TikTok books have instilled a bad , prejudice attitude in me towards any modern book.
Today I looked at it lying on my floor; not with interest but utter distain. Why did I even read it? A little thing going between me and my friend to read our worst rated books.
Now, the disgusting book itself was a difficult read indeed, and that’s not subject to it’s poor choice in grammar or the little attempts it made to be “witty” ,but because of how infuriating and insufferable these characters can be. Olive and Adam ARE the MOST problematic characters I’ve ever crossed, what’s worse is the author herself is a professor, A WOMAN IN STEM, and she produced this THING (I stopped for a while, I had no idea what to call it- I, myself, do not want to epithet IT).
Instead I’ll call it the “IT FACTOR”, even a red flag.
The “IT FACTOR” is the evidence that modern literature is a waste of time, that it has not as much excitement. This is the book that spikes up horrible crowds of mums asking if a book now has ‘SPICE’ to it.
Not just single-handedly ruining literature for me, putting me in a reading slump, BUT also endorsing these unintelligent tropes that mindless slugs follow for SOME reason (-I have yet to know why).
In the end, I did not finish it, but I get a sizeable way through. AND you cannot tell me to ‘read more, give it a chance” BECAUSE I WILL MOST CERTAINLY NOT.
This review goes for any new up and coming TikTok “romcom” (as to quote the book). I do not like it, will not read/ reread these. These TikTok books have instilled a bad , prejudice attitude in me towards any modern book.
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I feel like I need to apologise to Ali Hazelwood for being too judgemental about her books because they're popular on TikTok because her books are actually really good!! So my bad
funny
informative
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
emotional
lighthearted
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
Ce livre m'a scotché un immense sourire en plein visage tout du long. C'était tellement drôle !!! La façon de décrire les choses, les petites remarques, vraiment excellentes et hilarantes ! Tout ça en restant touchant et attachant. J'ai adoré lire ce livre !
L'intrigue et l'écriture étaient excellentes. J'ai adoré les personnages principaux (ainsi que Ahn, Malcom et Holden) qui avaient tous une personnalité à laquelle on ne peut pas résister. Adam en particulier a gagné des millions de points après les révélations finales. C'est le plus doux des connards !
J'ai vraiment aimé le fait que ce soit une romcom universitaire, c'était vraiment original ! Leurs côtés intellos, leurs conversations scientifiques, leur alchimie. Les amitiés, le soutien, l'amour et la cohésion qui semblaient palpables. C'était vraiment addictif. La romance était adorable et collait super bien avec le caractère de nos protagonistes.
Aussi, les thèmes de l'abus émotionnel et physique ont été incorporés et traités avec justesse et sensibilité. Olive est une reine.
Un roman qui se lit rapidement et qui vaut le détour !
L'intrigue et l'écriture étaient excellentes. J'ai adoré les personnages principaux (ainsi que Ahn, Malcom et Holden) qui avaient tous une personnalité à laquelle on ne peut pas résister. Adam en particulier a gagné des millions de points après les révélations finales. C'est le plus doux des connards !
J'ai vraiment aimé le fait que ce soit une romcom universitaire, c'était vraiment original ! Leurs côtés intellos, leurs conversations scientifiques, leur alchimie. Les amitiés, le soutien, l'amour et la cohésion qui semblaient palpables. C'était vraiment addictif. La romance était adorable et collait super bien avec le caractère de nos protagonistes.
Aussi, les thèmes de l'abus émotionnel et physique ont été incorporés et traités avec justesse et sensibilité. Olive est une reine.
Un roman qui se lit rapidement et qui vaut le détour !
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
lighthearted
fast-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
funny
lighthearted
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