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A review by mjsam
Cure for Insomnia by Laina Villeneuve
3.0
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I don’t think I’ve read this author before, I liked this but didn’t love it.
So, this features Karla, a scientist working on diabetes related research, and Remi, a behavioural psychologist who works with school children. Karla has a large immediate family that includes her 11 year old niece, who is somewhat gifted and uses Karla’s insomnia issues as her science project. Karla and Remi meet through this because Remi is a judge at the competition. Remi also has an autistic brother, Neil, whom she is very protective of, and family issues related to this. Both characters are POC.
This is told in first person through Karla, and it’s hardly ever my favourite choice because it usually means one character gets short changed, here it’s Remi, who apart from the brief meet up at the science fair, is largely absent from the first 20% of the story. Even when she does show up, she remains somewhat of a mystery and given her family situation I’d have liked to read her POV. There was something weird about the writing though, I couldn’t quite figure it out but it felt a little too formal, especially Remi’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was on purpose because she’s a multilingual character, but I found it odd.
The two MCs are also workaholics who appreciate the other’s ability to understand how their work might interfere but Remi is a little less understanding about this as time goes on and Karla become more acquainted with Neil. Karla’s job is very work intensive and she cops flak about this from everyone she’s in contact with. She’s also mentoring a young college student working at her lab and dealing with some homophobia related to this.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book, and because of that I felt the romance aspect fell a little short, the two MCs had good chemistry, abut weren’t really together enough for me to really get a feel of their relationship. The ‘conflict’ that arises towards the end is a little contrived and the resolution wasn’t that satisfying, at least for me. Just seemed like a fairly abrupt about face.
I liked the depiction of a scientist as an MC (STEM characters are rare in wlw fic) and there’s plenty of diversity. I also like Karla’s strong family ties (especially the scenes with her niece Rosa) and her best friend Val and her wife Emma (having not read the author before I didn’t know if they had their own book but it felt like they might have). I also liked that both MCs were strong characters who weren’t afraid to go after what they wanted, but the romance aspect wasn’t strong enough for me. 3 stars.
I don’t think I’ve read this author before, I liked this but didn’t love it.
So, this features Karla, a scientist working on diabetes related research, and Remi, a behavioural psychologist who works with school children. Karla has a large immediate family that includes her 11 year old niece, who is somewhat gifted and uses Karla’s insomnia issues as her science project. Karla and Remi meet through this because Remi is a judge at the competition. Remi also has an autistic brother, Neil, whom she is very protective of, and family issues related to this. Both characters are POC.
This is told in first person through Karla, and it’s hardly ever my favourite choice because it usually means one character gets short changed, here it’s Remi, who apart from the brief meet up at the science fair, is largely absent from the first 20% of the story. Even when she does show up, she remains somewhat of a mystery and given her family situation I’d have liked to read her POV. There was something weird about the writing though, I couldn’t quite figure it out but it felt a little too formal, especially Remi’s dialogue. I’m not sure if that was on purpose because she’s a multilingual character, but I found it odd.
The two MCs are also workaholics who appreciate the other’s ability to understand how their work might interfere but Remi is a little less understanding about this as time goes on and Karla become more acquainted with Neil. Karla’s job is very work intensive and she cops flak about this from everyone she’s in contact with. She’s also mentoring a young college student working at her lab and dealing with some homophobia related to this.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book, and because of that I felt the romance aspect fell a little short, the two MCs had good chemistry, abut weren’t really together enough for me to really get a feel of their relationship. The ‘conflict’ that arises towards the end is a little contrived and the resolution wasn’t that satisfying, at least for me. Just seemed like a fairly abrupt about face.
I liked the depiction of a scientist as an MC (STEM characters are rare in wlw fic) and there’s plenty of diversity. I also like Karla’s strong family ties (especially the scenes with her niece Rosa) and her best friend Val and her wife Emma (having not read the author before I didn’t know if they had their own book but it felt like they might have). I also liked that both MCs were strong characters who weren’t afraid to go after what they wanted, but the romance aspect wasn’t strong enough for me. 3 stars.