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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 ⭐
I LOVED The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, but this was soooo disappointing. In Bookish Life, the characters were fun, the social anxiety was totally relatable. This felt like the lowest stakes book ever. I kept falling asleep while listening to the audiobook. I kept going because I liked the main couple, even though they were ordinary. Let ordinary nice people have their day!
But all the "conflicts" were so manufactured, it got annoying, leading up to THE WORST Romantic Grand Gesture EVER. Please.
I also have driving anxiety. Not to the level of Laura's, but enough to know that someone who's only driven in a parking lot in LA since having a major accident will not successfully make their first trip to LAX and back while already in a highly emotional state.
Maggie, I now agree with your daughter: you are a terrible person. Don't tell someone with driving anxiety to drive to surprise somebody flying out of LAX (for one thing, no romantic gesture is worth having to go through security twice). If you can't talk this person out of going, at least 1) make sure they confirm with the traveler the airport, terminal, and time of departure, and 2) offer to drive them yourself or suggest they get a Lyft or Uber.
Also, I may have slept through this part, but where there any scenes where Laura actually did the thing she moved out to LA to do, i.e. go to grad school?
I LOVED The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, but this was soooo disappointing. In Bookish Life, the characters were fun, the social anxiety was totally relatable. This felt like the lowest stakes book ever. I kept falling asleep while listening to the audiobook. I kept going because I liked the main couple, even though they were ordinary. Let ordinary nice people have their day!
But all the "conflicts" were so manufactured, it got annoying, leading up to THE WORST Romantic Grand Gesture EVER. Please.
I also have driving anxiety. Not to the level of Laura's, but enough to know that someone who's only driven in a parking lot in LA since having a major accident will not successfully make their first trip to LAX and back while already in a highly emotional state.
Maggie, I now agree with your daughter: you are a terrible person. Don't tell someone with driving anxiety to drive to surprise somebody flying out of LAX (for one thing, no romantic gesture is worth having to go through security twice). If you can't talk this person out of going, at least 1) make sure they confirm with the traveler the airport, terminal, and time of departure, and 2) offer to drive them yourself or suggest they get a Lyft or Uber.
Also, I may have slept through this part, but where there any scenes where Laura actually did the thing she moved out to LA to do, i.e. go to grad school?
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
So many quotable lines in this book that make you think what did I just read and then go back and read it again just to say yeah no I read that right the first time. 10/10 will read again.
It was nice to visit with my friend Nina Hill again! While I didn’t take away nearly as much as I did from The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, it was a sweet story.
funny
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
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
Just like the first book in the series, this plot is a meandering slice of life story in the best way. I liked just spending time with the characters even if for most of the book they weren't doing much of anything.
abbi waxman does it again!! a return to the world of Nina hill but with a wonderful new character. must-read!
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think the author turned this book into her publisher who handed it straight to the printer without proofreading/editing it. I really enjoyed one of Waxman's other books, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, (Nina was also in this book) but I do not recall any of the weird/lame dialogue and actions in that book that come up in this book. I had a hard time getting to the story (which was ok, nothing terrific) behind such sentences as "she made a tongue-clicking noise, presumably by clicking her tongue" or "She walked into the kitchen, and there, as if by magic, but really only by the United States Postal Service, she found a large cardboard box on the kitchen table." And a character called Libby, who was actually Jay Libby, but everyone called him Libby, so that chapters later when "he" did something I had to go back and see if Libby was a man, because he was a rather minor character and I couldn't remember and I thought it was a typo.