A review by ellasbookcorner
Wednesday Walks & Wags by Melissa Storm

emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Right so I’m writing this just as I finished the book, thoughts very fresh. Side note I didn’t know this was a sequel, but surprisingly, I wasn’t lost, at all. At the beginning you get a pretty good summary of what happened before the book started, you could even say it seems like a good standalone book. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, you can determine yourself, I think it’s not the best thing since it wasn’t marketed as a sequel, but that’s also my fault for not looking into it.

Rep

Anyways, main character Bridget is described as half Inuit, with frizzy black hair, and here’s the thing, I would’ve loved to hear more about her Inuit family tree, but it was brushed off to the side. The only time it pops up is when she mentions that her love interest Wes is white, and we’re talking about white blonde hair described every time he’s in a scene or raises an eyebrow (I wish I was kidding), and she says he looks like an Alaskan Prince. I’m not kidding, I had to take a second to think about it, laugh and tweet about it. It was…a thing. But I won’t talk more about the rep because well, it could’ve been discussed more in depth in the first book, and since I’m not indigenous, it’s not my place whether to say it was well done or not!

Romance

Next up, the romance, it was pretty well developed, we get a nice strangers to kind of friends to lovers situation. The characters get to know each other and the readers get to see how their relationship slowly develops into something more towards the end. I can’t say I enjoyed the plot twist that turns their relationship off course. I won’t say what it was, but let’s just say it was an odd placement and sure in the end it makes for a fine obstacle, but it wasn’t my favorite twist.

However something I did like was that when it all went downhill, her friends were there to support her, and give her the right advice. Now I say right advice because sometimes the truth hurts, in a kind of non spoiler description, they told her that she should stay away from him until she gets the full story. Although at times, they may have gone over the edge with what she had to do, as oppose to what she should consider doing, but that plays into the fact that she was the one that was babied in her friend group for being the youngest.

Sub Plots

So there’s two major sub plots: college/career frustration and the grieving of parent loss.

First one, that’s more discussed is the parent loss, I liked how this was handled. It shows how the process is truly different for each person, and how it takes a very long time to come to term with such a loss. Bridget keeps a box with memories of her mom, and it becomes the physical representation of that loss, and how it affects her. Something that’s also talked about is how this affects your relationship with those who are still around, i.e. another parent and/or siblings. We got to see how Bridget was able to take decisions to better her life and better her friendships/relationships.

Second subplot, school and career frustration. This isn’t as important until the end of the book, but it’s still appreciated. Dealing with adults going back to school finishing up the last few years of school, or even starting a career for the first time!

Final Thoughts

So after so many good opinions, why is it only a 3 star? I feel like it was meh in some parts, like I said, I didn’t like the plot twist, I felt like I was just missing something, maybe a bit more conflict or a little bit more development for the characters. I also would’ve liked to see more of her family and scenes where she was alone just thinking about some situations.