mmm, we need us a tasty morcel of teen romance every now and again.
Loved the characters. They all had their own stuff going on, nothing seemed irrelevmmm, we need us a tasty morcel of teen romance every now and again.
Loved the characters. They all had their own stuff going on, nothing seemed irrelevant. I liked that Anna was a cinephile, however in the second half of the book she became a bit of an idiot and kept pointing it out to us, so eh.
Etienne. He was a really good character. Like- Gansey's little cousin. Loved that he was afraid of heights because that made him super vulnerable, but wish we had gotten a bit of a backstory as to why? He was really funny, and kind, and a good friend, but I hate at the end of romance novels when it's all 'i loved you from day one'? Isn't it so much more romantic if his love for her grew by getting to know her? The other thing: it says that he was the friend of everyone, and everyone liked him and all this, but he spent all his time with Anna, and their friend group and his girlfriend, so I refuse to believe that. People aren't going to have any opinion of him - let alone that positive of a one - if he never even goes out of his way to interact with them or to have any sort of 'high-visibility' role within the school. So---- that was unbelievable. And he was a crappy boyfriend, and we never got told why he was dating Ellie, how long it had been, what crap they went through together etc. So we knew that he wouldn't break up with her bc 'oh, i've dated her ages, don't like change' (which is stupid) but he didn't even seem to care for her at all so THAT was unbelievable. And he made out with Anna in a public park before breaking up with Ellie which just seems like an unnecessarily idiotic move ...more
Ahhhh we knew this was coming, didn’t we? To be fair, I was very low-key still enjoying it until just today, and I did get a good 400 pages in (a measAhhhh we knew this was coming, didn’t we? To be fair, I was very low-key still enjoying it until just today, and I did get a good 400 pages in (a measly quarter through) before deciding that…
Today is the day. Book 5 is the book (as cliche as that is). But I def think that I’ll do a reread in the future and hopefully get further through the series. It’s gonna be that one fic that went on for like 300k or sm and I tired go read it like seven times and progressively got further and further before giving up forever.
Actually side note. In that fic Anne and Gilbert go to get ice-cream on a roadtrip and ‘A Horse With No Name’ is playing, and the other day I continued watching Friends (hadn’t watched in a couple months) and picked up right in the middle of the song and immediately started grinning and bopping along like a kid to cartoon intros. Such joy. SUCH JOY.
Anyway, so I:m guessing outlander will be one of those t8gs I just come back to and get comfort from, bc you know what?
Book/season 1 slayed so hard, 2 was AMAZING, 3 was awesome as well! (Kinda unhinged, but I read it on KI and that whole trip was the biggest vibe), book 4 I still enjoyed, and book 5 is like- why?
I just read 400 pages of someone’s super detailed diary describing what they did on their boring day in a boring place with boring people doing boring things.
I don’t care about what food you have in your pantry, I don’t care if you’re having a bath, I don’t care about your penicillin experiment, or you shooting a hanky, or how your baby is teething, or I DON’T CARE! And I especially don’t care about another bloody war! Gosh, it’s boring! Use the time travel plot! Do something interesting with it! Go back to Scotland, bring back some old characters, bring in some new characters that have accidentally stumbled in from a different time period like the 2010’s or something, ANYTHING!
Anyway, so that’s why I’m d.n.f’ing, though not with the intention to stop watching the show, and WITH the intention to reread and rewatch.
Sort of in denial that… these books I’ve been reading for an actual whole year… I’m done with them for another five to ten business years… I feel like I should do a major debrief but, um, I don’t want to. I just find it crazy that the past books had SO MUCH going on in them I couldn’t even write out all the plot points and backstories and all this. Whereas here I read 400 pages and can barely write a phrase about anything important that happened. Jamie has to get people to go to war with him. There. And we already knew that from the end of last season.
This book skipped forward a couple years, Jeremiah and Belly have been dating for two and are at uni being a perfect cute couple when BeMan, idk, man.
This book skipped forward a couple years, Jeremiah and Belly have been dating for two and are at uni being a perfect cute couple when Belly learns that Jeremiah cheated on her during spring break when they were ‘on a break.’
To fix things and assure her it’ll never happen again, he proposes and for some reason Belly says yes. So the whole book is about them getting married, everyone being like ‘you’re 19 and idiots. Don’t do it’ Belly getting feelings mixed up by seeing Conrad, him telling her he loves her the night before the wedding, Jeremiah refusing to marry Belly because she can’t honestly tell him that she doesn’t still live Conrad, and then an epilogue where Belly goes to Spain (lmao, actually wrote france and only realised on the reread #manifesting) for uni, Conrad sends her letters, and then they get married at 23.
I think there were multiple things I didn’t like about this book.
1. THE PLOT IS PAINFULLY STUPID! Everyone was asking them what the rush was in getting married and they could never answer it, which makes the whole thing so painful to sit through. Especially because divorce rates are so high in America, and it was tearing the family apart, and it was all for a vague ‘so he won’t cheat on me?’ Like? Youch. It especially hurt when Conrad found out Jeremiah cheated on Belly (which, btw, is why he did ask belly to run away with him wedding eve) and went to Belly like ´i didn’t think you were the kind of girl who would let that crap slide,’ or sm. Because it’s true. I didn’t think Belly was particularly spectacular, but it’s true that no person should ever think they’re not worth fidelity. No matter how much he apologises, if he cheated on you, it means either you or sex never meant that much to him anyway.
And that hurt doubly because Belly was a virgin because sex meant something really important to her, but her bf just goes and does it with some random girl on spring break. Like- obvi you don’t value the same things. Also, I hate that he held the sex thing against her. I hate that Belly thought he was angsty because she ‘wouldn’t let him have all of her’ and I hate that she was right! I hate that girls are taught that boys ‘can’t control themselves’ when it aimed to sex, bc it makes it seem like it’s the girls fault that he cheated, because like she couldn’t ‘satisfy’ him or sm. Which is such crap, bc I think valuing the other person’s values is so important. I love Gilmore Girls for showing that you can have a relationship without sex, and the guy won’t break up with you for it, because that just seems like a heartbreakingly sleazy reason to break up.
ANYWAY.
Another thing that I didn’t like was how much Conrad changed in this book. It reminds me of… (what was it called?) SHATTER ME where there’s two boys, and whenever she’s with one, the other is written to be wrong, but it switches, and they even try to justify past stuff to make it seem like they were in love with her all along?
Idk. In this book, suddenly Conrad was really (conspicuously) perfect for Belly. It was said again and again how he was there for her when Jeremiah wasn’t, he was responsible and mature and serious and sweet where Jeremiah was a frat boy who joked into dangerous territory and couldn’t cook or clean or sacrifice anything, and thought that Daddy’s credit card meant that everything would be okay.
It was kind of annoying, because Belly barely said any good things about Jeremiah, it was all just her thinking about stuff that irritated her about him and I didn’t understand at all why she loved him! It was also annoying because Conrad was such a jerk in the previous books, ditching Belly at the prom and being a prick and forgetting her birthday present and all of this, and then its explained by ‘I couldn’t be with you, because I would’ve hurt you and been stupid, and I couldn’t bear to hurt you so I let you go.’
WELL YOU KNKW WHAT YOU LITTLE PUNK? I am so freaking sick of that non-excuse! Oh, I would’ve hurt you. You don’t hurt the people you love! Why would you think you would hurt her? And you know what? You’ve hurt her INIFINIYELY TIMES MORE BY LEAVING! Ugh, it’s such crap. It’s such crap.
… wow. I think I may have just experienced what I’ve out over 11k readers through on ao3… ...more
I freaking did it again. I’m not gonna cry. I’m not gonna cry, I’m not gonna cry. I’ve only rewritten this fucking review like five times. I’ve alr-UGI freaking did it again. I’m not gonna cry. I’m not gonna cry, I’m not gonna cry. I’ve only rewritten this fucking review like five times. I’ve alr-UGHHHHH I’ve already cried so much and now another freaking tear just fell. Oh and there goes another. This book has made me sob buckets, I really miss my best friend, very bingey and enjoyable and incredibly non-spicy I couldn’t believe, great characters, directionless plot, freaking accurate to my own life. And that’s all I’m going to write because I have about a novel’s worth of words on this book in the Place Where Lost Reviews Go...more
This book was about an introverted librarian and her sidekick sentient plant escaping from political conflict to an island. A small island with coves This book was about an introverted librarian and her sidekick sentient plant escaping from political conflict to an island. A small island with coves and cottages, fishing culture and a bakery, forests and waterfalls and native winged cats.
Mc Kiela cleaned out the cottage, decided to learn how to make and sell jam so she could earn enough to buy everything she couldn’t grow in the garden, and learnt about her sweet, welcoming and unique community. Because Kiela ‘stole’ (rescued) spell books from the library as it burnt, she worries that she can’t make friends because then they’ll figure out she’s being illegal and she’ll be punished. Which is stupid because they literally live so far from anywhere anyone would care, but whatever.
Except not whatever! Because, because she doesn’t want anyone to see the books she gets all touchy about people getting in her space - which, fine, that’s fair, everyone needs a certain sacridity around their personal space - but she snapped SO HARD when her neighbour was literally just trying to cook her a meal. He fixed her chimney, he cooked her eggs, he built her shelves for her jam and then she goes ‘DID I *ASK*?’
Anyway. She gets snappy and denies friendship because she doesn’t want people to come to her cottage and see the books because obviously they’ll turn her in to the police. Total sense. Except not. And then doubly not, because then Kiela decides to sell spells to the islanders. Illegal spells. And her fail-safe? Call them ‘remedies’.
… Yeah. Anyway.
So, then a woman comes in - who SO reminded me of D.C. - and she’s all ‘I’m the police! I will confiscate your recipe book because it could be ILLEGAL MAGIC ...more
I wrote half of this review. Then it deleted. I wrote it again and it was perfect and full, I was finishing it off with a seussifjed poem about how I I wrote half of this review. Then it deleted. I wrote it again and it was perfect and full, I was finishing it off with a seussifjed poem about how I want a book less than 400 pages when it deleted again. so here we go. Third times the charm ...more
**spoiler alert** I’m so sad. It didn’t properly click for me that this is the last book in the series until that last chapter.
This book was so thorou**spoiler alert** I’m so sad. It didn’t properly click for me that this is the last book in the series until that last chapter.
This book was so thoroughly *enjoyable*. Clarke and Bellamy and their families, and Glass and Luke are so solid and BTS loving and healthy and happy, and then bam, their camp gets raided and a bunch of people including Glass and Wells (Bellamy’s half brother, Glass’ best friend and Clarke’s ex-bf) get kidnapped by this cult.
Glass eventually gets promoted to the leader, Soren’s, inner circle, and Wells is thought to show ‘great potential’ but to prove his worth (and make the leaders think he’s going along with it so they’ll trust him and then he can escape), he has to kill another member of the 100, Graham, who ends up killing himself with Wells’ gun to save his soul! OMG THE DRAMA!
Meanwhile, Clarke and Bellamy and Luke and this annoying guy Paul and some others left on a rescue mission, and there’s a lil rift between Clarke and Bellamy about whether to blow up the fortress (Bel) or negotiate (Clarke) - omg it’s crazy, it escalates like crazy and they’re so upset at each other - but then eventually Clarke sees a… corpse, to put it Nicely, of the guy they sent to negotiate and screams for Bellamy before realising and Bellamy was stealing ammo with Luke, griping about Clarke but as soon as he heard her scream, he RAN and it was so wholesome, and then they apologised and forgave each other and UWUUUU
Meanwhile, Glass realises that Soren is planning to bring all the prisoners into the fold with a Pairing Ceremony which BASICALLY is all the girls getting paired up with the guys to make babies while she WATCHES WHICH WAS SO OMG NO! So all the prisoners were like oooooooookay, think it’s time to leave.
So Wells does a whole rousing speech (super rousing, trust) to unite all the guy prisoners to get out of there, and they’re all *raise pitchforks* AAAAARGH BUT THEN-
Clarke and bel and all them decided to blow up and storm the fortress with the cult’s own weapons, and at this point Harry had just started eating Weetbix really loudly so I put my earphones in and searched up the most basic rebellion intense music and it was SO GOOD! The whole building was in flames, guns were bulleting, the fortress was crumbling down and Glass yells at all the girls to run while Soren has fallen into her gazebo of bones and is like ‘glass help me pwease, my child’ and glass does a full on ‘YOURE NOT A REAL MOM! Because real mothers protect their children, not offer them up in weird sex rituals! You’re a parasite!’ And then OMG, so the whole time the cult was really weird because every time someone would say ‘if it earth wills it’ (and they said it a lot), everyone else would repeat it? Anyway, so Soren was like ‘if you leave me here I’ll die!’ And Glass continues running away from the crumbling building muttering, ‘if earth wills it’ and it was just as the music dropped out before going crazy again and ohmalawd
Anyway, so the rescue mission people and the guys and the girls (except glass cos she’s bullying Soren) all run into each other in the hallways and escape and blah blah and then outside, Luke and Glass reunite and it’s so ...more
I liked that it sort of very very VERY briefly recounted things that happened in the past books when it came up to j**spoiler alert** Goooood boooook.
I liked that it sort of very very VERY briefly recounted things that happened in the past books when it came up to jog my memory, because library holds and Outlander say that I need months between installations, and also because so much happens in these short books.
So this one was about how - because the mothership was running out of oxygen- they sent PACKED ships down to earth in a hurry, and they all crashed and the 100 was like We JUST reached stability. Now yall gotta go mess all that up.
And it did get messed up because the Vice Chancellor guy (actual chancellor aka Wells’ dad is in a coma aka dead) is super duper corrupt and is like Bellamy? Buddy? You ran into the ship, so imma need you to die.
And then everyone starts running away because the guards are very obedient and harsh and not letting anyone do anything and putting trackers on everyone and threatening executions and stuff.
So Wells and Clarke go rescue Bellamy (who had been shot, infected, then shoved in a prison shack) and they run away to the Earthborns (the daughter of the chief of which is Wells’ gf) and be like HEYYOOO Bellamy needs refuge!
Meanwhile, Glass and Luke (who were on the dropships to Earth) ran away bc Luke was gonna have to kill Bellamy cos he’s a guard, and… he dint wanna do dat. So they live this cute cottagecore little life, making a home and live in this abandoned cottage and stuff. UNTIL. They’re sleeping and hear a knock at the window and Luke does a major Outlander Jamie and grabs his gun and goes out barefoot and shirtless while Claire- I mean Glass is like LUKE NO!
And the knock was this rogue faction of the Earthborns who basically shoot him in the leg. So Glass has to care for him and then he gets an infection and so she does crazy stuff to get him back to camp and to Clarke - who’s basically a doctor.
So Sasha (wells’ gf) gets killed. Real actual can’t read cos it’s too blurry tears because that was so unexpected and painful because her and Wells were fully planning a life together and fully understood each other because they were both children of chief/chancellors and they were so happy and partners UGH. That was pain. Especially bc her dad was there and he’s such a good guy and didn’t deserve to have this happen and-
Anyway. Then there’s a war between Earthborns/the 100 vs. the Colonists. They take Bellamy and Clarke and Wells as prisoners back to camp. Then there’s a war between ROGUE Earthborns vs Colonists/The 100. In this war, the corrupt Vice Chancellor was like- about to die, and BELLAMY instead of killing him, helps him?
And I’m screaming like NO, YOU IDIOT! YIU LITERALLY JUST KILLED DOZENS WITH NO WUALMS BUT THIS AWFUL GUY YOU HESITATE?
But then, to my immense satisfaction, we get some reason (not sense, not logic, but reason) as to why he was such a bad guy. Which was basically that he didn’t trust 100 teenage criminals, this authoritarian method worked well on the ship, blah blah. But it was still said (through Bellamy’s reactions and stuff) that he was still an awful and corrupt guy and not forgiven, but he does get a second chance which he uses to elect new leaders of which Wells and Bellamy are two!
Then Clarke finds her parents! They give Sasha a funeral. Luke is healed. Bada bing bada boom!
Something I really love about this series is the creativity of the plot. I love this universe and how many possibilities of it that authoress has explored what with all the stuff on the mothership from the last two books like the oxygen leak, viewpoints into each socioeconomic level, different careers and politics and rules. As well as all the stuff with The 100, and with the Earthborns and all their world too.
I also love, especially in this book, the relationships. Now I’m not really talking about the romances - though those have great banter, support, trust, intimacy and kiss scenes (SHOUT OUT TO LUKE AND GLASS MY BABIED IF THEY HAD *ANY* FANFICTION WRITTEN ABOUT THEM) - but also how Glass and Clarke were friends despite their differences back on the ship, united by their love of Wells (Glass’ best friend and Clarkes ex boyfriend, now close friend). I loved Bellamy and Wells as brothers (they were revealed to share a dad in the last book) that was SO SATISFYING. The way Bellamy - who is usually so sarcastic and arrogant and self-sabotaging - told Wells that he was proud to call him his brother, and Wells was so ‘well obviously, you’re my brother now’ when he risked everything to save Bellamy DESPITE him being the new bf of his first love? I also loved the mentions of what a community The 100 were.
Something I’ve noticed is the power of a friendly face. Even through all the tensions and rifts from the past two books, when The Colonists came, The 100 stuck together, because they shared so many experiences and injustices amongst themselves. I loved that.
The whole book was just really masterful in how it squeezes everything down into under 400 pages and two days of reading, even though it includes so much inckuding HEAPS of flashbacks or just thought train mentions to when they were on the mothership, which gives heaps on insight considering so much changed when they came to Earth.
ANYWAY! Wish they’d made a more faithful screen adaptation because books are SO GOOD. But I’m a little scaredy cat if the tv show ...more
**spoiler alert** What the frickety frack even was this book lmao? Nevertheless, enjoyable to boot as always! I love how different this series is! The**spoiler alert** What the frickety frack even was this book lmao? Nevertheless, enjoyable to boot as always! I love how different this series is! The setting is always interesting, the character’s are just chock full of character, the plot is constantly twisting and turning and Jamie and Claire are settled enough that there’s no silly drama about breaking up or taking breaks or getting together, it’s just like- they’re together. That’s not gonna change. But! Secrets and their circumstances keep things interesting between them!
I feel like Outlander 1 and 2, Jack Randall was the villain so I was really glad that he died in the first few pages of this book. 1 was heaps about the Mackenzies and since Colum and Dougal both died in Dragonfly in Amber, I kinda missed that in this book? I also missed the Scottishness. After the war, obviously clan life sort of stopped, so I miss that sort of Medieval castle, kilts and plaids, swords and mead vibe that I don’t think we’re going to get back. Sad. So I loved outlander, though I hated the Jack Randall rape and torture stuff. Dragonfly in Amber was mostly set in Paris, and was about war and preparations and trying to stop it, that was fun. Especially when we played around with the black magic and pregnancy and the whole 18th century France (...more
**spoiler alert** I don’t think I have ever in my life spent two months reading a book.
5 stars? 4 stars? 4.5 stars? I’m stuck because I’m not ecstatic**spoiler alert** I don’t think I have ever in my life spent two months reading a book.
5 stars? 4 stars? 4.5 stars? I’m stuck because I’m not ecstatic jumping around the room about it, so does it deserve five stars? BUT I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed it, so *does it* deserve five stars? I love it without passion.
I platonically love this book. There. Okay.
Where to start?
At the beginning I guess. (Gee, it was so long ago I actually have the copy next to me so I can look back and remember what I read
Actually. Talking point. The fact that I’ve read 1800 pages (that’s like - 5, 6 books worth btw) of this series and still remember every plot point that’s happened? None of this wishy washy irrelevant scenes. The plotting of this series is actually gifted.)
Okay, so
Previous book
Claire in 1948 Claire jumps back in time to 1744 and lives life
This book
1. Claire in 1968 and Helena being really confused why she isn’t in 1745, where we left off.
2. Claire telling her adult daughter (?!?!?!) and other random guy about her life in 1744/recap of the first book for readers. Also. Helena spoiling stuff for herself, kicking herself, slapping her forehead, #defenestration. But also. Helena being less confused.
3. (Claire continues telling story of her life in 1745, but we don’t see that, we read 800 pages of her life in 1745)
4. Jump back to the future of 1968 where Claire has finished the story about her life in 1745 and a Lil extra in 1968 to tie up some ends from a plot point way back in the middle of the first book. - I’m honestly lost as to how to review this book. It’s too big and long and… only makes sense if you actually read the book. I feel really distant from y’all. My whole life for two months (TWO MONTHS) has been Claire and Jamie Fraser and it’s been very personally between us three. There’s been not much point for me to add little comments as I update because so much happens that nothing matters more than usual enough to comment on? Idk if that makes sense but-
1. I don’t really have anything to say here.
2. Nothing to say here either
3. They went to France. Jamie became a wine seller. Claire became involved in French gossip, became friends with a magic dark arts guy who kept skulls in a room and looked like a frog, and she waxed her legs.
The whole point of their life is to stop a revolution/rebellion/war that Claire knows is coming because she’s from the future. They sort of adopt a kid and renamed him Fergus. Fergus for life. Fergus is a pickpocket who steals letters from the king and gives them to Jamie to decode.
Claire feels useless so goes to work at a charity hospital. Jamie’s all protective and dominant and forbids her to go. She goes anyway. Oh btw she’s pregnant. She burns a ship, gets poisoned, meets Jamie’s torture abuser guy’ *brother*
There’s this teenager called Mary Hawkins. She has a cute little crush on said brother (Alex). She’s telling Claire about it and Claire’s all oooOOOOOooo *nudge nudge* teehee. And then they get assaulted by bad guys and Mary gets raped. Assault guys get scared of Claire because-
Okay. So. A lot of the political conversations that Jamie has to be part of to stop the revolution are held in brothels, because they’re very secretive places. But Jamie kept getting teased for not cheating on his wife - this is France - so he made up this story going “oh my wife is la dame Blanche, and if I cheat on her she’ll take one look at me and shrivel up my”anyway, so word spread and attacker guys were like WA LA DAME BLANCHE! SHE’LL SHRIVEL UP MYanyway, so then Claire didn’t get raped.
Long story short… the end of that.
Oh wait. Claire has a friend called Louise. Louise is married to a guy she’s kinda meh about. Louise gets preggo with the prince’s kid. Louise convinces hubby that the kid is his. Kind of unnecessary for the moment, but wonderfully teasome.
Claire sees Jamie’s torture/abuser guy - Randall. Jamie sees Randall, challenges him to a duel. Claire’s all like ‘no! Jamie! Randall is the great great whatever grandpa of Frank, my hubby from 1940! If you kill him then Frank won’t exist!’ Which- I didn’t get why it mattered so much but whatever. And then Jamie was like ‘either I kill Randall or you kill me, because I ain’t livin while he is’ and then gives her a knife. I feel like this happens twice, but I could not tell you for sure.
Although, I was watching this on tv and it was super dramatic and my mum was sitting on the couch and I was very wary, but then she ended up getting super into it. My mum and I have a thing for period tv shows - we’re in our third season of Downton abbey at the moment, it’s great. But no one asked so let’s continue.
Erm, and then Jamie ends up promising her one year before he kills Randall - hopefully enough time for Randall to make teh child who ends up making the child who (…) ends up making Frank.
BUT THEN Claire hears goss of how Jamie and Randall are having a duel (duels are illegal in France), but it’s because Randall was being really Mm-Mm no no to Fergus. Claire runs into the secret woods where they’re duelling, watches Jamie uh… injure Randall so he is - how to say - unable to make teh child who ends up making the child who (…) ends up making Frank.
Claire is so distressed that WHOOMP MISCARRIAGE. BLERD.
What kind of book couple doesn’t 1. Have trouble conceiving and 2. Have a miscarriage. I mean- you can’t fully milk their couple-iness without those two stuffs.
Um, Jamie couldn’t take Claire to l’hopital because he was taken away by the police guys. Claire gets taken to l’hopital and is really sad and dying for a bit.
Master Raymond (isn’t it crazy that I just read 800 pages about this guy and yet could not remember his name because in my mind… the symbols on the page were his name, not the sounds that those symbols correlate to. Reading is weird) did a sex thing to heal her. Sex is the wrong word because he wasn’t being rapey about it, he was honestly trying to heal her with his magic powers - which I was a bit ‘what?’ About, but anyway.
Ummmm. Baby was called Faith and buried. Claire was angry at Jamie. But he needed to go do this thing to stop the rebellion from happening (their main goal). BUT. UH OH. HE’ IN JAIL.
So Claire’s all ‘IVE LOST MY BABY AND MY HUSBAND’ in the depths of despair and sickness, she’s alone, she doesn’t know how to go forward, she’s been betrayed, she’s can’t forgive, etc etc. but also, lifts her heavy skirts and goes all ‘ugh, quickly gotta go get the bloody idiot out of the bloody jail so he can bloody do what we bloody came here for.’
So she goes to the king and is like fine. You can have sex with me as long as you free me husband. And then the King is like, maybe later. But first, La dame Blanche, Help me decide which of these two guys is the devil.
And then Claire!s like… oh. Oh yes. Um. Of course. (Wtf?) Uhhhh… you sir, you have… *shadows* behind your eyes…
And then she’s making crap up on the spot, with potions and stuff and then one of the guys who originally tried to poison Claire is like ‘I will pull a snake out of my sleeve. This proves I am not evil.’ But then he drinks poison and dies so. Hm. Anyway. Hope the snake’s okay.
URM. There’s the sex with the king and then stuff while she waits for Jamie to get back from his little trip to stop the prince from getting money to fund an army to start a rebellion war thing.
Jamie comes after Claire like heyooo.
There’s a scene and all I remember about it is the grape leaves. AUTHORESS WOULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THESE GRAPE LEAVES.
She’s like “dialogue dialogue dialogue. ‘The vines behind me were making wet spots on the silk.’ Dialogue dialogue. ‘Whispering our thoughts in the grape-leaves above.’ Silence and awkwardness ‘letting the grape leaves talk for us’ hand holding. ‘Rustling of the grape leaves’ dialogue. ‘The smell of the rain-swept grapes…’ relief ‘eyes dark with reflections of fluttering leaves.’ Dialogue dialogue dialogue ‘Fallen grapes littered the ground…’ dialogue dialogue ‘sun through the grape leaves streaking his hair…’ dialogue ‘leaving the grape leaves to their muted conversation.’
SHUT UP ABOUT THE GRAPE LEAVES. JEEZ. *gosh*. Yikes. Grape leaves ingrained in my mind’s eye. Sigh. Gosh.
Anyway. And then they had a bigger, better, more restorative convo and? They decided to have it while laying naked on the rocks? And dragging stinging nettle over each other? And finding two skeletons who died having sex? Idek. Tv show made a good call in scrapping that bit lol.
URM. And then so when Jamie was released from jail, the king was like ‘don’t come back to France. I will make you no longer an outlaw in Scotland.:
So then yay! They went back to lallybroch! Loved! They were all scratching their heads trying to grow potatoes. Ian - Jamie’s brother in law - is reading this book on how to grow potatoes. And the whole town is there like, confusion? How do you know when to eat them? And ian’s there with his lil spectacles on, going through hwo to do everything with potatoes except know when to eat them. And Jamie gets all angry and ‘THIS IS STOOPID. POTATOES ARE STOOPID. KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM EXCEPT WHEN TO EAT THEM. OH DOY, NOW WE’E SET FOR A FREAKIN FAMINE. BLOODY HELL.’
And then Fergus is there watching a caterpillar crawl across his finger like ‘why don’t you just dig a few up and check?’
**spoiler alert** Sometimes a book is meant to stew for a day or so in my mind so I can figure out my thoughts and feelings and ways to articulate the**spoiler alert** Sometimes a book is meant to stew for a day or so in my mind so I can figure out my thoughts and feelings and ways to articulate them into a review.
This was not one of those books.
This was the kind of book where you need to review it straight away while everything’s still fresh and relevant and current because I can tell you there will be no deep dive into interesting concepts for this here bookeen. Nope. It was purely foul and wholly entertaining and I enjoyed it completely.
What I do not enjoy completely is writing a review in teh app instead of the website. Excuse me a moment.
~~~
Okay. *snuggles* we comfy. Noo som pretzels. Lettuce begineth.
Remember when I was hesitant to read because of the rape scene? WOOOOOO BABY.
This was chockers. It was foul. It was gross. There was like torture chambers and the smashing of hands and ripping of dresses and whipping wives with a knee in their back so they can’t fight back, whipping until his back was open and blood was running down it in rivulets and down his legs and EWWWIIIEEEE.
There was worse, I can assure you, but it was THAT BAD that I couldn’t even read it. I couldn’t read Jamie talking about it afterwards either because *shudder* nope nope nope. There’s a difference between knowing evil and choosing goodness and choosing not to know evil so all you can choose is goodness and I used to appreciate the former, but for those specific scenes I am def def def choosing the latter. And maybe one day I’ll read this review after having read the scene and be like ‘ugh, young me was so dramatic, wasn’t even that bad. Lord knows she’s read worse and for worse reasons.’ Which- y’know- we’re not-
Let’s not dwell! Moving on!
So because of all the awfulness, it just really hit when they had a sweet moment. And when I just wrote that, I thought of a peaceful moments Jamie and Claire had had, like when they were in Lallybroch (his sister’s (well technically his, but Jenny had been living there with her hubby and son for a couple a years) property) and the sun was setting and Jamie just came around Claire who was literally sitting on the fence and hugged her and wrapped her in a blanket and was quiet and content in each other’s presence and- anyway, when I thought of it, my heart rose in my throat with an audible squeak so. There you go. This book had impact.
Would I call Jamie the dream husband? NO, NO I WOULD NOT. But you know, I liked this relationship! It was interesting! It was new! It wasn’t your same old same old loving, caring, attentive, sensitive, romantic, good, chiselled jaw and tousled dark hair and ochre eyes or whatever your stupid fluffy stupid boring cookie-cutter unoriginal insult to creativity romance novels (AHEM AHEM EMILY HENRY, SORRY, I SHOULDN’T out YOU DOWN BECAUSE YOURE AN AUTHOR AND DOING ACTUALLY AMAZING AND WORK REALLY HARD, BUT I REALLY HATE YOUR BOOKS SORRY). But neither was it our dark abusive cold secretive mysterious uncaring whoring bad boy with daddy issues and tattoos (AHEM AHEM COLLEEN HOOVER, NOT SORRY AT ALL BECAUSE WHAT YOU WRITE IS SO HARMFUL AND ROMANTICISED).
I mean… did he totally whip her that one time? Yiz. Did she literally forgive him for it the next day? …also Yiz. Was it unacceptable? Should do. But the thing is! Is that he always gave a reason! And I know y’all probs are thinking I’m crazy and there is no excuse for abuse, but come on. It was the 18th century, and he was being fair to her in the way that he had been taught what fairness was. And he never raised a hand to her in anger (after Claire totally told him off for it that one time, which! Hey! Look at our mc not being okay with abuse! That’s good!)
And because it was a forced marriage, they never really? Fell in love? They were just sorta two people who had to be (in the most literal sense of the word) together and so it’s not like OOOH SEXUAL TENSION FROM CLOSE PROXIMITY! It was more like… you’re near and you’re willing so hey listen to me talk and I’ll listen to you talk and we can have sex and look hey! Intimacy and love! Would you look at that! Look at me being happy when you save me. Aw. Look at you being happy when I save you. *heart fingers* #couplesgoals
I love stories where the story would still go on even if the romance wasn’t there. I love romance stories in non-romance genres.
Admittedly the world building was actually horrid lmao. Is it be called worldbuilding when it’s our world just three hundred years ago? Idk. But there was stuff about English and Jacobites and Kings. There was a lot of politics that never got explained to us, which, whatever, I just gathered that Dougal likes Jacob and Callum likes some other guy. Dougal’s team is gonna die from letting Jacob be king because Other Guy’s team has big army. Which was really all that was necessary. And the English were bad, which I’m guessing is probably the usual. You know, because they were taking the Scottish land being like ‘you do not be English. Yuck. Poor savages. We will invade your country and take your children and insult you and make you be English and then when you be anything but utterly grateful we will be like ‘SEE. YOU ARE SAVAGES AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED.’’ because you know, the English were kinda fascist at that point. But they did bring civilisation to Australia so… you win some, you lose some. We all go through growing pains, ig.
As for Claire. Would I call this a feminist book? No. But that’s simply because I tend to hate ‘feminist’ books, and so that would actually be an insult. Love that she stood up for herself, love that she was a very active character - she disn’t just wait for stuff to happen to her - love that her whole life didn’t revolve around Jamie, love that she wasn’t scared of men or timid like I totally would be surrounded by ruddy faced, raping alcoholic Scottish men who wear kilts and carry swords and make lewd jokes about me in a language I don’t understand. But did she take care of them? Did she want to be a mother? A wife? Happy to help in the kitchen? Take orders from a man? Yea! I mean there was that one time where they woudln’t let her come to the fight, just wanted her to stay in some pretty glen. And she wouldn’t listen and was pretty angry, but I feel like that’s bordering on the line of reasonable and stupid. She was the damsel in distress but she also totally risked herself to save Jamie, and nursed him back to health. I thought… this is what a great feminist character looks like to me. I mean… obvi, an ideal feminist character wouldn’t forgive her husband whipping her the day after, but does it make a difference if the end of chapter line was her being really firm and angry and determined like ‘Do NOT raise a single bloody finger against me. Ever. Again.’ And he agreed and was like, an actual doting, protective, self-sacrificing, loving husband from then on?
I reckon. I mean- is Claire my fave character ever? No. Because that position will always belong to my baby darling Adelaide. But do I appreciate her and admire her and feel relief in the way the author’s written her? Yasssssss.
Do we love how I’m really just interviewing myself for this review? It’s great. Truly. Question and answer form is the go.
Setting was a total slay. Both with Scotland, 1740’s and the ‘present day’ being post-WWII. Loved the accent, because it was one of those books where the accent was written and my internal Scottish accent is ...more
**spoiler alert** A very definite 3.5. no more, no less.
Can we just talk about that ending?
human dude: I love you. siren: I love the ocean. oh. but i lov**spoiler alert** A very definite 3.5. no more, no less.
Can we just talk about that ending?
human dude: I love you. siren: I love the ocean. oh. but i love you almost as much. o-okay. but i don't wanna mate with you. you have toes. lol, i don't want that either. i don't want to do that with humans either. okie. but can i kiss you? ooh yeah *mwah* on the fOREHEAD *swoon*
totally waiting for the headcanon where instead of human periods, sirens turn into humans to mate. And then Dejean will just hear screaming from the bathroom and run in and see this albino naked woman in his bath and slap his eyes and scream too. And then he'll be like "Perle?" and then (in this case, even tho it feels wrong) she'll be like "Yeah?!" and then they'll both realise that she's speaking human words and be like 'OH MY GOD?! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO YOU/ME?"
yeh. because there were no kissies and this was an interspecies love story, the daydreams had to improvise to satisfying extents.
Anywho! So, this book was about a nonbinary siren who was low-key adopted/saved by (asexual?) Dejean, his first mate Simone and her fiancee Murielle. Perle (why wasn't it just Pearl?) was also low-key disabled because their tail had all it's nerve endings ruined by the evil Captain Kian.
And even as I write this review, I'm still thinking Dejean is called Kian. Maybe just because Kian is really close to Kieran and Kieran and Dejean's characters are quite similar in similar stories. Except not similar stories because this one was a lot more siren orientated and steampunk inspired and bloody action.
It was written first person Perle's perspective and really well in that regard! Lots of the time, even in my own writing, we write in first person, using I and My, but we're not seeing through that chracter's personal lense, you know? This was written well through Perle's lense which was really well done because Perle is a siren and had to amke up words and decriptions of human things and would have cool asides about the sea life and such.
Main criticism (pretty much only criticism) was that there was a good 80 pages of non-stop action preceding the 13 page peaceful resolution, and I ended up skimming a lot because it was tiring and not punctuated much with dialogue and it was a bit muddy and could probs have been condensed. However! I have just been on a 4 day intense restrcuturing of my OWN novel, so it was good to see the advantages of structure, specially in the third act, because Bryn did real well structuring teh first two. Mwah. perfection. neat and tight and concise and effective.
(the pains of reading as a writer *presses temples*)
BUT ENOUGH OF THE WRITER TALK! How did the reader feel?!
The reader thought that I LOVE THE CHARACTERS! Or, well not really. I just thought they had personlity and character traits! Which is my winning combo! Murielle was my fave.
M: pull the lever down D: *pulls lever down* M: NO THE OTHER DOWN D: you mean up? M well, i mean, if you wanna be technical... now hand me the thing D: *hands tool* M: NO! THE THING! D: *hands another tool* M: thank you, geez
And the romance was like, best ever. 10 out of 10. all the hearts. there was like... wah... learning each other's language and communicating in their own made up one! And there was trusting each other! And there was just *being* next to each other! And there was reaching for the other when afraid or excited or whatever! And Perle singing to Dejean when he was having nightmares so he would calm down! And then him dreaming about them! And then kissing their hand and saying 'it was part of the dream'! And then Perle getting all warm and gooey inside! THE COOING IN SIREN LANGUAGE! The arm around the waist and the tracing mindless patterns on the shoulder and WAAAAHHHH!
All without needing kisses to show that they were in love.
oh it was powerful to see a romantic love without lust/attraction! Really muddies up my distinction between platonic love and romantic love darn it.
Description and setting was PERFECT! Imagine a small, shallower indoor pool made out of welded bronze in the bathroom, set by the window with wispy curtains looking out over the cliff and towards teh ocean. A sunset on teh horizon slants orange sunshine into the cottage, lighting the bronze metal gold and the soft breeze caresses the curtains, brine and sea-salt dancing under the nose of Perle as they rest their chin on their arms on the windowsill, gazing longingly towards the slowly crashing crests in the ocean.
Except! like! better! I just can't be bothered looking for the quotes, but I tried to replicate. And then there was the vibe of the ocean being eerily still under the waves as dark storm clouds gathered above and Perle was holding onto the side of Dejean's little catamaran and oh, it was just fantastic. I thoroughly ENJOYED! I also loved the way perle's love and belonging with the ocean and their pod-mates and their song was written. Just so inconceivable yet imaginable. It was strong and poetic and, oh, I learnt so much with this book.
Um. Was that it? i think so.
love is loved, characters were great. plot was perfect except for those last 80-90 pages (which is admittedly a fair amount) which was too much action for me. 3.5 stars...more
**spoiler alert** trying to figure out order in which to put thoughts...
ok. lemme say. At this very moment, after I just finished, I am so bitter. I f**spoiler alert** trying to figure out order in which to put thoughts...
ok. lemme say. At this very moment, after I just finished, I am so bitter. I feel so cheated. and unfulfilled. unsatisfied. those last five chapters I was clinging onto hope. Even in the last epilogue/segway into next book chapter, I was holding hope. Then I reached teh acknowledgements and you know what? *sneers* *points finger* I KNOW it's all going to be in the next book. SO I HAVE TO READ IT UGGHHHHH! I almost, want to juts not read it out of spite.
BUt at the same time... this was a fanTASTIC book! like... it was a pretty 5 star book, except that it was missing a certain errrrr je ne sais quoi. From a writer's perspective I can appreciate it's (almost ...more
OK. Those acknowledgments? *sniff* They are... read this book for the acknowledgement**spoiler alert** I WANNA CRY.
oh, wait. I am crying. BUT STILLLLL
OK. Those acknowledgments? *sniff* They are... read this book for the acknowledgements. 4 pages of acknowledgements, but my god were they gorgeous.
'Kieryn. You are my person. (...) A paragraph isn't enough. My acknowledgement to you is everything I've written over the past six years. Everything I'm writing, everything I will write, that's your acknowledgement.'
AND THEN SHE REALLY WHIPPED OUT THE-
'Thank you to the old readers. I've been posting my writing online for over a decade, and I was always, always met with kindness. Some of that writing was incredibly cringey - the work of an angsty thirteen year old. It would have been easy to tear it apart. Nobody did. I cannot tell you how much your kindness and support meant to that angsty thirteen year old. And that angsty dixteen year old. and that angsty twenty-year old. And- you get the idea. You made me keep writing. Really, above all else, it was you. Your comments, your kudos, your friendship, across multiple platforms, across dozens of stories. From the silent lurkers, to the faithful commenters to the online friends I've known for years, it was you. I was sad and lonely and I needed someone to tell me, "You are not wasting your time, you are good at this, keep going," and you did. Over and over again, you did. Tens of thousands of you.'
*sobs* no literally, tho. I know, it's not hard to make me cry because you don't have to strike hard, for me to feel it hit hard. But still. And also. I'm quite certain I should quit writing, because she just wrote my dream acknowledgements. Y'all don't even understand how much that is my own experience. *ahem* apart from the encouraging parents *ahem*. This author- i just- queen- ofc you're awesome. Have you read your book?! OFC I LOVE YOU.
ok. now onto the actual story...
All along i was hoping... please let this not suck at the end. Please. I'm holding the five stars as I do at the start of many books... please don't make me drop my (croissant) stars.
AND I HELD THE STARS.
Now, this book had all the goodies.
AND BY THE WAY. FIRST LGBTQ+ BOOK THAT DIDN'T MAKE ME WANT TO DIE! (am i allowed to say that?) I just think- this is the perfect way to do it. It wasn't overstated. It wasn't a HEY WE'RE GAY, COME AND BUY THIS BOOK #rep #trendy. it was the way things SHOULD be irl.
A lot of teh time, they didn't have to even state the colour of skin, or sexuality or identity or whatever. It was just... normal. Everyone was who they were and characters didn't even blink an eye... because why should they? Like- yeah, they were completely speciesist (is that a word?) but that had to do with literally, physically weaker humans compared to mechanical MEyarins. Which- you know, unfair. But that's kind of teh point.
And also! I don't know if I sent this, gr was being a bit spesh. But the bit just before the kiss scene (WHICH- WOW. WE'LL COME BACK TO THAT LATER) and Ayla (human) was trying to rage herself up so that she'd hate crier (automaton) thinking that 'her kind did this to my kind' and stuff. And i was like 'wait a frick fracking minute. doesn't this sound familiar?'
BUT THEN. THE FLAW BECAME THE STRENGTH. this is like What's Not to Love? Every time I try to point out sm that I was iffy about, I would write about why I thought it was iffy and THEN as I write through it, I'd realise it just makes the book even better. Because, then when Ayla is battlling with herself, trying to kill Crier, she thinks 'She wasn't the one who killed my family,' and she can't make herself kill Crier.
Which- you know. parallels that I think need to come into this world.
And also, the bits where female characters were put down by male characters weren't just labeled as sexism. It was... smart characters being put down by bad characters. Because why should behaviour, good or bad, immediately be attached to what a person has between their legs-
WHICH_ NEW QUESTion! curiosity killed the cat but... if these things are basically real live robots... and they create their children with blueprints instead of love... (why do they even need er reproductive organs.) and also. if you BUILD your child. do they grow? Or do you just build an adult? How do they grow? What about old people? is everyone just the same age? only confusion.
BUT! Back to the goodies.
Characters
Ayla
Doesn't want to love anyone because it's a weakness *AHEM KIERAN* Which could've been cliche? But wasn't! Strong and fiesty- BUT! Not in teh stuoid Shatter me juliette way, where she decides not to eat just to rebel. No. Strong and fiesty and fueled by rage on the inside, BUT she keeps it on the inside because letting it out would not help her in any way. And also? Those scenes where love interest pushes mc up against wall and mc's all 'oooh. sexy. flustered. breathing fast. heartbeat. omg.' Except here, Ayla was 'Let me go.' Like- just cos she likes li, doesn't mean she wants to be hurt and will welcome all physical ineteraction. which- ...more
The rule is that if I go a week without reading then I must dnf the book bc it feels like a chore.
This book was written through emails, texts, letterThe rule is that if I go a week without reading then I must dnf the book bc it feels like a chore.
This book was written through emails, texts, letters etc. and it just felt so… amateur. It felt like it was written by a twelve year old. Two characters were basically never actually together (because if they were, they would just talk to each other, and us readers never got those bits). Plus, it had all the stress and exhaustion and irritation of motherhood and none of the love, none of the gratitude. The whole thing was all ‘if only I hadn’t gotten pregnant.’ Which is so not.
So. Goodbye. I’ll watch your movie instead. Love, Helena ...more
To the person who squashed a mayfly on page 54 - 55… I feel you, bro.
i tried.
i remember reading about how he had to drive her home because it 1 star.
To the person who squashed a mayfly on page 54 - 55… I feel you, bro.
i tried.
i remember reading about how he had to drive her home because it was raining and there were no ubers and i was like 'Shut the f-' and then I remembered that I was trying to enjoy this: '-ffffffffront door, please! ...more
4.5 exactly, but i chose 4 - not because it's rounded down, but because 4 star is a lot more inclusive than 5. 5's a bit of an arrogant prick.
This boo4.5 exactly, but i chose 4 - not because it's rounded down, but because 4 star is a lot more inclusive than 5. 5's a bit of an arrogant prick.
This book was in the exact same sub-sub-sub-sub genre as People we meet. It was hilarious. I laughed so much. It was a good spice but, really, I feel like I've read too hot and now this was like taking a mild bath (which is kind of what I was doing for the last 100 pages of this book so, who knows, maybe the writing was hot-collar and I just didn't even realise).
Charlie
Did it feel really weird to be reading about how Charlie did this to Nora and Charlie did that to Nora when my older brother is called Charlie? yes. yes indeed.
Did i cringe whenever I read about his caramel eyes? Or full lips? or pout-smirk? Or crease under his lips (?)? Yes. Yes I did. I also cringed whenever he did teh stupid, ' Did you know when you lie, you get a divot/when you're angry you get flushed/etc *right here*' touches her wherever he sees her emotions. So... there was a lot of cringe. BUt there was also a lot of laugh. ANd a lot of tears. More tears than I was expecting. However? It was late and I've been tired and prone to crying about kind of everything lately so.
Ok. But the way Charlie loved Nora gave me Elliot + Macey vibes from Love +. I liked that he was an actual character in himself. When he was a kid, he constantly felt out of place, not what everyone was used to, he wanted more than what was on offer, he wasn't what his parents needed (or so he thought) but then... it's not just that. His cousin is teh son he felt he was supposed to be. As Marilla says, 'Obligation can be a prison.' So he *saw* what he was supposed to be as well as felt it. Like- ouch. So that lil conversation with Nora, when she was also- ok, so you can see why I might cry, because this hit a lil too close to home, but Nora was saying about how she cared too much and yadda ya and while i did not in any way relate to her seeming cold and vicious and always doing her work even when it's hard... (heh...heh...) I did relate to a little and ALSO! Even if i didn't! that was so intense! her own *sister* was joking about her insecurities as if that was all she was and-? OUCH
ANywya
Sister. Libby. WHy is teh sister always called Libby? I thought she was a really cool character! one thing i loved about emily Henry books is that the characters actually have personalities. Most books have characters with character traits, or quirky add ons, but these ones always seem as though they've lived whole lives before we met them. Which is right! And so much more interesting! Libby was me in teh squeals and gasps and romance books, but Lorelai in the wardrobe department if Lorelai didn't hold back. But-
okay. One thing that I liked in this book, but didn't like in Love + or People we meet, was the 'other stuff'. There was a whole nother family's plot line. There was a sister plot line. There was a grief plot line. There was a career plot line. There was Charlie's family's plot line. There were backstories and future problems AND all of it intertwined and reacted with each otehr perfectly! And it did not mean a lack of romance or humour.
The end. I flew through the first 250 pages because they were great. I flew through the last 100 or so pages because I kept thinking teh end would be coming. It didn't come for another 100 or so page (woah, surprise!). So it was the never-ending ending. At the end, when she saw Charlie in NY I was disappointed, because I wanted it to be about how she met someone else and sometimes the ending isn't the stock 'Happily Ever After' that was always going to happen, and instead about how it wasn't the ending that was 'supposed' to happen, but it was STILL a happily ever after iykwim? um. But then it was said that Libby took over teh bookshop and all of me was rather happy.
Am I hoping we could get a sequel disguised as sm new with friends to lovers about the girls who live in a bookshop and their small town and how their Aunty and UNcle come around and see just how much they love each other? And there's wood frolicking and looking for frogs in ponds and flower crow- It's up to me to write it again isn't it? ssssssssiiiiiiiggghhhhhhh
It's definitely a binge book, which is why it seems as though i don't really like it in teh review, becayse I've been writing this in 10 minutes bursts for 3 days. But yeay...more
rating this one was hard, because, do I rate based on the quality of the book? My expectations versus my experience? My pleasure in reading? My pleasurating this one was hard, because, do I rate based on the quality of the book? My expectations versus my experience? My pleasure in reading? My pleasure in writing/thinking about it? I didn't hate it enough to give at a one star. Like- I can see how others would enjoy this, hell, maybe if I'd read this last year or sm, I would have adored it, but...
OK. 1. Maybe I'm biased cos I read Crier's War acknowledgements, but wow. Those acknowledgements left much to be desired. JUST SAYING
2. Unfortunately, I cried in thsi book. (Helena? Cried? In a book? Nooooooo. Golly gee, what a shock). I tried not to! There were bits where I teared up in the bad places, but the bit that got me was-
ok. so this book has a couple of concepts that are just hella interesting to think about. It explored one of my tearjerking faves of growing apart from friends and letting go and learning what the difference is. (go listen to haunted ts) And that things change and that it is TERRIFYING! And painful! taylor calls it heartbreaking and tragic and it is. Like- go read my what's not to love? review where I kind of told part of my life story (hehe sorry not sorry) about my own experience with this (btw, cannot explain how much that one quote completely changed my view and made me realise and a whole bunch of stuff that made things so much less TERRIFYING! And painful! Although I certainly did try to.)
Um. But see, this took a slightly different viewpoint. What's not to love was from the perspective of a girl who was just going to let go of her friendship simply because things change and people grow apart and there was a whole theme about bringing the past into the future. ANYWAY! Happy PLace explored it through, yes, Harriet's view, but what I was crying about was Sabrina's view! Which was more about feeling everyone drifting apart, scrambling to bring everyone back together, and spiraling when you feel like no one seems to care like you do, no one seems to need you the way you need them. Because- and I feel like one thing among many that makes Emily Henry books (and Taylor Swift songs) so popular is that most people can deeply relate to SOMETHING! Small details, and offhand thoughts that could be so completely RAW if it's read by the right person at the right time. And if I related to something, I related to this. Like- it's FUNNY how accurate this is.
'I did what I had to,' Sabrina says. 'Just like I always do, because no one makes even the tiniest bit of effort anymore. If I waited on all of you, this friendship would already be over, and you know it. I send the first text. I make the phone calls. I leave the voicemails. I schedule the trips, and when you cancel on them, I pitch other dates, and when you can't give me an immediate yes or no, guess what? *I'm* the one to check back in a couple days later.'
(or, you know weeks, because unlike Sabrina, I feel clingy and insecure ...more