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00leah00's review
3.0
3 Stars
“Cure for Insomnia” by Laina Villeneuve is the story of research scientist, Karla, finding the right balance for a happy life with her demanding work and love life.
This was a sweet and had some charming moments but it didn’t really work for me as a romance as it contained a few of my big dislikes.
My first issue was that it’s told in first person from Karla’s point of view for the whole story. I’m not a fan of this pov in romance as I find it difficult to connect to the pov of the character we don’t get to hear from. Along with this issue is that Remi, the love interest, doesn’t truly show up until after the 20% mark. Karla and Remi also don’t spend a lot of time together on the page after she finally shows up. They spend a good chunk of time texting or speaking on the phone that isn’t relayed so it was hard for me to get a feel for her character.
I also thought Karla got a little preachy about diabetes. I know she’s a scientist and is working on a drug for diabetics but I thought Villeneuve got a little heavy handed when Karla was working with a student she was mentoring.
What I did like was that the cast was racially diverse and the women were all intelligent and it was okay to be smart woman. I also enjoyed reading about women working in STEM. It doesn’t seem like there are many of those types of careers in lesfic so this was a refreshing change. I also liked how Villenueve didn’t brush Remi’s autistic brother under a rug and ignore him. He is a huge part of her life and I’m glad with how that was showcased.
Others have rated it higher so I would read those for a better idea if it’s a good fit.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bella Books in exchange for an honest review.
“Cure for Insomnia” by Laina Villeneuve is the story of research scientist, Karla, finding the right balance for a happy life with her demanding work and love life.
This was a sweet and had some charming moments but it didn’t really work for me as a romance as it contained a few of my big dislikes.
My first issue was that it’s told in first person from Karla’s point of view for the whole story. I’m not a fan of this pov in romance as I find it difficult to connect to the pov of the character we don’t get to hear from. Along with this issue is that Remi, the love interest, doesn’t truly show up until after the 20% mark. Karla and Remi also don’t spend a lot of time together on the page after she finally shows up. They spend a good chunk of time texting or speaking on the phone that isn’t relayed so it was hard for me to get a feel for her character.
I also thought Karla got a little preachy about diabetes. I know she’s a scientist and is working on a drug for diabetics but I thought Villeneuve got a little heavy handed when Karla was working with a student she was mentoring.
What I did like was that the cast was racially diverse and the women were all intelligent and it was okay to be smart woman. I also enjoyed reading about women working in STEM. It doesn’t seem like there are many of those types of careers in lesfic so this was a refreshing change. I also liked how Villenueve didn’t brush Remi’s autistic brother under a rug and ignore him. He is a huge part of her life and I’m glad with how that was showcased.
Others have rated it higher so I would read those for a better idea if it’s a good fit.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bella Books in exchange for an honest review.
judeinthestars's review
4.0
After reading a few chapters, I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked a lot of it (the characters most of all) but something didn’t entirely work for me and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it began to slowly win me over.
Karla Hernandez loves her job. Finding a way to cure blindness caused by diabetes is the current goal of her life, and her work should get her her own lab to lead in a not too distant future. The only problem she can see with her life is how little sleep she gets. Her brain just won’t stop. Her niece Rosa, who, at eleven, hero-worships her, used her as the subject of her middle-school science fair project and believes she has found the cure for her aunt’s insomnia: Karla needs to find a girlfriend, since she seems to sleep a lot better when sharing her bed with someone. One of the fair judges, Remi, unexpectedly catches Karla’s attention, and the feeling is mutual. Remi would love nothing more than to help prove Rosa’s theory right. You’d think, with both parties agreeing, it would be simple enough, but Karla’s work gets in the way and Remi’s devotion to her autistic brother brings its own set of parameters to navigate.
I really like the way the main characters are written. I’m not sure I like them all the time but I like who they are and what the author did with them.
Karla, for one, is a lot more complex than she first appears to be. Yes, she’s driven and ambitious but her main motivation is to help people. When she meets Maricela, a floundering college student, she takes her under her wing, even though the young woman doesn’t work in the same lab. Her willingness to be her niece’s test subject says a lot about who she is too. When she meets Remi, Karla believes her job is her top priority and that there is no other way possible. One of the reasons she believes in a potential future with Remi is the other woman’s similar drive and busy life. What she doesn’t see yet is that her passion is overwhelming her to the point of being her whole life, with only tiny pockets of time and brain space for the people in her life, just enough to make her think she’s found the right balance. Ha! Think again, Karla.
Remi is a lot more difficult to read, in part because the story is told in first person from Karla’s point of view. The reader learns about Remi through Karla, and at the end of the story, they still have a lot to learn about each other. What we do know very early on is how important Neil, Remi’s brother, is in her life.
In their first meetings, Remi literally keeps taking Karla’s breath away. It makes for cute and funny scenes but it’s also an accurate reflection of how Remi makes Karla feel. I enjoyed every moment when they are together, even when they’re struggling. They fit from the start. It’s not instalove and not even exactly instalust, but there’s definite instacompatibility.
One thing Villeneuve does very well is convey the uncertainty of not only a new relationship but a relationship with such complexities to combine: Karla’s demanding and captivating job and Neil’s needs.
That’s another thing I loved, Remi’s relationship with her brother and the way he is portrayed. They communicate through movie quotes and Lego (I have a feeling he would love Beyond the Brick). If I learned one thing from this book, it’s that I should give the Lego movies a try. They’re clearly not “fluffy kids movies”, to quote Karla.
There are more secondary characters, from Karla’s best friend Valerie to Karla’s boss and family, but while they play significant roles in Karla’s life, they’re not as important to the story. In the beginning, Maricela sounded more like a high-schooler than a college student. As she opened up to Karla and Valerie, she started sounding a little more mature, more like a young adult and less like a fifteen-year-old.
Remi seems a lot more isolated and I’m not sure whether it’s a reflection of how much space Neil occupies in her life or because the story is told from Karla’s point of view and she hasn’t had time yet to meet Remi’s friends and colleagues.
I hadn’t read a book by Laina Villeneuve in years, and Cure for Insomnia reminded me why I used to like them. I’ll have to look up the ones I missed.
ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.
Karla Hernandez loves her job. Finding a way to cure blindness caused by diabetes is the current goal of her life, and her work should get her her own lab to lead in a not too distant future. The only problem she can see with her life is how little sleep she gets. Her brain just won’t stop. Her niece Rosa, who, at eleven, hero-worships her, used her as the subject of her middle-school science fair project and believes she has found the cure for her aunt’s insomnia: Karla needs to find a girlfriend, since she seems to sleep a lot better when sharing her bed with someone. One of the fair judges, Remi, unexpectedly catches Karla’s attention, and the feeling is mutual. Remi would love nothing more than to help prove Rosa’s theory right. You’d think, with both parties agreeing, it would be simple enough, but Karla’s work gets in the way and Remi’s devotion to her autistic brother brings its own set of parameters to navigate.
I really like the way the main characters are written. I’m not sure I like them all the time but I like who they are and what the author did with them.
Karla, for one, is a lot more complex than she first appears to be. Yes, she’s driven and ambitious but her main motivation is to help people. When she meets Maricela, a floundering college student, she takes her under her wing, even though the young woman doesn’t work in the same lab. Her willingness to be her niece’s test subject says a lot about who she is too. When she meets Remi, Karla believes her job is her top priority and that there is no other way possible. One of the reasons she believes in a potential future with Remi is the other woman’s similar drive and busy life. What she doesn’t see yet is that her passion is overwhelming her to the point of being her whole life, with only tiny pockets of time and brain space for the people in her life, just enough to make her think she’s found the right balance. Ha! Think again, Karla.
Remi is a lot more difficult to read, in part because the story is told in first person from Karla’s point of view. The reader learns about Remi through Karla, and at the end of the story, they still have a lot to learn about each other. What we do know very early on is how important Neil, Remi’s brother, is in her life.
In their first meetings, Remi literally keeps taking Karla’s breath away. It makes for cute and funny scenes but it’s also an accurate reflection of how Remi makes Karla feel. I enjoyed every moment when they are together, even when they’re struggling. They fit from the start. It’s not instalove and not even exactly instalust, but there’s definite instacompatibility.
One thing Villeneuve does very well is convey the uncertainty of not only a new relationship but a relationship with such complexities to combine: Karla’s demanding and captivating job and Neil’s needs.
That’s another thing I loved, Remi’s relationship with her brother and the way he is portrayed. They communicate through movie quotes and Lego (I have a feeling he would love Beyond the Brick). If I learned one thing from this book, it’s that I should give the Lego movies a try. They’re clearly not “fluffy kids movies”, to quote Karla.
There are more secondary characters, from Karla’s best friend Valerie to Karla’s boss and family, but while they play significant roles in Karla’s life, they’re not as important to the story. In the beginning, Maricela sounded more like a high-schooler than a college student. As she opened up to Karla and Valerie, she started sounding a little more mature, more like a young adult and less like a fifteen-year-old.
Remi seems a lot more isolated and I’m not sure whether it’s a reflection of how much space Neil occupies in her life or because the story is told from Karla’s point of view and she hasn’t had time yet to meet Remi’s friends and colleagues.
I hadn’t read a book by Laina Villeneuve in years, and Cure for Insomnia reminded me why I used to like them. I’ll have to look up the ones I missed.
ARC provided to Les Rêveur for an honest review.
mjsam's review
3.0
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t think I’ve read this author before, I liked this but didn’t love it.
So, this features Karla, a scientist working on diabetes related research, and Remi, a behavioural psychologist who works with school children. Karla has a large immediate family that includes her 11 year old niece, who is somewhat gifted and uses Karla’s insomnia issues as her science project. Karla and Remi meet through this because Remi is a judge at the competition. Remi also has an autistic brother, Neil, whom she is very protective of, and family issues related to this. Both characters are POC.
This is told in first person through Karla, and it’s hardly ever my favourite choice because it usually means one character gets short changed, here it’s Remi, who apart from the brief meet up at the science fair, is largely absent from the first 20% of the story. Even when she does show up, she remains somewhat of a mystery and given her family situation I’d have liked to read her POV. There was something weird about the writing though, I couldn’t quite figure it out but it felt a little too formal, especially Remi’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was on purpose because she’s a multilingual character, but I found it odd.
The two MCs are also workaholics who appreciate the other’s ability to understand how their work might interfere but Remi is a little less understanding about this as time goes on and Karla become more acquainted with Neil. Karla’s job is very work intensive and she cops flak about this from everyone she’s in contact with. She’s also mentoring a young college student working at her lab and dealing with some homophobia related to this.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book, and because of that I felt the romance aspect fell a little short, the two MCs had good chemistry, abut weren’t really together enough for me to really get a feel of their relationship. The ‘conflict’ that arises towards the end is a little contrived and the resolution wasn’t that satisfying, at least for me. Just seemed like a fairly abrupt about face.
I liked the depiction of a scientist as an MC (STEM characters are rare in wlw fic) and there’s plenty of diversity. I also like Karla’s strong family ties (especially the scenes with her niece Rosa) and her best friend Val and her wife Emma (having not read the author before I didn’t know if they had their own book but it felt like they might have). I also liked that both MCs were strong characters who weren’t afraid to go after what they wanted, but the romance aspect wasn’t strong enough for me. 3 stars.
I don’t think I’ve read this author before, I liked this but didn’t love it.
So, this features Karla, a scientist working on diabetes related research, and Remi, a behavioural psychologist who works with school children. Karla has a large immediate family that includes her 11 year old niece, who is somewhat gifted and uses Karla’s insomnia issues as her science project. Karla and Remi meet through this because Remi is a judge at the competition. Remi also has an autistic brother, Neil, whom she is very protective of, and family issues related to this. Both characters are POC.
This is told in first person through Karla, and it’s hardly ever my favourite choice because it usually means one character gets short changed, here it’s Remi, who apart from the brief meet up at the science fair, is largely absent from the first 20% of the story. Even when she does show up, she remains somewhat of a mystery and given her family situation I’d have liked to read her POV. There was something weird about the writing though, I couldn’t quite figure it out but it felt a little too formal, especially Remi’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was on purpose because she’s a multilingual character, but I found it odd.
The two MCs are also workaholics who appreciate the other’s ability to understand how their work might interfere but Remi is a little less understanding about this as time goes on and Karla become more acquainted with Neil. Karla’s job is very work intensive and she cops flak about this from everyone she’s in contact with. She’s also mentoring a young college student working at her lab and dealing with some homophobia related to this.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book, and because of that I felt the romance aspect fell a little short, the two MCs had good chemistry, abut weren’t really together enough for me to really get a feel of their relationship. The ‘conflict’ that arises towards the end is a little contrived and the resolution wasn’t that satisfying, at least for me. Just seemed like a fairly abrupt about face.
I liked the depiction of a scientist as an MC (STEM characters are rare in wlw fic) and there’s plenty of diversity. I also like Karla’s strong family ties (especially the scenes with her niece Rosa) and her best friend Val and her wife Emma (having not read the author before I didn’t know if they had their own book but it felt like they might have). I also liked that both MCs were strong characters who weren’t afraid to go after what they wanted, but the romance aspect wasn’t strong enough for me. 3 stars.
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