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A review by solly
Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson
2.0
So here we have a big case of "it's not you, it's me".
I loved the author's other book, so I picked this one up without hesitation, but I should have known it wasn't for me.
1. I have no love for live music, I'm too autistic for it and it overwhelms me in a bad way, so the whole live music theme didn't elicit any kind of emotional response from me, and it was so important to Toni's story line that I felt like I was missing out on a big part of the book.
2. I'm Very Aro. I like romance but it needs to be well developed and if possible, not too quick or insta-lovey. A romance in less than three days wasn't going to work for me.
I liked some stuff about it: Olivia's storyline around nudes and revenge porn was really good and well-handled, I liked Peter a lot, and the whole first third was fun.
I didn't like a lot more, though.
I didn't feel anything for the main characters most of the time, and sometimes couldn't understand their actions (I don't need characters to be relatable to enjoy a book btw, most characters aren't relatable to me as an autistic person, but sometimes in this book I genuinely couldn't wrap my head around why they did some stuff), the romance never worked for me at all (almost saying I love you like 24h after meeting someone... what in the alloromanticism is this)
Olivia was a bad friend the whole book. And it's addressed, but it still bothered me. Especially since there's then a big reveal the best friend was in love with her all along (she had plenty reasons to be mad at Olivia as friends, I don't know what the romantic feelings added, except Olivia seemed to take those more seriously? I wasn't a fan of the whole thing, but that's likely the aro talking once more).
Again, the whole live music setting wasn't for me. It was fun at times but when the characters got big feelings about it I was just like "sure, I believe you" haha
Nothing about this book was plain bad. I just probably shouldn't have picked it up for myself just because I enjoyed the author's other book. I usually avoid books with romance set over one day/a dew days, but I wanted to give this one a shot. It did not work out, I will remember that in the future.
I loved the author's other book, so I picked this one up without hesitation, but I should have known it wasn't for me.
1. I have no love for live music, I'm too autistic for it and it overwhelms me in a bad way, so the whole live music theme didn't elicit any kind of emotional response from me, and it was so important to Toni's story line that I felt like I was missing out on a big part of the book.
2. I'm Very Aro. I like romance but it needs to be well developed and if possible, not too quick or insta-lovey. A romance in less than three days wasn't going to work for me.
I liked some stuff about it: Olivia's storyline around nudes and revenge porn was really good and well-handled, I liked Peter a lot, and the whole first third was fun.
I didn't like a lot more, though.
I didn't feel anything for the main characters most of the time, and sometimes couldn't understand their actions (I don't need characters to be relatable to enjoy a book btw, most characters aren't relatable to me as an autistic person, but sometimes in this book I genuinely couldn't wrap my head around why they did some stuff), the romance never worked for me at all (almost saying I love you like 24h after meeting someone... what in the alloromanticism is this)
Olivia was a bad friend the whole book. And it's addressed, but it still bothered me. Especially since there's then a big reveal the best friend was in love with her all along (she had plenty reasons to be mad at Olivia as friends, I don't know what the romantic feelings added, except Olivia seemed to take those more seriously? I wasn't a fan of the whole thing, but that's likely the aro talking once more).
Again, the whole live music setting wasn't for me. It was fun at times but when the characters got big feelings about it I was just like "sure, I believe you" haha
Nothing about this book was plain bad. I just probably shouldn't have picked it up for myself just because I enjoyed the author's other book. I usually avoid books with romance set over one day/a dew days, but I wanted to give this one a shot. It did not work out, I will remember that in the future.