A review by mynameisprerna
American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera

4.0

Listened to the audiobook while mostly following align with the e-book.

This book was enjoyable! As usual, I really love a strong ensemble cast, and many of the side characters here were great.

Milo is something of a hopeless romantic with many failed relationships under his belt.

As his friends say, when he is in a relationship, he turns himself into an oasis, displaying only what he thinks his partner wants and obscuring his true self. And because of that he hasn’t been able to have a long lasting love. He finds himself thinking “I sat there wondering when the other shoe would drop, because I knew it was a matter of time before one of us fucked up somehow. Nothing could be this perfect. I didn’t want to be pessimistic or dramatic, but I had enough of a frame of reference to know this wouldn’t last. And it was terrifying, because I knew losing Tom would hurt more than anything had before.”

It’s interesting that Tom

can’t remember that he can’t just make decisions for other people or that he can’t solve problems by spending money. As someone who didn’t grow up wealthy, this is a weird quirk.

 

One of the interesting things about this book is that although Tom and Milo are both experienced in relationships,

they’re both learning how to actually be in healthy relationships with healthy dynamics. For example, when Tom explains why his previous marriage ended, Milo thinks “I had to bite my tongue then, the impulse to take his side, to tell him I couldn’t imagine him ever letting anyone down had me practically vibrating. In the short time I’d known Tom I already saw how much he took on, how driven he was to fix things. I ran my hand over his chest and waited for him to keep talking, because no matter how much I wanted to soothe, I needed to know more.”