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vixen_519's review
5.0
This was such a lovely, realistic portrayal of endometriosis rom-com! I loved the puns and when heard how she got her nickname “peaches”
courtneyreads_x's review against another edition
3.0
3.8 ⭐️
I am all for curvy heroines, I am all for representation of endometriosis but I cannot stand is lack of communication and lack of confidence.
I find it really hard to respect someone who falls short In themselves when family is around. They should always be true to themselves
I am all for curvy heroines, I am all for representation of endometriosis but I cannot stand is lack of communication and lack of confidence.
I find it really hard to respect someone who falls short In themselves when family is around. They should always be true to themselves
lizzie_shaju123's review against another edition
2.0
I really, really wanted to enjoy this book.
However, I struggled to connect with the writing. I loved the idea of the story and the nuanced and complex characters, but the writing style was not for me.
2/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley for the arc.
However, I struggled to connect with the writing. I loved the idea of the story and the nuanced and complex characters, but the writing style was not for me.
2/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley for the arc.
jenwoodrum's review against another edition
4.0
Torie Jean, you are a wonder.
This book tells the story of Evie O'Shea, a twenty-six year old who lives in Paris, dreaming of opening her own pastry shop and falling in love with a present-day version of Gene Kelly. But many things get in the way - her endometriosis and her mom's passive aggressive negativity have engrained in her beliefs that she is unable to be loved.
When Evie reconnects with her lifelong love and current enemy, Liam Kelly, she initially believes that he is out to get her. But when she needs a date to her brother's wedding to appease her controlling mother, who better than her rival Liam to be her fake date?
What ensues is a beautiful story of Evie learning to break down her walls, accept that she can be loved, and consider what dreams are worth following. It is FILLED with hilarious puns, sweet moments, and fun romance tropes.
I absolutely love when a book addresses unhealthy relationship patterns head-on. Torie Jean did an incredible job of showing these characters growing and challenging the dynamics that were entertaining for us readers, but represented underlying pain and hurt. Go Torie go! Therapy win!!
Another piece of the story was Evie's daily fight with endometriosis. I didn't know much of this chronic condition, but I learned a LOT through this read about how it can affect someone physically and emotionally. It was an important topic to include in a romance novel as endo has a big impact on sexual relationships, which is not talked about often. Torie Jean brought her #ownvoices experiences to the table, and I think anyone who lives with a chronic illness or knows someone who does would enjoy Evie's story. I know I did.
Finally, I thought the book also handled well the difficult dynamics of Evie's relationships with her mom and fake-friends who put her down. Evie's journey of learning to love herself despite the negativity she faced was amazing.
Well done Torie Jean. I hope many people get this book on pub day, Sept 20th!!
I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review!
This book tells the story of Evie O'Shea, a twenty-six year old who lives in Paris, dreaming of opening her own pastry shop and falling in love with a present-day version of Gene Kelly. But many things get in the way - her endometriosis and her mom's passive aggressive negativity have engrained in her beliefs that she is unable to be loved.
When Evie reconnects with her lifelong love and current enemy, Liam Kelly, she initially believes that he is out to get her. But when she needs a date to her brother's wedding to appease her controlling mother, who better than her rival Liam to be her fake date?
What ensues is a beautiful story of Evie learning to break down her walls, accept that she can be loved, and consider what dreams are worth following. It is FILLED with hilarious puns, sweet moments, and fun romance tropes.
I absolutely love when a book addresses unhealthy relationship patterns head-on. Torie Jean did an incredible job of showing these characters growing and challenging the dynamics that were entertaining for us readers, but represented underlying pain and hurt. Go Torie go! Therapy win!!
Another piece of the story was Evie's daily fight with endometriosis. I didn't know much of this chronic condition, but I learned a LOT through this read about how it can affect someone physically and emotionally. It was an important topic to include in a romance novel as endo has a big impact on sexual relationships, which is not talked about often. Torie Jean brought her #ownvoices experiences to the table, and I think anyone who lives with a chronic illness or knows someone who does would enjoy Evie's story. I know I did.
Finally, I thought the book also handled well the difficult dynamics of Evie's relationships with her mom and fake-friends who put her down. Evie's journey of learning to love herself despite the negativity she faced was amazing.
Well done Torie Jean. I hope many people get this book on pub day, Sept 20th!!
I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review!
last_page_ache's review against another edition
4.0
"Hi, yes, let me bite your head off and then buy you crêpes because balance."
I loved so many aspects of this book!! The pining, Paris, flowery and cupcake-y vibe of it all, the endometriosis rep... Some of the things about the stubbornness of the main character bothered me and I feel like she should have turned it all around earlier but, overall, it was a good and cute read and (another) great debut! I adored Liam Kelly and everything he did was top tier level idec he's my man!!
I loved so many aspects of this book!! The pining, Paris, flowery and cupcake-y vibe of it all, the endometriosis rep... Some of the things about the stubbornness of the main character bothered me and I feel like she should have turned it all around earlier but, overall, it was a good and cute read and (another) great debut! I adored Liam Kelly and everything he did was top tier level idec he's my man!!
emodnica's review against another edition
De los últimos libros de romance que he leído, este es uno de los que más me ha gustado. No le puedo perdonar, sin embargo, que haya tirado ese dato de conducta restrictiva en él y que haya sido alabado por la protagonista, cuando durante todo el libro se jacta de que lo más importante es aceptar tu cuerpo. Re loco.
Es un poco obvio que es un self insert, así como muchos libros debut, pero esto sí que puedo perdonar ya que obvio no hay tantas historias de main characters gordos y peor aún de main characters con endometriosis. Me hizo pensar mucho no sólo en este diagnóstico, sino también en aprender a vivir con lo crónico y cómo compartimos nuestra salud y enfermedad con los demás, que no queremos que nos miren con pena pero al mismo tiempo tampoco queremos que crean que lo que nos pasa no es terrible y que siempre podemos soportar todo, ese hilo fino entre la lástima y la compasión y la condescendencia. A veces lo único que podemos y debemos hacer es acompañar y validar. Me gustó mucho ese aspecto del libro.
Es cierto que al principio se hace un poco difícil conectar con la protagonista cuando pasa juzgando a todo el mundo y capaz hay un toque más de misunderstantings del que debería haber pero la verdad que a partir de que comienza el plot de fake dating lo disfruté muchísimo y simplemente no podía dejar de leer. Ñom ñom. Durante gran parte del libro me pareció interesantísimo el retrato de la relación madre e hija, especialmente desde el peso. Ahora último que he estado leyendo libros con main characters gordas ninguna ha tenido una relación sana con su madre. Cue Class of 2013 de Mitski. Me pareció bastante honesto hasta el final, fue como apresurado no sí obvio que te he estado atormentando toda tu vida por tu peso y tu enfermedad crónica pero la verdad es que tengo miedo de perderte aquí estan diez mil dólares que siempre necesitaste pero nunca te di. Re loco.
No puedo creer la cantidad de veces que tuve que leer nombres de Old Hollywood y utilizar mi A1 en francés pero esto lo digo /pos. Un poco la escribieron para chicas como yo, y eso siempre se agradece.
Es un poco obvio que es un self insert, así como muchos libros debut, pero esto sí que puedo perdonar ya que obvio no hay tantas historias de main characters gordos y peor aún de main characters con endometriosis. Me hizo pensar mucho no sólo en este diagnóstico, sino también en aprender a vivir con lo crónico y cómo compartimos nuestra salud y enfermedad con los demás, que no queremos que nos miren con pena pero al mismo tiempo tampoco queremos que crean que lo que nos pasa no es terrible y que siempre podemos soportar todo, ese hilo fino entre la lástima y la compasión y la condescendencia. A veces lo único que podemos y debemos hacer es acompañar y validar. Me gustó mucho ese aspecto del libro.
Es cierto que al principio se hace un poco difícil conectar con la protagonista cuando pasa juzgando a todo el mundo y capaz hay un toque más de misunderstantings del que debería haber pero la verdad que a partir de que comienza el plot de fake dating lo disfruté muchísimo y simplemente no podía dejar de leer. Ñom ñom. Durante gran parte del libro me pareció interesantísimo el retrato de la relación madre e hija, especialmente desde el peso. Ahora último que he estado leyendo libros con main characters gordas ninguna ha tenido una relación sana con su madre. Cue Class of 2013 de Mitski. Me pareció bastante honesto hasta el final, fue como apresurado no sí obvio que te he estado atormentando toda tu vida por tu peso y tu enfermedad crónica pero la verdad es que tengo miedo de perderte aquí estan diez mil dólares que siempre necesitaste pero nunca te di. Re loco.
No puedo creer la cantidad de veces que tuve que leer nombres de Old Hollywood y utilizar mi A1 en francés pero esto lo digo /pos. Un poco la escribieron para chicas como yo, y eso siempre se agradece.
katieasmith_'s review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
lechepatito's review
I couldn’t get into this one - the writing style wasn’t working for me. I had to focus really hard to follow the FMC’s trains of thought in the first chapters, and while this probably isn’t technically correct, I kept thinking “too many adjectives.”
lesliejane's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 ⭐
Overall, it was a fun book with a good mixture of funny, sweet and emotional moments. Evie was a sympathetic, yet strong and smart lead, and her teasing, childhood nemesis, Liam, turned out to be such a cinnamon roll.
But there were some awkward sections where I needed to reread a paragraph or two to understand what was going on. I also felt like a lot of the conflicts were surface level. Characters who were jerks don't get told off (looking at you Harmony and Caroline). I would have loved to have read either Evie or Liam really lay into them before the end. I didn't like Caroline's note. She was a toxic mother and needed to be yelled at. Liam as a photographer just sorta shows up out of nowhere. It would have been nice to have had some background on that as well. Maybe he took lots of photos growing up? And my final complaint is the sex. I learned a lot about Endo from the book, and it would have been nice (especially since they talk about sex and expectations) to have some closure with that. Maybe there are positions or oral or some other way they find intimacy. Or not being up sex at all. And she needed to talk to him about Kylie more than just a passing comment.
Overall, it was a fun book with a good mixture of funny, sweet and emotional moments. Evie was a sympathetic, yet strong and smart lead, and her teasing, childhood nemesis, Liam, turned out to be such a cinnamon roll.
But there were some awkward sections where I needed to reread a paragraph or two to understand what was going on. I also felt like a lot of the conflicts were surface level. Characters who were jerks don't get told off (looking at you Harmony and Caroline). I would have loved to have read either Evie or Liam really lay into them before the end. I didn't like Caroline's note. She was a toxic mother and needed to be yelled at. Liam as a photographer just sorta shows up out of nowhere. It would have been nice to have had some background on that as well. Maybe he took lots of photos growing up? And my final complaint is the sex. I learned a lot about Endo from the book, and it would have been nice (especially since they talk about sex and expectations) to have some closure with that. Maybe there are positions or oral or some other way they find intimacy. Or not being up sex at all. And she needed to talk to him about Kylie more than just a passing comment.