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katykelly's review against another edition
3.0
Flawed premise, some affecting scenes, not a stand-out.
I had very mixed feelings whilst listening to ‘Love Again’. Romances aren’t really something I dabble in much, they really have to capture me with a particularly memorable female or irresistible male. Too often they fit patterns that means they are predictable and just one of a very crowded market.
‘Love Again’ tries to be different. But I can’t say that does it any favours’ at least for me. Honey is 30, living with her mother and step-father still and her mother is trying to find her a husband. This both annoyed me and made the book anachronistic - this plot device would suit something set in a culture or a time where this was common. To bring Ashley into Honey’s life, where she persuades him to pretend to be dating her, to get her mother to desist with her suggestions? It just seemed forced.
Honey actually annoyed me, created to be a strong character but to me she just seemed prickly and slightly condescending. Ashley might not be Mr Darcy, but he’s a perfectly decent man, clearly attracted to her. Her rebuffs weren’t that realistic as the text even gives us multiple clues of her attraction that she too acknowledges.
With a gang of friends that every good rom-com has, Honey’s are outside of the usual mould, and seemed overdone to be as far from what you’d expect as possible, rather eye-opening in their appearance as under-represented groups. There are some stories there that actually caught my interest more than Honey’s.
Ashley had my sympathy. There is another potential love interest, a little too obviously unsuitable and the plot gives Ashley all the advantages, some directions stir emotion in ways that made me feel manipulated. With a few scenes that were affecting, Honey also changes her mind about her plans and every time you see it coming.
Maybe this type of book just isn’t for me, There is only so much you can do within this genre. As audiobooks go, the narrator tries valiantly with the male voices but you can’t ever forget that it’s a woman voicing them and I’m afraid I didn’t like the voicing of the men characters. The young women fared much better, and the structure and narrative style made this a very suitable choice for an audio read. It’s also fairly brief, and pleasant enough.
For me though, I couldn’t help but continually critique. I didnt’t like the idea or how it was carried through, and no one character took it above the average.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
I had very mixed feelings whilst listening to ‘Love Again’. Romances aren’t really something I dabble in much, they really have to capture me with a particularly memorable female or irresistible male. Too often they fit patterns that means they are predictable and just one of a very crowded market.
‘Love Again’ tries to be different. But I can’t say that does it any favours’ at least for me. Honey is 30, living with her mother and step-father still and her mother is trying to find her a husband. This both annoyed me and made the book anachronistic - this plot device would suit something set in a culture or a time where this was common. To bring Ashley into Honey’s life, where she persuades him to pretend to be dating her, to get her mother to desist with her suggestions? It just seemed forced.
Honey actually annoyed me, created to be a strong character but to me she just seemed prickly and slightly condescending. Ashley might not be Mr Darcy, but he’s a perfectly decent man, clearly attracted to her. Her rebuffs weren’t that realistic as the text even gives us multiple clues of her attraction that she too acknowledges.
With a gang of friends that every good rom-com has, Honey’s are outside of the usual mould, and seemed overdone to be as far from what you’d expect as possible, rather eye-opening in their appearance as under-represented groups. There are some stories there that actually caught my interest more than Honey’s.
Ashley had my sympathy. There is another potential love interest, a little too obviously unsuitable and the plot gives Ashley all the advantages, some directions stir emotion in ways that made me feel manipulated. With a few scenes that were affecting, Honey also changes her mind about her plans and every time you see it coming.
Maybe this type of book just isn’t for me, There is only so much you can do within this genre. As audiobooks go, the narrator tries valiantly with the male voices but you can’t ever forget that it’s a woman voicing them and I’m afraid I didn’t like the voicing of the men characters. The young women fared much better, and the structure and narrative style made this a very suitable choice for an audio read. It’s also fairly brief, and pleasant enough.
For me though, I couldn’t help but continually critique. I didnt’t like the idea or how it was carried through, and no one character took it above the average.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
tochileona_'s review against another edition
2.0
Really did not like this.
Thought it was poorly written & seemed very rushed at many points.
The MC was annoyingly rude and the whole thing seemed extremely unrealistic.
Thought it was poorly written & seemed very rushed at many points.
The MC was annoyingly rude and the whole thing seemed extremely unrealistic.
aimeesbookishlife's review against another edition
2.0
I would have DNFed this before the halfway point if I wasn't reading it for a reading challenge. It got better, thankfully, but the rocky start made it less enjoyable for me.
My hackles went up in the very first chapter when the love interest, Ashley, (who, at the time, the MC isn't interested in) offers the MC, Honey, a lift home then proceeds to drive her around the city after she specifically said she wanted to go straight home. Ashley is very pushy, even when Honey has repeatedly said she's not interested - not exactly romantic in my book - but somehow, she says that she trusts him and wants to embark on a fake-dating arrangement with him. There's another scene where Honey is drunk and Ashley tells her he is taking her home to his place - she doesn't protest, but he should have asked for proper consent - and the next morning, Honey is "relieved to find she was still fully clothed" which says a lot.
Ashley's story makes him a more compelling character later on but it didn't remove the bad taste in my mouth from the first few chapters.
The MC's best friend is meant as comic relief but I found her storyline irritating too. For starters, her nickname is Fatty, which would be fine if she was a body-positive kind of person trying to reclaim the word, but it's clear she hates her size and constantly compares her body to her friends' in a way that makes the nickname seem like fatphobic bullying.
Fatty gets offered a job as deputy manager of a restaurant because the manager fancies her, even though she never actually applied for the job and admits to the manager's face that she doesn't have management or restaurant experience (if I had been a member of staff at that restaurant I would have been enraged!)
Her drama with her on-again-off-again cheating boyfriend is badly handled, with the 'other woman' taking the bulk of the best friend's wrath, with slut-shaming thrown in too. There's an interesting dynamic between Fatty and her mum, but this wasn't fully developed so Fatty's mum ended up being more of a collection of stereotypes than a character.
My hackles went up in the very first chapter when the love interest, Ashley, (who, at the time, the MC isn't interested in) offers the MC, Honey, a lift home then proceeds to drive her around the city after she specifically said she wanted to go straight home. Ashley is very pushy, even when Honey has repeatedly said she's not interested - not exactly romantic in my book - but somehow, she says that she trusts him and wants to embark on a fake-dating arrangement with him. There's another scene where Honey is drunk and Ashley tells her he is taking her home to his place - she doesn't protest, but he should have asked for proper consent - and the next morning, Honey is "relieved to find she was still fully clothed" which says a lot.
Ashley's story makes him a more compelling character later on but it didn't remove the bad taste in my mouth from the first few chapters.
The MC's best friend is meant as comic relief but I found her storyline irritating too. For starters, her nickname is Fatty, which would be fine if she was a body-positive kind of person trying to reclaim the word, but it's clear she hates her size and constantly compares her body to her friends' in a way that makes the nickname seem like fatphobic bullying.
Fatty gets offered a job as deputy manager of a restaurant because the manager fancies her, even though she never actually applied for the job and admits to the manager's face that she doesn't have management or restaurant experience (if I had been a member of staff at that restaurant I would have been enraged!)
Her drama with her on-again-off-again cheating boyfriend is badly handled, with the 'other woman' taking the bulk of the best friend's wrath, with slut-shaming thrown in too. There's an interesting dynamic between Fatty and her mum, but this wasn't fully developed so Fatty's mum ended up being more of a collection of stereotypes than a character.
elizacharnock4's review
funny
hopeful
fast-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
4.0
ellekhupe's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
melduro's review against another edition
2.0
Les personnages ne font que saboter tout ce qui arrive dans leur vie
Un des surnoms d’un personnage secondaire est Fatty/Fats et comme par hasard elle est un size 16, ne fait que se plaindre de son poids et passer des commentaires dessus ou les autres en passent !
Tout était là pour que ça fonctionne mais non !
Ça n’a pas fonctionner avec moi !
Un des surnoms d’un personnage secondaire est Fatty/Fats et comme par hasard elle est un size 16, ne fait que se plaindre de son poids et passer des commentaires dessus ou les autres en passent !
Tout était là pour que ça fonctionne mais non !
Ça n’a pas fonctionner avec moi !
musureads's review against another edition
Fatphobic jokes, horrible muslim rep all in the first 2 chapters :)
kyladjamila's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
moselle's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
caltaylor's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25