Reviews with content warning for Dementia - The Falling in Love Montage

Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

224 reviews

nutmegandselkie's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Falling in Love Montage is another winner from Ciara Smyth.

It has sharp (at times razor-sharp) writing, believable character development, snarky dialogue, and nicely paced. It also provides real insight into

what life is like for the child of a parent with early onset dementia

, a topic which I knew very little about, and which is

pretty devastating to read about

.

The best character development award goes to our MC, Saoirse (pronounced Seer-sha, as she makes clear right at the beginning). Her distinctly sarcastic narrative voice engages you immediately, even as you think, this girl has issues (well, that's what I thought, anyway).

The plot is well-paced, and it is in some ways I could see where it was going,

, particularly with the romance plot

, but it was told so beautifully that I didn't mind the journey getting there.

I also really appreciated how everything

wasn't neatly wrapped up at the end, because that felt more realistic

.

Overall, this was a really well-written, feel-good tale with a knockout MC.

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stacy837's review

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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katara42's review

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emotional lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

4.5

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neverlandpages4's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was excited about this one because I haven't read many romance books where the main character is cynical and doesn't want a relationship. And as a cynic who doesn't believe in true love, I related to Saoirse a lot.

Reading this was refreshing because of how different it is from many of the previous romance books I've read. Both characters deal with their own issues and take their time revealing them to each other. And from the beginning, you know that it's a short, fleeting summer love and ⚠️ slight spoiler ⚠️ they don't end up together which I thought I'd hate but I ended up admiring.

Saoirse's cynicism comes from both having had her heart broken and the fact that her mother has dementia and her fear of inheriting it and not being able to remember the people she loves. I really felt for her and it's such a difficult feeling to explain and navigate.

I have very mixed feelings about the ending, part of me appreciates that it stays true to Saoirse’s cynical outlook on love, and the fact that they don’t up together at the end sets a good example of the way the author described love throughout the book. That love doesn’t always have to last forever, that you can love someone, and regardless of how long or how short the relationship lasts, you can learn something from the experience and have that love to remember forever. However, another part of me was hoping that despite all of that, they’d end up together because they were adorable together 🥹

This has the Insta-love trope which I’m not the biggest fan of but I can make an exception for a cute sapphic couple, and it was slow and dragging sometimes in the middle but other than that, I feel like my perception of love has changed and as the author intended, I've learned from it and will carry the memory of Saoirse and Ruby with me 🩷

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lilureads's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Not My Problem is one of my favorite books so of course I had to give this one a go

I feel very differently about the first and the second half of this book.
The first half gave me a similar feeling to Not My Problem- Saoirse is much more sarcastic but just as hilarious as Aideen and I loved her bromance with Oliver. Her relationship with Ruby was also really cute- overall I was getting ready for a lighthearted romcom-esque grumpyxsunshine story.

Then came the second half. I definitely enjoyed the first part more than the second one. As soon as I hit the halfway mark, the story seemed to drag out a lot and I had to force myself to push through the 3rd quarter of the book.

I thought the bittersweet ending to be a good conclusion to the story and I def like the message of “just bc it ends doesn’t mean that it wasn’t worth it”. Of course I was rooting for Ruby and Saoirse’s happy ending. I also believe this outcome is more realistic.

Shoutout to Barbara for being the most badass woman I’ve ever seen

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bootrat's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Not the most amazing book/romance I've ever read, but it made me cry a couple of times so any book that gets an emotional response gets bumped up a bit.
(Would have been 3 stars if I hadn't cried)

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gabriellesimpson's review

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emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.5

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strawberrycandy's review

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emotional funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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estelleidekreads's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5 ⭐️

I did enjoy the book, but there were a few things that bothered me which is why it’s not a 4 star read.

Asmuch as Saoirse annoyed me (most of the notes i made were along the lines of “COME ONNN”) i found her very funny and she had me laughing throughout reading this.

I also found Smyth’s writing very good as communicating emotions - my eyes did leak a few times - but I think the story felt a bit flat because of how juvenile our MC felt. Maybe i’m just too old to relate to YA though?

i did find it super annoying that Saoirse and Ruby agreed that it was a casual summer thing but S was the bad guy for wanting it to stay this way ?!

I really liked the friendship elements being part of the story (i love oliver!) and enjoyed how the beth story evolved.

I did find hannah and izzy to be quite one dimensional which threw me off a bit.

overall i do think it was an entertaining book that fans of YA and romcoms would love x

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