Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The House in the Cerulean Sea

I LOVED this book. The characters made my heart hurt. The character development and the growth of a wholesome and caring queer relationship, plus the humour and the ‘smash the system’ plot was wonderful! I’ll miss the characters!

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lucky_stars's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My heart is too full of love for this book that I can’t figure out what to say. The characters are beyond lovable; they’re perfection. Linus Baker, you sweet adorable man. I’m so grateful for being able to watch your journey. I felt seen the entire time.
A couple quotes out of context:

They already were my friends. I want rubies.
He dreams of a future that he may never have. And while his dreams may seem small, they are still his and his alone.
I don’t know how to be anyone but who I already am. This is how I’ve always been. It’s not much, but I do the best I can with what I have.
But that’s the funny thing about wishes. Sometimes all it took to make them come true was a first step.

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jennxreviews's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book. This book is just beautiful. The writing is like a gorgeous prose. It's about looking beyond the surface of what you're taught to see to what is actually there. It's ahout home and family. The story is from the point of view of Linus who is a children's services caseworker who's sent on a special assignment to observe an orphange for a month and what he found there was so much more than what he was looking for. I am not a weepy person but this book made my eyes leak and my heart bubble pop. I've never wanted to annotate and mark a book so much in my life that wasn't a textbook. I want to read it again just so I can write comments and thoughts on it.

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cygnoir's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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sydneylmeyer7's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

Sometimes you pick up a romance book that seems like a fun romp, filled with the most exquisite tropes. And you think to yourself "that cannot be as fun as it appears to be? surely this is going to be mildly disappointing?"

I am glad to say that it did not disappoint at all. This was absolutely adorable.

Was the plot predictable? yes, and delightfully so! You know the steps that a romcom must take, and you gleefully expect how and when we'll get to that part!
This book is (I say this with only adoration) all the good bits of a Christmas romcom, but now placed in a wonderful summer setting, and it has none of the excruciating miscommunications that otherwise appear in a romcom.

I thoroughly enjoyed this! The cast of characters were all nicely written, the plot was a fun "bureaucrat learns the ~~magic of Christmas~~ to truly live life and to open up his heart to the hot single father of six magic children". There were some delightful little twists that you get to figure out along the way, and you get to feel clever when your suspicions are confirmed. Not a "I never saw it coming" but a "aha!! I knew it!", which is nice.

The writing style of the author lends itself perfectly for this story, the dialogue was very well done, and the scene descriptions were lovely. I started writing little pencil notes halfway through that only consisted of "yes! yes!!" and "it's cause you're so gay for him" whenever Linus thought about Arthur.

Even though I had to take a multi-month break halfway through the book, I could get right back in with minimal confusion. The pacing was ideal for this story as well.

All in all, this was SUCH a fun romp. I needed this book.

And yes, I did cry a little at the expected moments. I'm a simple man; my heartstrings are easily pulled.

Content Warnings

quiteawful's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lovely, sweet book. I could feel the world changing from black and white to colour. I love all the main characters, and I will absolutely start the next book immediately 💖

Content Warnings

delirious_wraith's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Perfect

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