Reviews

The Way You Smile by Kiki Archer

dadjumper's review against another edition

2.0

What even was this? The stream-of-conciousness narration style and dreamlike events kept me reading to see what the heck was even going on, but that really was the only reason I read this book I think. The relationship is super flimsy and didn't develop in a satisfying way, Julie is a shit and Camila just doesn't know who she is and never really figures it out? Also saying shit like "not bad for my age" when she's 35 is immediately not very good. I don't actually think I enjoyed this at all, I just had to keep going because it was so weird. And it was, to the end.

paladinrook's review against another edition

3.0

This book is silly, unrealistic, and full of over-the-top ridiculous scenarios, but it's somehow still really funny and good. It's also very British, and I'm not, so a fair amount of the references and jokes were lost on me. The sex scenes were actually pretty hot, but the whole boss-employee power dynamic made it uncomfortable at times. Camila's inner dialog was very realistic (and often hilarious) if not always relatable, but her love interest, Harriet, didn't feel like a real person to me. Maybe it was because we didn't ever get her point of view, but a lot of her actions and motivations seemed rather senseless. She also apparently fell into insta-love with Camila when they first met, and was perfectly willing to forgive any flaw or misstep (no matter how egregious) while they were courting with no hard feelings whatsoever, and to give up the playboy lifestyle [we're told] she led prior to their meeting in the blink of an eye. So that worked out nicely I guess? 🤷

This book sacrifices serious emotion and romance for humor and irresponsible sex -and that works for it- as long as the reader can roll with it.

judeinthestars's review

4.0

Sweet and fun. If you’re feeling a bit low, this will pick you up.

selahbelah's review

5.0

Hilarious

Few books actually make me laugh out loud- this book in particular had me laughing every other page. A super cute romance that had me wanting more!

kristielmeyer's review

3.0

I'll start by admitting I didn't finish it. I couldn't bring myself to. I was truly enjoying the book, thinking it was lovely and funny and I enjoyed being up in the MC's head without any action for a long period of time which is difficult to do well in a story. And then the MC met the love interest, which is exactly where the dialogue became unrealistic to the point of being silly and the writing diminished significantly in quality. I don't know if it got better, but it was silly enough to yank me out of the story and make me enjoy it so little that I put it down mid-paragraph and never picked it up again. Very uncharacteristic of me.

unalahiff's review against another edition

2.0

DNF

I was enjoying the story at the start but the scenarios just kept getting more and more ridiculous and I didn’t really know anything about one of the main characters. It was all from Camila’s point of view.

A lot of dialogue would happen rapidly without much description in between making it hard to understand who was saying what sometimes.

annaonthepage's review

3.0

Loooved the narration. Story was pretty silly. Felt a bit like Belinda Blinked for baby lesbians; boring businesswoman nonsense mixed with dad-joke innuendo. Could have done without the ever-present casual homophobia too. Still hot and sweet in places though, and just try not enjoying Claire Storey's voice.

puffballmush's review

3.0

All in all I really enjoyed this book! It felt quite rushed towards the end but it was what it said on the tin; fun, pulpy gay nonsense. Exactly what I wanted.