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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I loved this book so much! So sweet and the perfect amount of cheesy!
This book got me out of my reading slump so it will always be special!
This book got me out of my reading slump so it will always be special!
emotional
funny
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
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
romance + a hearthitting topic: sign me up.
while lots of people did not call this a *real* romance, i beg to differ. i found this real in the sense that in our lives we all have things to deal with aside from our relationships. and we all have to handle those things and consider them simultaneously. for me the romance aspect was found in the in between moments, the longing and the connection. so sign me up for more *unreal* romance books by abby then!
the only thing i missed were the side characters to fall in love with. there wasn't a side character with enough time on the page to get invested to for me. all good, but i do love that.
while lots of people did not call this a *real* romance, i beg to differ. i found this real in the sense that in our lives we all have things to deal with aside from our relationships. and we all have to handle those things and consider them simultaneously. for me the romance aspect was found in the in between moments, the longing and the connection. so sign me up for more *unreal* romance books by abby then!
the only thing i missed were the side characters to fall in love with. there wasn't a side character with enough time on the page to get invested to for me. all good, but i do love that.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
This was ok. I liked the family issues both mcs were dealing with, I thought both issues were handled fairly well given how serious they were, and I appreciate the conflict came from dealing with these tough situations, not from an interpersonal conflict between the mcs.
But the romance didn’t really work for me. It’s super insta-love, like after one date they’re both at the “I can’t live without you” stage. Xavier also was a little off putting to me in how protective he felt of Samantha and how much he would completely neglect his own needs just to do things for her, when she wasn’t even asking him to. And for how much it was driven home that they were really struggling financially, they both wasted so much money on erratic travel decisions. Not everything needs to be a surprise. Also some cringy lines I really didn’t like, like the Rhysand thing, but that’s probably to be expected in most contemporary romances.
But the romance didn’t really work for me. It’s super insta-love, like after one date they’re both at the “I can’t live without you” stage. Xavier also was a little off putting to me in how protective he felt of Samantha and how much he would completely neglect his own needs just to do things for her, when she wasn’t even asking him to. And for how much it was driven home that they were really struggling financially, they both wasted so much money on erratic travel decisions. Not everything needs to be a surprise. Also some cringy lines I really didn’t like, like the Rhysand thing, but that’s probably to be expected in most contemporary romances.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I appreciate the depth that Jimenez always adds to her romances — it’s why I keep reading her books. The constant layering of plot and character growth are what make her stand out in the genre.
HOWEVER……this book was sad af 😭 like really, it is a DOWNER. And while I greatly respect the care and emotional weight she included (particularly around the FMC’s mother’s dementia) i definitely felt like the levity was not there. We could have used more joy and whimsy to balance out all the heavy.
In addition to that, the MMC did not feel like a whole entire character. Say it with me —
✨your tragic backstory is not a personality✨
Don’t get me wrong, I LIKED Xavier!!! He had a lot going for him, there was a lot of potential. But he just felt too perfect to be an actual human person. Always knowing what to say in a crisis?? Always succeeding in his attempts at comfort and deescalation?? Beyond the opening scene, he never made a mistake or was shown to really have flaws. Particularly compared to our heroine, who is allowed to be flawed and confused and funny, he fell pretty flat. Which was unfortunate because I think with a little tweaking, he wouldn’t have been. (Tbh at the beginning, I thought we were heading in a “he’s super hot and super socially awkward” kind of direction…..alas. We did not go down that path).
Additional thoughts:
1. This book breaks the standard structure of a romance novel and it’s probably my favorite thing about it. It was so refreshing!!
2. This is instalove. Given, I think this trope was executed well here, but ymmv
3. Side characters were lacking, particularly in Xavier’s POV
4. I thought there was going to be a little jewelry hunt side plot that would then be folded into a sort of resolution…….i was wrong. I was annoyed about being wrong. It lowkey felt like a Chekov’s gun
HOWEVER……this book was sad af 😭 like really, it is a DOWNER. And while I greatly respect the care and emotional weight she included (particularly around the FMC’s mother’s dementia) i definitely felt like the levity was not there. We could have used more joy and whimsy to balance out all the heavy.
In addition to that, the MMC did not feel like a whole entire character. Say it with me —
✨your tragic backstory is not a personality✨
Don’t get me wrong, I LIKED Xavier!!! He had a lot going for him, there was a lot of potential. But he just felt too perfect to be an actual human person. Always knowing what to say in a crisis?? Always succeeding in his attempts at comfort and deescalation?? Beyond the opening scene, he never made a mistake or was shown to really have flaws. Particularly compared to our heroine, who is allowed to be flawed and confused and funny, he fell pretty flat. Which was unfortunate because I think with a little tweaking, he wouldn’t have been. (Tbh at the beginning, I thought we were heading in a “he’s super hot and super socially awkward” kind of direction…..alas. We did not go down that path).
Additional thoughts:
1. This book breaks the standard structure of a romance novel and it’s probably my favorite thing about it. It was so refreshing!!
2. This is instalove. Given, I think this trope was executed well here, but ymmv
3. Side characters were lacking, particularly in Xavier’s POV
4. I thought there was going to be a little jewelry hunt side plot that would then be folded into a sort of resolution…….i was wrong. I was annoyed about being wrong. It lowkey felt like a Chekov’s gun