Remember that time that I had the brilliant idea for the month of February to take a break from my usual TBR (ie, mainly horror, mystery, thrillers) and do a month of reading purely romance? Cute! Fun! I love a swoony lil heart warming tale from time to time, and I am indeed a giant mush for Valentines day in my old age. Look, I know it’s a dumb commercial holiday and that you should treat your partner well all the time blah blah, but I also love love and am not against having a day to commemorate that, get over it nerds!!!
Anyway, this seemed like a good idea in theory but wow, by the halfway point I was BURNED OUT on: bad writing, heterosexuals, written descriptions of horny people, and being able to predict the ending of a book within the first 5 pages. I don’t know guys, I just was not feeling it this time around. I truly returned a whole stack of books to the library without reading them because I could not bring myself to do it anymore, and have been in a reading slump ever since. Woops!
I realize this was a totally arbitrary and self-imposed reading assignment and I am a big dumb dummy for forcing my way through this many books when I was having a bad time, but I do love to complete a goal, so here we are.
With all that said, here is relatively concise roundup of the romance stuff.
Note: I am being dramatic, with the exception of one book all the romance stuff was mostly FINE, I just wasn’t in the mood for it and I look forward to moving back towards my actual true love (spooky shit).
She Gets the Girl, by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
I think this was maybe my favorite book of the ones I read this month so I am leading with this one because, phew, it was downhill from here.
First of all, the authors of this book are married to each other, which is ??? so cute.
It was an extremely cute sapphic rom-com with sort of an enemies-to-lovers arc, which I love. The main characters, Alex and Molly, meet during their freshman year of college. Alex is a super outgoing flirtatious hottie who is the life of any party and also a lil bit of a player–due to that last bit, she is trying to mend her relationship with her girlfriend Natalie. Molly is, in contrast, extremely socially anxious, a bit of a loner, and desperately in love with her classmate Cora. Alex and Molly’s paths cross, and they realize they can help each other: Alex wants to coach Molly on how to win over Cora’s heart, in attempt to prove to her girlfriend that she is not just a selfish flirt who can’t have platonic female friends, and Molly desperately needs the help. They clash at first, because they’re coming at each other from essentially two different planets. But the more that time goes on, the more that they grow to like each other–maybe a little too much.
Basically I just really adored both of these characters. I felt like the author did a great job at developing them, and at building a really great story arc for them both. I loved their friendship, and I didn’t feel like the romance felt unrealistic to me (which is a problem I sometimes have with these books, ha). It is YA, but I am a sucker for a queer YA novel so whatever!!
I gave this 4 outta 5 stars for a regular rating. I’d give it like a 2 outta 5 for ~spice~ level –there’s not really any on page steaminess but there is some implied steam, haha.
Book Lovers, by Emily Henry
I read this one as a palate cleanser after finishing the WORST BOOK of this month (which I am saving until the end of this post later because I’m gonna need a drink before revisiting that monstrosity).
Emily Henry’s writing style just works for me? It manages to be cute AND steamy AND hilarious all at the same time.
This book was especially fun for me because the two main characters (Nora and Charlie) both work in publishing, as do I, and I just simply love a book that takes place on the inside of the publishing world. I love an enemies-to-lovers trope, I love a NYC gal navigating a small town, and I love a dark broody love interest. I had honestly very minor qualms with this one. It was a little predictable in the way that, frankly, I find all romance novels to be, but overall was genuinely kinda charming, funny, and an easy read.
Also 4ish out of 5 stars, prolly 3 outta 5 spiciness.
Written in the Stars, by Alexandria Bellefleur
This book was described as having nods to Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice, so I was obviously intrigued. This one was also a little enemies-to-lovers and a lot opposites attract, which I’m into.
The plot essentially follows Darcy: a buttoned up, snarky, no-nonsense gal who is very much over the idea of soul-mates, and Elle: a free-spirited astrologer who is a little scatter brained and a lot into the idea of finding her person. They are set up on a disastrous blind date, but end up deciding to pretend it went well to fool their friends and, you know, avoid getting set up on more blind dates. They embark on a fake relationship, but end up developing real feelings, blah blah blah.
Was it cute? Yes. Was it sapphic? Yes. Did I like the characters? Sure, for the most part. I don’t know why I didn’t enjoy this more than I did. It felt a little longer than necessary and the sexy scenes were so steamy that it felt weirdly out of place, somehow. I’m not mad at it, but it went from being a cute romcom to EROTICA and back again within like a 2 page span, real whiplash.
Overall: It was a solid read but I guess it just didn’t strike me as special enough to give it more than 3 stars. Spice level def 4+ stars lol.
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, by Ashley Herring Blake
Plot in a nutshell is that Delilah, the main character, returns to her small town (from NYC, where she is a budding photographer) for her sister’s wedding. She has a rough relationship with her sister, and doesn’t want to return home. When she does, she ends up falling for one of her sister’s best friends (Claire). Hijinks ensue, as you’d expect.
Things I liked about this book:
All of the characters felt well developed to me. Like, there are a lot of people in this book but they all definitely had distinct motivations and personalities and I liked that. Even the side characters felt really well done.
Sapphic cuties.
Hot tattooed baddie + sultry pinup-style babe = very good couple imo.
I guess I feel like the main character, Delilah, has a good amount of growth and I appreciated her character arc.
My main complaint about this one is that the story was too long and too predictable. I also thought Delilah was too much of an asshole for too long, but what can ya do, tattooed baddies are like that sometimes.
3 outta 5 stars, 4ish for spice.
The Book Proposal, by KJ Micciche
Alright alright, here’s it is, the shittiest one of the month. This book was the first one I read for the month and it was so bad that I honestly almost didn’t continue with this self imposed romance challenge, lmao.
I got this from Netgalley (Thanks…I guess??) as an ARC. Usually with ARCS I try really, really hard to find something kind to say even in instances where I don’t particularly like the book. So, in the spirit of that, I’ll say a few things: The idea behind this book is fun and is what prompted me to agree to review it. The plot is essentially about a romance author being kinda bad at love herself. She is struggling with writers block and for inspo, decides to take a trip down memory lane and recalls her high school crush. She drunkenly messages him, and the plot unfurls from there. Seems promising on it’s face, maybe? I can get behind romance books where there is a rekindled crush, and as with Book Lovers, I like a book that takes place in the publishing world. I even liked the plot twist/conflict in this book (which I won’t spoil here, but it worked for me in theory). So, the skeleton of this book? Decent.
Thats…about where the good things I can say end, lmao.
Here is my brief (but decidedly non-exhaustive)(also decidedly not particularly brief lmao oops) list of things I found abominable, to put it mildly:
The number of fart and poop jokes in this book is absolutely DERANGED. About three seconds into this book, the main character basically shits herself while on a jog. I can only assume that the author was trying here to make the protagonist seem funny, relatable, a real girl-of-the-people, but friends, it did NOT work. I cannot state this enough: I never want to read the words “Alfredo Shart” in a book, romance or otherwise. And it didn’t end there??? Repeatedly, over and over again, the reader is subjected to the MC’s gastrointestinal distress. I repeat: this is cringey and I hated it. It felt so awkward and out of place. It felt juvenile. It did not work. Where was the editor? SOS.
Speaking of juvenile: This book reads like YA in many, many ways (not just because of the farts) but it is NOT Young Adult–the characters are in their 30s???
In this vein, I had to keep asking myself: What 30-year-old in their right mind is still obsessively thinking about a crush she had in high school? The whole plot might have worked better if these characters were perhaps in their early 20s. Any 30-year-old still concerned with a dude who rejected them when they were 16 has bigger problems than being bad at romance, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
Relatedly, the ENTIRE story happened over the course of 10 days. The MC’s hang out like once before deciding to “make it official” and the rest of the entire plot happens over a week? This time frame was…bananas in any case, but even moreso in the world of NYC dating. Source: I have long suffered the NYC dating scene.
One thing that really grated my nerves (and maybe because this is a particular trigger for me, I’ll admit that) was that the author describes the MC as being about 5’6 and 145 pounds, and then proceeds to act for the entire rest of the book as though this character is “big” or “curvy” with repeated mentions of her love of food, her appetite, the fact that she is not tiny, and so on. I would be remiss in my feminist duties to not point out that 145 pounds at 5’6 is at MOST, incredibly average, but is in all probability quite slim. Be so fucking for real: Why was this mentioned as a detail? If you want the reader to imagine a curvy or chubby character then just say that, do not subject me to your absolutely inaccurate view of what "fat" is, lol.
There are repeated jokes about STDs and specifically herpes which is both problematic and also just not funny?
Colin has actually incredibly problematic views of women. Big yikes.
I didn’t believe their romance because I couldn’t understand why they even liked each other? Neither of these characters was likeable for me, but beyond my personal opinion of them , I didn’t really feel like the author did a very good job of making me believe that they had any good reasons to like each other. They barely knew each other, seemed to have nothing in common, and for some reason fell into this whirlwind romance based purely on the fact that they used to know each other in high school and both were out of other shitty relationships? ?????????????
Ok I’m done. It wasn’t good. 0 stars, negative stars, a black hole really. I am enraged at the time I spent thinking about this book!!!!
OKAY phew it’s over.
I have literally a PILE of books that I am expecting to love, including:
An ARC of Paul Tremblay’s newest short story collection, The Beast You Are (so far it is vvvv good)
Don’t Fear the Reaper, by Stephen Graham Jones
Vampire Weekend, by Mike Chen
More sooooon xoxo
Amy