blewballoon's Reviews (763)

This is a fun concept for someone who reads a lot of contemporary romances. I never got quite as sucked into the story as I hoped I would, and I'm not sure why. I thought the characters were fun, loved seeing a cameo of the characters from The Dead Romantics. I think I found myself more invested in the friendships the main character had than the romance, and I almost wish the book had ended

without the love interest coming back. This being a book about romance books though, I can see why it kind of had to end that way.

 

I had just as much fun with the second book in this series as I did with the first. I really enjoyed a particular action sequence in this one that took place in an area of Aquidneck Island I'm very familiar with. Regarding the romance element: I am probably in the minority in rooting for the guy-next-door love interest over the uptown guy that the series is focusing on, but he's quite nice as well and I don't actually mind if that's the direction things go in. Again I commend the audiobook narrator, I wonder if I'd enjoy these as much if I were text reading them myself. Unfortunately the 3rd and 4th books in the series are audible exclusives, so I'm not sure how I want to deal with that. I have avoided audible on principle, and I highly recommend libro.fm as an alternative service or libby if you have a library card.

I have been to the Newport Mansions multiple times and I'm very familiar with the Newport area, that's the main reason I picked this up. I was expecting a somewhat badly written mediocre historical mystery, and boy was I wrong! I was sucked into the story immediately and I enjoyed just about every moment. The audiobook narrator was excellent, she brought a lot of personality to Emma. The descriptions of the Newport area and properties were well done, and I enjoyed the tension of Emma's investigation. If I had to pick the biggest negative: I could have done with a little less commentary on Nanny's "hefty frame," but I think it was all affectionately meant. I am looking forward to more from this series, I hope some of the side characters will have their roles a bit expanded in future installments. 

There are a lot of concepts I liked here: Adult summer camp, discovering your sexuality later in life, roommate romance, found family vibes. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy those elements as much as I wanted to. The humor and banter didn't work for me, and that's the bulk of the character interactions. The "jokes" didn't feel natural and the musings were too saccharine even for me, a known sap. I think the audiobook narrator contributed a level of awkwardness to the dialogue and internal monologue as well (though arguably that was in character). I found myself feeling more annoyed than invested in Garland and removed from the rest of the characters. I understand a summer camp romance needs to move a little fast, but the way Garland and her love interest were talking made me think "wait a minute, didn't you two meet today? Like a couple hours ago?" 

I had my ups and downs with this book. I liked the beginning, but then I started to feel like Jane was being unreasonable. Eventually she seemed to come around and I enjoyed myself more, but she never fully recovered in my esteem. There were a lot of things about this book I did really like. I thought Eli was a great male lead. I appreciated that we got his chapter perspectives and that he was

a virgin!

I liked that the miscommunication issues were not just characters communicating poorly but were integrated into the historical setting and took advantage of how rarely a single man and woman could be alone together. I liked the portrayal of a consistent and healthy female friendship. I listened on audio and I didn't love the narrator but I also didn't think they detracted from the reading experience.

Oh man. I just bought this book from my local bookstore, and it's a new release I've been hyped for since I saw it on NetGalley a while back. I was rooting for this one, but I just can't do it. The main character/narrator is impossible to deal with. I don't like any of the other characters either. I can't do 400 pages with these people and this writing. The humor is taking up so much time and is completely failing for me, it's a strange mix of juvenile slapstick and sex jokes? I feel like this would work better as a raunchy comic strip than an actual novel, but it still wouldn't be to my taste.

I went into this with low expectations. I have heard good things about the show adaptation that just came out, and I wanted to read the book first. My assumption was that I'd actually like the show more once I saw it, and the book would feel too cheesy, try-hard, and dated, but there would be changes to smooth it out in the adaptation. Now I've got the opposite feeling and I'm wondering if the show will be able to live up to how fun, earnest, and chaotic this book was. I had such a great time! The audiobook narrator sells the hell out of it, she's giving it 150% for every sentence, and it absolutely worked for me. The romance surprised me as well with how sweet and tender it was. I'm sad the book is over, honestly, I really enjoyed the ride.

This was like reading a pretty decent hallmark movie. It's a wholesome story about a small cozy town, a cafe with home-cooked pie, family drama, and a sprinkle of magic. I picked this up because I wanted a romance, but the emphasis is on the family dramas and personal journeys. The romances are there, but they're off to the side and barely on the page. The magical aspects are not the focus either, they're mostly to facilitate the plot. This is a good summer read, it takes place right around the 4th of July, which is when I happened to be reading it. 

I vaguely remember liking the movie Timer (2009) and I thought this premise sounded kind of similar. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything here for me to like. The main character is shallow and apathetic. Most of the characters around her seem just as vapid. The narrative structure of showing her past relationships interspersed with her present day prospects does nothing to add depth to the main character's choices or personality. It seems like every time she meets a moderately attractive guy they immediately want to be with her, but then their mediocre time must come to an end for reasons that are usually ambiguous. The present day romance feels indistinguishable from the past ones. The writing style is more like reading a television script than reading a novel. "Person A is wearing a blue dress with high heels and a red bag. They pick up a plate from a table, eat some eggs off of the plate, and then put down the plate on the table. Person B talks about their LA job. Person A talks about their LA job as well." That's pretty much how every scene goes. This book feels like a waste of time, so I'm gonna cut my losses early.

 I knew I was in good hands with KJ Charles. It took me a while to warm up to the cast of characters, but I was pretty invested in the mystery by about 30% of the way in, and by the end the characters had grown on me to the point I was reluctant to part with them. I guessed some revelations and was surprised by others, which makes for a good mystery reading experience in my opinion. I would be happy to see more in this genre by KJ Charles for sure. The audiobook narrator was pretty good, some of the voices were more distinct than others. I listened on 1.4 speed.