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bectothebooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, and Bullying
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Pregnancy
sam_rami's review
- 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
3.5 stars!
This book! I loved it! This goes through the relationship of two college best friends who had summer trips but then suddenly two years ago they stopped talking meaning their yearly summer trips no longer existed. Poppy, who works for a travel magazine is stuck in a rut and wants to get out of it invites her best friend Alex for one more trip, but the feelings about what happened on the trip they stopped talking starts to affect them. This is kind of a friends - enemies - lovers situation. It is beautiful I love this trope. The way Alex cares for Poppy is just so cute and I love it so much. I just wish the flashback chapters would be set up differently, that is just a personal preference because over time I got kind of confused on which summer we were on or what was happening. Their romance totally made up for it and Croatia... I completely recommend this book!
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Car accident, and Grief
Minor: Alcoholism, Medical content, Bullying, and Drug use
negs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent and Medical content
kathleentcarroll's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical content, and Toxic relationship
larareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol, Grief, and Medical content
eligru's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Bullying, Grief, Medical content, and Pregnancy
emfass's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
-I absolutely adored Poppy and Alex. They were wonderful characters, and I loved taking our time getting to know them and how their relationship formed and grew.
-I loooove a good friends-to-lovers story, it is my favorite trope. These two had such a deep and abiding friendship, and I loved how they loved each other unconditionally, platonically and in pining for each other.
-Excellent banter. Truly wonderful dialogue.
-Characters going to therapy to work on their shit!
-Time slip - I really like stories told in time slip, I'm finding. I did have a little trouble keeping all the stories from the past straight, perhaps because of the way my brain processes, combined with the fact that there were so many of them and most of them took place while traveling (even though it was to different locations), as did the "present" timeline.
-Emily Henry wrote to a lot of the emotional struggles millennials have in just pretending to adult but being convinced everyone else has it together, feelings of loneliness and longing and confusion over what to do with your life and where you want to be in the world.
Things that fell short for me:
-I struggled to buy that these two were so incompatible as to just pine for each other for 10 years but not do anything about it, since they get along so well when they're in person together. JenReadsRomance's review named with succinct clarity a big aspect of this, which is that there has to be buy-in for the question of why two characters can't be together right now, and if the answer isn't convincing, you lose something crucial to the storytelling.
-This is absolutely a personal preference thing, but I hate when The Big Declaration Of Love happens in front of other people in public. *insert laughing emoji* *insert nope emoji*
-Within Poppy's declaration of love, there were a lot of things that made me go, "Huh??" as her trying to explain herself to him. I'm mainly thinking of her "I love travel 'cause I love meeting other people in those places." I mean, that had been portrayed throughout their trips, but...we never had any indication from Poppy's inner monologue that that was having a profound impact on her?? Most of what we got was her thinking about Alex. So I found that part confusing and out of left field.
I liked Beach Read more than I liked People You Meet On Vacation, but this one was pretty great too.
Read for Bad Bitch Book Club's/Friends to Lovers Podcast's 2021 Romance Challenge.
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content
Minor: Drug use and Medical content
Alex's mother died from complications after giving birth to his younger brotherpinkberryoasis's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death of parent and Medical content