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stacy837's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
tmkutawrites's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
cw: previous sexual assault, previous emotionally abusive relationship
Okay. You know how you start a book and immediately go "....I am not the target audience for this?" That was me with this book.
Coming of age sapphic "YA" (New Adult) romance set in D.C. (more on that later). The romance is your classic 18tween year old toxic lesbian romance. The coming of age is very 18 year old (which is good! we love that representation for them!) but dear god the MC's thought process, self-deprecation, and self-centered outlook on life made this healed, Farther Along In My Life Journey queer want to crawl out of my fucking skin. Like honey, no, you don't need romance you need THERAPY. A LOT OF IT. AND ANXIETY MEDICATION. Lots of the reviews for this book are like "IT'S SO IMMATURE, THE CHARACTERS ARE SO IMMATURE" and like...yes. The characters are 18. They are first year college students who have just realized they are queer and have just come out to themselves and haven't yet told their parents they are queer. Of course they are immature. Of course they are messy. What 18 year old baby lesbian ISN'T messy?
Beyond looking in a mirror and going "damn, I used to be like that and I've come a long way, thank god for therapy and growth," overall the book was....meh. It was a "HFN" ending (which I don't mind) but if that was an IRL relationship it was doomed to crash and burn. There was very little romantic about it. It was billed as "enemies to lovers", which I guess yes, but because they never really dropped the antagonistic aspect of their relationship, it just felt gross. It reminded me a lot of the emotionally abusive relationships I was in once upon a time and it pained me to see Shani think some of that stuff was romantic.
As a DMV native, the "descriptions" of DC were painful. The author apparently spent a summer in DC as an intern and spent all of their free time "in the Smithsonian museums." You could tell. Dear god you could tell. I feel extremely bad for all the SI employees who were slandered in this book by giving them un-DC employment like behavior. There is more to DC than the SI Museum and the Mall! Also, the idea of DC getting a foot of snow at Christmas was so laughable I about died. (Yes, we do occasionally get snow at Xmas--looking at you snowmageddon--but overall the weather described was very un-DC like and it was clear the author has never spent a winter here. "Unseasonably warm" at the end of December...no that's just regular weather in D.C. )
Also the fact the two POC characters in the book were either a) a supportive sounding board for the MC's pathetic life who we know nothing about other than she is Desi, queer, and has a girlfriend, or were b) a sub-tertiary character who got maybe a dozen speaking lines...the looks aren't good. Especially for a book that banged on with some otherwise kind of performative commentary. It felt very much like a "why aren't we practicing what we preach" kind of deal.
One of the things I did enjoy that the character's Judaism featured heavily, was a large part of the MC's view on life, and was discussed openly. The lovebirds have an adorable "Jewmas" celebration of movies and Chinese food which, honestly, loved that. There are some very cute tongue-and-cheek poking-fun-at-our-own-stereotype Jewish Mom jokes which made me smile. There was also some good discussion about how complicated it feels to be Jewish during Goy holidays and the dichotomy of enjoying the commercialism and "culture" of Christmas (Xmas lights, fun drinks, Santa hats, etc) while also being not Christian and not celebrating the day itself.
Another thing I did enjoy was the lack of the annoying A Giant Misunderstanding Is Had/Betrayal Occurs trope that breaks the characters up 3/4 of the way through the book. Or, in this case, there is a "misunderstanding" but it is centered around real, actual trauma that would happen IRL and is something that could actually have the relationship come back from instead of a lot of the misunderstandings/betrayals in romances which would imo ruin anything with that person forever. The two MC's also have a very real, almost Adult conversation about said misunderstanding, and I feel like it was handled decently enough. Especially since the misunderstanding grows out of the MC's history of sexual assault and how to impacts her desire/ability to be sexually intimate with her love interest, I think it was realistic and as maturely handled by the characters as possible considering their age.
Overall... The MC was kind of toxic, the romance was mid, everything else... meh. I probably would have DNF'd the book except it made me so annoyed I had to finish to see what kind of trainwreck it would resolve into. It is realistic, and messy, and a relationship I could see rising and falling and dumpster fire-ing IRL, so that is definitely points in its favor. I want a an entire book about Mandira bc she deserves better than the role she was given in this novel.
Okay. You know how you start a book and immediately go "....I am not the target audience for this?" That was me with this book.
Coming of age sapphic "YA" (New Adult) romance set in D.C. (more on that later). The romance is your classic 18tween year old toxic lesbian romance. The coming of age is very 18 year old (which is good! we love that representation for them!) but dear god the MC's thought process, self-deprecation, and self-centered outlook on life made this healed, Farther Along In My Life Journey queer want to crawl out of my fucking skin. Like honey, no, you don't need romance you need THERAPY. A LOT OF IT. AND ANXIETY MEDICATION. Lots of the reviews for this book are like "IT'S SO IMMATURE, THE CHARACTERS ARE SO IMMATURE" and like...yes. The characters are 18. They are first year college students who have just realized they are queer and have just come out to themselves and haven't yet told their parents they are queer. Of course they are immature. Of course they are messy. What 18 year old baby lesbian ISN'T messy?
Beyond looking in a mirror and going "damn, I used to be like that and I've come a long way, thank god for therapy and growth," overall the book was....meh. It was a "HFN" ending (which I don't mind) but if that was an IRL relationship it was doomed to crash and burn. There was very little romantic about it. It was billed as "enemies to lovers", which I guess yes, but because they never really dropped the antagonistic aspect of their relationship, it just felt gross. It reminded me a lot of the emotionally abusive relationships I was in once upon a time and it pained me to see Shani think some of that stuff was romantic.
As a DMV native, the "descriptions" of DC were painful. The author apparently spent a summer in DC as an intern and spent all of their free time "in the Smithsonian museums." You could tell. Dear god you could tell. I feel extremely bad for all the SI employees who were slandered in this book by giving them un-DC employment like behavior. There is more to DC than the SI Museum and the Mall! Also, the idea of DC getting a foot of snow at Christmas was so laughable I about died. (Yes, we do occasionally get snow at Xmas--looking at you snowmageddon--but overall the weather described was very un-DC like and it was clear the author has never spent a winter here. "Unseasonably warm" at the end of December...no that's just regular weather in D.C. )
Also the fact the two POC characters in the book were either a) a supportive sounding board for the MC's pathetic life who we know nothing about other than she is Desi, queer, and has a girlfriend, or were b) a sub-tertiary character who got maybe a dozen speaking lines...the looks aren't good. Especially for a book that banged on with some otherwise kind of performative commentary. It felt very much like a "why aren't we practicing what we preach" kind of deal.
One of the things I did enjoy that the character's Judaism featured heavily, was a large part of the MC's view on life, and was discussed openly. The lovebirds have an adorable "Jewmas" celebration of movies and Chinese food which, honestly, loved that. There are some very cute tongue-and-cheek poking-fun-at-our-own-stereotype Jewish Mom jokes which made me smile. There was also some good discussion about how complicated it feels to be Jewish during Goy holidays and the dichotomy of enjoying the commercialism and "culture" of Christmas (Xmas lights, fun drinks, Santa hats, etc) while also being not Christian and not celebrating the day itself.
Another thing I did enjoy was the lack of the annoying A Giant Misunderstanding Is Had/Betrayal Occurs trope that breaks the characters up 3/4 of the way through the book. Or, in this case, there is a "misunderstanding" but it is centered around real, actual trauma that would happen IRL and is something that could actually have the relationship come back from instead of a lot of the misunderstandings/betrayals in romances which would imo ruin anything with that person forever. The two MC's also have a very real, almost Adult conversation about said misunderstanding, and I feel like it was handled decently enough. Especially since the misunderstanding grows out of the MC's history of sexual assault and how to impacts her desire/ability to be sexually intimate with her love interest, I think it was realistic and as maturely handled by the characters as possible considering their age.
Overall... The MC was kind of toxic, the romance was mid, everything else... meh. I probably would have DNF'd the book except it made me so annoyed I had to finish to see what kind of trainwreck it would resolve into. It is realistic, and messy, and a relationship I could see rising and falling and dumpster fire-ing IRL, so that is definitely points in its favor. I want a an entire book about Mandira bc she deserves better than the role she was given in this novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Alcohol
sophie42's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual content and Alcohol
Minor: Toxic relationship and Vomit
thebookpaiges's review against another edition
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Antisemitism, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape
emily_mh's review
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I loved how wintry this book was. I also thought that Shani being a dead fish nerd was a wonderful choice and reading about her experience in the lab was great. Seeing Shani and May explore their DC setting was lots of fun, too!!
Unfortunately I didn’t click with the romance enough. I didn’t like that Shani and May were awkward around each other for the entirety of the book as it was hard to grasp their emotional connection and also made the fact that they loved each other within four weeks unbelievable. As the romance is the main part of this book, this a major sticking point with me.
As a final note, I didn’t love that the climax of the book was an elderly person having a medical emergency, essentially a plot point engineered to get the MCs in the vicinity of one another again .
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Minor: divorce, climate changesiobhanward's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
3.5
This was fun and cute - definitely felt a lot like YA a lot of the time as Shanni could be self-centred and immature. However, she also was born in this millennium so she's young enough I won't hold it against her. I loved Raphael and Beatrice, although I wish we had learned more about Shanni's great grandmother, or honestly any of her family in general.
The romance plot was cute - it was very surface-level, but also I get it. This was definitely a book where a lot of the secondary characters were more interesting than the protagonists, so I wish we'd seen more of them, but it was still a fun read.
The romance plot was cute - it was very surface-level, but also I get it. This was definitely a book where a lot of the secondary characters were more interesting than the protagonists, so I wish we'd seen more of them, but it was still a fun read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
sapphic_swiftie's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Sexual content and Medical content
Minor: Homophobia and Alcohol
lilou0922's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Overall not a bad book. It is what it says it is, funny, but not very quotable. I appreciate the niche interests of the main characters but in the last third, it got slightly annoying, especially Shani when she threw fossils away .
I absolutely love the doggy he's absolutely adorable and amazing. Beatrice and the other two roommates are fun but forgettable. It has a good plot in the beginning then it quickly turns into just a romance where the main character ditches her friends and family for love. She even fails at the one thing she promised she'd do at the start of the book. .
I absolutely love the doggy he's absolutely adorable and amazing. Beatrice and the other two roommates are fun but forgettable. It has a good plot in the beginning then it quickly turns into just a romance where the main character ditches her friends and family for love.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Toxic relationship, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Alcohol
emsim's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Alcohol
writerkit's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing and Toxic relationship
Minor: Sexual assault, Car accident, and Alcohol