Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Funny You Should Ask

I had trouble getting into this at first. I didn't really like the main characters and it fell pretty flat for the first 75 pages or so, but after that it picked up and I was able to get into it more. I loved the dog!! The timeline jumping confused me a couple times, but it was a good choice for how the story unraveled. There was a lot of fluff that could've been left out, especially a lot of the articles that were sprinkled in.
When it comes to the characters, I wanted to know more about Jacinda and Ollie. I think that was the intention with Jacinda because she was supposed to feel like a perfect, untouchable celebrity, but I wish the author had gone a different direction with her. Ollie was pretty interesting at first but he quickly turned into just a stereotypical gay man which disappointed me.
I felt the same way about Gabe, too; nothing about him really excited me at all. Chani, however, was very well developed, but I just couldn't see why she really liked Gabe, other than the fact that he was her celebrity crush. The chemistry between them was barely there for me.
The plot was still pretty interesting for the most part, though. I loved the theatre and movie references sprinkled in, and the inside jokes that resurfaced throughout the story were a nice touch. I especially loved how Chani's article about her "perfect day" foreshadowed her trip to the bookstore with Gabe.

Content Warnings

cady_sass's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

3.5

For a book so hyper-focused on “good writing” the actual writing is not very good. The story switches back and forth between a few nights 10 years ago and present day, with snippets of various articles peppered throughout, including the “infamous” article our main protagonist published that supposedly made her career. But the article is not very good and it’s a hard sell that the rest of the story can be based around that fact.

I was very intrigued for the first 50 or so pages, but the characters and dialogue fall flat and the entire thing feels a bit contrived.

Really good idea, conceptually, cute ending, but everything in the middle was a bit meh. Very, very okay.

Content Warnings

kayladaila's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

victoriakuo13's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

That same confusion that a bunch of other reviews have expressed..... I have it too. From the outside this seemed like a book that I'd absolutely love. I bought it after reading just the prologue because it seemed like it was right up my alley. In general it was an interesting read and I read it pretty much all in one sitting (to be fair I was on a plane but still). I really liked the additions of the assorted articles that interrupted the chapters (some of them took me out of the story but most of them were interesting), but there was just something that was lacking in the narrative.

The character study here was somewhat similar to Evelyn Hugo; it was just done in a worse way. Of course there's an element of suspended disbelief when you're dealing with celebrity/fan relationships. But it was just that the suspended disbelief had to be suspended continuously when Sussman continued dropping reasons for it to be unrealistic. BAM falling in love over the course of a weekend BAM he was in love with her from the start BAM he invited her to parties after knowing her for two hours.

Chani herself also made me uncomfortable from the start. Of course you can say that the guy is hot, attractive, muscles of steel, whatever. But the sheer amount of times she emphasizes how he is a god on earth, how he's her celebrity crush, how she's this crazed fan looking at his body, etc was unnerving. It's things like this that make it clear why the celeb trope is usually celeb/person who hates that celeb initially instead of celeb/fan who loves them.

I also could not imagine these characters as close to 40 years old. They seemed so much younger because of what they were saying and how they were saying it. I'm not sure if it was just because I had them as mid 20s in my head from the "Then" chapters and it was hard to shake that mindset for the "Now" chapters, but they did not seem middle-aged !!

Finally, the story was predictable. Though it was a then/now story that hyped up the ending, all of the puzzle pieces fit together exactly how I thought they would. There was no complexity to their reconciliation and no added issues. I thought Chani's conflict of worrying about her image and reputation if they were to be in a relationship was a valid one, especially since she'd been grappling with it for a decade. How is it that Gabe was able to soothe all that worry with two sentences? There was just so much more room for more here.

I know I said finally, but now I mean it: that ending was so abrupt. I wanted to know more! What happened when they went public? What did the articles say? How did they do it? How did they prove them wrong? What book did Chani write? Literally SO MUCH opportunity here that wasn't taken.

Content Warnings

leighannebfd3b's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

nataliegray's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted sad 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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...