A review by chirson
My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas

3.0

The first half was decent albeit weaker than the prequel, and the flashbacks were quite fun (with the exception of the instachange instaconflict), but the plot of the second half... it felt like a list of plot points at times. The characters spent years apart and angry, but now they resolve their differences and just know they should be back together because fate. The story requires a lot of suspension of disbelief on a plot level, and I guess that is to be expected (though I'd much prefer it if that second meeting occurred through Herb or at least because they are both searching for the jade tablets rather than fully independently) but the emotions shouldn't require the same thing in a romance. And they did. The engagement resolves too neatly (he discovers the lady was a shitty human, so it's okay to break things off and leave her... to be destitute and possibly unmarriageable?), the dead baby gets ultimately glossed over... I don't know, it felt like a huge deadline had come too soon for Sherry Thomas, and that's a pity because the characters and the setting and the ideas deserved better.

(I still like her a lot though, not gonna lie.)