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the_one_krissy 's review for:
Twice Shy
by Sarah Hogle
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I liked this novel and didn't like it. Or, to be more precise, I enjoyed some parts of it but hated the absolute cringe-worthiness and stupidity of Maybell during the first half of the book. More about that later.
There were pros in addition to the cons, though! Wesley was a sweetheart, and the way his crippling social anxiety was handled felt believable and touching. Their banter, when they actually started communicating, was cute and funny. The exchange of notes and letters was borderline adorable, and the general feeling the story gave me in the second half of the book was warm and fuzzy. Thank you ever so much for NOT ruining it with a stupid last-minute conflict or misunderstanding. When Maybell and Wesley finally started communicating, they did so with openness and sincerity, and hence Wesley's meltdown at the airport and its aftermath were beautifully handled.
The cons, then. I could say a thing or two about the thinness of the plot, and the ridiculousness of the very idea that a very hands-on and outdoorsy groundskeeper who loves working with animals would ever, in any universe, choose to wear white clothing when going on a long hike that involves digging, but those are things I can let slide. What I can't let slide is how utterly useless, airheaded, scatterbrained, and dumb Maybell was for the first half of the book. She was so cringe it was painful and annoying as hell. The daydreaming sequences were godawful, and what was even worse was that she was stupid enough to allow herself to get lost in them for HOURS - to such an extent that she got lost in the woods for real, night had fallen without her noticing, and Wesley had to rescue her. Unnngh I can't even. Thank goodness she started showing signs of intelligent life after that, and after the utter stupidity of painting on the walls with watercolours, and after brushing off Wesley's conservation of endangered species with "but it's not pretty", otherwise this would have been a DNF for me. It came close, but I'm glad I clenched my teeth and soldiered on until I got to the parts that were honestly sweet.
I do wish Maybell had grown a stronger backbone when she returned to her former workplace to set things straight, but having been in a vaguely similar situation with a bad former boss, I couldn't pull out all the stops either, so I can relate to her not going Godzilla after all. Might have been liberating, but I understand why she left the way she did.
Overall, this rom com was not without faults, but it was still a nice read with occasional moments of tooth-rotting fluff.
There were pros in addition to the cons, though! Wesley was a sweetheart, and the way his crippling social anxiety was handled felt believable and touching. Their banter, when they actually started communicating, was cute and funny. The exchange of notes and letters was borderline adorable, and the general feeling the story gave me in the second half of the book was warm and fuzzy. Thank you ever so much for NOT ruining it with a stupid last-minute conflict or misunderstanding. When Maybell and Wesley finally started communicating, they did so with openness and sincerity, and hence Wesley's meltdown at the airport and its aftermath were beautifully handled.
The cons, then. I could say a thing or two about the thinness of the plot, and the ridiculousness of the very idea that a very hands-on and outdoorsy groundskeeper who loves working with animals would ever, in any universe, choose to wear white clothing when going on a long hike that involves digging, but those are things I can let slide. What I can't let slide is how utterly useless, airheaded, scatterbrained, and dumb Maybell was for the first half of the book. She was so cringe it was painful and annoying as hell. The daydreaming sequences were godawful, and what was even worse was that she was stupid enough to allow herself to get lost in them for HOURS - to such an extent that she got lost in the woods for real, night had fallen without her noticing, and Wesley had to rescue her. Unnngh I can't even. Thank goodness she started showing signs of intelligent life after that, and after the utter stupidity of painting on the walls with watercolours, and after brushing off Wesley's conservation of endangered species with "but it's not pretty", otherwise this would have been a DNF for me. It came close, but I'm glad I clenched my teeth and soldiered on until I got to the parts that were honestly sweet.
I do wish Maybell had grown a stronger backbone when she returned to her former workplace to set things straight, but having been in a vaguely similar situation with a bad former boss, I couldn't pull out all the stops either, so I can relate to her not going Godzilla after all. Might have been liberating, but I understand why she left the way she did.
Overall, this rom com was not without faults, but it was still a nice read with occasional moments of tooth-rotting fluff.