A review by coacklebee
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

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

0.25

This was a huge miss for me, and I'm really disappointed about it because I love books and I love books about books. Nina was a walking stereotype of an anxious book-lover, and as someone who has suffered from anxiety for most of my life and read voraciously as a child, there was nothing relatable about her for me. Nina and Tom seriously lacked chemistry, and I have no clue why on earth they ended up together beyond the fact that he apparently really wanted to have sex with her. The sudden found family could have been really interesting, but it just wasn't fully explored. Almost all of the family members love Nina immediately, and the only one who doesn't turns out to be exactly like her (so of course by the end of the book they're best friends). And everything got completely nonsensical in the last couple of chapters.

I'm not normally this harsh reviewing books, but man, I wish I had DNFed this one. A lot of other people seem to really like it though, so maybe this author just isn't for me.
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