Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Slow to get going for me, but ultimately really enjoyed. A strong debut, I am excited to see what they produce next.
This is a really great summer by the pool read. It’s not amazing literature but it’s a fun story, an easy read and if you just take it at face value it’s an enjoyable book.
The View Was Exhausting was excellent! It was an ignore my children, leave the house messy, stay up way too late kind of book! AKA the best kind of book! All I knew going into this was that it was a Hollywood love story with a fake dating trope. It ended up being such a wonderful novel full of love and hard issues and risks and finding out what is really most important in life.
Win is so complex. She is trying to keep up and be everything that everyone wants while also navigating the role of being a woman of color in an industry that is very harsh. It's exhausting but she's got her pal Leo to help her out when things go awry. He seems like a male version of Paris Hilton. He's wealthy and has few obligations but is always there when Win calls. He's extremely loyal to Win but challenges her in the best ways. Then comes Saint-Tropez where things explode and their friendship/love is put to the test.
I particularly loved how we got Win's perspective during the opening section of the book, flipped to Leo's for the middle and then back to Win for the last act. It allowed me to see their motives and insecurities and kept the book moving along at a great pace.
I just couldn't have loved this book more. It had so much emotion, angst, longing, and depth. I adored it and can't wait to see what this duo comes up with next.
Win is so complex. She is trying to keep up and be everything that everyone wants while also navigating the role of being a woman of color in an industry that is very harsh. It's exhausting but she's got her pal Leo to help her out when things go awry. He seems like a male version of Paris Hilton. He's wealthy and has few obligations but is always there when Win calls. He's extremely loyal to Win but challenges her in the best ways. Then comes Saint-Tropez where things explode and their friendship/love is put to the test.
I particularly loved how we got Win's perspective during the opening section of the book, flipped to Leo's for the middle and then back to Win for the last act. It allowed me to see their motives and insecurities and kept the book moving along at a great pace.
I just couldn't have loved this book more. It had so much emotion, angst, longing, and depth. I adored it and can't wait to see what this duo comes up with next.
As much as this was certainly dependent on a classic fake dating trope, I appreciated that it took the time to consider what fame and scandal can look like for a woman of color in Hollywood and how different that is from her white boyfriend steeped in generational wealth.
Pretty cover, strong writing voice, interesting concept... boring execution and unlikable characters
Fun - a little hard to stay in but a good beach read.
This was pretty good. It took me forever to read, despite being somewhat breezy. It dealt a lot with how unfair things are for women, particularly women of color, compared to their white and male counterparts. It's basically the story of a Hollywood starlet who pretends to date the son of a hotel tycoon for publicity. But after seven years of this perhaps it's time to admit there are real feelings.
A youthful rising female star and a not-quite-bad boy millionaire hotel mogul. The French Riviera, red carpet appearances, late night swims on hotel rooftops, penthouse trysts and over-the-top Hollywood glamour. This book has everything in it for those who want to escape into a world of celebrity. Leo and Winn have such fantastic chemistry in The View Was Exhausting that you'll wonder how this slow burn doesn't errupt any sooner.
2.5 ⭐️ rounded up.
I really, really wanted to like this book. And the beginning was great. But then I just got bored about 60% of the way through and didn’t feel a connection to any of the main characters.
I really, really wanted to like this book. And the beginning was great. But then I just got bored about 60% of the way through and didn’t feel a connection to any of the main characters.
Brilliant literary romance with fake-dating, friends-to-lovers and a great evaluation of race and fame