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eyredactyl's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Sexual assault
stacy837's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Abandonment, Infidelity, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Minor: Infertility, Blood, and Miscarriage
bzliz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
The book is very dialogue heavy so we have to make a lot of inferences about how characters are feeling which was frustrating at times. To me, Thea comes across as a very passive person. She’s way too chill about discovering her husband’s infidelity. I was expecting some feminine rage about it but she really gave us nothing. It would be way too dramatic for this setting to see the cheating husband get some comeuppance for his rotten behavior but it would have been nice. It’s also super weird to me how Thea’s friends stay friends with the cheater and the other woman. I would have felt betrayed if I was her but she didn’t really have any feelings about it and if I was one of the friends, I couldn’t have excused their behavior. Infidelity and disloyalty is a wild trait to be okay with, especially when it means you’re going to dinner parties at the house he used to share with Thea that the other woman has moved into.
Edward is also pretty unlikeable. Not moving on at all from a humiliating experience and then spending several decades on a revenge quest to sleep with every woman his brother had slept with is super weird and more than a little unhinged. That’s a pretty big red flag.
Maybe I’ll revisit this in a decade or so when I’m closer to Thea’s age and see if my feelings have changed but for now I’ll settle with declaring that it’s just not my cup of tea.
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
allison_jo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
the blurb promised a cute little bookshop romance, but the middle of this book dragged for me. cutting 100 pages of stilted dialogue and ellipses wouldn’t have changed the plot at all. the story was set up to be a bit of a grumpy/sunshine who both had problems to work through but became more of an asshole/inferiority complex than anything. i found it difficult to connect with either character.
and the last fifty pages included an incredibly distasteful (to put it lightly) situation intended to set up a Big Talk that felt forced and rushed. i don’t know how it could feel rushed when it was in the last fifty pages of an already over-long, four-hundred-plus page book, but it did.
Graphic: Misogyny and Infidelity
Moderate: Infertility
Minor: Sexual assault
beepbeep101's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny and Infidelity
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Infertility, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Abandonment
alisonreadsitall's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Spice: 🌶️ (more like half a pepper - mostly fade to black)
I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this one. I even got a few butterflies, but I do love the sunshine/grump trope and this was done so well! 🥰
Also- who doesn’t love a book about a bookshop? 🥹🩷
I want to be friends with Thea- she was dealt a pretty shit hand, but handled it with such grace! And her sense of humor is wonderful. 🥰 😅 She definitely came out of her grief in the end, and I wish I had that much cheeky confidence to say what’s on your mind and not care what happens!
Chris is an absolute POS. 🤬 Thea was much nicer than she needed to be, and I would not have handled it well at all.
Edward started out a bit of a shit, but definitely grew on me and I appreciated his honesty, even though many mistakes were made. 🤦🏼♀️
Tropes:
Grumpy/Sunshine
Love triangle
Different worlds
Definitely recommend! 🩷
Graphic: Infidelity and Grief
Minor: Pregnancy and Miscarriage
themoonshinegirl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: Misogyny and Violence
Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, and Pregnancy
emesskay's review against another edition
- 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
Minor: Death and Infidelity
jennp28's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Infidelity
zoelynn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.0
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Infertility