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thefatspicegirl 's review for:

The Bookshop Sisterhood by Michelle Lindo-Rice
DID NOT FINISH: 43%
I requested The Bookshop Sisterhood with high hopes for a cozy novel about friendship and a love of books. What I got was unnecessary drama with one-dimensional characters, simplistic and kinda lazy writing that didn't always make sense or was unrealistic, and questionable content like minor fatphobia, the normalization of adult/minor sexual relationship, and weird misogynist elements. I have a laundry list of quotes from this book with comments. 

Some of my issues
  • saying an audiobook-only reader read 10 books in three days
  • a doctor immediately diagnosing someone as infertile with only an ultrasound and a urine test (which btw it never said she took the urine test & was there even enough time to test the sample AND have the doctor interpret the results, also how does a vaginal ultrasound show shrunken ovaries clear enough to diagnose infertility? she had eggs, could she not do IVF or a surrogate? she had enough money for that)
  • three incredibly financially privileged women & one working class woman solving her money issues with winning the lottery
  • the only woman in an executive position at a law firm being pit against a main character as if she's trying to steal her husband
  • completely out of character reactions from said husband, like why did he lie to her?, he said so many terrible things!
  • weird commentary on adoption
  • positively talking about a sexual relationship between a 20 & 16 year-old (he's a "considerate lover" um no he's a groomer and a rapist)
  • first chapter has one character judging one of her best friends for being plus size shading her for a decade of baby weight & allegedly overindulging in sweets--fatphobia much? peoples bodies change after they have children & as they get older. also... why did that have to be said?
  • did these friends even like each other?
  • the conversations felt so unrealistic

This book is just.... not good--at least what I read. I DNFed at 43%. Kept avoiding the book for two weeks making me avoid reading altogether.

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC! Though I didn't like the book, I appreciate the chance to read and review.
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