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gracescanlon's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What in the contrived-barely-a-reason-not-to-be-together…?
Still, adorable, and I’m a little mad about it. How can the thing keeping these two apart be so DUMB, but the book be enjoyable enough to earn 4 stars? Ugh. I’m annoyed at myself for seeing this book’s glaring flaw and liking it anyway, and I’m annoyed with Ms. Henry for charming me enough to do so.
4 stars — begrudgingly.
Still, adorable, and I’m a little mad about it. How can the thing keeping these two apart be so DUMB, but the book be enjoyable enough to earn 4 stars? Ugh. I’m annoyed at myself for seeing this book’s glaring flaw and liking it anyway, and I’m annoyed with Ms. Henry for charming me enough to do so.
4 stars — begrudgingly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
chronicacademia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Death, and Toxic friendship
kedalrymple's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Incredibly light book and easy read. Narrative technique was fun but honestly the characters weren’t deep enough for me to continue hearing about their childhood/past/coming of age over and over again. That being said, all of the characters (except the main character) were incredibly kind and likable. Honestly, The highlight of this book is the way that the author speaks of love. It’s beautiful, emotional, and rings true. There is also boundary setting, self awareness and personal reflection…Three things you rarely see in romance novels. However the main relationship is pretty juvenile , toxic, codependent, and pretty selfish. It would have been nice to see the main character actually grow over time instead of cramming a decade of emotional growth into the last two chapters. That being said it was a fun and easy book, perfect to talk about when you meet people on vacation.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship and Death of parent
chasingpages1's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying and Alcohol
Minor: Drug use, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Vomit, Cursing, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Excrement
axel_p's review
lighthearted
slow-paced
- 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? It's complicated
2.5
- Boring
- The characters were better as friends
- Stereotypical portrayal of queer people
- way too long
- The characters were better as friends
- Stereotypical portrayal of queer people
- way too long
Content Warnings
Minor: Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief
serendipity421's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Alcohol
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal death, and Mental illness
Minor: Pregnancy
now_booking's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Wow. What an emotional rollercoaster. I ill-advisedly started this after midnight as a bedtime read. And have been unable to go to sleep until I finish. It is soooo compelling, so laugh-out-loud funny, so weirdly brilliant in parts that even though I’m not the hugest fan of the haphazard timeline in telling the story, I’ve been unable to put this down.
The premise is that Poppy and Alex are long-time friends from university who made a pact to go on vacation every year but who fell out over a much vaunted incident two years ago. Now, Poppy, missing her best friend with whom there’s always been a “frisson,” reaches out for one last chance to save their friendship, which unfortunately turns out to be a disaster vacation.
I liked this slow burn. Poppy and Alex as characters were witty and likeable and the author developed them with an authenticity and humanity that really made them multidimensional and imperfect but eminently likeable. Yes, Poppy has a hint of manic pixie dream girl about her but not to an extreme degree and she is eminently self-aware and would be the first to call herself out over it. Alex on the other hand is the straight shooter to Poppy’s free spirit but even he, is silly and funny and wise. The best thing about this book is the character development and the build up of the chemistry and tension and the romantic love between Alex and Poppy. It is absolutely adorable and sexy and really beautiful to watch develop across various periods in their history together. The epilogue is the most glorious thing. The descriptions of love and relationships and Alex and Poppy’s feelings for each other, gorgeous. I mean you read the last 10% of this book clutching at your heart because it’s so beautiful.
That said, for me, the haphazard piecing together of their story meant that certain elements linked to their getting together felt a bit abrupt in the present time. It kind of felt like the story didn’t really get started till about 70% in and that prior to that, all we had were scenes of context… nicely written context, but context nonetheless. There were also a lot of very contrived-feeling miscommunications to scupper the relationship in the final act that just felt out-of-place and a little silly in the context of how well these characters knew and understood each other. I think the author brought it back full circle and it was good to see seeking mental healthcare play a role in this story. I also found that the best part of this book, the “will-they/won’t-they” tension, is also the worst part of this book- in that as a reader, I admit to getting a little impatient with the constant hinting and alluding to events two years prior without much actual movement in the plot. And then when the events two years prior are finally revealed near the end, they were easily guessed and not as dramatic as matters arising. I guess I loved the story and the characters, but the format of the storytelling wasn’t my favourite and I feel like it made some of the really meaningful portions of this book feel a little throwaway and random and somewhat abrupt.
Overall, I enjoyed this. It felt like an eminently millennial book in a way. The struggle of being mid-career and having achieved some career goals but kind of going through the crisis of finding your purpose and meaning and pursuing contentment and challenge yet feeling stuck. As someone in that demographic, I definitely related to that struggle and I think this author did too as she wrote about it and wrote these characters with a great deal of empathy. This is my second book by this author after Beach Read, and I’m blown away by how good it is. I can’t recommend it enough!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Bullying, and Grief
Moderate: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship
Minor: Misogyny and Sexism
chronicacademia's review
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Animal death
nabaraditi's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Moderate: Grief, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent
Minor: Bullying and Toxic relationship
midwesternreads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I have very mixed feelings on this one, and I think it’s just my own personal preference but here we go.
I liked:
-jumping back and forth in time
-the general idea of having that big vacation with your best friend.
-the writing style. Even though I had mixed feelings I wanted to listen to it all.
I did not like:
-Poppy. She drove me bananas. Just needed a smack.
-the vacations when they got to the point where they clearly shouldn’t have been happening but they were.
-the build up to the incident. All this build up and then it didn’t feel that intense.
-the fact that they’re friendship hurt others. I’ve experienced that. It’s not fun. And I struggled hearing that.
Like I said, my own personal feelings for sure. But I still enjoyed a few things and I can see why people would find this book likeable. I mean, the flow of the book itself was awesome.
But… I think Alex deserved better.
I liked:
-jumping back and forth in time
-the general idea of having that big vacation with your best friend.
-the writing style. Even though I had mixed feelings I wanted to listen to it all.
I did not like:
-Poppy. She drove me bananas. Just needed a smack.
-the vacations when they got to the point where they clearly shouldn’t have been happening but they were.
-the build up to the incident. All this build up and then it didn’t feel that intense.
-the fact that they’re friendship hurt others. I’ve experienced that. It’s not fun. And I struggled hearing that.
Like I said, my own personal feelings for sure. But I still enjoyed a few things and I can see why people would find this book likeable. I mean, the flow of the book itself was awesome.
But… I think Alex deserved better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent