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lnzava's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny
Minor: Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Homophobia
madeline's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Violet has what looks like a picture perfect life, with a handsome husband, a beautiful home, and a wildly popular advice column that’s about to be nationally syndicated. But everything comes crashing down when she returns home early from work one day to find her husband and her neighbor in bed together. Suddenly, Violet’s finding it very hard to be the composed, polite woman she was raised to be, much to the chagrin of everyone who knows her -- everyone, that is, except the handsome firefighter who showed up to put out a small bonfire of her husband’s possessions. Dez likes her just the way she is, and she likes him too. Dear Sweetie: does moving on mean Violet has to rebuild her facade of perfection, or can she find love and happiness while being her true self?
I love an advice column, so I was really eager to see where this story would go with it. Unfortunately, what I thought was a great premise was really let down by flat characters. No one really gets a fleshed out story besides Violet, and I even still have questions about her motivations. Sam is just the Evil Ex-Husband (to be clear, I don’t want him redeemed, he’s an ass), his mother is the Evil Mother-In-Law, there’s a lot of unresolved threads with her parents, and even key pieces of who Dez is aren’t dropped until the final moments of the book. A lot of characters tell Violet she’s essentially overreacting to literally finding her husband engaged in the act of cheating, and I am firmly Team Violet here. Burn his shit, babe.
This book is fairly White Feminist-y: there were a couple of moments that made me raise an eyebrow, but Violet specifically remembers an instance with some neighbors where a newcomer was revealed to be a liberal (Violet is a Democrat who says she’s been hiding as a centrist independent), and when this newcomer rightfully calls someone out for wondering if soy formula will make her sons gay, she’s shunned out of the group. Violet does nothing to intervene, and while she doesn’t ignore the woman going forward, she certainly doesn’t make any effort to befriend her. There’s another pretty yucky moment with a coworker and a revenge plot, too. These bits didn’t do a ton for the story, and they left a bad taste in my mouth.
This was my first Libby Hubscher, and while I’d pick up more of her work, I’m not rushing out for it. If you’re looking for a hot firefighter and some totally sensible reactions to finding your husband of over a decade cheating on you, though, this is the book for you. Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!
CW: infertility, pregnancy loss discussed on the page, panic attack on the page, death of a sibling, infidelity, a truly horrific mother-in-law
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infertility, Blood, Infidelity, Car accident, and Miscarriage
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