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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
slow-paced
I loved In A Jam, and this book takes place in Friendship, RI, site of that book. A few carry-over characters appear, but this book is nothing like the other one. It centers around Sunny, who is now running a vegan cafe, and her brother's best friend, Beckett, who owns the oyster company/restaurant on the other side of the parking lot. There are a lot of tropes in this book, almost 500 pages and about 100 of those pages are just padding, dragging out the story.
I love me a good story with lots of banter, but here, it's just sharp and sometimes vicious arguing, mainly for the sake of it. Beckett is overbearing, yes, which is only slightly leavened by his concern for Sunny's health. It would have helped his character arc if the reader could have seen some compassion for her in their youth, but he was a teenage arsehole, so his distress over her epilepsy today seems more a result of the stress he's currently undergoing from every direction. Sunny, on the other hand, is universally loved, though I'm not really sure why. Besides arguing with Beckett at every chance, she also takes advantage of his money with very little thanks to him.
There is way too much drama in the story. It's like a TV series that has a different crisis each week that has no impact on the final episode.
I almost DNF'd at the town meeting because someone in another town served a bunch of drunks, and it caused a big fight. Not one New England town would call a town meeting the same day to implement a curfew on town businesses without proper notification and discussion. Beckett seems able to bring in big machinery and renovate whatever he wants on coastal land without any kind of planning board oversight. These are just a couple of examples where the author tried to create a crisis to be resolved, and they made no sense. Eliminating these types of issues could have made the book a reasonable side and improved pacing.
I loved the side characters in In A Jam, but we have a bunch of tokens that seemed to be thrown into the story for no particular reason. I love diverse representation, but when an author identifies every character as "white man," "black polyandrous woman," or "old white bisexual" (I didn't go back to look these up; these are examples) well, that's tokenism.
Anyway, enough of a rant. This book wasn't for me which makes me sad as I was looking forward to it. I give it 2 1/2 stars.
I love me a good story with lots of banter, but here, it's just sharp and sometimes vicious arguing, mainly for the sake of it. Beckett is overbearing, yes, which is only slightly leavened by his concern for Sunny's health. It would have helped his character arc if the reader could have seen some compassion for her in their youth, but he was a teenage arsehole, so his distress over her epilepsy today seems more a result of the stress he's currently undergoing from every direction. Sunny, on the other hand, is universally loved, though I'm not really sure why. Besides arguing with Beckett at every chance, she also takes advantage of his money with very little thanks to him.
There is way too much drama in the story. It's like a TV series that has a different crisis each week that has no impact on the final episode.
I almost DNF'd at the town meeting because someone in another town served a bunch of drunks, and it caused a big fight. Not one New England town would call a town meeting the same day to implement a curfew on town businesses without proper notification and discussion. Beckett seems able to bring in big machinery and renovate whatever he wants on coastal land without any kind of planning board oversight. These are just a couple of examples where the author tried to create a crisis to be resolved, and they made no sense. Eliminating these types of issues could have made the book a reasonable side and improved pacing.
I loved the side characters in In A Jam, but we have a bunch of tokens that seemed to be thrown into the story for no particular reason. I love diverse representation, but when an author identifies every character as "white man," "black polyandrous woman," or "old white bisexual" (I didn't go back to look these up; these are examples) well, that's tokenism.
Anyway, enough of a rant. This book wasn't for me which makes me sad as I was looking forward to it. I give it 2 1/2 stars.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Perfect. That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think about Shucked. Canterbary's writing was magical. I didn't expect less, but the feel of this book was... I don't even know how to describe it. I felt every emotion Sunny and Beckett went through: their frustration with each other, the attraction, the need, the want, the love. It was beautifully written. The side characters were also fabulous. Beckett's brothers were a lot of fun. The townspeople and co-workers at the restaurants were diverse and highly entertaining. This book was a complete gem. I loved every minute I spent reading it. I cannot wait for more books in The Loew Brothers series.
You can find this review and others like it at A Novel Glimpse .
You can find this review and others like it at A Novel Glimpse .
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
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:
No
funny
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
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
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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:
No
All We Have is Now!
Shucked by Kate Canterbary is so much more than a small town, grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, brother's best friend romance. Don't get me wrong, because Kate Canterbary makes all those tropes shine. Yet, as always, the characters, the banter, and the found family are what make this story stand out. The quirky townspeople and touch of mystery make the town of Friendship feel like a character itself. There is a rhythm to the community and their interactions that is not to be missed! And of course, the chemistry between Sunny and Beck smolders. This book also showcases chronic illness representation in an easily digestible and delicate manner. Beck's emotional vulnerability was so tangible and raw. Sunny's resilience and self-awareness were inspiring. Shucked was steamy, salty, growly goodness at its finest! I can't wait to spend more time in Friendship.
Shucked by Kate Canterbary is so much more than a small town, grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, brother's best friend romance. Don't get me wrong, because Kate Canterbary makes all those tropes shine. Yet, as always, the characters, the banter, and the found family are what make this story stand out. The quirky townspeople and touch of mystery make the town of Friendship feel like a character itself. There is a rhythm to the community and their interactions that is not to be missed! And of course, the chemistry between Sunny and Beck smolders. This book also showcases chronic illness representation in an easily digestible and delicate manner. Beck's emotional vulnerability was so tangible and raw. Sunny's resilience and self-awareness were inspiring. Shucked was steamy, salty, growly goodness at its finest! I can't wait to spend more time in Friendship.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Chronic illness
Minor: Violence, Injury/Injury detail
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
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
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Trigger warnings: hit and run, hospitalisation, incarceration of a parent, bullying (in the past), fire, violence, misogyny, vomit, alcohol & drug use
In A Jam was one - if not my absolute - favourite books of 2022, so I was really excited when this was announced because I loved the town and the general dynamic of the story so much and I couldn't wait to revisit it. I was excited by everything Canterbary posted about this book. And I downloaded it the second it came out. And then I read it, and it was decidedly NOT for me.
Many of the problems I had are absolutely Me Problems, but some of them were definitely book problems. I'm just going to write a list because it's easier.
1. It's a grumpy/sunshine story and her name is Sunny Du Jardin. Like...her name is literally Sunny of the Garden. That was hard enough for me to take seriously, but when it became apparent that she was the sunshiney character, I struggled. And then Beckett spends half the book calling her "storm cloud"?? Uh. Okay.
2. The brother's best friend trope doesn't often work for me, and this was one of the cases where it didn't. Partly it's because her brother IMMEDIATELY turned into an absolute jerk, and partly it's because in this case, there's an age gap of 8 years, and all her memories of him are of 16-18 year old Beckett tormenting 8-10 year old Sunny by, like, firing Nerf darts at her head or ripping all the heads off her My Little Ponies and putting them in her bed. And, like, I know that teenage boys are dicks. But I feel like most 16 year old boys would draw the line at tormenting an EIGHT YEAR OLD who's literally wearing a helmet all day every day because her epileptic seizures are out of control.
3. She tells him that penetrative sex doesn't do much for her and he's immediately like "Oh, so you're a virgin?". She's like "Uh, NO. I just don't get much out of having a dick in me?" and he's immediately like "Yeah, but you haven't had sex with ME yet" and as soon as he sticks his 2L Coke bottle sized dick in her, everything is better. But he continues to imply that she was basically a virgin when they first slept together for the rest of the book and it's gross.
4. Why the FUCK is this book nearly 500 pages long?? No contemporary romance needs to be that long
5. The romantic suspense stuff came way too late in the story and was resolved way too quickly
6. Beckett's solution to every problem is to throw money at it. It's mentioned time and time again that this is because his love language is acts of service. But it didn't feel like that. It felt like he was a privileged rich man throwing money at problems to make them go away.
7. The reading smutty scenes from romance novels during sex was..................yeah. No. No thank you.
8. I wanted to love the Shay cameo but then she had to be reading FUCKING FOURTH WING and honestly, could you have dated your book any more solidly to the northern summer of 2023??
9. The ending was strangely abrupt and too many things were left unresolved. Like, I know it's going to be a series. But it just...ended.
10. I also struggled with the age gap between the Loew brothers. Like, there's NINETEEN YEARS between Beckett and Parker. Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate that there are age gaps between siblings. My half brother is 13 years older than me. But my mum had him when she was 19 and me when she was 32. And she had my younger brother just before her 34th birthday. Given that we've established that this is very solidly set in the summer of 2023, Beckett was born in 1987. And Parker was born in 2006. Is it possible? Yes. Is it weird? Also yes, kind of.
I know I've been pretty damned ranty in this review when I've rated it 3 stars. But there were just so many things going on, and at the end of the day, this featured a LOT of tropes that don't work for me, and now I'm bummed.
In A Jam was one - if not my absolute - favourite books of 2022, so I was really excited when this was announced because I loved the town and the general dynamic of the story so much and I couldn't wait to revisit it. I was excited by everything Canterbary posted about this book. And I downloaded it the second it came out. And then I read it, and it was decidedly NOT for me.
Many of the problems I had are absolutely Me Problems, but some of them were definitely book problems. I'm just going to write a list because it's easier.
1. It's a grumpy/sunshine story and her name is Sunny Du Jardin. Like...her name is literally Sunny of the Garden. That was hard enough for me to take seriously, but when it became apparent that she was the sunshiney character, I struggled. And then Beckett spends half the book calling her "storm cloud"?? Uh. Okay.
2. The brother's best friend trope doesn't often work for me, and this was one of the cases where it didn't. Partly it's because her brother IMMEDIATELY turned into an absolute jerk, and partly it's because in this case, there's an age gap of 8 years, and all her memories of him are of 16-18 year old Beckett tormenting 8-10 year old Sunny by, like, firing Nerf darts at her head or ripping all the heads off her My Little Ponies and putting them in her bed. And, like, I know that teenage boys are dicks. But I feel like most 16 year old boys would draw the line at tormenting an EIGHT YEAR OLD who's literally wearing a helmet all day every day because her epileptic seizures are out of control.
3. She tells him that penetrative sex doesn't do much for her and he's immediately like "Oh, so you're a virgin?". She's like "Uh, NO. I just don't get much out of having a dick in me?" and he's immediately like "Yeah, but you haven't had sex with ME yet" and as soon as he sticks his 2L Coke bottle sized dick in her, everything is better. But he continues to imply that she was basically a virgin when they first slept together for the rest of the book and it's gross.
4. Why the FUCK is this book nearly 500 pages long?? No contemporary romance needs to be that long
5. The romantic suspense stuff came way too late in the story and was resolved way too quickly
6. Beckett's solution to every problem is to throw money at it. It's mentioned time and time again that this is because his love language is acts of service. But it didn't feel like that. It felt like he was a privileged rich man throwing money at problems to make them go away.
7. The reading smutty scenes from romance novels during sex was..................yeah. No. No thank you.
8. I wanted to love the Shay cameo but then she had to be reading FUCKING FOURTH WING and honestly, could you have dated your book any more solidly to the northern summer of 2023??
9. The ending was strangely abrupt and too many things were left unresolved. Like, I know it's going to be a series. But it just...ended.
10. I also struggled with the age gap between the Loew brothers. Like, there's NINETEEN YEARS between Beckett and Parker. Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate that there are age gaps between siblings. My half brother is 13 years older than me. But my mum had him when she was 19 and me when she was 32. And she had my younger brother just before her 34th birthday. Given that we've established that this is very solidly set in the summer of 2023, Beckett was born in 1987. And Parker was born in 2006. Is it possible? Yes. Is it weird? Also yes, kind of.
I know I've been pretty damned ranty in this review when I've rated it 3 stars. But there were just so many things going on, and at the end of the day, this featured a LOT of tropes that don't work for me, and now I'm bummed.