Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Expiration Dates

This is a story about a woman who receives a piece of paper with a guy’s name on it. Next to the name, it says how long they’ll be together. One day, she obtains a piece of paper with the name “Jake”, and next to his name it doesn’t say anything. She assumes it means they’ll be together forever. We see their story unfold and she learns something about herself she didn’t know before.

I enjoyed the book, for the most part. I just wish we got to see her date her previous boyfriends in present time. The book would have been more enjoyable that way. Every other chapter, we were seeing who she was dating in the past. It would have been better if she was dating those guys in the present, then she meets Jake, and we see their story unfold. I would have liked that.

Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 8:34 AM

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supermormongirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

mariakureads's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I don't know how to start this review.
I picked up the book because 1) it was all over the place and 2) once I looked at it, the premise sounded interesting-a piece of paper with someone's name and a time frame shows up in your life, a sure thing that for that time frame you're in a relationship with someone. Maybe it's a bad thing to know that every relationship, regardless of who with, has a finite end or it could be adventurous and you make the best of it.

In Daphne's case, the FMC, her choice to believe and follow the dates of these papers, is her whole premise. She came across as flat, a bit one dimensional as the book in her POV talks about her outfits, her apartment, these pieces of paper, and high scale restaurants and bars in L.A., which I didn't care for as the book went further in because it became more of those descriptors then a premise for me. Maybe because she knows the relationship has an end date, she doesn't delve too much in her relationship?

As to the other characters, I liked Irina and Daphne's parents for the few moments we had as I didn't care much for the other characters, either present or past tense. None of the love interests, aside from Hugo or Jake, were written in too much detail. Just enough for the moment presented and to drive the moment along to the next so I couldn't connect. Hugo, I found, to be a man child with wanting something he no longer has, and Jake to be an all around nice guy for Daphne but also convenient timing. Even with the author's use of jumping from past and present, Jake's timing was convenient as was that entire relationship.

I still want to know where the notes themselves came from, what was that about, why Daphne?, but the book never answered these questions or anything in relation to them although there was an attempt to explain things using a chronic illness which felt like such a crutch especially at the stage of the book it was presented at, that it felt needed by the story but rather came across to me as a lame reason for Daphne to do what she does and a hastily made ending.

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