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A review by ihateprozac
Prose Before Bros by Smartypants Romance, Cathy Yardley
5.0
4.5 stars - my fave in the Green Valley Library spinoff so far!
Thuy is a fucking QUEEN and we have no choice but to stan. She's loyal as hell to Maddy without ever being a doormat. She cares about the library patrons and wants teens to see themselves in books. She's committed to helping people to fall in love with reading. She's dealing with a dark family legacy and isn't afraid to wield it to keep her loved ones safe. And she'll verbally smackdown a homophobic hag in the Piggly Wiggly if she needs to! I fucking loved her SO damn much!
I could take or leave Drill as a love interest, but the Iron Wraiths really came through with the conflict. I enjoyed getting a closer view of the club dynamics, the fallout from Razor and Daryl's sudden abdication, and Drill realising his boundaries have shifted. We didn't get a real feel for the club in Jethro's book but this book provided that in spades! Cathy Yardley also deftly explores the lines between right and wrong and how they can blur or sharpen over time.
This is also the first book set in the library where we actually got a feel for it as a workplace. Thuy connects with both the older and younger residents of Green Valley and helps them to succeed in the face of resource cuts. She had my heart the moment she started talking about YA and diverse books, and this truly felt like a love letter to YA readers. Thuy has to navigate some serious library politics and change management and it felt so frustrating and so real.
Again, we have no choice but to stan Thuy.
Thuy is a fucking QUEEN and we have no choice but to stan. She's loyal as hell to Maddy without ever being a doormat. She cares about the library patrons and wants teens to see themselves in books. She's committed to helping people to fall in love with reading. She's dealing with a dark family legacy and isn't afraid to wield it to keep her loved ones safe. And she'll verbally smackdown a homophobic hag in the Piggly Wiggly if she needs to! I fucking loved her SO damn much!
I could take or leave Drill as a love interest, but the Iron Wraiths really came through with the conflict. I enjoyed getting a closer view of the club dynamics, the fallout from Razor and Daryl's sudden abdication, and Drill realising his boundaries have shifted. We didn't get a real feel for the club in Jethro's book but this book provided that in spades! Cathy Yardley also deftly explores the lines between right and wrong and how they can blur or sharpen over time.
This is also the first book set in the library where we actually got a feel for it as a workplace. Thuy connects with both the older and younger residents of Green Valley and helps them to succeed in the face of resource cuts. She had my heart the moment she started talking about YA and diverse books, and this truly felt like a love letter to YA readers. Thuy has to navigate some serious library politics and change management and it felt so frustrating and so real.
Again, we have no choice but to stan Thuy.