Take a photo of a barcode or cover
liblibby's Reviews (254)
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I desperately wanted to enjoy this book. I love Jane Smiley. She’s a trusted, go to author and I tried so hard with this. At 3/4 of the way through I was ready to give up. But I read reviews that said there was a big plot twist in the epilogue (an enormous pet peeve of mine btw—that’s not what an epilogue is for). But I kept going.
I desperately wanted our main character to explore her luck or examine her privilege—especially when she goes on and on about how safe St. Louis is. Completely forgetting the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent protests-turned-riots in Ferguson.
This book never answered my question which was: what is the point? Why would she write this?
I found an article that described this as a fictionalization of Jane Smileys own biography. Only as a musician instead of an author. That answered my question enough but left me disappointed. The worst thing that ever happened to our main character was climate change.
This is a long, boring book about a privileged, white boomer with no capacity for honest self-reflection, just navel gazing.
I desperately wanted our main character to explore her luck or examine her privilege—especially when she goes on and on about how safe St. Louis is. Completely forgetting the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent protests-turned-riots in Ferguson.
This book never answered my question which was: what is the point? Why would she write this?
I found an article that described this as a fictionalization of Jane Smileys own biography. Only as a musician instead of an author. That answered my question enough but left me disappointed. The worst thing that ever happened to our main character was climate change.
This is a long, boring book about a privileged, white boomer with no capacity for honest self-reflection, just navel gazing.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can’t believe how much I loved this book. Adventurous or action-packed stories often confuse me. And TBH there were some parts of this story that I’ll admit, I did not follow terribly well. But I got the gist.
Many people describe this book as a genre bender—including that it is a romance. I do believe that marketing teams are using that word because romance is very trendy right now. But the love story in this book doesn’t follow any part of the romance genre. In all my years of romance reading, I have never seen characters fall in love like this. There is a love-story sub-plot that magnificently enhances the main storyline. But it is not the whole story by any means.
Many people describe this book as a genre bender—including that it is a romance. I do believe that marketing teams are using that word because romance is very trendy right now. But the love story in this book doesn’t follow any part of the romance genre. In all my years of romance reading, I have never seen characters fall in love like this. There is a love-story sub-plot that magnificently enhances the main storyline. But it is not the whole story by any means.
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved this book. Sucked me right in from the very beginning. I regret that I put this book off for so long.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Stalking, Murder, Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual assault
informative
lighthearted
I loved this cookbook. I read every page—which isn’t something I always do. Unless it’s a Matty Matheson cookbook.
It felt like a celebration of friends and community and all the most beautiful parts of humanity.
It felt like a celebration of friends and community and all the most beautiful parts of humanity.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Uh. Huh. Well.
I would have loved to get an editor to take a second pass at this book. Some parts are so long and drawn out and then other important parts are thrown together so quickly that it’s absolutely muddy and confusing. I’m not sure I know what happened here—but not because the author wants me to feel that way.
I would have loved to get an editor to take a second pass at this book. Some parts are so long and drawn out and then other important parts are thrown together so quickly that it’s absolutely muddy and confusing. I’m not sure I know what happened here—but not because the author wants me to feel that way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Just as charming as you would expect! Flawless execution. IMO Emily Henry is the best in her league.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ordinarily I don't enjoy books in the "depressed twenty-something woman who lives in NYC" genre but I rather enjoyed this one. Maybe because it's about sisters and I have such a complex non-relationship with my sister that a story about sisters who love each other--even if they hate each other, was what my soul needed. But also, this story stayed on the humorous side of realistic. It didn't get too depressing but it still felt very honest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting
This. Book. Sucks. It's marketed as a sweet story between an orphan who got her life together and a billionaire.
But there is SO MUCH TRAUMA in this book. And it's not handled well at all.
But there is SO MUCH TRAUMA in this book. And it's not handled well at all.
There are two former orphans and they both lived through childhood sexual abuse (one of them goes into way too much detail imo).
On top of that--as if that's not enough for us to get the point that people are going through it, there's child death, kidnapping, infidelity, on-page murder, spousal r*pe, and at least two instances of cancer.
I was determined to finish because I wanted to see how this author wrapped it up into a happy ending. But then I read some reviews on StoryGraph and learned that it's part of a duology--so this story doesn't resolve itself at all. So I just quit.
I was determined to finish because I wanted to see how this author wrapped it up into a happy ending. But then I read some reviews on StoryGraph and learned that it's part of a duology--so this story doesn't resolve itself at all. So I just quit.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really like this author's works--I LOVED The Woman in the Library and I might even have liked this one more than that if it weren't for all the... tedious inaccuracies that I kept catching throughout the piece. It's so important to get a reader from the place where you're going to set your book if you're not terribly familiar with it.
It felt like there was a lot of research done to determine, say, the names of streets and certain landmark businesses in Lawrence, KS. But then other basic things were really overlooked. For example, an American would never say "I just got out of hospital." They'd say, "I just got out of the hospital." I know it's small but it really sounds strange to an American ear. Also, there's no such thing as the Kansas Police Department. Here, it's the [City] Police Department (so, in this case, Lawrence Police Department) or the [State} Bureau of Investigation (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).
Like I said, the story was great but I, personally, really struggled to stick with the story when I kept getting distracted by these little things.
It felt like there was a lot of research done to determine, say, the names of streets and certain landmark businesses in Lawrence, KS. But then other basic things were really overlooked. For example, an American would never say "I just got out of hospital." They'd say, "I just got out of the hospital." I know it's small but it really sounds strange to an American ear. Also, there's no such thing as the Kansas Police Department. Here, it's the [City] Police Department (so, in this case, Lawrence Police Department) or the [State} Bureau of Investigation (Kansas Bureau of Investigation).
Like I said, the story was great but I, personally, really struggled to stick with the story when I kept getting distracted by these little things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder
Minor: Pedophilia