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arlettesheyla 's review for:
If We Ever Meet Again
by Ana Huang
2.85 stars ✨
It breaks my heart to rate an Ana Huang book lower than 4 stars, but this was so icky 😫😫
I went into this very excited for a study-abroad love story, especially since I didn’t have the chance to study abroad while I was in school. I was prepared to live vicariously through Farrah’s journey.
Then I started reading.
Farrah is so naive and not in an endearing way. Miss girl tries so hard to present herself as a thought daughter, but instead she delivers so many eye-roll-worthy moments. I liked how invested she was in her interior design work; however, outside of that, she’s so painfully bland. Also, what was with the constant focus on her virginity!? They treated it like her defining trait until she started sleeping with Blake. Even then, the way that her experiences were written was majorly disappointing. There was no emotional depth or gratification in the spicy scenes. It doesn’t help that she was sharing those experiences with someone like Blake.
Speaking of Blake… OMG I hate this man with my entire being. He gives me the ick!!! What a poor excuse for a love interest. I CANNOT STAND HIM. The guy is such a Chad. Even when it wasn’t his chapter, the writing was giving “boys will be boys.” Blake is “only a guy” so what can we expect? We shouldn’t hold him to any STANDARDS. 🙃🙃
The side characters were so underwhelming and I am not looking forward to reading more of them throughout the rest of the series 😖 As a group, they were honestly quite sweet. I really enjoyed their dynamic and found the friendships to be very wholesome. It reminded me a lot of the friend groups in Chinese campus dramas. Similarly, I appreciated the study abroad aspect and how it romanticizes life. The experience of being in a new environment, connecting with people you wouldn’t cross paths with anywhere else, and building a home away from home was all beautifully conveyed. Unfortunately, I don’t think we saw either Farrah or Blake grow from it, which was a missed opportunity.
As for all the drama toward the end, I’m not sure how I feel about it because I’m not sure I believe it. While this is the author’s debut, I have read 6 other books by her, and I don’t believe she would try to make us root for a couple after all of THAT. I just don’t buy it. I think someone is lying, things got misconstrued, or SOMETHING. Ain’t no way she would bring them back for a second book if everything from that ending was actually true. If I’m wrong, though, the next book gets 1 star on Goodreads and 0 stars in my heart.
That being said, if I wasn’t already familiar with Ana Huang’s storytelling and such a huge fan of her work, I could 100% believe that the characters were capable of that creating that messiness because they were just THAT insufferable. The fact that this level of drama could be included AT ALL and not disrupt the tone entirely is a red flag in itself.
Overall, this is not a love story. This is a horrifying tale about a douchebag and his doormat. I will be SO FURIOUS if I read the second book and discover that everything that occurred in this book was actually true.
Audiobook side note: Cindy Kay does not have the voice of a 19/20 year old and Aiden Snow has a dark, sturdy tone that doesn’t match well with Blake’s character.
________________________________________________
Annotations from the audiobook:
Ch 13: A group weekend trip running five figures?!?!? I befriended the wrong people in college 😫😫
Ch 13: Love you like a sister?!?!?!? DAMN 😭
It breaks my heart to rate an Ana Huang book lower than 4 stars, but this was so icky 😫😫
I went into this very excited for a study-abroad love story, especially since I didn’t have the chance to study abroad while I was in school. I was prepared to live vicariously through Farrah’s journey.
Then I started reading.
Farrah is so naive and not in an endearing way. Miss girl tries so hard to present herself as a thought daughter, but instead she delivers so many eye-roll-worthy moments. I liked how invested she was in her interior design work; however, outside of that, she’s so painfully bland. Also, what was with the constant focus on her virginity!? They treated it like her defining trait until she started sleeping with Blake. Even then, the way that her experiences were written was majorly disappointing. There was no emotional depth or gratification in the spicy scenes. It doesn’t help that she was sharing those experiences with someone like Blake.
Speaking of Blake… OMG I hate this man with my entire being. He gives me the ick!!! What a poor excuse for a love interest. I CANNOT STAND HIM. The guy is such a Chad. Even when it wasn’t his chapter, the writing was giving “boys will be boys.” Blake is “only a guy” so what can we expect? We shouldn’t hold him to any STANDARDS. 🙃🙃
The side characters were so underwhelming and I am not looking forward to reading more of them throughout the rest of the series 😖 As a group, they were honestly quite sweet. I really enjoyed their dynamic and found the friendships to be very wholesome. It reminded me a lot of the friend groups in Chinese campus dramas. Similarly, I appreciated the study abroad aspect and how it romanticizes life. The experience of being in a new environment, connecting with people you wouldn’t cross paths with anywhere else, and building a home away from home was all beautifully conveyed. Unfortunately, I don’t think we saw either Farrah or Blake grow from it, which was a missed opportunity.
As for all the drama toward the end, I’m not sure how I feel about it because I’m not sure I believe it. While this is the author’s debut, I have read 6 other books by her, and I don’t believe she would try to make us root for a couple after all of THAT. I just don’t buy it. I think someone is lying, things got misconstrued, or SOMETHING. Ain’t no way she would bring them back for a second book if everything from that ending was actually true. If I’m wrong, though, the next book gets 1 star on Goodreads and 0 stars in my heart.
That being said, if I wasn’t already familiar with Ana Huang’s storytelling and such a huge fan of her work, I could 100% believe that the characters were capable of that creating that messiness because they were just THAT insufferable. The fact that this level of drama could be included AT ALL and not disrupt the tone entirely is a red flag in itself.
Overall, this is not a love story. This is a horrifying tale about a douchebag and his doormat. I will be SO FURIOUS if I read the second book and discover that everything that occurred in this book was actually true.
Audiobook side note: Cindy Kay does not have the voice of a 19/20 year old and Aiden Snow has a dark, sturdy tone that doesn’t match well with Blake’s character.
________________________________________________
Annotations from the audiobook:
Ch 13: A group weekend trip running five figures?!?!? I befriended the wrong people in college 😫😫
Ch 13: Love you like a sister?!?!?!? DAMN 😭