Reviews

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H.S. Valley

flowerest's review

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
i'll need to let this book marinate in my head for a short bit before i can properly rate it because i have never read something as frustrating faster than this 😭

i'm back in my romcom era, and this was perfect for it. very sweet, funny, with genuine chemistry between the characters and no third-act breakup! also some of the conversations on sex, consent, coming out etc were great.

my issue with this book is that there were only two things that bugged me, but they took such a vast portion of it that they were impossible to ignore. in short:

(nsfw discussion ahead)
1)
Spoilerthe first half of the book is a very unbalanced compilation of detailed sex talk and more dick jokes than i'm personally able to take, and fade-to-black sex scenes. obviously that latter part makes sense because this is a young adult book about teenagers, but at the same time the talk and jokes around these topics were so detailed and just endless. a good 50% of the book was just horny teenagers being horny teenagers, which is very realistic teenager behaviour, but it also kind of completely beats the point of y/a as an age category. i'm personally very neutral towards how it was all handled, but the utter lack of balance threw me off. "beats the point" is the best way i can possibly describe it, i guess.


2) the miscommunication in the second half... no romcom character has ever been THIS oblivious. it was frankly exhausting to read about.

anyway! despite these two glaringly, painfully ever-present issues of this book, overall i enjoyed it a lot (read it in like a day so... yeah) and i'd happily read more by this author! but i still don't know how i feel about certain parts of it, so there's that.

(watch me come back to this in like a month and give it 4 stars)

astarlia's review

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4.0

Delicious idiots in love 

aaron_j136's review

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2.0

I think the discussions on bisexuality, sex and the general cuteness of this book was really good, but overall the plot and characterisation lacked a bit of depth imo.

dopamine_surge's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

totooo's review

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funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

just_a_city_gorl's review

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3.0

  • It’s actually pretty funny so far which I like. Just fucking love funny books dude. 
  • I like how the ‘o’ in ‘Mark’ is an egg. I also find that pretty funny for some reason. 
  • I like the characters so far and the banter’s pretty funny. 
  • I’m almost halfway through and I feel like I haven’t actually read a lot? I don’t know if it’s just rushed or if the writing’s bigger so it looks like I’ve read more than I actually have? 
  • This is supposed to be about friends with benefits but all the spicy scenes are like, glossed over and rushed. I feel like if the whole point of their relationship is going from enemies/friends with benefits to lovers, if we don’t actually see the sex scenes, and therefor pretty much their only connection to each other, I’m not gonna see the chemistry between them? Since they’ll just having random, meaningful sex off page or whatever and then they’ll suddenly care for each other? I don’t, I feel like this would’ve been better if it wasn’t ya so that it could be more explicit and actually show their relationship evolve from just sex if that makes sense. But I’m only halfway through and might change my mind, hopefully. 
  • So far it’s just a really quick and easy read. It’s got some funny scenes and banter, the characters are likeable, just a fun book ig. 
  • This was cute. Just a nice, easy read. I finished it quickly and I enjoyed it. It was pretty average, just a nice book. 
  • The ending was sweet but could’ve been a bit, like, more I guess. The whole thing could’ve been more but it was nice for what it was. 
  • So yeah, it was okay, just nothing special really. I did like it though. 

cepitademanzana's review

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3.0

no sé muy bien cómo rankear este libro, porque por un lado tiene temas, tropes y demás que siempre disfruto en un libro, personajes con los que es fácil encariñarse, no es una relación odiosa la que se nos presenta, y en general no había forma de que no me gustara, tiene todo lo que me gusta.
por otro lado, sí pienso que hay cosas que podrían haber estado un poco mejor, empezando por la construcción del mundo mágico y su relación con el normal, la sentí bastante vaga, igual que varias partes del libro, incluyendo la enemistad de tim y elliot, la cuál casi no se desarrolla, y eso hace que no se siente demasiado como un enemies to lovers. el planteo del libro me paraece re original, pero la ejecutación de la idea no siento que esté del todo bien lograda.
las situaciones en el libro la verdad que sí son re inesperadas y eso aportó a que me gustara, también la forma de narrar de la autora, ligera, fácil, hace que el libro sea llevadero y la lectura sea divertida .
Malaia es el personaje que más me gusta, pero realmente todos los personajes son queribles y pancitos.
siento que los errores del libro se deben mayormente a que la autora es re novata, no tiene mucha experiencia, pero la mina se nota que es re creativa, sabe cómo escribir y cómo llamar al público, y la veo le prometedora.
resumiendo, este libro es mayormente todo lo que busco en un libro, pero le faltaba un empujón para ser tremendo, y eso decepcionó, y no decepcionó a la vez, es como si draco y harry hubiesen resuelto sus problemas chapando.
posta m re cuesta decir los puntos negativos del libro pero lo siento necesario para enmarcar bien que no es lo que promete, pero no significa que no sea alta lectura, con altas probabilidades de sacar a alguien de un bloqueo

erinsbookshelves's review

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emotional funny 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

4.5

nightjar656's review

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the romance aspect was really well-written and enjoyable, and the leads were easy for me to get invested in.
My only criticisms of this book would be that it was a little hard for me to believe that they were truly enemies/rivals at the beginning, and that the plot line with Tim’s father felt a little underdeveloped and confusing.
Other than that, this is great. I liked that it maintained its relatively low stakes throughout, and the egg plot was really creative and interesting. This was really good.

delecturasvalacosa's review against another edition

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3.0

Sinceramente, no sé qué deciros de este libro… ¿Me he reído? Sí, desde luego, te ríes todo el rato. ¿Qué me ha gustado? No estoy del todo segura.

O sea, nos metemos en materia: nos encontramos en la Escuela Glaciar Fox para expertos en magia, y a nuestro protagonista, Tim Te Maro, acaban de dejarle. Esta chica, decidió romper dos parejas, la del archienemigo de Tim, Elliot. Aunque más que archienemigo, yo pienso que el grupito de Elliot le hacía demasiado bullying al pobre Te Maro, la verdad, por lo que según cuenta él. Pero dejémoslo en “archienemigo” como decía él en el libro.

Total, que acaban cuidando un huevo (sí, un huevo) al más puro estilo americano de cuidar un muñeco para demostrar que vas a ser unos buenos padres. Sí, un huevo. Perdón, aun sigo en shock. El huevo (o la huevita Megan), va a hacer ruiditos, llorar… al menos no hace pis.

La bebé-huevo es muy lista, y quiere que sus papás duerman juntos. Y, el roce hace el cariño, ¿no? La visión de Tim hacia Elliot, cambia. Todo culpa (o gracias) a Megan.

Ahí mi pequeño resumen… Ahora la opinión:

Estamos en una escuela de magia, ¿no? A mi impresión, habría que explicar un poco el mundo mágico. Un anexo explicando las diferentes clases de magos, poderes, qué más clases mágicas hay. Ahí yo noté una gran falta de información.

Los pensamientos del protagonista, bastante obsesivos. ¿Y el final? Bastante precipitado, rápido y, otra vez, con mucha desinformación.

Lectura post-vacacional con @compartiendoneuronas al completo y @vivirmilvidas (genial volver a compartir LC con esta señorita de nuevo <3)

¿Y tú? ¿Cuidarías de huevo con tu archienemigo? ¡Nos leemos!