A review by splitdice
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

1.75

okay, so i want to start out with don't let my low review sway you because i think at least part of the problem was that this book wasnt what i expected/wasnt for me. this book reads so much more like a romcom/romance than historical fiction, which made the entire reading process feel really off for me. it utilizes third person following the main character, jean. this writing style made the entire book sound very tell-not-show, which honestly made it feel like i was reading fan fiction. it wasnt just the writing style, however. it was also just how the scenes were? there is a week where the two women grow really close apparently but we arent really shown a lot of it and just told. no character in this book felt like a real person and no one said things that seemed even a little bit realistic. the way everyone talked and acted seemed like a contemporary romance but taking place in 1830s nova scotia. so why make it historical in the first place? so some vilianous characters are homophobic and everyone else is not? it was so hard to take anything seriously in this book too because of the writing. and some really fucked up things happened if you thought about it too hard and when there were these darker moments none of it felt serious! and whenever the main character had emotional/dark things happening everything just seemed to go over really quickly? i dont know, it was a huge mess and everything was clashing in terms of tone, writing, characters, setting, plot. and even though everything in theory in this book is interesting it was SO BORING. like i really should have dnfed it but im stubborn. i didnt care about any of the characters and i was rushing to be done with this book.
i wanted to like this book so much and i think thats why its so disappointing :( im giving it more than 1 star bc i do enjoy the lesbian rep and it isnt necessarily bad/harmful/egregious unlike some other books i read but it was just flat out bad.