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bandherbooks 's review for:
The Second Time We Met
by Frances Mensah Williams
Women's fic in a rom com wrapper, with the majority of the vast plot points focusing on Cara's nosy, annoying, and also sort of shitty and selfish friends and family. With tinges of Bridget Jones' Diary with a fish out of water romance (he's a rich, titled, and white English aristo), plus a sort of love triangle and SECRETS about Cara's past breakup with the former love of her life and her love interest's own secret he just "doesn't want to talk about," this all felt pieced together. The premise, "the second time we met" is completely resolved after the missed connection in the prologue and Chapter 1 when they've already reconnected. This is more of a let's try to make this work story with a late third act breakup versus a romance.
Ugh. Also, there's unfortunate Harry Potter references, and a whole thing with a friend's aspiring music career getting derailed by legal woes, and more. I was bored, sorry. This is not a b book, but I listened to it for work. The narrator was charming and did a great job on the voices, and may make the book for those who go through audio at a quick clip.
SPOILERS BELOW, stop here if you don't want to know.
.
.
MY BIGGEST annoyance were the 'secrets' as we are in Cara's POV and she's determined to not discuss at all why she and her ex Nick broke up (and why she was so destroyed by it). It turns out SPOILER that he wanted her to faff off and roam the world, she wanted to settle down, and then she told him she had gotten pregnant and he left, after asking her to get an abortion (which she refused). and then she had a miscarriage, which left her with massive depression. She refused to tell anyone, and has lived with this while her family and friends get pushing her to get back with the ex.
Also, I'm sorry but a white man, THE LOVE INTEREST, telling Cara his secret is (a Black woman second gen immigrant) that his life is ALSO SO HARD because he had an accident that left him paralyzed for a few months, that upset him so he talked about ending his life because of it, didn't sit right with me.
Why these secrets? Overall the tone was silly and campy, and then these were like big, traumatic things that just felt off tonally.
Anyway, not for me. The writing was lovely. The pacing was poor and the topics were not for me.
Ugh. Also, there's unfortunate Harry Potter references, and a whole thing with a friend's aspiring music career getting derailed by legal woes, and more. I was bored, sorry. This is not a b book, but I listened to it for work. The narrator was charming and did a great job on the voices, and may make the book for those who go through audio at a quick clip.
SPOILERS BELOW, stop here if you don't want to know.
.
.
MY BIGGEST annoyance were the 'secrets' as we are in Cara's POV and she's determined to not discuss at all why she and her ex Nick broke up (and why she was so destroyed by it). It turns out SPOILER that he wanted her to faff off and roam the world, she wanted to settle down, and then she told him she had gotten pregnant and he left, after asking her to get an abortion (which she refused). and then she had a miscarriage, which left her with massive depression. She refused to tell anyone, and has lived with this while her family and friends get pushing her to get back with the ex.
Also, I'm sorry but a white man, THE LOVE INTEREST, telling Cara his secret is (a Black woman second gen immigrant) that his life is ALSO SO HARD because he had an accident that left him paralyzed for a few months, that upset him so he talked about ending his life because of it, didn't sit right with me.
Why these secrets? Overall the tone was silly and campy, and then these were like big, traumatic things that just felt off tonally.
Anyway, not for me. The writing was lovely. The pacing was poor and the topics were not for me.