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A review by fayereadsbooks
The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I rather enjoyed this book.
The cast of characters was much more diverse than any other chick-lit book I have read before. Penny's sister has a wife, her uncle has a husband, their is side characters called Charlie who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns (which are used correctly throughout). Francesco is Italian and Priyesh is half-Indian. The kitchen staff were all from different countries: one is Filipino, one is Dutch and one is Polish. Most contemporary books tend to only feature white, straight characters so it was great to see quite a diverse cast of characters. I don't want to applaud the author for doing the bare minimum (diverse characters should be in all books) but this is pretty uncommon in popular contemporary so it was good to see.
To be honest, considering the key aspect of this book was the 'love square', I was much more interested in the life side of the story than the romance. I liked reading about the running of a café and a restaurant.
One thing that annoyed me was the cover of the book. You would expect the cover to show the four characters involved in the love square and most of them are. Francesco has a bike and Thomas has a dog, which both relate to how they met Penny. But Priyesh doesn't look as he is described. He is described in these quotes- "His shoulder-length hair was thick and silky" "My mother is from India and my father is from Coventry. Hence Jones but with brown skin". But the final character on the cover has black skin, short hair and is holding a drink that looks like a slush puppy, which doesn't appear in the book at all. Its a little thing but I just don't understand why Priyesh isn't drawn correctly.
Lizzo is mentioned frequently throughout the book: Thomas is her tour manager, Penny loves her music, they go to her concert. I see how this could be seen as unnecessary but it was okay. In the epilogue, Thomas and Lizzo video call Penny and I just found this so hilarious for some reason. It just kind of happened out of nowhere like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I liked this quote:
"Everyone wanted something from her, and Penny realised she didn't know what she wanted for herself. She'd been so caught up in everyone else's needs and wants and agendas, escaping from herself and making a mess of her life, when what she actually needed was to look inward and figure out what was important to her"
It seems like i enjoyed this book much more than other reviews did. I enjoyed it at time of reading but wouldn't say i'll remember much about it. I would recommend it :)
The cast of characters was much more diverse than any other chick-lit book I have read before. Penny's sister has a wife, her uncle has a husband, their is side characters called Charlie who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns (which are used correctly throughout). Francesco is Italian and Priyesh is half-Indian. The kitchen staff were all from different countries: one is Filipino, one is Dutch and one is Polish. Most contemporary books tend to only feature white, straight characters so it was great to see quite a diverse cast of characters. I don't want to applaud the author for doing the bare minimum (diverse characters should be in all books) but this is pretty uncommon in popular contemporary so it was good to see.
To be honest, considering the key aspect of this book was the 'love square', I was much more interested in the life side of the story than the romance. I liked reading about the running of a café and a restaurant.
One thing that annoyed me was the cover of the book. You would expect the cover to show the four characters involved in the love square and most of them are. Francesco has a bike and Thomas has a dog, which both relate to how they met Penny. But Priyesh doesn't look as he is described. He is described in these quotes- "His shoulder-length hair was thick and silky" "My mother is from India and my father is from Coventry. Hence Jones but with brown skin". But the final character on the cover has black skin, short hair and is holding a drink that looks like a slush puppy, which doesn't appear in the book at all. Its a little thing but I just don't understand why Priyesh isn't drawn correctly.
Lizzo is mentioned frequently throughout the book: Thomas is her tour manager, Penny loves her music, they go to her concert. I see how this could be seen as unnecessary but it was okay. In the epilogue, Thomas and Lizzo video call Penny and I just found this so hilarious for some reason. It just kind of happened out of nowhere like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I liked this quote:
"Everyone wanted something from her, and Penny realised she didn't know what she wanted for herself. She'd been so caught up in everyone else's needs and wants and agendas, escaping from herself and making a mess of her life, when what she actually needed was to look inward and figure out what was important to her"
It seems like i enjoyed this book much more than other reviews did. I enjoyed it at time of reading but wouldn't say i'll remember much about it. I would recommend it :)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, and Sexual content
heart attack, IVF