helplesswhilstdrying 's review for:

People Watching by Hannah Bonam-Young

3.5

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Released : 11th September 
Thank you to Bedford Square Publishers for the ARC 

I have never been more excited to get an ARC! If you don’t know Hannah Bonham-Young has quickly become one of my auto-buy authors after discovering her next year - and I was super intrigued about this one as it has moved away from her usual art cover style, wondering whether it was marking the start of something new. 

In the quiet tourist town of Baysville, introverted Prue has built a life of routine, working at her father’s gas station, writing poetry, and caring for her mother with Early Onset Alzheimer’s - until an enigmatic drifter named Milo rolls into town in a battered van. Drawn into his free-spirited orbit, Prue strikes up an unlikely friendship that quickly turns into a bold, no-strings arrangement. Their chemistry deepens and life pulls them in unexpected directions, both must decide whether they’re ready to take the leap from comfort to something real.

HBY’s writing is romance with a literary feel to me - and in the first 20% of this it felt much more sitting on the literary side of the fence to me which I was loving - and then… the spice was way more descriptive than her others when it hit and caught me completely off guard!

Over the past two months I’ve been feeling unimpressed by almost everything I’ve read - this was something I found a lot of joy in lapping up. It was very very close to being a 4 star read but as I drew towards the end - there were a few things that put me off.

- Milo's first reaction to Prue is imagining her naked, then we kind of slow burn backwards a little, just seemed a little odd in retrospect
- Milo, pegged as a Bisexual but it didn't feel like it came into the story at all and was kind of a tickbox for something of diversity. Maybe it's not an issue but it also didn't play a part either.
- Prue seems to have struggled with confidence in able to lose her virginity - yet she dives pretty headfirst into letting a man who has slept with ~200 people? 
- I feel like their bond was built a little on him helping with his previous connection to Mrs Welch and they needed to establish a bit more common ground between the two characters to build a more convincing relationship.
- The book was pretty short and I thought it had room to play with more narrative about Milo's relationships with his siblings and struggle with his parents - his background felt a bit looser to Prue's.

I think the chapters were a little longer than normal than we see in HBY books, but despite that it was still a fast page turner for me - and the epilogue was so sweet, possibly my favourite part of the book and I almost never say that!

I’d already booked signing tickets for HBY in London for this launch too - so I can’t wait to add this to my shelf physically when it comes out!