A review by lifeofchrstnlvly
Mile High by Liz Tomforde

emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Top three reasons why I didn't like this book:
  1. This could have been 150 pages shorter.
  2. Insecurity is different from self-criticism without reason. Stevie is a perfect example of the latter. It took me almost five months to finish this simple romance book due to Stevie's persistent "woe is me" attitude, which I found annoying. Note to Stevie: the world does not revolve around you.
  3. Bad writing. Liz Tomforde consistently stated the obvious. For example,
    when Stevie's dad was explaining that her maternal grandmother was harsh to Stevie's mom, leading to Stevie's mom's similar behavior towards Stevie. He was discussing the difficulties for Stevie's mom and hinting at generational trauma. However, in the next paragraph, Stevie's dad explicitly labels it as generational trauma.
    Such repetition was not a one-time thing and it became frustrating. It seemed as if Tomforde underestimated the readers' ability to understand the narrative without explicit explanations. An author should trust their eloquence to convey the message to the audience. This led me to speculate that Tomforde lacked confidence in her explanatory skills, hence the need to state the obvious.

Bonus: “Pop/s a shoulder” or “shoulders pop/popping” was mentioned 15 times. Why can't you come up with a more fitting adjective to describe something like that?
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