Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

24 reviews

clareasday's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

alysereadsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Love Julia Wehlan’s narration, and the overall academic experience and setting, plus the exploration of father/daughter relationships. Last third of the book felt completely different from the beginning and surprised me.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sadiejericho's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.25

I love Julia’s narration and really enjoyed Thank You for Listening. This book was well done. I’m personally not into major medical problems as the focus of romance books (I’d say this barely qualifies as romance if you’re looking for the standard beats, banters, and tropes). Not necessarily a bad thing, just a flag if you’re looking to escape into something light and swoony this isn’t it. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kimveach's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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

4.5

I loved this book.  Julia Whelan is one of my favorite narrators, and I also like her writing.  The beginning of the book seemed like a typical romance, but it had so much more than that.  It was a delightful "listen."
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lmcr21's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sofia_marie's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nathalialvs's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

I laughed out loud and I cried like a baby. This was way more emotional than what I expected, but it turned out to be a very well-executed and beautiful account of love and growth. A lot of great literary references and dialogues between the characters, which was lovely and also came in as a way to reinforce the book's message in several occasions. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kb33's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

That. Hurt. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kaytrain's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Audiobook performance by the author: 5 stars, as I’ve found every audiobook performance of hers. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

theespressoedition's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional 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? Yes

2.5

I’m so, so sad to say that this book bummed me out!

After reading (and adoring) Thank You for Listening, I picked this up with excitement, wanting to delve into the author's work even more. However, where TYFL brought immense amounts of joy and hope, My Oxford Year was really quite sad and frustrating.

The beginning was really enjoyable! I loved Ella's somewhat chaotic introduction to Oxford and the lifestyle there. Her rag-tag group of friends was fantastic and even the start of her "relationship" with Jamie was filled with humor, awkward moments, and sweetness. Around the halfway point, however, everything took a depressing nosedive.

Jamie’s illness was so miserable, but also felt forced, uncomfortable, and handled somewhat terribly. While I would've anticipated for Ella to be angry about him not telling her sooner, the initial reaction was awful and from there on out, I felt a heaviness to the entire story. There were all of the issues with his father, the really icky feeling of never knowing if he would live or not, and then finally, a very open ending. I’m sure this was meant to provide hope for the reader so they can make the assumption that there was a HEA, but I would’ve just preferred an on-paper HEA rather than one I had to make up for myself.


It all left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. What could have been a really creative and cute romcom turned into something melancholy and heavy. I walked away from it feeling drained rather than refreshed, which is not what I prefer after reading this kind of book. Definitely not my ideal style, unfortunately.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings