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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
cute but a bit disappointing not much character development and felt like it was dragging out quite a bit
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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:
No
Such a cute adorable fun read!
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Loved the idea of this and the characters, it was just toooooooooooo slow.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really hate giving negative reviews but I just did not vibe well with with this one. Love Lessons in Starcross Valley primarily follows thirty-five-year-old Marnie. When her ten-year-long relationship and her parents marriage come to a screeching halt in the same month, she flees the country and has a six-month rendezvous in Canada. This experience is exactly what she needed but she returns to her small town in England still feeling lost. She must get a new job and she begins work with/advocating for a young autistic child named Paisley. An woman that she had a single magical night with in Vancouver pops up in a position in the town's museum. Marnie must ask herself: has she given up on love entirely or just the love in her past relationship?
Romance is formulaic and that is not a bad thing. It makes things consistent. While we technically meet the love interest--Nova--in the novel's prologue, she does not appear again until over 50% in the book. This is totally fine for another genre but not really for romance. I also just had a problem with the way Lucy Knott writes some times. This was almost a DNF for me until I started skimming large sections just to avoid the robotic way it is written. And lastly, the way that Paisley's character is handled is uncomfortable. The intention is nice but it was not successful. Paisley ended up seeming like a figurehead that most of the characters either made fun of or got mad at.
Overall, I just was not a fan. This wasn't for me and that's okay. The sapphic relationship was treated a little bit too much at arm's length for me liking.
**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Romance is formulaic and that is not a bad thing. It makes things consistent. While we technically meet the love interest--Nova--in the novel's prologue, she does not appear again until over 50% in the book. This is totally fine for another genre but not really for romance. I also just had a problem with the way Lucy Knott writes some times. This was almost a DNF for me until I started skimming large sections just to avoid the robotic way it is written. And lastly, the way that Paisley's character is handled is uncomfortable. The intention is nice but it was not successful. Paisley ended up seeming like a figurehead that most of the characters either made fun of or got mad at.
Overall, I just was not a fan. This wasn't for me and that's okay. The sapphic relationship was treated a little bit too much at arm's length for me liking.
**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
love lessons in starcross valley is a cute, quick read. torn between 3 and 4 stars, so i'm going to call it 3.5 rounded down.
cws: cheating subplot (not the mcs, but one of the mc's exes), a lot of food mentions, ableism (against an autistic child).
the first little bit of the book was hard to follow. we immediately open in the prologue with our main character, marnie, talking about things that had happened in her life (her parents split, she's no longer with her bf), and it was a little disjointing to read/understand at first. i thought i was reading a sequel to a book that i hadn't read. things become more comprehensible as marnie goes back to her hometown, but then we don't see the love interest again for the first half of the book - marnie focuses on her platonic relationships instead, such as with her best friend and her sister.
i did, though, love the love interest. nova was unique, well-rounded, blunt, and just such a great love interest. her being a paleontologist is cool and i was so jealous of her. i am prepared to defend nova with all my heart. she has done nothing wrong ever.
one of my biggest flaws with this book was its repetitiveness when describing mundane things, like marnie's outfits. there are a LOT of descriptions of her outfits and hairstyles & its reading like a wattpad fanfic (not an ao3 fic) at points. (like it reads like: she threw her hair up in a messy bun and put on this exact outfit btw heres the polyvore link to the outfit i just described in painstaking detail).
however, my biggest issue with the book was the autism portrayal. 1/3 of the way in, we have a plotline "dealing w" an autistic child. i cant find anything about the author being autistic (someone please correct me if im wrong), so this entire thing feels like a neurotypical savior. the mc literally is like “wow people aren’t treating this child nicely. i will be the first nice person in her life.” the main character was very proud of herself for being one of the only people to treat this child nicely. as an autistic reader/reviewer, this felt infantilizing to an extent, and i understand it was done as a plot device (one of the kid's special interests is dinosaurs, the love interest was a paleontologist, i see where the author was going).
i was just like paislee when i was younger; i was angry when people couldn't understand me/when i couldn't understand them, and i loved dinosaurs. overall though, i didnt LOVE the autism portrayal in the novel, nor did i find it completely necessary. autistic people are not plot devices. that said, i did appreciate some of the less popular stims being included like playing w someones hands. i am only one autistic reader/reviewer and obviously other autistic readers and reviewers will have different takes on the rep in this novel. i love that autism is becoming more normalized in literature, i just think this could have been handled a little less savior-y.
all in all, i likely would recommend the book to friends - i love sapphic books, i love that autism was included on the page, but i would caution anyone to go in with a scrutinizing gaze for autism being a plot device like that.
thank you to netgalley, head of zeus publishing, and lucy knott for this advanced copy in return for my honest review.
cws: cheating subplot (not the mcs, but one of the mc's exes), a lot of food mentions, ableism (against an autistic child).
the first little bit of the book was hard to follow. we immediately open in the prologue with our main character, marnie, talking about things that had happened in her life (her parents split, she's no longer with her bf), and it was a little disjointing to read/understand at first. i thought i was reading a sequel to a book that i hadn't read. things become more comprehensible as marnie goes back to her hometown, but then we don't see the love interest again for the first half of the book - marnie focuses on her platonic relationships instead, such as with her best friend and her sister.
i did, though, love the love interest. nova was unique, well-rounded, blunt, and just such a great love interest. her being a paleontologist is cool and i was so jealous of her. i am prepared to defend nova with all my heart. she has done nothing wrong ever.
one of my biggest flaws with this book was its repetitiveness when describing mundane things, like marnie's outfits. there are a LOT of descriptions of her outfits and hairstyles & its reading like a wattpad fanfic (not an ao3 fic) at points. (like it reads like: she threw her hair up in a messy bun and put on this exact outfit btw heres the polyvore link to the outfit i just described in painstaking detail).
however, my biggest issue with the book was the autism portrayal. 1/3 of the way in, we have a plotline "dealing w" an autistic child. i cant find anything about the author being autistic (someone please correct me if im wrong), so this entire thing feels like a neurotypical savior. the mc literally is like “wow people aren’t treating this child nicely. i will be the first nice person in her life.” the main character was very proud of herself for being one of the only people to treat this child nicely. as an autistic reader/reviewer, this felt infantilizing to an extent, and i understand it was done as a plot device (one of the kid's special interests is dinosaurs, the love interest was a paleontologist, i see where the author was going).
i was just like paislee when i was younger; i was angry when people couldn't understand me/when i couldn't understand them, and i loved dinosaurs. overall though, i didnt LOVE the autism portrayal in the novel, nor did i find it completely necessary. autistic people are not plot devices. that said, i did appreciate some of the less popular stims being included like playing w someones hands. i am only one autistic reader/reviewer and obviously other autistic readers and reviewers will have different takes on the rep in this novel. i love that autism is becoming more normalized in literature, i just think this could have been handled a little less savior-y.
all in all, i likely would recommend the book to friends - i love sapphic books, i love that autism was included on the page, but i would caution anyone to go in with a scrutinizing gaze for autism being a plot device like that.
thank you to netgalley, head of zeus publishing, and lucy knott for this advanced copy in return for my honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity
ableism against an autistic child, by other adults in the book.