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fresholivebread's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A romance between a extrovert model and an introvert make-up artist. I loved the diversity! Both June and Selena are very sweet and genuinely nice people, and their struggles and anxieties are portrayed realistically. Selena is so understanding and supportive of June and her anxiety issues. Their romance is low conflict and sweet, and the moments of them hanging out, dating, developing feelings are lovely.
The queer rep in the book is done well, it was written as normalised and accepted. However, the writing was overall a little rough, plus the dialogues can be too saccharine at times. At the core, it's a fluffy and feel-good romance but I usually prefer a little drama. đ
The queer rep in the book is done well, it was written as normalised and accepted. However, the writing was overall a little rough, plus the dialogues can be too saccharine at times. At the core, it's a fluffy and feel-good romance but I usually prefer a little drama. đ
jcxjab's review
0.5
shout out to the writer for publishing a book but this wasnât good. it read like a fan fiction and there was some elements that were not ⌠anyways. it was super elementary like a child attempting to write âgrown up stuffâ. the cultural references were not relatable even though i knew them all. it was such a turn off and disconnection for me. i learned a lot about demisexual people so that was cool. but this wasnât for me. for some reason i had hopes for this, not sure why⌠anyways.
craftygiant's review
3.0
I enjoyed Soft on Soft. The characters are all people I'd happily be friends with IRL; their identities made sense and felt relevant to the story, I enjoyed reading about them, I'd happily learn more. It's a nice change to have a broader range of LGBTQ+ identities represented and having been part of the community it absolutely makes sense that all these friends would gather together.
I struggled a little with the writing. It has the kind of dialogue that I find difficult to follow so I had to keep going back over to make sense of who said what. I know I'm not part of all the fandoms the author references and that may have meant I missed subtext. I didn't feel like it prevented me from getting into the story though and I think it was handled well, so that it didn't slow down the narrative but just left those references to be picked up or ignored as the reader sees fit.
I probably wouldn't re-read but I'm glad that I did read it.
I struggled a little with the writing. It has the kind of dialogue that I find difficult to follow so I had to keep going back over to make sense of who said what. I know I'm not part of all the fandoms the author references and that may have meant I missed subtext. I didn't feel like it prevented me from getting into the story though and I think it was handled well, so that it didn't slow down the narrative but just left those references to be picked up or ignored as the reader sees fit.
I probably wouldn't re-read but I'm glad that I did read it.
chandlerainsley's review against another edition
3.0
very cute, very queer, and very NOT sexually explicit (for my ace babies)
joanareads's review against another edition
3.0
THIS IS THE SOFTEST THING IVE EVER READ AND I NEEDED IT THANK YOU !! THATS ALL
saskiacb's review against another edition
1.0
Insta-lust is one of my least favourite tropes and had I known this I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Soft on Soft has a good premise and I'm really happy for people who feel seen by this book because of the rep, and I immediately added it to my to-read list when I heard it was an f/f romance with an mc enduring the hades that is anxiety, but I didn't like the execution. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style so when you pair that with what felt to me like a rushed relationship, it just didn't work out.
zucchinibread's review against another edition
1.0
I really wanted to like this book. The representation was there and the cute fluffy wlw romance too, but the reason I'm giving this one star is because I really don't think anyone should spend money on this.
My main reason is that this book seems to be a first, unedited draft. There were multiple spelling mistakes that would have easily been caught had it been edited even once, and even more grammar mistakes or even missing words that ruined the flow. There were multiple points throughout the story where the plot got a little lost and it was hard to determine setting and who was speaking. It really had a lot of potential but if a book is going to be published, these are issues that should be dealt with far beforehand.
Another issue that ruined it for me personally was that it felt like this book was written by an amateur fanfic writer. Literature is an art as much as any other medium and it takes practice before you can make a career out of it. This book was largely written using informal, conversational language which is fine on its own but throughout the story there are words that feel out of place for this style that really pull you out of the story (for example "plumb belly", or my personal least favorite "livelily"...almost DNFd after that one).
The author also doesn't seem to understand the phrase "show, don't tell", regularly stating how the characters are feeling very awkwardly as opposed to describing the scene in a way that shows how they feel in that moment.
The story is also riddled with modern references, which may seem fun now but will quickly date the story in a few years and take away from it overall. They were largely unimportant to the plot, too. If you are going to reference pop culture, however, it's better to assume the audience knows about it. Anyone who reads manga would not refer to it as japanese comics books when narrating in this style.
Similarly, the texting conversations not only dated the piece but also felt unnatural considering the characters' personalities. There were many points where it felt like I was reading a story about high schoolers and I had to remind myself that these characters have graduated college and made careers for themselves. The text slang honestly made me cringe and reading "[heart emojis x20]" definitely did not help.
I don't mean to shit on the book, like I said it had a lot of potential and I really do believe it could be a great story, but I think it'd be in the authors best interest to take it off the market and do some heavy editing before republishing it. You have the bones, now you just have to fill in the meat a little more. This representation is important, we want to do it right.
My main reason is that this book seems to be a first, unedited draft. There were multiple spelling mistakes that would have easily been caught had it been edited even once, and even more grammar mistakes or even missing words that ruined the flow. There were multiple points throughout the story where the plot got a little lost and it was hard to determine setting and who was speaking. It really had a lot of potential but if a book is going to be published, these are issues that should be dealt with far beforehand.
Another issue that ruined it for me personally was that it felt like this book was written by an amateur fanfic writer. Literature is an art as much as any other medium and it takes practice before you can make a career out of it. This book was largely written using informal, conversational language which is fine on its own but throughout the story there are words that feel out of place for this style that really pull you out of the story (for example "plumb belly", or my personal least favorite "livelily"...almost DNFd after that one).
The author also doesn't seem to understand the phrase "show, don't tell", regularly stating how the characters are feeling very awkwardly as opposed to describing the scene in a way that shows how they feel in that moment.
The story is also riddled with modern references, which may seem fun now but will quickly date the story in a few years and take away from it overall. They were largely unimportant to the plot, too. If you are going to reference pop culture, however, it's better to assume the audience knows about it. Anyone who reads manga would not refer to it as japanese comics books when narrating in this style.
Similarly, the texting conversations not only dated the piece but also felt unnatural considering the characters' personalities. There were many points where it felt like I was reading a story about high schoolers and I had to remind myself that these characters have graduated college and made careers for themselves. The text slang honestly made me cringe and reading "[heart emojis x20]" definitely did not help.
I don't mean to shit on the book, like I said it had a lot of potential and I really do believe it could be a great story, but I think it'd be in the authors best interest to take it off the market and do some heavy editing before republishing it. You have the bones, now you just have to fill in the meat a little more. This representation is important, we want to do it right.
iam's review
2.5
This was so lovely and incredibly diverse in every possible aspect: Arab-Persian and black protagonists, one pansexual one demisexual, both fat and one having anxiety.
Somehow I had a really hard time getting into the writing. I struggled with staying focused the entire time while I was reading, and I often got confused with what exactly was going on, who was talking and what they were doing - this might be because I kept getting distracted or because the writing didn't click with me.
I wish it had worked better for me because the concept is wonderful!
Somehow I had a really hard time getting into the writing. I struggled with staying focused the entire time while I was reading, and I often got confused with what exactly was going on, who was talking and what they were doing - this might be because I kept getting distracted or because the writing didn't click with me.
I wish it had worked better for me because the concept is wonderful!