BOOK REVIEW : WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU

Author: Marisa Kanter
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository.
Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: Romance; Contemporary; Contemporary Romance.
Release Date: April 7^th 2020.

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Is it still a love triangle if there are only two people in it?

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

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“Because engaging with adults who think YA is for them? It’s exhausting.”

I almost took this comment by the protagonist personally. Because this book clearly conveys the message that YA is not meant for me. Since I’m and adult and all.

Okay, do I think that YA is meant for me? No. But do I still enjoy this genre? Yes. And although I am a huge consumer of YA books; these days, I do find it harder to relate to teenage characters from YA books. But I still feel that the author went at it in the wrong angle with the messaging of this book. While YA is marketed towards teenagers primarily, a large chunk of its readers do comprise of adults. And the messaging of the book would definitely alienate its adult readers.

The story follows Halle Levitt, a YA blogger who plans to be follow on the footsteps of her grandmother and be a Publicist in the future.

A significant portion of the story is centered around an online controversy about a YA book that Halle loves and hyped in her blog. The fictional author of the book referring to Halle’s review says in an interview that her book should not be boxed into a category, and should be enjoyed by people of all age and not only teenagers.

Outrage and hurt ensues. Halle is upset. Her teenager followers are upset.

But here is the thing. The fictional author with the supposed offensive comment? She did not say anything that I felt justified all that outrage. She did not insult her teenage readers but rather just requested that her book not be boxed within a certain age-group.

This book not only was disparaging towards adult readers of YA but I felt that it also carried a problematic message towards teenage readers too. I mean, teenage readers will one day become adult readers. So, you are basically saying that they can only read certain books for a small scope of time and then they are thrown out of the YA club? Hmm.

Anyways, let’s put aside me being an adult reader of YA. I do think that the outrage would have made more sense if the author had made a more insulting comment towards its teenagers. On the other hand, I did find this whole plotline a very interesting reflection of real life scenarios of this age where  a comment is taken out of context made a huge deal of in social media. Even if it was done unwillingly on the part of the author.

Believe it or not, if this plotline was the only problem I had with the book, I still would come out of this read a happy reader. That did not happen.

The book started on a promising note. I liked Halle’s family dynamics. I also found the details about the blogging very interesting. Halle incorporates her cupcake making skills into her YA reviewing. Being a blogger myself, the time and effort she invests into her blog struck a chord with me.

I liked her at the beginning too. I empathized with her lack of social skills due to moving around a lot with her parents who are Oscar nominated documentary filmmakers. I found the equation between her online persona Kels and Nash cute. I also really liked Nash. He was adorable. But when she meets Nash in real life, things start to go downhill.

The story suffers from the usual curse that books with this double-identity plots suffer from. It is stretched too thin. I could understand and empathize with Halle suffering from an identity crisis and not disclosing her online identity to Nash at the beginning.

But then her attitude gets worse. One day she is nice to Nash and his friends, the next day she is rude. Then suddenly she is ghosting her online friends. Her behavior and her lies got on my nerves. At one point, she starts dating Nash. And she still continues to feel insecure about him liking her online persona more. Umm, you two are the same person! And then she has the audacity to blame him for lying to you? I seriously got secondhand embarrassment for her.

The only character I could relate to by the end was Ollie, Halle’s younger brother who kept saying things from my mind. But Halle, sadly, was far too gone. I just wanted to shake her till I could bring some sense into her.

Honestly, these characters and this universe had a lot of potential.  But by stretching the lies too thin, the author lost her protagonist’s likeability and my patience as a reader.

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★★☆☆☆

 

BOOK REVIEW : YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER

Author: Sarah Hogle
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository.
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Romance; Contemporary Romance.
Release Date: April ^7th 2020.

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When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this wickedly funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.

Naomi Westfield has the perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.

Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.

But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves–and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.

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Nicholas and Naomi have been in a relationship for almost 2 years now. But lately, she can’t remember what she saw in him in the first place or how they even met. She feels stuck in a relationship with an impending and doomed wedding with a man who she loves only 18% on a good day.

God knows how long I’d been waiting to read the book. While it did not deliver 100%, it also did not disappoint. My favorite thing about the book was the relationship between Nicholas and Naomi. Theirs is a classic example of what a lack of communication does to a relationship. Hogle kept it very realistic – their fights with each other, the relationship issues they have. Even their reasons for not ending the relationship struck a realistic chord with me.

I liked Naomi. Her insecurities, vulnerability and lack of self-confidence made her a relatable character. Nicholas is perfect by the books. But he is a geek from the inside, with his own insecurities and issues. At the beginning, we are only exposed to his flaws, thanks to Naomi’s narration. But slowly, it becomes clear that neither of them are perfect and they stopped making efforts a long time ago. And as Naomi starts to open up about her frustrations, a bridge is also opened between the two to fix their relationship. At first, it’s all about one-upping each other but before they know it, they are making efforts to be there for each other.

I liked the evolution of Naomi and Nicholas’s relationship. I was delighted with their banter and fights. I specially loved it when Nicholas or Naomi lost their cool. It was hilarious how matter-of-fact Naomi was at first, with her predictions of a divorce in the future and Nicholas’s possible adultery or his multiple marriages in the future. The transition from that to her jealousy at a very real possibility of an affair was very satisfactory to read.

Only thing I would have liked better was knowing where Nicholas’s head is at the beginning of the book. Was he also intent on ending the relationship like Naomi was? Also, there is a part at the end where Nicholas does something uncharacteristic towards his parents. That felt a little off-field to me.

But I really enjoyed this book. It’s by no means perfect but still was a highly satisfying read.

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★★★★☆

BOOK REVIEW : The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: February 10^th 2009.

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Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

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I was watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver the other day. It was on the subject of climbing Mount Everest. A major point of the discussion was how without the Sherpa – who have little choice but to risk their lives to earn their livelihood – it would be impossible for any climber to achieve this feat.

There was a clip included of a TV presenter who asks a Sherpa whether he thinks it’s wrong what they have to go through for the sake of the climbers. After a moment’s pause, the Sherpa humbly begins to say that they consider the climbers their family during expeditions. Before he can end his answer though, the presenter hugs him as if he got the answer he wanted.

So when at the beginning of The Help, Aibileen is asked by Miss Skeeter, her employer’s friend, whether she wishes things or rather the status quo could change, that clip of the Sherpa and the presenter came to my mind. Skeeter’s intentions are good when asking the question, as probably were that of the presenter’s. But the question sounds so laughably ignorant and naive when seen from the other’s point of view, you can’t help but shake your head.

The Other. Us and them. I learned about these terms and conditioned mentality while studying anthropology in college. We all have this sense of ethnocentrism – how we feel we are the better ones. What I loved most about The Help is how this conditioning is clearly present in both the parties. Even the black characters have a sense of moral superiority over their white employers. For the women working as the help, their white employers are the other. For the white community, the former are the other.

Another admirable aspect of the writing was that not for one moment you feel there is a white savior component, even though it is about a white woman interviewing and writing about the black women working as help. But it’s not the former doing the saving. No, it is about the black women doing their own saving. It is about all these people uniting to serve their own purposes.

There is no glorification here. It does not glorify the black women serving as the help. They are humans just like us. They make mistakes and bad choices too. The employers are not vilified either. They are humans too. And that is what makes this story stand out.

Going into this book, I was afraid of it being too preachy or perhaps boring. But instead, it was engaging to the point that I was glued to the pages and completed it without taking a break. The story and the main characters spoke to me and made me root for them.

I am sure I have not said anything that has not already been said about the book. I’ll just end it by saying that books like this are makes reading worth it at the end of the day.

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★★★★★

ARC REVIEW : THE KISSING GAME

Author: Marie Harte
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Romance; Contemporary; Contemporary Romance.
Release Date: February 4^th 2020.

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“I bet you a kiss you can’t resist me.”

Game on.

Rena Jackson is ready. She’s worked her tail off to open up her own hair salon, and she’s almost ready to quit her job at the dive bar. Rena’s also a diehard romantic, and she’s had her eye on bar regular Axel Heller for a while. He’s got that tall-dark-and-handsome thing going big time. Problem is, he’s got that buttoned-up Germanic ice man thing going as well. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Rena’s about ready to give up on Axel and find her own Mr. Right.

At six foot six, Axel knows he intimidates most people. He’s been crushing on the gorgeous waitress for months. But the muscled mechanic is no romantic, and his heart is buried so deep, he has no idea how to show Rena what he feels. He knows he’s way out of his depth and she’s slipping away. So, he makes one crazy, desperate play…

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If there is anything I hate in a book, it’s when the author tells us what the characters are feeling, instead of showing. And The Kissing Game had that in spades.

This book got negative points right at the beginning, when in the very first page, we find out the the hero has still not recovered from the fresh wound of his mother’s death from six months. Then we go on to find out about his feelings about the heroine through his stream of consciousness, and get introduced to more characters than I care about.

Things only continue to go downhill from there. There is no real connection between the hero and the heroine. Unless you count them thinking to themselves or talking to other characters about what they find in attractive in each other. I do not simply know who was more annoying – the hero or heroine. The hero grated on my nerves right off the bat with his arrogant attitude. The heroine was flimsy with her mind changing every minute. One moment she is dazzled by him, and in the next she wants kids and decides he’s not for her.

One main reason I requested the ARC was because of the diversity and POC element. But I felt that this element was introduced to just tick a box, nothing more. Except her skin color, I did not find a single thing about her life that could throw relevance to her heritage. The hero is German, and the author makes him use German words randomly to show for it. Also, the synopsis calls him ‘tall, DARK and handsome’. But he is in actuality a pale blonde guy. Look at the cover? Yeah.

There were too many characters in the book. The main couple talk to them more than with each other. I found out later that on that this is a companion novel of sorts to the author’s books. Maybe if I had not read this as a standalone, I would have disliked it less… On second thought, maybe not.

I had expected to dislike this book and hoped for it to surprise me. It did not. I hate it when that happens!

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★☆☆☆☆

ARC REVIEW: HOUSE RULES

Author: Ruby Lang
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Romance; Contemporary; Contemporary Romance.
Release Date: February 10^th 2020.

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Seventeen years ago, different dreams pulled Simon Mizrahi and Lana Kuo apart. But when Lana takes a position as a chef back in Manhattan, her apartment search puts her right in her ex-husband’s path. Music teacher Simon is also hunting for a new place to live, and when Lana proposes they be platonic roomies, well…it’s not the worst idea he’s ever heard.

A sunny uptown two-bedroom sounds far more appealing than the cramped, noisy space where he’s currently struggling to work. Still, Simon has seen firsthand that Lana’s a flight risk, so he agrees on a trial basis.

Three months. With strict boundaries.

Living together again feels wonderfully nostalgic, but when the ex-couple’s lingering feelings rise to the surface, the rules go out the window.

Of course, chemistry was never their problem. But while Simon’s career feels back on solid footing, Lana is still sorting out what she wants. With their trial period soon coming to an end, they’ll have to decide if their living arrangement was merely a sexy trip down memory lane or a reunion meant to last.

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House Rules caught me by surprise. It was a pleasant read, which I honestly had not expected it to be.

I had definitely not expected to like the set-up of how the exes would come to live together. Because, a premise like that is hard to sell. But the author does a stellar job of making the set-up convincing. And she does that in a very effective way of the characters voicing the doubts that the readers might have with the whole arrangement. Of course, the state of the New York real estate helped make it more convincing too.

I had not expected the story to play out the way it did. There were no awkward encounters. That is to say, there was plenty of awkwardness in their interactions, but no silly or used tropes that we usually find in cohabiting romances. I also enjoyed the refreshing absence of any plot-device like jealousy or a third person’s involvement.

The lack of denial was also unexpected. Both Lana and Simon are very conscious of their lingering feelings and attraction towards each other. Simon more than Lana. Both in their forties, they are mature enough to make conscious efforts to not make the arrangement uncomfortable. There is no bitterness or efforts to one-up each other.

I could relate to Lana very much. She quit a career mid-way because she realized her happiness lied elsewhere. She is pragmatic and grounded. Simon, on the other hand, is more ambitious and stubborn. The author does a good job showing us their contrasting personalities through their actions, rather than just telling it to us.

There was no drawn-out angst. The main conflict was also resolved very quickly. A little too quickly if you ask me. It only takes a conversation with an elderly for Simon to realize his mistakes. It felt almost like a cop-out. And while I like that there was not too much focus on their past, I still would have liked a more layered look into their relationship and what led to its derailment in the first place.

Overall, it’s a short and sweet read. The writing is engaging, and the story is believable, aside from the want of a little more depth. I think I’ll definitely read more of this author in the future.

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★★★★☆

ARC REVIEW : THIS TERRIBLE BEAUTY

Author: Katrin Schumann
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Historical Fiction; World War II; Romance.
Release Date: March 1^st 2020.

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On the windswept shores of an East German island, Bettina Heilstrom struggles to build a life from the ashes. World War II has ended, and her country is torn apart. Longing for a family, she marries Werner, an older bureaucrat who adores her. But after joining the fledgling secret police, he is drawn deep into its dark mission and becomes a dangerous man.

When Bettina falls in love with an idealistic young renegade, Werner discovers her infidelity and forces her to make a terrible choice: spend her life in prison or leave her home forever. Either way she loses both her lover and child.

Ten years later, Bettina has reinvented herself as a celebrated photographer in Chicago, but she’s never stopped yearning for the baby she left behind. Surprised by an unexpected visitor from her past, she resolves to return to her ravaged homeland to reclaim her daughter and uncover her beloved’s fate, whatever the cost.

 

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Reading historical fiction is always enlightening, because even through fiction I get to learn some part of history that I was previously unaware or uninformed about. But sometimes they make me feel aware of my ignorance. Throughout my reading of This Terrible Beauty, my own ignorance nagged at me.

Majority of this novel is set in the post-world war II Germany, a part of history I had no idea about. The story is told on alternate timelines. In 1960s, Bettina has become a distinguished photo journalist in Chicago. When her sister’s ex-husband visits her, she is forced to revisit memories of her time in East Germany, which was still under the control of the German Democratic Republic.

We see through her eyes the harrowing experience of war, and being left to fend for herself in her father’s fisherman’s cottage after he dies. It is loneliness that compels her to marry a man she does not love, and also later cheat on him.

I could connect to Bettina, even in her mistakes and wrong decisions. Her helplessness and fears are portrayed with a depth that can’t be ignored. She married a man believing he was kind, and wanting to be a mother. But when after years of marriage, she cannot conceive and Werner starts to get deeply involved with the secret police and their misdeeds, life becomes even more suffocating for her.

Affairs are not my cup of tea. But the author sets a compelling stage for Betting to fall for Peter, the pastor’s son, an idealistic man who has had to fight his own demons. Her escalating fear of leaving Werner, who had started to grow more dominant over her while amassing power through his position .

The author does a commendable job in portraying the dangerous ambience of East Germany, with the government’s frightening grip on every facet of living. The characters are also very real. Even Werner, maybe a villain at first impression, forces you to sympathize with him more than once.

Bettina’s journey was believable and compelling. We see her grow from a lonely girl to a helpless wife and mother to an independent woman.

One thing I did not like about the story was how it ended. Not the ending, mind you. But the manner of the ending. The epilogue left the possibility of a sequel, something I wouldn’t mind.

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★★★★☆

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW : House Of Earth And Blood

Author: Sarah J. Mass
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: Fantasy; Romance; New Adult
Release Date: March 3^rd 2020.

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Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.

Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.

As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.

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This is a not an easy book to review. For one, it’s 800+ pages long. Add to that, the four parts of the book read like separate books with their different flows and pacing and also styling. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it also makes it hard for me to judge the book on its entirety. But I’ll still make an attempt.

Here is what I liked :

• The protagonist Bryce is flawed, independent and living a carefree life at the beginning.
• The friendship between Bryce and Dannika. In fact, all the female friendships that Bryce has.
• The equation between Bryce and her half brother.
• The pet chimera that Bryce has.
• The theme of slavery and its impacts.

 

Now, time for an essay on what I disliked. Brace yourselves!

The world-building

In the first part, information about the world is thrown randomly at us. It’s like Mass name-dropped a new term in every other line with little to no explanation. My head was going all “Vanir? Seven gates? Hel? Pack of devils?Under King?…Just wait!”

In her defense, Mass, at the start, does provide a map and a short rundown about the four houses of Midgar. But that still did not help me digest the blizzard of information thrown my way at the beginning.

The fluctuation of the pacing

The first part while not boring, did feel overwhelming and failed to engage me. But the climax of that part, and the beginning of the second part not only was impactful but it compelled me to be invested in the story. But that was probably the peak because by 40%, the book again lost me. I kept zoning out while reading. The pace did pick up at certain places, and definitely at the last quarter. But I was out of patience by then.

The Murder Investigation

Murder mysteries are not Mass’s forte. The plot dragged. While I was very much still engaged when Bryce started investigating the case with Hunt, angel extraordinaire and our hero, but my interest started to slowly falter. It was unnecessarily drawn out with no end in sight. Bryce and Hunt seemed to meet up with a new person every day. A new character after every few pages, and yet no progress. After a point, I kept internally willing the investigation to just wrap up!

Unconvincing character development of the protagonist

I found Bryce to be a breath of fresh air at first. She is simply living and enjoying her life. Very unlike the author’s other heroines who I always felt were too self-righteous and slightly passive-aggressive (here’s looking at you, Feyre). I really liked that she is a genuine badass and not a martyr or self-righteous or out to save the world.

But guess what? By the end, she was all these things. The transformation, however was unconvincing.  I got backlash seeing her do and say things at the end that were a complete reversal of her character. Her evolution was simply unsatisfying.

Hunt is no Rhys

I found Hunt the most exciting when he is introduced to us in a chapter with POV of his investigation partner Isiah. I had high expectations. But they all died just a couple of chapters later, when we get the his POV. Where was this ruthless, unpredictable, steely man that we were promised?

It had taken a book and a half for us to slowly grasp the character that was Rhys. But only a couple of chapters did that for Hunt. I think it would have been better for us to get his POV a little later on. The mystery of what made him tick went away too soon.

The unimpressive romance

The synopsis claims that the romance is sizzling. I guess by their definition, sizzling romance means the main couple getting interrupted every time they are about to have sex. It’s a 800+ page novel for god’s sake! That’s not to say I did not like the early equation between the two. There are misunderstandings about each other. But the moment they are cleared, these two start bonding and sharing life stories. The progression of the romance also could have been better.

The feeling of dejavu

There were just too many similarities with Mass’s other books and characters for me to ignore them. There are four cities here instead of courts. There was some rebellion and war that the hero took part in. The hero has lost the woman he loved. There is an oracle. Even certain scenes, and the ending itself had stark echoes from A course of Thorns and Roses.

It’s officially my least favorite work by Mass. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t read her previous works. But so many of the myths and plot devices felt borrowed from her other works that it screamed for originality! I was also underwhelmed by the epilogue. I doubt I’ll read the sequel.

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★★☆☆☆

BOOK REVIEW : The Shadows Between Us

Author: Tricia Levenseller
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Young Adult; Fantasy; Romance
Release Date: February 25^th 2020.

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Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:

1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.

No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.

But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

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Looks like I’m on the minority in this. I expected  to like this one. Because I’d heard really good things about the author and her previous work. But this might end up as her only book that I read.

The author calls this her Slytherin romance. Maybe it is. Because it reminded me of one of those Harry Potter fanfictions I used to read back in school with Slytherin characters at the foreground. (That’s not to say all fanfictions are bad. That would be an unfair generalization. It’s just that I was so indiscriminate in reading whatever I came across, I had the misfortune of having more bad reads than good. Even so, I’ve read some brilliant pieces of writing in my time as a fanfiction reader. But I digress.)

Back to the topic. Brilliant piece of writing isn’t exactly what I would call this book. I found the writing clumsy, even beyond the few typos that I came across. I compared this book to a fanfiction, because while it might be the manifestation of the author’s desire to write a Slytherin romance, there was no depth to it. Here are a few examples:

Little to no world building

The world building was very disappointing. We find out very little about this universe and its making, over the course of the book. Maybe the author thought that the readers would find it dull to read pages and pages of world building or stream of consciousness? That’s why she drops us in the middle of this universe without any warning. But that did not help the book. Rather, her writing lacked conviction and the story still fell flat.

Unsatisfactory delineation of the protagonist

It only takes a couple of pages for us to find that the protagonist is morally compromised. And her goal is to seduce the shadow king into marrying her and then kill him. You will agree with me that this is pretty dark stuff. And I like my dark heroines. But there needs to be conviction in her portrayal. What does the author do to set this up? We are fed a few lines of how something terrible happened to Alessandra to kickstart her descent into darkness.

But to want to kill the king? We are told that she has been ignored by her father forever in favor of a more likeable sister. So Alessandra wants power and attention. That’s her reason. But she could still have that power even if she became a queen without killing the husband. I just found the reasoning very shallow. Not enough time is spent to show us how how she reached this conclusion without ever even having met the king.  I would not have minded a few pages more on her delineation and stream of consciousness. Or perhaps a flashback of that terrible incident that forever changed her.

Laughingly predictable storyline

So how does Alessandra decide to catch the eyes of the king? Wear black to the ball and dance with everyone except the king.  And voila! He is fascinated.

Not only this, everything from the mysterious villain after the king’s life, to the ending – it all screamed predictable to me.

No proper character development

The author not only spends little to no effort in building or setting up the protagonist’s dark character, but she also spends equal amount of effort in delineating her change of mind. Shocking.

Everything was just dull

If you promise us a Slytherin romance, if nothing else, the least you could do is deliver some scintillating conversations. If you promise us a ‘king of shadows’, the least you could do is make him interesting. The author failed on both counts.

I thought the book would turn tenfold interesting when Alessandra entered the castle. But it turned even duller if that’s possible. The conversations between Alessandra and the king were yawn-inducing. No spark. Nothing. There is this part where the king offers a fake courtship to her. It read like a typical New Adult scene.

I was disappointed by everything about the book. The world-building, the storytelling, the characterizations, everything. This is simply a lazy piece of writing. But looking at the hordes of high ratings it received, you should definitely take my opinions with a grain of salt.

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★★☆☆☆

BOOK REVIEW : WILD AT HEART

Author: K. A. Tucker
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary; Women’s fiction; Chick Lit: Romance
Release Date: January 1^st 2020.

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From the internationally best-selling author of The Simple Wild comes the continuation of a woman’s journey to Alaska and a life she never imagined for herself.

Calla Fletcher returns to Toronto a different person, struggling to find direction and still very much in love with the rugged bush pilot she left behind. When Jonah arrives on her doorstep with a proposition she can’t dismiss, she takes the leap and rushes back to Alaska to begin their exciting future together.

But Calla soon learns that even the best intentions can lead to broken promises, and that compromise comes with a hefty price—a log cabin in interior rural Alaska that feels as isolating as the western tundra.

With Jonah gone more than he’s home, one neighbor who insists on transforming her into a true Alaskan, and another who seems more likely to shoot her than come to her aid, Calla grapples with forging her own path. In a world with roaming wildlife that has her constantly watching over her shoulder and harsh conditions that stretch far beyond the cold, dark, winter months, just stepping outside her front door can be daunting.

This is not the future Calla had in mind, leaving her to fear that perhaps she is doomed to follow in her mother’s fleeing footsteps after all.

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The only problem I had with The Simple Wild was its ending and a lack of closure. So imagine my delight when I found out about a sequel. I literally whooped! Okay? In fact, I was so pleased that I forgot to be worried about it potentially disappointing me. It was only after having finished the book did I realize that I had not even thought of a hugely favorite book being ruined by a crappy sequel. And that realization made me laugh!

Because, the final verdict?

Dun. Dun. Dun…

I LOVED IT!

I think I might have loved it even more than The Simple Wild! Just how great is that? I’m just so happy that my whole journey in regards to this book – from finding out about it, to getting it on my hands to reading it at one go – has been pleasant and oh so satisfying!

If you haven’t read The Simple Wild, it will be hard for you to follow this book, though. It is the continuation of Calla’s journey. To sum it up, She is a city girl who visited her ailing father in Alaska where she rediscovers herself and finds love. This book is about her life after she decides to move with Jonah to Alaska.

Here are the highlights of what I enjoyed about the book –

The story was simple and heartening

It’s not a very plot-heavy book. The story is simple. Calla has decided to follow her heart and move to the small remote town of Anchorage in Alaska with Jonah. This book follows her journey, her relationship with Jonah and how she finds her place in this small town. It’s a poignant story.

Jonah and Calla’s relationship is the BEST

These two are couple goals. Their relationship isn’t perfect. And that’s what made it such a perfect read. The conflicts they go through are very real and relatable – whether to buy or rent a house; readiness on marriage and children; how much to spend or save; what pets to have; what flying gigs to take. Jonah and Calla are as opposite as night and day. He’s laid-back, gruff, direct and a spendthrift. She’s high-maintenance, posh, reticent and has an expensive taste. They call each other Yeti and Barbie. And these differences makes it even more enjoyable because these two always try to find a middle ground.

Odds are stacked against them. Calla has her mother’s legacy working against her. They are both starting over in a new town with no safety nets. But these two are completely committed to their relationship. Both of them make sacrifices and compromises to make it work. It made for a compelling story. I absolutely adore both of them. From the way he teases her to the way they both do things to make each other happy. Everything about them is just perfect!

The author nails the setting

The world building yet again was perfectly done by the author. She does well to set up the remoteness and isolating nature of the Alaskan town. When Calla is unnerved by the strange feelings of being watched, I felt it too. I was just so sucked in by this world! I felt like a part of it.

The secondary characters were just as engaging

The secondary characters added to the strength of the plot. All of them had their own minor arcs. There is this sub-plot of Roy, a loner who is a pain for the neighborhood.  The way he goes from just an irritating neighbor to some sort of father figure for Calla was beautiful to see. Then there’s Muriel, a bossy and imposing neighbor who Calla finds intimidating at first but soon warms up to. Agnes and Mabel, who are like Jonah’s adoptive family, make an appearance too.

No unnecessary angst

I’d been dreading unnecessary angst or separation for Jonah and Calla. And while they do have fights and arguments, none of them feel unnecessary. There are two events which do provide ample tension. But I liked that the author does not stretch them needlessly.

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My only qualm with The Simple Wild was that we did not get a satisfying closure on Calla and Jonah. Wild at Heart gives us that. And even then I was left wanting more of them! I want a Jonah for myself. Pretty please!

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★★★★★

BOOK REVIEW : THE TWO LIVES OF LYDIA BIRD

Author: Josie Silver
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository .
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary; Women’s fiction; Chick Lit: Romance
Release Date: January 1^st 2020.

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Lydia Bird is living a happy, normal little life–she has a good job, a wonderful fiancé, Freddie, and the usual daily dramas of buying groceries and being in a relationship. And then everything stops: Freddie is killed in a car crash on his way to pick up his best friend, Jonas. Her world bottoms out.

Lydia retreats from the company of her sister, her mother, and from Jonas, the only other person who understands her loss. Alone and adrift, she seeks a small amount of solace in the sleeping pills her doctor prescribes for her, which give her relief in the form of abnormally deep sleep. But they also come with an increasingly complicated gift: Whenever she takes a pill, she emerges in another world. A world in which Freddie is still alive.

And so Lydia returns again and again to the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. In one, her relationship with Freddie and her friendship with Jonas move along as scheduled, and in the other, that same friendship begins to become something else, something very unexpected and yet thrillingly familiar.

Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful love story, by turns joyous and devastating, about the questions of fate and chance that we find at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given the painful, miraculous chance to answer them.

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Josie Silver remains a frustrating author just as she was in her debut One Day in December. That does not mean I did not like The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. Rather, I liked it very much so. But it suffers from the same problems as her first novel, if not more. Here’s my two cents the book.

 

The beginning is slow and sluggish

I struggled a lot when going through the beginning of the book. I was very close to DNF-ing. So I skimmed through much of it until a part came that did manage to grab my interest. The writing could have been better at first. I’ve read books where tragedy strikes very early in the book, and even then it is no less impactful. Maybe if we had seen a sweet scene between Freddie and Lydia right at the start, things would have been different. But here the death of Freddie wasn’t impactful. It did not keep me glued to the pages. Instead, the pacing suffered even more. Nothing happens for a long time.

Did Lydia really need an alternate life arc?

Although it does not start in a promising note, Lydia’s journey was beautiful to read. It was stirring to see her find her way through grief. But when she starts to take prescription medicine for sleeping during which she lives an alternate life with Freddie in it, one question kept recurring in my head – ‘Why? Why is this happening?’ I kept wondering what the purpose of this whole alternate life arc was. Is this for her healing? Couldn’t she heal all by herself without it? And as the story progresses, I could see events in this alternate life did affect her feelings and actions in the present tense.

By the end I still could not understand why this ‘alternate life arc’ was introduced. Sure, it did accelerate her healing process, but couldn’t she have done all this by herself? There is this particular event in the alternate life that is jarring for Lydia because it’s ugly, totally unlike the sweet escape that she expects to experience with the help of sleeping. I felt it was a lazily convenient approach to bring her to an epiphany about. I would have preferred an alternate version of this book without the parallel life arc where Lydia achieves the same things without that crutch, and we get a little more insight into the other characters.

Josie Silver sucks at endings and payoffs

Right now, I also want an alternate ending that is not abrupt. Yes, you read that right. Josie Silver yet again delivered an unsatisfying and abrupt ending to her book. Okay, not completely unsatisfying, because the final scene did give me butterflies. But the butterflies died a fast death at the abrupt ending. What would it take for her to give us an epilogue?

Romance? What romance?

The romance or what little there was of it was not satisfying. It was poignant and beautiful. But not satisfactory. I wouldn’t even call it a romance. It’s a love story between two friends and is more about them coming to terms with an unimaginable loss individually and together. I don’t want to give a spoiler even though it’s clear from the very beginning who’s the love interest. But we don’t see enough of him in my opinion. I loved him and longed for a deeper insight into his character. His point of view would have done wonders for me! Yet, I understand that this was Lydia’s journey. I rooted for her. I cheered for her. And I deserved a better payoff!

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★★★☆☆