Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

10 reviews

lizzie_b99's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this! The writing is light and funny but occasionally deep as it dives into the charcters' deepest insecurities. The audio book is really well done - I found myself laughing at multiple points.

The novel is a mix of contemporary day in the life, enemies to lovers romance, and navigating complicated family issues. Waxman mixes all of these almost effortlessly.

I did find the ending a bit abrupt, but I think it also fits in with the day in the life novel style. We see Nina's life day to day, so

it makes sense that the ending wouldn't be drawn out or look far into the future or that all the issues in the family would be magically resolved. I still would've liked an epilogue, though. And it would've been nice if the letter delivery portion of the novel took up more space. I'm curious what the other ones said and how everyone reacted.

But hey, if the biggest critique I can make about a book is that it left me wanting to learn more about the characters and world, that's a good book and good writing.

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karinreadsalot's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.25

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rainbowrocky's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

If you are a cisgender straight white millennial woman, this book is for you. If you are not, then you might want to skip this one. It wasn't written for me, and normally I don't have a problem with that if a book is well written, but this one is not. The millennial speak was too strong. For a character who is supposedly neurodivergent, Nina speaks pretty much exclusively in sarcasm, along with everyone else around her. It made all the characters come across as inauthentic to me.

It really grated on my nerves how insensitive and flippant the author was with a lot of subjects, dropping quick references to prove her "wokeness" without understand what any of it means. I should have known when "Transgender Support Bridge Night" had me side eyeing on page 9 that things would get worse from there (first of all, make it Drag Bingo Night, that's an actual thing). A trans person is not ever mentioned in this book again, and all the Harry Potter references have not aged well. Nina does have a lesbian friend at her book club we only see one time, and she is unfortunately witness to some pretty graphic body shaming about male anatomy she shouldn't have had to be apart of. Again, she never shows up in the novel after that. Nina also inherits a gay nephew later on in the book who is a regular character and I did enjoy him, but her co-worker Polly makes some subtly homophobic comments about him becoming her Gay Best Friend TM. Big eye roll from me. Also I'm just realizing he mentioned having a fiancé when they first met, and then we never saw said partner. Hello? Why wasn't he at the will reading like the other spouses? Suspicious.

There is also a healthy dose of underlying but not explicit fat shaming and ableism in this book, for anyone weary of those themes. It's odd how the author discusses mental illness despite her main character having anxiety. Lots of words like "insane", "crazy", and "psycho" get thrown around, so if you're sensitive to that please pass on this book. I did not find my own experience with anxiety validated by this novel at all.

The romance itself was incredibly lukewarm for me. Tom never even got a physical description beyond that he's tall and has stong forearms and smells like sawdust lol. What color are his eyes? His hair? Is he white? I'm assuming everyone in this novel is, given the author is and didn't describe anyone in detail (except for Nina; for some reason we got a copius amount of descriptions on her slim figure and auburn hair, but how she's not "too pretty" like she's trying too hard--insert another eye roll).

The surprise family plot was interesting, and made me think about my own experiences with these kinds of things. Blended families are more common than you would think and it's fun so see that depicted on the page. The ending was, again, lukewarm. Nina's dad is a real piece of work and his letter, which I'm assuming was supposed to be heartfelt?, was again too flippant for me to take seriously.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of such a casual writing style. I probably would have DNFed it, and should have, if not for completing it for Book Roast's Orilium Magical Readathon 2024 for my Astronomy Class, prompt "recommendation based on your zodiac sign". As a Cancer, this book hurt my heart more than it healed it.

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vj_thompson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

3.0

I really wanted to like this book like I loved the second one, but I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked aspects of this read. Learning more about Nina and her father’s side of the family. That was probably my favorite part.

Abbi Waxman’s books are similar to Emily Henry’s in the sense of the romance takes the back burner but it is still very relevant to the story. That’s what I was missing with this book. The romance was very dragged out and I hated the third act break up. I think there should have been more explanation or background between Nina and Tom instead of a quick they get back together like nothing happened.

I would still recommend the series as a whole. The second book was my favorite, and I cannot wait to reread it. Hopefully Polly gets her own story!!!

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coacklebee's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

0.25

This was a huge miss for me, and I'm really disappointed about it because I love books and I love books about books. Nina was a walking stereotype of an anxious book-lover, and as someone who has suffered from anxiety for most of my life and read voraciously as a child, there was nothing relatable about her for me. Nina and Tom seriously lacked chemistry, and I have no clue why on earth they ended up together beyond the fact that he apparently really wanted to have sex with her. The sudden found family could have been really interesting, but it just wasn't fully explored. Almost all of the family members love Nina immediately, and the only one who doesn't turns out to be exactly like her (so of course by the end of the book they're best friends). And everything got completely nonsensical in the last couple of chapters.

I'm not normally this harsh reviewing books, but man, I wish I had DNFed this one. A lot of other people seem to really like it though, so maybe this author just isn't for me.

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easypeasy17's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like this book! I had been excited to read it for the past few years and the beginning started out great. However, as the book goes on I just got frustrated. It really felt the the characters were all one-dimensional caricatures. And then Nina, the main character, meets her extended family. This gave the author a great opportunity to explore this experience, but she just made the characters the same.

Everyone in her family is a massive reader. When she meets her brother, he also has anxiety. And when she meets her niece, she also likes random facts.

It was like the author thought that just because you are related, you have to have identical interests.

There were also moments where I thought there were some problematic elements. The main character has anxiety.

At one point she has a panic attack and the love interest helps her get home. He also makes her tea and does some other stuff while she’s in the bathroom. Once she emerges from the bathroom, she tells the love interest that she needs to be alone in order to process her anxiety. He proceeds to then not leave her alone and persistently asks her if he can stay and tells her that he just wants to take care of her. SIR, the best thing you could do to take care of her is to listen to what she is telling you she needs right now. She’s not telling you to leave her forever, just that she needs to process this experience. I was so annoyed! Then at the end of the book, NINA is the one who apologizes for that event. The love interest is the one that should be apologizing. And he proceeds to describe her panic attack as a “freak out” and says, “I don’t want to be with someone who’s ready to throw me under the bus every time she loses her composure.” This is just such a dismissive portrayal of anxiety!

Lastly, there were jokes throughout that were meant to be witty but they read to me as problematic which then took me out of the story. I was so disappointed by this story.

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jennysometimesjen's review against another edition

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5.0

Loved it! I loved the story, I loved the references to 90s culture and TV shows (I probably missed some!)

Edit: After a re-read, this is 5 stars. I loved it. By the end of chapter 1, I'd laughed, read sentences out to my husband, and ordered my own copy (I was reading a library book).
Nina is complicated. But she brilliant. She's funny, anxious, bookish, and full of trivia. Phil the cat is amazing, everyone needs a cat like Phil to give advice.
I already want to re-read this to sit and investigate all the books mentioned.

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mydearwatsonbooks's review

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katielaine_w's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

3.75

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dyerneedtoread's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-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

4.0

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