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hardtofthelibrary's review
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- 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
3.0
bookinthebath's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
smalltownbookmom's review against another edition
4.0
An fun loose Little Women retelling with the best slow burn roommate childhood friends to lovers storyline!! I am really enjoying this reimagined classics romcom series featuring different March sisters.
Amy is a relatable English professor and aspiring artist who has always had a thing for her older sister's best friend. When she finds herself living with him and his rescue cats things come to a head and she fights a losing battle with her feelings for him, only to find they might not be as one-sided as she thought.
While I did find the move from friends to lovers a bit sudden in this book overall I quite enjoyed it and all the Little Women references sprinkled throughout. Great on audio and recommended for fans of authors like Dylan Newton or Chloe Liese. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
Amy is a relatable English professor and aspiring artist who has always had a thing for her older sister's best friend. When she finds herself living with him and his rescue cats things come to a head and she fights a losing battle with her feelings for him, only to find they might not be as one-sided as she thought.
While I did find the move from friends to lovers a bit sudden in this book overall I quite enjoyed it and all the Little Women references sprinkled throughout. Great on audio and recommended for fans of authors like Dylan Newton or Chloe Liese. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!
thatsme_lauravz's review
3.0
*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
This was a fun re-imagining of Little Women, that acknowledges the source material in a neat way. As a huge Little Women fan, I really enjoyed it but unfortunately found that the writing was lacking at times. There were a lot of abrupt scene changes, parts felt very rushed, and some of the instigating drama felt extremely manufactured. The book lacked organic growth and progression, which as a reader often jolted me directly out of the plot as I figured out what was going on after an abrupt change.
Despite those criticisms, I still found this mostly enjoyable and I would recommend it to fans of Little Women and retellings.
This was a fun re-imagining of Little Women, that acknowledges the source material in a neat way. As a huge Little Women fan, I really enjoyed it but unfortunately found that the writing was lacking at times. There were a lot of abrupt scene changes, parts felt very rushed, and some of the instigating drama felt extremely manufactured. The book lacked organic growth and progression, which as a reader often jolted me directly out of the plot as I figured out what was going on after an abrupt change.
Despite those criticisms, I still found this mostly enjoyable and I would recommend it to fans of Little Women and retellings.
kcmmp13's review
3.0
This book had a lot of potential, but there were a few issues I had with it. The biggest one was probably the perspective flipping (first person, third person, FMC, MCM). You had to really think who was talking and the flow seemed to waver because it wasn't a constant back and forth between characters. Another issue was that the romance between the two main characters didn't happen until 83%. I felt like we had more romance between Lando/Stella and Athena/Thorne at times, which was frustrating.
That being said I enjoyed the premise and wished we got more of Amy and Theo together. They lived together and I think we had more interactions with all their friends than they did together. I am glad that we were able to see Amy find her passion and pursue it. I also liked the reconciliation between Amy, Jo, and Theo. I do wish we had more interactions with them too.
I received an ARC of this book.
That being said I enjoyed the premise and wished we got more of Amy and Theo together. They lived together and I think we had more interactions with all their friends than they did together. I am glad that we were able to see Amy find her passion and pursue it. I also liked the reconciliation between Amy, Jo, and Theo. I do wish we had more interactions with them too.
I received an ARC of this book.
happyeverabigail's review
2.0
This pains to me to give this a low rating but I have to be honest in my review. It was almost one star but typically for me one stars are illegible so 2 will have to do. Somewhat spoilery content ahead.
This was extremely hard to read and not very compelling. It wasn’t due to the prose, it was difficult to follow the meandering plot. I put it down for weeks trying to get the motivation to continue. I would have DNFed at 35% but as it’s an ARC pushed through and it was not worth it.
The Plot
First up Amy and Jo: Her and her sister are toxic which is fine to explore per the original inspiration of little women but Amy is such a pushover about it and it’s barely resolved by the end, they still keep secrets and communicate poorly. Some of Jo’s baggage seemed way more compelling, many times her story overshadowed Amy’s and I didn’t understand why she wasn’t the main character. I love the original story of Little Women and this had little to no redemption for Amy, PER USUAL.
Amy and Theo: The whole conflict of their history is info dumped at 10% in instead of slowly revealing it to the reader. This does NOT feel like romance. Theo is still having intimate moments on page with other women (not spice to be clear but Jo running her hand down his nose??) and at 60% was going on dates with other women. NOTHING changes in their relationship until 83%, so many repeated scenes of the SAME.
Theo: I had two major issues with theo’s characterization. He makes a comment about how people need to travel in order to grow and looks down on Amy for not having left the country as if that isn’t extremely privileged and Amy doesn’t even challenge it. Even more unforgivable, theo’s license is threatened because one of his clients might get divorced. This is extremely unrealistic and unethical and makes zero sense. This author loves writing about the realities of working in academia (applicable to Jo and Amy) but lacks in representation for ethical psychotherapy.
The formatting and storytelling:
This would have benefited from first person POV. I really had to think who was who when Jo and Amy were talking earlier on and which one was supposed to be the main character.
Sometimes it seems grounded in reality, sometimes it’s a bit too whimsical, never doing either completely or with a clear voice. Her mother has this random trail of dead husbands but neither of them have trauma from that? It would be able to exist on the whimsical side but then there would be hyper realistic scenes with tons of side character friends and academic talk with references. Everything with the friends was long and a bit boring. This never knew what it wanted to be.
The formatting needs a further indentation. Sometimes the dialogue bounces back and forth without being attributed to a person and the back and forth does not line up (same person speaks twice but on a new line making it seem like a new person) causing confusion. So we’re in Amy’s head and get all the info dumping and her whole life story but when we have theo’s POV he’s an unreliable narrator (still in 3rd). But then some of his secret is randomly revealed at a very low impact moment so what was the point of hiding it from the reader.
This was just all over the place and hard to finish. Extremely let down by what seemed like a simple and exciting presence of a second chance, roommates to lovers with an inspiration/callback to Little Women but this is NOT THAT. I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC via NetGalley from Forever Pub.
This was extremely hard to read and not very compelling. It wasn’t due to the prose, it was difficult to follow the meandering plot. I put it down for weeks trying to get the motivation to continue. I would have DNFed at 35% but as it’s an ARC pushed through and it was not worth it.
The Plot
First up Amy and Jo: Her and her sister are toxic which is fine to explore per the original inspiration of little women but Amy is such a pushover about it and it’s barely resolved by the end, they still keep secrets and communicate poorly. Some of Jo’s baggage seemed way more compelling, many times her story overshadowed Amy’s and I didn’t understand why she wasn’t the main character. I love the original story of Little Women and this had little to no redemption for Amy, PER USUAL.
Amy and Theo: The whole conflict of their history is info dumped at 10% in instead of slowly revealing it to the reader. This does NOT feel like romance. Theo is still having intimate moments on page with other women (not spice to be clear but Jo running her hand down his nose??) and at 60% was going on dates with other women. NOTHING changes in their relationship until 83%, so many repeated scenes of the SAME.
Theo: I had two major issues with theo’s characterization. He makes a comment about how people need to travel in order to grow and looks down on Amy for not having left the country as if that isn’t extremely privileged and Amy doesn’t even challenge it. Even more unforgivable, theo’s license is threatened because one of his clients might get divorced. This is extremely unrealistic and unethical and makes zero sense. This author loves writing about the realities of working in academia (applicable to Jo and Amy) but lacks in representation for ethical psychotherapy.
The formatting and storytelling:
This would have benefited from first person POV. I really had to think who was who when Jo and Amy were talking earlier on and which one was supposed to be the main character.
Sometimes it seems grounded in reality, sometimes it’s a bit too whimsical, never doing either completely or with a clear voice. Her mother has this random trail of dead husbands but neither of them have trauma from that? It would be able to exist on the whimsical side but then there would be hyper realistic scenes with tons of side character friends and academic talk with references. Everything with the friends was long and a bit boring. This never knew what it wanted to be.
The formatting needs a further indentation. Sometimes the dialogue bounces back and forth without being attributed to a person and the back and forth does not line up (same person speaks twice but on a new line making it seem like a new person) causing confusion. So we’re in Amy’s head and get all the info dumping and her whole life story but when we have theo’s POV he’s an unreliable narrator (still in 3rd). But then some of his secret is randomly revealed at a very low impact moment so what was the point of hiding it from the reader.
This was just all over the place and hard to finish. Extremely let down by what seemed like a simple and exciting presence of a second chance, roommates to lovers with an inspiration/callback to Little Women but this is NOT THAT. I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC via NetGalley from Forever Pub.
mybooksandkidsbooks's review
3.0
I enjoyed this one. It was funny, sweet and engaged me right at the beginning. I have to say the pacing wasn’t amazing, the slow pace made it feel like a really long book. But other than that I did enjoy it and would like to read the authors other books!
drops_everything_and_reads's review
2.0
This book was okay. It read more as women's fiction to me than a romance.
It was quite slow and I ended up skipping a lot of paragraphs as I waited for the story to pick up the pace.
I had read the previous book, Blame it on the Brontes, and had also found it a bit slow, but decided to try this book to see if it was better. Again, it was fine.
I found that there was a lot of exposition, a lot of description, leading up to dialogue and action, and it just wasn't a great balance for me.
I also didn't like how the MMC, Theo, basically ghosted the woman he was seeing, with a reference made to his not replying to anymore of her 'sexts.' I lost a lot of sympathy for him then.
I also really was bothered by Amy's visit to her former art instructor who very clearly was dealing with old age and/or decline in mental health. Instead of being concerned about his well-being, she kept pushing her portfolio in front of him and then being annoyed when he didn't pay attention. Lost sympathy for her at that point.
I really liked all the animals included in the book! So those parts were great fun for me with all the cats and the dog.
Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the advance copy of the book. Opinions are entirely my own.
It was quite slow and I ended up skipping a lot of paragraphs as I waited for the story to pick up the pace.
I had read the previous book, Blame it on the Brontes, and had also found it a bit slow, but decided to try this book to see if it was better. Again, it was fine.
I found that there was a lot of exposition, a lot of description, leading up to dialogue and action, and it just wasn't a great balance for me.
I also didn't like how the MMC, Theo, basically ghosted the woman he was seeing, with a reference made to his not replying to anymore of her 'sexts.' I lost a lot of sympathy for him then.
I also really was bothered by Amy's visit to her former art instructor who very clearly was dealing with old age and/or decline in mental health. Instead of being concerned about his well-being, she kept pushing her portfolio in front of him and then being annoyed when he didn't pay attention. Lost sympathy for her at that point.
I really liked all the animals included in the book! So those parts were great fun for me with all the cats and the dog.
Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the advance copy of the book. Opinions are entirely my own.
mamas_gotta_read's review
2.0
I’m a huge fan of “Little Women” but I failed to see the correlation between it and this story. Frankly, this was kind of odd, and I felt like it was trying too hard to be something it isn’t. If we removed any and all connections to “Little Women” it MAY have made an okay standalone. However, the plot was a bit jumpy, and it didn’t seem to know what the point is. While I think the story COULD HAVE potential, it just wasn’t for me.
I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Forever. All opinions are my own.
I was given an ARC by NetGalley and Forever. All opinions are my own.
readbyme89's review
4.0
“Little Women” is one of my all time favorite books and I immediately gravitate to any “retelling” of it. The 2019 movie version made me finally see the beauty in Amy and Laurie so I was beyond excited when I read the blurb of this novel.
Amy has always had a crush on Theo, her sister’s best friend and through circumstances neither one saw coming they end up as roommates. This book is a slow burn. Amy and Theo have history and their past isn’t easily forgotten.
I throughly enjoined this book. Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an ARC of this book.
Amy has always had a crush on Theo, her sister’s best friend and through circumstances neither one saw coming they end up as roommates. This book is a slow burn. Amy and Theo have history and their past isn’t easily forgotten.
I throughly enjoined this book. Thank you NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for an ARC of this book.