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A review by minniemine
About Last Night by Laura Henry
2.0
You know, when a book is pitched to you as "An utterly hilarious, feel-good, forced proximity, lesbian romantic comedy", you tend to have expectations. I certainly did and this did not deliver as I expected it to.
About last night is a dual pov romcom about Audrey, who just got out of an emotionally abusive relationship, and hooks up with Toni. The Monday after they hook up, they realize that they work together, more specifically that Toni's sister hired Audrey and her sister to work for them on a contracted project. Now they have to navigate the sexual tension and awkwardness between them while trying to remain professional.
The book is just a little over 200 pages which must be why the author prioritized major plot points over the seemingly minor ones and that made the book less enjoyable for me. A lot of Audrey and Toni's relationship and conversations progressed off-page and left way too much for the reader to interpret. I'd also have loved to see a little bit more about their other relationship dynamics, with siblings, parents etc, not so much that it takes away from Toni and Audrey but enough that we know more about them as individuals.
For a book being marketed as romcom, the com part is a bit scarce. I don't think there was a point in this book that made me break a smile, let alone laugh. The dialogue felt stiff, forced and basically what you'd expect from a bad actor trying to crack a joke. It doesn't help that the romance part didn't really start until halfway through the book. It didn't feel like a slowburn, more so like the author remembered halfway that it was supposed to be a ROMcom.
There's a point where Greta, Toni's sister, says "handsome d-k-" and I feel the need to say that having your character, who you've asserted is straight at the start of the book, use a slur against lesbians is not very...mmh. I was very uncomfortable reading that.
One more thing, there's a sex scene at the very start of the book, I'm talking 3 chapters in, that spans over 3 entire chapters! For a book that's less than 250 pages, having one sex scene be 3 chapters long is a bit crazy to me!
I absolutely adored Toni. She was so awkward and bumbling and I had the urge to eat her in one bite the entire time I was reading. I do have a bit of a gripe with Audrey though because she lacked basic communication skills and she seemed to have done very little growth at the end of the book.
I did appreciate the pacing of the book. It was pretty fast paced and well planned out to me. The chemistry and sexual tension between Audrey and Toni was also a highlight of the book. I could feel the tension between these two through the pages and it did make it easier to read when the book eventually picked up around the 60% mark.
Overall, this did not really work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author, Laura Henry, for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♡pre-read♡
So excited to start this one! br with ml Gry
About last night is a dual pov romcom about Audrey, who just got out of an emotionally abusive relationship, and hooks up with Toni. The Monday after they hook up, they realize that they work together, more specifically that Toni's sister hired Audrey and her sister to work for them on a contracted project. Now they have to navigate the sexual tension and awkwardness between them while trying to remain professional.
The book is just a little over 200 pages which must be why the author prioritized major plot points over the seemingly minor ones and that made the book less enjoyable for me. A lot of Audrey and Toni's relationship and conversations progressed off-page and left way too much for the reader to interpret. I'd also have loved to see a little bit more about their other relationship dynamics, with siblings, parents etc, not so much that it takes away from Toni and Audrey but enough that we know more about them as individuals.
For a book being marketed as romcom, the com part is a bit scarce. I don't think there was a point in this book that made me break a smile, let alone laugh. The dialogue felt stiff, forced and basically what you'd expect from a bad actor trying to crack a joke. It doesn't help that the romance part didn't really start until halfway through the book. It didn't feel like a slowburn, more so like the author remembered halfway that it was supposed to be a ROMcom.
There's a point where Greta, Toni's sister, says "handsome d-k-" and I feel the need to say that having your character, who you've asserted is straight at the start of the book, use a slur against lesbians is not very...mmh. I was very uncomfortable reading that.
One more thing, there's a sex scene at the very start of the book, I'm talking 3 chapters in, that spans over 3 entire chapters! For a book that's less than 250 pages, having one sex scene be 3 chapters long is a bit crazy to me!
I absolutely adored Toni. She was so awkward and bumbling and I had the urge to eat her in one bite the entire time I was reading. I do have a bit of a gripe with Audrey though because she lacked basic communication skills and she seemed to have done very little growth at the end of the book.
I did appreciate the pacing of the book. It was pretty fast paced and well planned out to me. The chemistry and sexual tension between Audrey and Toni was also a highlight of the book. I could feel the tension between these two through the pages and it did make it easier to read when the book eventually picked up around the 60% mark.
Overall, this did not really work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley, Bookouture and the author, Laura Henry, for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
♡pre-read♡
So excited to start this one! br with ml Gry