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A review by emmazucati
Girls on the Line by Aimie K. Runyan
3.0
I'm torn. I think the story and the characters deserve 5 stars, but the writing was just a bit too clunky for me to walk away loving the book. If you're reading 3 star reviews because you can't decide if you want to read this or not, definitely do it. It's 100% worth it and it's a fast read.
I think the fact that this is one of two books by this author to come out in one year might mean something. It felt like not enough "tough love" editing took place where something sounds off and you have to rewrite the whole chapter/scene.
The main character was a completely different person around her parents. Like not just "you don't understand the real me" which is a completely fair thing to do, but even internal monologue felt like a different person. I liked the political undertones in the internal monologue, but those were also clunky! Also, lots of character development in the beginning of the book for people that weren't in the rest of it. And at one point, one of the characters spoke up about prejudice in the middle of a restaurant and everyone heard her and after the rude person left from embarrassment, people clapped. Clapped?? No. This is all stuff that might be fun to write in an earlier draft, or a good vibe you're setting up when putting words on paper, but I felt like it could've been edited out to be less clunky.
Very specific complaints aside, the story was super interesting. I think WWI and WWII historical fiction, especially romance, tends to only have two women surrounded by a lot of men overseas, so this was a very fun perspective to read about. And I really liked the ending; I thought it was realistic and clever.
Read the book, enjoy it, and try to ignore the clunkiness. Have I used the word clunky enough yet? Oof, maybe this review was clunky.
I think the fact that this is one of two books by this author to come out in one year might mean something. It felt like not enough "tough love" editing took place where something sounds off and you have to rewrite the whole chapter/scene.
The main character was a completely different person around her parents. Like not just "you don't understand the real me" which is a completely fair thing to do, but even internal monologue felt like a different person. I liked the political undertones in the internal monologue, but those were also clunky! Also, lots of character development in the beginning of the book for people that weren't in the rest of it. And at one point, one of the characters spoke up about prejudice in the middle of a restaurant and everyone heard her and after the rude person left from embarrassment, people clapped. Clapped?? No. This is all stuff that might be fun to write in an earlier draft, or a good vibe you're setting up when putting words on paper, but I felt like it could've been edited out to be less clunky.
Very specific complaints aside, the story was super interesting. I think WWI and WWII historical fiction, especially romance, tends to only have two women surrounded by a lot of men overseas, so this was a very fun perspective to read about. And I really liked the ending; I thought it was realistic and clever.
Read the book, enjoy it, and try to ignore the clunkiness. Have I used the word clunky enough yet? Oof, maybe this review was clunky.