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A review by snapcracklepoppies
Dream House by Stephanie Fournet
3.0
The book had a lot of charming points, mostly the characters themselves and the way the house came together as a family, but there were a lot of things that detracted from the story for me. Most importantly/most annoyingly is how every single damn character could win a gold medal in conclusion jumping. It was ridiculous the amount of times they lept to the most asinine conclusions, especially the side characters that had no idea what was actually going on which led to them meddling and causing even more problems and self-doubt. And yes, this is a common plot driver, however its not usually used over and over and over with EVERY contributing character- EVEN THE CHILD. Like c'mon. Because of all the conclusion jumping and pre-existing baggage (both sides are hot messes) it was just one miscommunication after another, often with lashing out, hurt feelings, and/or listening to side characters cause even more problems. It was, quite frankly, exhausting after a while. I almost DNFd but I needed an audiobook to keep my brain distracted and I guess being annoyed/irritated with a book is just as effective distraction as enjoying one is.
It was disappointing because I don't see a lot of geology representation and that's something near and dear to my heart. And I enjoyed those parts of Lark's character. (I hated his family though and how obsessed they were with him getting married and how they treated him like shit about it. Including his brother that he's supposedly really close with. And his brothers wife's meddling.) I also really enjoyed Penn's character, both her fluid sexuality and her occult proclivities, and how decently-versed (not quite "well-versed") the author was in certain aspects of the occult. However, I *hated* how Stella made fun of, poked at, and belittled Penn's beliefs. It was unnecessary, like it made her unlikeable to a degree and I almost wished the author had just not included it at all because you have this fantastic side character that you continually cut down with the FMC, AND the audiobook narration made it sound even worse because she was so over the top about it.
Honestly 3 stars is probably too generous but I did finish it and there weren't any major writing sins... and the plot was decent, I love the whole Grandmother giving her a house and her filling it and turning it into a home like Gran wished angle. Found family is always a weakness of mine.
It was disappointing because I don't see a lot of geology representation and that's something near and dear to my heart. And I enjoyed those parts of Lark's character. (I hated his family though and how obsessed they were with him getting married and how they treated him like shit about it. Including his brother that he's supposedly really close with. And his brothers wife's meddling.) I also really enjoyed Penn's character, both her fluid sexuality and her occult proclivities, and how decently-versed (not quite "well-versed") the author was in certain aspects of the occult. However, I *hated* how Stella made fun of, poked at, and belittled Penn's beliefs. It was unnecessary, like it made her unlikeable to a degree and I almost wished the author had just not included it at all because you have this fantastic side character that you continually cut down with the FMC, AND the audiobook narration made it sound even worse because she was so over the top about it.
Honestly 3 stars is probably too generous but I did finish it and there weren't any major writing sins... and the plot was decent, I love the whole Grandmother giving her a house and her filling it and turning it into a home like Gran wished angle. Found family is always a weakness of mine.