This book drained me and almost put me in a reading slump, so the DNF shelf it goes (and I don’t DNF books that easily, they have to be really infuriating to get DNF’ed). Not sure why I keep giving Ali Hazelwood a chance, but here we are.

There was nothing to like about this book except for the fact that chess plays a big part in it. Although the main character, of course, hates it, and makes it her entire personality and quirk. The reason behind her attitude towards chess was valid, but every time Mallory talked about how much she didn’t want to be associated with chess like her whole identity depended on it, I just wanted to gouge my eyes out. I mean—okay, enough already, WE GET IT, you HATE chess and absolutely do NOT want to play it.

Another thing that irked me was that there were too many pop culture references that felt very out of place. I don’t mind pop culture references in books, movies, or shows (one of the reasons why I love Gilmore Girls)—but when you’ve already reached about 48% of the book and have read nothing but mentions of Candy Crush, Harry Styles, Tiktok, Tinder, etc. you’d wish the author would just get on with the story and stop it with the fillers. I’m not exaggerating when I say there are several irrelevant references in every chapter.

The characters also lacked depth. All I know about Mallory is that she abhors chess and does not want to be associated with it unless she’s at work or at a tournament, and that she’s the responsible oldest daughter in a liberated sex-positive household™ under the supervision of the liberated sex-positive mother™. Other than that, she’s nothing but flat and two dimensional. Nolan seems to be the obsessed boyfriend archetype with the oh so gorgeous deep voice, and he’s seemingly a douchebag too—wow that’s definitely new, much unique. 50% in and that’s all I got from the main characters. Hell, Nolan doesn’t even get mentioned enough until about halfway through. For a book categorized as romance, it sure does not have enough romance in it to hook you from the beginning. By the end of chapter 14 I’ve had enough of Mallory’s life story and her behaving like another privileged white kid.

Also, I’m tired of how YA and most contemporary romance authors tackle ✨ feminism ✨—white feminism—treating it like it's this hip and trendy topic they should be able to tick off their what-to-include-in-my-modern-feminist-romance-novel checklist.

The writing and tone were particularly annoying—aside from having to read the inner thoughts of an eighteen-year-old in her angsty teenage phase, Ali Hazelwood’s narration sounded like one of those millennials that try too hard to sound like a Gen Z, which was extremely painful to read I absolutely could not stand it.

And shouldn’t this book be considered New Adult instead? The language and content are not YA material at all. How did this get past the editors

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

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3.0

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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medium-paced