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readingwithkt's reviews
598 reviews
Moving On by Roisin Meaney
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Thank you to Little Brown Group for the Advanced Readers Copy of this title. Note: this review may contain spoilers.
In Moving On, we follow Ellen's life from youth to older adulthood. From aspiring young woman setting out on her own in Galway, Ireland, to busy advertising executive in London, and finally living a quiet life as a successful author back in Galway. Ellen is an easy character to love - kind, honest, and quietly ambitious while still being content with that which life gifts her - and I certainly found myself really rather fond of her. I enjoyed spending time with Ellen, getting to know her and experiencing her life through her eyes. Her story takes all sorts of twists and turns, many of which I saw coming but there were a few surprises along the way. There was a real human element to this book, and I think Roisin Meaney does well to get the reader connecting with Ellen right from the get-go. I enjoyed her days in the bookshop and that chapter of her life possibly the most, though watching her have her daughters and explore new career paths was also really enjoyable. There is quite some hardship in the book too, and our Ellen doesn't have it easy at times. These moments were written very rawly, and I felt at times like I was a friend to Ellen, wanting desperately for her not to have to suffer.
This really was a great book, perfect for readers looking for a light, but heartfelt, read.
In Moving On, we follow Ellen's life from youth to older adulthood. From aspiring young woman setting out on her own in Galway, Ireland, to busy advertising executive in London, and finally living a quiet life as a successful author back in Galway. Ellen is an easy character to love - kind, honest, and quietly ambitious while still being content with that which life gifts her - and I certainly found myself really rather fond of her. I enjoyed spending time with Ellen, getting to know her and experiencing her life through her eyes. Her story takes all sorts of twists and turns, many of which I saw coming but there were a few surprises along the way. There was a real human element to this book, and I think Roisin Meaney does well to get the reader connecting with Ellen right from the get-go. I enjoyed her days in the bookshop and that chapter of her life possibly the most, though watching her have her daughters and explore new career paths was also really enjoyable. There is quite some hardship in the book too, and our Ellen doesn't have it easy at times. These moments were written very rawly, and I felt at times like I was a friend to Ellen, wanting desperately for her not to have to suffer.
This really was a great book, perfect for readers looking for a light, but heartfelt, read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Moderate: Miscarriage, Grief, and Abortion
Minor: Domestic abuse
Alter Ego by Helen Heckety
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you to Dialogue and Renegade Books for the Advance Reader’s Copy of Alter Ego by Helen Heckety.
This novel follows Hattie as she starts her new life in Wales, her new life in which she will no longer be disabled. Hattie has an invisible disability and she’s tired of people treating her differently because of it, she’s tired of all the things she finds difficult and she’s tired of having to explain herself to others. So she comes up with The Plan - to start anew in Wales. She lands a job and does her best to function in our ableist society, but soon comes to realise that it’s much more complicated than she’d imagined to deny her needs.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was a little unsure of Hattie in the beginning of the book and didn’t really understand why exactly she wanted to get away from her life in London, but she grew on me and my understanding grew as I read on and began to learn her personal history. After about 150 pages or so, I’d say I was really truly rooting for her. Hattie is a strong-willed, determined and courageous young woman. She had had quite a lot of trauma in her life, including parental loss, bullying and ableism. She worked hard to overcome these struggles but ended up holding her head just above water. Inevitably that water starts to creep higher as life’s struggles pile on, culminating in a devastating scene.
I enjoyed the writing style of this one and the author’s use of mixed media (always a hit with me). It had some markings of a debut for me in that I felt that some of the speech felt slightly unnatural and some situations were a little too convenient, but that is also the beauty of fiction, I guess. I thought the messaging in the book was powerful - about self acceptance, self love, and expressing yourself and your feelings. And I simply think everyone deserves a friend as lovely as Aiden.
I’d definitely read more from this author - will be looking out for it, in fact - and look forward to seeing what other stories they choose to tell.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia
The Deep Blue Between by Ayesha Harruna Attah
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
The risk with requesting a book before reviews come out is that sometimes you don’t know how graphic it might be until the reviews start pouring in. That’s what happened with this book for me unfortunately. I liked the sound of this title so was excited to try it. But after requesting it, I saw several reviews about the content being quite graphic and decided to steer away from it - just a gut feeling that the content may be too graphic for me.
The Friendship Fling by Georgia Stone
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Note: this review is based on an ARC and it contains spoilers.
The Friendship Fling by Georgia Stone is a fairly slow burn (fake) friends to lovers story set in London, UK.
Ava and Finn happen to meet one day in the coffee shop where Ava works. Finn is bright and warm and optimistic, whereas Ava is closed off and rude for the most part. She happens to use his name one day when reassuring her concerned friend and flatmate that she is making friends at work, and he ends up being invited to a flat warming party they are hosting in six or so weeks time. Meanwhile, Finn discloses that he has a London bucket list that he would like to complete before his contract ends at the end of the summer (conveniently, at around a similar time to the party). He invites Ava to help him tick the items off his bucket list and she reluctantly agrees. So continues a sort of fake friendship between the two - he agrees to keep up the appearance that he is her friend to her flatmate, meanwhile they go on all these adventures together ticking off his bucket list. They end up forming a genuine friendship (and then romance).
The book flips between Ava and Finn as our two narrators, though Ava gets far more of a voice than Finn. Given how uneven this was, I'm not sure that I felt it was necessary. Or rather, perhaps I would have wanted it to be more evenly split and Finn's storyline with his parents/upbringing could have been fleshed out a little further.
I found the friendship side of their relationship very readable and while I felt the grumpy-sunshine dynamic was a bit overplayed (though this isn't a trope I'd usually reach for so maybe a lot of grumpy-sunshine romances are like this?), I enjoyed their adventures and was enjoying ticking items off Finn's bucket list.
I liked the message of encouragement within the book for figuring out what your dreams are, allowing yourself to pursue them, and also taking time with yourself to process trauma and be able to move forward in a healthy way.
I also thought that the introduction of Max, Ava's brother, was a clever one as it allowed us to get to see a softer side to Ava early on in the book and we started to see some of her personal values come through as we watched them interact and heard the way she felt about him.
As the friendship turns into romance, I found that I had to suspend disbelief a little to overcome the somewhat corny nature of some of the scenes and the way their feelings seemed to become extraordinarily intense very quickly. I felt like we skipped the parts where people naturally start to develop feelings for someone and went straight to "I would do anything for this person" type of declarations. It was a little intense and involved basically an entire personality transplant for our Ava, who had been dismissive, cold, sarcastic, and closed off for the other half of the book.
There are a couple of open door sex scenes in the book. Perhaps I was distracted by how strangely their relationship was shifting between these extremes, but I found it difficult to get lost in the sex scenes. I owed this, at least in part, to the way they were written. There's one point where she pulls a vibrator out of a bedside table but doesn't actually name the object, so I was very confused in thinking perhaps it was a condom she threw at Finn. Then the way the author describes orgasms as being a heaviness below the stomach was a little strange. And the general flow of the sex scenes were just a little stilted or clumsily written for me.
All-in-all, a light read which has the underlying message of figuring yourself out, and a fun friendship between two very different characters.
Tropes: grumpy=sunshine, (fake)-friends=to=lovers, only one bed.
The Friendship Fling by Georgia Stone is a fairly slow burn (fake) friends to lovers story set in London, UK.
Ava and Finn happen to meet one day in the coffee shop where Ava works. Finn is bright and warm and optimistic, whereas Ava is closed off and rude for the most part. She happens to use his name one day when reassuring her concerned friend and flatmate that she is making friends at work, and he ends up being invited to a flat warming party they are hosting in six or so weeks time. Meanwhile, Finn discloses that he has a London bucket list that he would like to complete before his contract ends at the end of the summer (conveniently, at around a similar time to the party). He invites Ava to help him tick the items off his bucket list and she reluctantly agrees. So continues a sort of fake friendship between the two - he agrees to keep up the appearance that he is her friend to her flatmate, meanwhile they go on all these adventures together ticking off his bucket list. They end up forming a genuine friendship (and then romance).
The book flips between Ava and Finn as our two narrators, though Ava gets far more of a voice than Finn. Given how uneven this was, I'm not sure that I felt it was necessary. Or rather, perhaps I would have wanted it to be more evenly split and Finn's storyline with his parents/upbringing could have been fleshed out a little further.
I found the friendship side of their relationship very readable and while I felt the grumpy-sunshine dynamic was a bit overplayed (though this isn't a trope I'd usually reach for so maybe a lot of grumpy-sunshine romances are like this?), I enjoyed their adventures and was enjoying ticking items off Finn's bucket list.
I liked the message of encouragement within the book for figuring out what your dreams are, allowing yourself to pursue them, and also taking time with yourself to process trauma and be able to move forward in a healthy way.
I also thought that the introduction of Max, Ava's brother, was a clever one as it allowed us to get to see a softer side to Ava early on in the book and we started to see some of her personal values come through as we watched them interact and heard the way she felt about him.
As the friendship turns into romance, I found that I had to suspend disbelief a little to overcome the somewhat corny nature of some of the scenes and the way their feelings seemed to become extraordinarily intense very quickly. I felt like we skipped the parts where people naturally start to develop feelings for someone and went straight to "I would do anything for this person" type of declarations. It was a little intense and involved basically an entire personality transplant for our Ava, who had been dismissive, cold, sarcastic, and closed off for the other half of the book.
There are a couple of open door sex scenes in the book. Perhaps I was distracted by how strangely their relationship was shifting between these extremes, but I found it difficult to get lost in the sex scenes. I owed this, at least in part, to the way they were written. There's one point where she pulls a vibrator out of a bedside table but doesn't actually name the object, so I was very confused in thinking perhaps it was a condom she threw at Finn. Then the way the author describes orgasms as being a heaviness below the stomach was a little strange. And the general flow of the sex scenes were just a little stilted or clumsily written for me.
All-in-all, a light read which has the underlying message of figuring yourself out, and a fun friendship between two very different characters.
Tropes: grumpy=sunshine, (fake)-friends=to=lovers, only one bed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death