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A review by lezreadalot
Neither Present Time by Caren J. Werlinger
3.0
"Live your life, Agatha. Life your life; every second of it. You can't live without regrets, but don't let the regrets be from not living."
This was an extremely touching novel that dealt with love across time, recovering from abuse, recovering from trauma, finding yourself, and finding new love. I didn't expect to be so deeply affected by it, but sometimes I really was. The three main characters, Beryl, Aggie, and Cory, have such an amazing little story, and I really enjoy the way in which it was told. I especially liked the first half of the book, precisely because of how slowly it moved, how the book took its time setting up Cory's past with Helen, Beryl's toxic relationship with Claire, her blossoming friendship with Ridley, Aggie's family life and relationship with Cory. You can tell where things are going, but it comes together in an extremely satisfying and slow way. My favourite part of the book was Beryl's arc in dealing with Claire, and her friendship with Ridley. It was so touching! Such good mlm/wlw solidarity!
The book kiiiiiinda lost me in the latter half.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Eliza Foss, who has a voice I can only describe as 'old-fashioned'? It 100% worked for the story. I enjoyed it a lot.
Despite a few flaws, this was a really lovely f/f romance, with some great stuff about family, friendships, life, death, and love. 3.5 stars.
This was an extremely touching novel that dealt with love across time, recovering from abuse, recovering from trauma, finding yourself, and finding new love. I didn't expect to be so deeply affected by it, but sometimes I really was. The three main characters, Beryl, Aggie, and Cory, have such an amazing little story, and I really enjoy the way in which it was told. I especially liked the first half of the book, precisely because of how slowly it moved, how the book took its time setting up Cory's past with Helen, Beryl's toxic relationship with Claire, her blossoming friendship with Ridley, Aggie's family life and relationship with Cory. You can tell where things are going, but it comes together in an extremely satisfying and slow way. My favourite part of the book was Beryl's arc in dealing with Claire, and her friendship with Ridley. It was so touching! Such good mlm/wlw solidarity!
The book kiiiiiinda lost me in the latter half.
Spoiler
Beryl and Aggie are good for each other, and I wanted them to get together, but after taking it slow for so long, they seemed to rush into things and all of a sudden it was partnership and living together and ilus. Kinda jarring, given how delicious and slow the first half was. There was a lot of head-hopping which I always hate (though kudos to the author for managing to make it not as jarring as it can be) and as much as I loved Cory and Helen's story, I didn't love the way the flashbacks were done? And I reeeeeeally didn't like how weight-loss was posited as this clear gateway to life improvement. It was great for Beryl to reclaim the physical activity that Claire had taken away from her, but the way her lost weight was treated as almost a necessity for health and happiness... didn't like it.Listened to the audiobook as read by Eliza Foss, who has a voice I can only describe as 'old-fashioned'? It 100% worked for the story. I enjoyed it a lot.
Despite a few flaws, this was a really lovely f/f romance, with some great stuff about family, friendships, life, death, and love. 3.5 stars.