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A review by qraveline
Something in the Wine by Jae
4.0
Overall a great story, and worth the listen/read. A great romance and discovering, accepting, and standing up for oneself.
Pros:
-Jae did an amazing job with the inner dialogue for Annie, and establishing that self-doubt that made Annie a very relatable character. She was not just some stereotype straight-to-queer trope to slap in, but was a very sturdy character with strong development and growth throughout the book, all of which Jae gave very good insight into.
-As ugly as Annie's relationship with her family was, it was very real. It didn't seem like her family was designed just to be a plot point for Annie, but was a real, messy relationship between her parents and her brother.
-As always, Jae is wonderful with how she writes romance, building up tension and feelings and describing them in a way to make you connect with the characters and their own feelings.
Cons:
-This is audiobook specific, but while the voice of the narrator was pleasant it was missing a lot of emotion. During heightened emotional scenes, it made it harder to connect to the characters when it was said in the same, calm and gentle tone as the rest of the narrative and dialogue. While not exactly monotone, it left a lot of room for improvement in engagement.
-Drew had a lot of potential to develop as a character, but it felt like Drew was introduced as a fully developed character already. Jae could have delved into her feelings about her parents more, or how she grew and got over this grief throughout her relationship with Annie, but this was missing. The only insight we got into Drew was in relation to Annie, and as one of the main characters where her POV is directly described this was jarring in comparison to how detailed Annie's development was.
-In relation to the above, Drew had very little interaction with things outside of her relationship to Annie. It's a romance and that was the focus - but without any interaction outside of Annie Drew became a bit one dimensional.
Pros:
-Jae did an amazing job with the inner dialogue for Annie, and establishing that self-doubt that made Annie a very relatable character. She was not just some stereotype straight-to-queer trope to slap in, but was a very sturdy character with strong development and growth throughout the book, all of which Jae gave very good insight into.
-As ugly as Annie's relationship with her family was, it was very real. It didn't seem like her family was designed just to be a plot point for Annie, but was a real, messy relationship between her parents and her brother.
-As always, Jae is wonderful with how she writes romance, building up tension and feelings and describing them in a way to make you connect with the characters and their own feelings.
Cons:
-This is audiobook specific, but while the voice of the narrator was pleasant it was missing a lot of emotion. During heightened emotional scenes, it made it harder to connect to the characters when it was said in the same, calm and gentle tone as the rest of the narrative and dialogue. While not exactly monotone, it left a lot of room for improvement in engagement.
-Drew had a lot of potential to develop as a character, but it felt like Drew was introduced as a fully developed character already. Jae could have delved into her feelings about her parents more, or how she grew and got over this grief throughout her relationship with Annie, but this was missing. The only insight we got into Drew was in relation to Annie, and as one of the main characters where her POV is directly described this was jarring in comparison to how detailed Annie's development was.
-In relation to the above, Drew had very little interaction with things outside of her relationship to Annie. It's a romance and that was the focus - but without any interaction outside of Annie Drew became a bit one dimensional.