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brit0817's review against another edition
3.25
Sabrina was very annoying and I’m not usually a fan of second chance romance but it was much better than expected
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship
beaben's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.0
bonnieg's review against another edition
5.0
I am so glad I waited to finish this until I was home rather than listening to the end on the subway. I knew I would cry, I did cry, and that would have been awkward since on the ride home I was sitting across from a couple making out and dry humping for 11 STOPS! (A couple I would guess was in their 30's) and if I had burst into tears I am guessing I would have caused some angst in a real life love story.
Emily Henry knows how to twist me up in knots, and Julia Whelan (who reads all of Henry's books) makes it all somehow, more. Henry has allowed her characters to grow up a bit more with each book and has embraced something that we hopefully all eventually learn, that we don't just have one soulmate -- we have several, and they all give us different things. We have friends who hold a piece of us, family members, even places that connect with something deep inside of us. I have had passionate romantic relationships, one of which even included a respectably lengthy marriage, but those ended and I have no longing to get most of them back. My soul belongs to my son, to my best friend, to my city, to my sister, and in smaller morsels to other family members and to my many freinds old and new whom I love. I could not lose any of those things without being diminished. In this book Wyn and Harriet love each other deeply, and they do appear to be soulmates in the best sense of the word, but their souls also belong to their best friends, to Wyn's family and to Montana. Bio-family and Montana are going nowhere, but there are existential threats to all the other ties here.
These friends have spent a decade fully bonded, have become chosen family, and the possibility of this group breaking up is no less heartbreaking than the possibility of Wyn and Harriet breaking up. There are threats to so many relationships here, and honestly it is stressful to read about them. When I was in my 20's I thought the world was full of people who could love me and be worthy of my love, that if I let a friendship drop off or left my beloved boyfriend that there where a million other avenues to connect deeply with good people. I learned different after I had squandered relationships with wonderful friends, and with the man who will always be the one I loved most. I was so worried that the characters in this story would do that. I had a lump in my chest through the whole book, which thankfully dissolved with my tears. This is just a beautiful story. I will say I thought the pacing was slightly off, that too much essential info was kept from the reader until about 2/3 in. Revealing some of that information earlier would have made this a little better. This though is a minor quibble. Emily Henry is just so damn good at this. I was worried for a while that I was not going to get my HEAs, and I kept going back to the GR page and looking at the rating to reassure myself, because I knew it would not be a mass of 5-stars if she ripped apart people she made us love together (not just Wyn and Harriet, but also Sabrina and Parth and Kimmy and Cleo and all the different relationships between the six of them.)
I am ruined for romance for a while.
Emily Henry knows how to twist me up in knots, and Julia Whelan (who reads all of Henry's books) makes it all somehow, more. Henry has allowed her characters to grow up a bit more with each book and has embraced something that we hopefully all eventually learn, that we don't just have one soulmate -- we have several, and they all give us different things. We have friends who hold a piece of us, family members, even places that connect with something deep inside of us. I have had passionate romantic relationships, one of which even included a respectably lengthy marriage, but those ended and I have no longing to get most of them back. My soul belongs to my son, to my best friend, to my city, to my sister, and in smaller morsels to other family members and to my many freinds old and new whom I love. I could not lose any of those things without being diminished. In this book Wyn and Harriet love each other deeply, and they do appear to be soulmates in the best sense of the word, but their souls also belong to their best friends, to Wyn's family and to Montana. Bio-family and Montana are going nowhere, but there are existential threats to all the other ties here.
These friends have spent a decade fully bonded, have become chosen family, and the possibility of this group breaking up is no less heartbreaking than the possibility of Wyn and Harriet breaking up. There are threats to so many relationships here, and honestly it is stressful to read about them. When I was in my 20's I thought the world was full of people who could love me and be worthy of my love, that if I let a friendship drop off or left my beloved boyfriend that there where a million other avenues to connect deeply with good people. I learned different after I had squandered relationships with wonderful friends, and with the man who will always be the one I loved most. I was so worried that the characters in this story would do that. I had a lump in my chest through the whole book, which thankfully dissolved with my tears. This is just a beautiful story. I will say I thought the pacing was slightly off, that too much essential info was kept from the reader until about 2/3 in. Revealing some of that information earlier would have made this a little better. This though is a minor quibble. Emily Henry is just so damn good at this. I was worried for a while that I was not going to get my HEAs, and I kept going back to the GR page and looking at the rating to reassure myself, because I knew it would not be a mass of 5-stars if she ripped apart people she made us love together (not just Wyn and Harriet, but also Sabrina and Parth and Kimmy and Cleo and all the different relationships between the six of them.)
I am ruined for romance for a while.
lydthekid's review against another edition
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was a little of a roller coaster ride for me because there were things I loved and things I didn't like so much. I don't like Emily Henry's use of figurative language. Her use of figurative language feels like a precocious high-schooler learning about using fig. lang. for the first time and then inserting it into their writing whenever they can. I find it doesn't work well and is overdone and makes the writing come across as a bit overdramatic at times. However, I think the situation of the book and the set-up makes that tolerable and at points almost sensible because a girl going through what Harriet is would probably be overdramatic. There were cheesy and dramatic moments sometimes, but I found myself finding those moments cute at times. And what Emily Henry is good at is dialogue. It's done so well and it's so fun at times. In Book Lovers, which I didn't like, I found the banter to be too much because everyone had the same kind of banter which kind of took me out of the story because why does everyone have that same kind of personality trait? It felt more like the author's voice coming through rather than the character's. But here it makes sense if they banter similarly because they've been friends for so long that of course they'd pick up on each other's type of humor. I loved the maturity in these relationships and how, at they end, they were able to really communicate and change. I enjoyed the book overall, but I think it that has a lot to do with this specific plot and these specific characters. So I don't really think Emily Henry's other books will work for me. This book was more like kismet. And I think it's only going to happen once for me and Emily Henry.
kamilahhp's review against another edition
5.0
I just adore Emily Henry. That is all. Another great book that I’m so happy to have of hers
briel_reads's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars rounded up. This was not happy and this was not what I was expecting from [a:Emily Henry|13905555|Emily Henry|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573928938p2/13905555.jpg]. I've loved her other books, but not this one as much.
leo_e's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-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
Yet again Henry has done it a wonderful book! Could I have done without like 50 pages of misunderstanding and non-communication? Yes, but I still loved it!