Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Strandläsning

I loved this romance - it felt believable and well paced to me - but wasn't a huge fan of either character or their trauma backstory. Gus has some significant adverse childhood experiences that are treated as flavour or quirks. January repeatedly surfaces his phobia, one example of her overall behaviour, which seems wildly unsympathetic. The research storyline was really interesting, and then just dropped off.

Tl;dr, really good bits, really weird bits, not the most sympathetic character portrayal in my view.

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talesofold's review against another edition

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emotional 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

3.0

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bloodyvampirishreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.25

J'ai beaucoup aimé cet ouvrage. Je m'attendais à ce que la traduction ne me plaise pas, mais finalement, elle était très bien. J'avoue que la voix du personnage principal masculin m'a tout de même fait cringe au début. Sinon, à part ça, la narratrice a fait un superbe job. L'auteure est excellente, comme toujours. Je suis fan d'elle et surtout de sa plume (j'ai lu en anglais et écouté en français). J'ai passé un très bon moment et je me sens d'attaque pour lire un autre livre.

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jg34's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

As always with an Emily Henry novel, i found this to be funny and genuine. The characters are witty and their challenges are realistic. To me this is the standard of a Henry novel!

January and Gus are old college rivals that wind up being next door neighbors in a small Michigan town. Gus is still reeling from a divorce and January from the death of her father. In small town fashion the two get forced into interactions and in rivalry fashion they strike up a challenge to see who is the better author. So ensues weekend research outings and writing notes through to each other ‘you belong with me’ style. I loved.

I was destined to love this from the start but I do have a couple complaints. First is petty: January cries a lot. I get it, her dad died, she is in a low emotional state overall. But relax. Second: I didn’t really love Gus’ divorce and how that was handled. It had been a year and he was very much in love with January but anytime the ex wife interacted with him it threw him for a loop and he just completely locks January out. It made his love and commitment a smidge less convincing to me. Hesitation ain’t a good look Augustus!!!

Anyway those are pretty minor and didn’t take too much away from my enjoyment. Loved this!!

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