blewballoon's Reviews (763)

I think I've been spoiled by so many wonderful queer and progressive rom coms that I just couldn't get past the emphasis on traditional gender roles here. A guy buying pads for a lady is considered a herculean saintly act, for example. I felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen and didn't really like any of the people involved. 

A friend got this for me as a gift. It's a nice collection of folk tales. I had heard some before, but there were new-to-me ones as well. I enjoyed the different displays of strength and intelligence by the women across cultures and continents. I also really appreciated the section at the back where the author discussed some additional history of the folk tales and what choices and changes they had to make in the versions in the book.

This was an excellent short and sweet Christmas romance. I did get a bit frustrated that the main character was stuck in their idea of things, but it was appropriate for the character and the payoff was satisfying. 

My friend loaned this to me. It was her favorite series growing up (mine was His Dark Materials) and I was happy to read it and learn more about her. It's a very interesting premise. The writing is simple and suspenseful. I think I would have been more into it if I was still a teenager, the characters would have been easier to relate to. This also feels very much like the start of a series, a lot of threads are introduced and few are given any closure. 

It's very obvious which of the sisters the Narrator liked best.

I laughed out loud pretty often while reading this. Alexis Hall's writing is always witty and has comedic elements, but this might be the one where the humor worked for me most. I also feel like the character growth of Luc was handled really smoothly. A lot of the time it feels like the character has a big climactic epiphany and changes then, but with Luc you could see small gradual shifts in how they interacted with people and perceived things. My biggest gripe was maybe the 4th wall breaking narration, but that only happened a few times. Also as usual with Alexis Hall books, there are loads of fun side characters that feel like real people. 

There were some choices by the main character that I really hated, but she learned from them and overall I enjoyed the ride of her character growth and the relationships she made with the other contestants. As a fan of great british bake off, this was sort of like reading really excellent fanfiction of the show.

This book is probably exactly what you expect, and that's not a bad thing. The romance develops nicely, but it does fall prey to some lack of communication tropes to create drama. It works out. I liked that in addition to the romance the characters had other development going on like Delilah with her sister and Claire with her daughter's father. I liked the alternating POVs because Delilah and Claire were different enough that their narrative perspectives were distinct. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

This was a great fake dating rom com with some expected and unexpected twists! I The main couples were lovely together and I appreciated that some tougher topics were handled with a lot of sensitivity. The plot didn't rely too much on miscommunication tropes, which could have been frustrating, there was just enough that it felt natural and created some tension. 

Such a gorgeous book.