Okay this cover model… I’m sorry but please change it. Because this book was so good!
Summary first: Wren just got a job at a record label, and in walkOkay this cover model… I’m sorry but please change it. Because this book was so good!
Summary first: Wren just got a job at a record label, and in walks Callum Rose, bassist to the band The Seasons Change. Also known as her ex-pen pal best friend. But they haven’t spoken since she ghosted him years ago. And he’s not exactly friendly enough for her to fess up now.
My main issue with this book was that the flashbacks to years earlier were just their emailed letters to one another. And we know that they were “best friends”, closest to each other through a year and a half of writing, but the emails were… lame. Super surface level. I wish there had been more because based on what we were given I didn’t buy the “best friendship”.
But once the story started rolling… oh my god.
I don’t want to say too much because the TikTok I saw that sold me on this book literally gave away a major spoiler in the video.
But holy hotness. There were some very good spice scenes. He’s a voyeur and a virgin, and he’s obsessed with her. Ooh, and she’s a plus sized heroine!
I’m not big on high school romances but I picked this up because I saw a TikTok that shared a scene of a trope I love. It’s the “two people are secretI’m not big on high school romances but I picked this up because I saw a TikTok that shared a scene of a trope I love. It’s the “two people are secretly penpals, one doesn’t know the other’s identity; then, the other accidentally reveals who they are.” This trope was done really well in Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas (a historical) - and done less well in this book.
Aveena - or Vee - leaves an angry letter to a teacher (that she was never planning to send) in a library book. Someone finds it and starts writing back. The two start texting. They share confessions. Then, of course, they figure out who each other are.
This was on track to be a pretty good read - a sweet high school romance with some grit. The hero and heroine have real problems… the hero knows his mom is cheating on his dad, knows she had an affair with a minor. The heroine’s father committed suicide years earlier, she feels invisible to her family, and is losing touch with her best friend who seems more interested in drinking and drugs.
Then the whole last 30% of the book kind of went downhill for me. The hero became a complete asshole for a ridiculous, predictable reason. Even if you say it was valid because (view spoiler)[he was trying to protect his mom (hide spoiler)]… he didn’t need to take it as far as he did.
The negatives of the last 30% on top of a shaky first 70% I didn’t love to begin with = not a book I’d use as a rec. Shame because I like the “penpal” trope.
Also, is everyone going to ignore the guy in their circle of friends who helped another guy plan a rape? Just because he backed out at the last second and got help doesn’t mean he’s a *good person*
CW: suicide, child molestation (sex with a minor), attempted rape, drugs/alcohol for high school kids, blackmail, slut shaming...more
I was recommended this book and picked it up although I’ve read one other from Ilsa Madden-Mills (Not My Romeo) and didn’t like it.
I think that, despI was recommended this book and picked it up although I’ve read one other from Ilsa Madden-Mills (Not My Romeo) and didn’t like it.
I think that, despite the potential she has with plot, Ilsa’s writing just isn’t for me.
First of all, this book deals with HEAVY TOPICS. The heroine was raped her junior year of high school, and promptly slut shamed because it happened at a party of the “Sharks”, the athletes of a private school whose fathers own the town. She returns to the school her senior year to get revenge and prove they couldn’t break her, and is still slut shamed - graffiti on her lockers, people attacking her in the hallways.
From the description of the book we know that the premise is she gets an anonymous love letter in her locker from a Shark. Here’s the thing… we know who it is almost immediately. I almost think it would have been better if the chapters alternated between Ava / “Secret Admirer” until she found out.
*So I don’t reveal the hero, I will be calling him “H”. Like I said, you quickly learn who the hero is because he gets his own POV chapters, but… I went in without knowing and wrote my review this way so you can too.
Ava and the H have a little forced proximity when they are paired together for a film class. The “banter” between them - if you can call it that - felt so… awkward and stilted and forced and weird. Cringe-y in several parts and I was like, “whyyyy would they say that?”
H is supposed to be this cold badass and yet he blushes because she caught him with a girl under the bleachers (in years past)? Like, dude, YOU FUCK GIRLS UNDER THE BLEACHERS, of course someone’s gonna walk by RIGHT AFTER the football game is over…
The dialogue just did not felt natural at all and really took me out of the story. The plot was lukewarm until almost the end, when the “truth” and revenge is revealed.
What saved this book for me and made it not a one star, was the last 15% of the book. There is a small time jump, but it completely works with the book. AND Ava and H remain faithful to each other during their time apart.
TWs: past rape, PTSD, slut shaming, assault, violence...more
This is my first book from A.M. Johnson and… wow. WOWOWOW.
First of all, this book hits on so many tropes that I love: -Single (co-)parent dad -Age gap -This is my first book from A.M. Johnson and… wow. WOWOWOW.
First of all, this book hits on so many tropes that I love: -Single (co-)parent dad -Age gap -Professor/student (he’s 33, student is 24) -Epistolary-esq (they meet on a Grindr-like app anonymously)
Donovan “Van” Brody is 33, divorced, and just took a part time professor job at a college. In his first class he meets Parker, the cheeky, 24 year old, gay, Air Force veteran who happens to be an amazing writer.
Donovan has never been with a man, but has alway known he was attracted to men. But since he married his high school sweetheart and they only recently divorced, he’s never been able to act on it. Until one night, a friend introduces him to Pegasus - a Grindr-like app where he bonds quickly with a stranger over their love of a queer book based on Peter Pan.
The story unfolds in a semi-slow burn. There are definitely some sexy (virtual) scenes where they’re exploring anonymously, but after meeting and deciding to pursue dating they take it slow and there are lots of conversations about consent and sexuality and what qualifies as “sex”.
The conflict is that their college has a strict "no fraternization" policy and Donovan worries about their relationship becoming public and ruining his career (he works as a book editor) or impacting his daughter. But, he doesn't want to push Parker back "in the closet" with a secret relationship.
Seeing Parker with Donovan’s 10 year old daughter was adorable. Seeing Donovan finally realize he feels “whole” and “himself” for the first time was so sweet.
You see the couples from previous books (and I think there’s a couple who got set up for a future book), but I didn’t feel out of the loop from jumping in with book 3.
CW: Parker was assaulted in the past, it's mentioned but not graphically described...more
There are a lot of tropes I like in this book. -Workplace romance, forced proximity -Grumpy/sunshine -Age gap -(Digital) epistolary romance
But the book waThere are a lot of tropes I like in this book. -Workplace romance, forced proximity -Grumpy/sunshine -Age gap -(Digital) epistolary romance
But the book was hurt by a few things. For one, Jamie is the sole POV for the first ~45% of the book. And I didn’t really feel like we got to know Connor or Jamie well enough throughout the book. Both felt a little one dimensional, and I guess because the relationship wasn’t super flushed out that didn’t make up for the lack of character background/development.
Just like in the happy list in the first book The Happy List wasn’t a huge part of the book, I felt like the dating experiment “The Dating Experiment” wasn’t a huge plot point. They agreed to it, and then basically fell into a “real relationship” that they just never discussed.
It was cute, but missing a few things to be a “stand out” book for me....more
I really thought I was going to enjoy this, because the description seemed reminiscent of Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas - only a bit in reversI really thought I was going to enjoy this, because the description seemed reminiscent of Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas - only a bit in reverse. In Love in the Afternoon, Beatrice writes a letter to a soldier and signs her friends name. In Till Next We Meet, Moncrief writes to another soldier's wife. After the death of her wastrel husband, Moncrief goes to meet her.
There were just a bunch of elements of this book that didn't add up right for me. For one, there was a "whodunnit" kind of mystery where it appears someone is trying to take the heroine Catherine's life. There's Moncrief's brother's widow, now a dowager duchess, who's so thrifty the ducal estate is wasting away and she may have ties to Jacobites. There's a maid turned housekeeper with a secret. And of course, there's the lying between Moncrief and Catherine in that he was the one who wrote the letters.
I just couldn't get into this book, despite the fact that the writing was great. I think it was something between the pacing and the plot that didn't work for me. (view spoiler)[Catherine finds out herself that Moncrief wrote the letters towards the end of the book - they don't even acknowledge it to each other until the LAST PAGE! And the whole drama with the attempts on Catherine's life and the vicar and Gwyneth... it was too much. I wasn't sympathetic to Gwyneth AT ALL (I kind of hate her) and I didn't like that after all her scheming, Catherine just gave her son her family home. (hide spoiler)]
By the end I was just so frustrated and done with the book. ...more
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