What a beautiful story. It's not perfect by any means. The first half was probably closer to three stars, but the last bit was really moving.

“Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute, and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next.”

That about sums it up.

I’ve never felt so much anxiety reading a book. Never. There was so much intense tension running throughout this entire book. And I loved it.

I connected so much to this book. I, like the protagonist in this book, was born in Washington, grew up in Alaska, and had a father who was in Vietnam and had major PTSD from his time there.

Even though this book takes place in the late 70s, before I was born, so much of this felt incredibly familiar. Nostalgic. Authentic.

What I liked:

1. The honest portrayal of PTSD and domestic violence. This was the source of my aforementioned anxiety. I think that probably goes to show how successful it was, at least for me. Luckily, I haven’t ever suffered from PTSD, but I have been in the position of being the loved one of someone suffering from PTSD. It is a scary and hopeless feeling. I felt for Leni so much.
There are many reviewers who won’t like Cora because she stayed with a man who was incredibly violent toward her. And yes, I found myself wanting to shake her so many times I lost count. But that’s reality. The cycle of abuse is real and the way it’s portrayed here is as authentic as it gets. I also found Leni’s disillusionment with her father very sad, but also very relieving. As much as statistics may tell you that she would find herself in similar situation, I loved that she rises above that and grows into a strong woman. In a very real way, her father’s decision to move her to Alaska and teach her to live off the land was what enabled her to break away from that abusive cycle, and there’s something really beautiful about that.

2. Characters. All of the major characters in this novel were well-developed. They were complex, flawed, and messy. Even as I condemned her father’s actions, there was a part of me that felt so sorry for him and what he’d endured. Not that it was an excuse for his violent behavior, but just thinking about what his life could have been if his mental well-being had been a focus after coming back from Vietnam made me sad and angry at the same time.
I also thought the side characters were wonderfully real. One very specific thing I appreciated was how everyone had some sort of nickname. That is so Alaska.

3. The setting. I don’t live in Alaska any longer. My family moved to the Seattle area about five years ago. I’m totally okay with that, and don’t plan on moving back to Alaska any time soon, if ever. However, the descriptions of Alaska touched my heart. Hannah captured it so impeccably I can’t find a single flaw. From the Afterword, it sounds like she spent time in Alaska when she was younger, and the additional research she did in crafting this book is evident.

Between The Nightingale and The Great Alone, I can safely say that Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite literary fiction authors. I will read anything she writes, and plan on visiting her previous works in the future.

There were a few letters in this that really touched me. I think I would’ve appreciated it more if there had been more letters from adults, because some of the letters written by who I assume are younger writers become a little melodramatic and repetitive. I think the idea behind this is actually quite good. People need outlets for their thoughts and feelings, and this tumblr sounds like it’s providing that.

I really enjoyed this story, for the most part. I will say that it’s probably my least favorite of Morgan Matson’s books, but I still had a great experience reading this story.

What I liked:

1. The settings. I like road trip stories. Even before reading the author’s notes at the end of the book, it was totally obvious that she had experienced the places she was writing about. To learn that she’s actually taken this road trip made me appreciate the book even more than I already did. She was really able to paint a picture that made me want to take my own cross-country road trip. I will say that some of the stops, like the last one to Dairy Queen, added nothing to the story. At that point, it felt like the author was including it simply because it’s somewhere she stopped, and not because it actually added to the narrative.

2. The multimedia aspect. I loved all of the additions to this book, such as pictures and road trip mixed tapes. Morgan Matson does things like this in her other books as well, and I really enjoy that aspect of her writing. It just all works together to enrich the narrative.



What I didn’t like:

1. Characters decisions.
Roger’s ‘quest’ to pretty much stalk his ex-girlfriend was something I really had a problem with. All through the book we’re told by him, his friends, and even the ex’s brother what a manipulative person she is. Hadley is literally never shown in a positive light. This begs the questions: What on Earth did Roger ever see in her? And why would he go so far out of his way (literally) to talk to her, especially after she consistently blew him off, lied to him, and ignored his calls? I just wanted to shake him and tell him to have a little self-respect! Then, he talks to her for five minutes and the spell she has over him is broken, and he moves on with Amy within a day.

Amy also does some things I really didn’t like, namely breaking into her brother’s rehab and confronting him about their father’s death. I didn’t like that she was doing it in the first place, as people who are in rehab should feel safe while they are working through their shit. That’s why people aren’t allowed for the first part of the program. But because Amy is relatively selfish, she doesn’t think at all about that. She confronts him in his room. This is really inappropriate. She should have waited until she could sit down with him and a counselor.

So, my issues aren’t the fact that these characters make these poor decisions. People do stupid crap all of the time. My problem comes from the fact that no one truly calls them out on their behavior. It’s treated as acceptable. Yes, some of Roger’s friends tell him to forget about Hadley. And Charlie stands up for himself to a certain extent with Amy. But it’s obvious from the writing that we aren’t supposed to have a problem with their actions.

2. The Romance. Now, I actually really liked them as friends. A lot. I even think they could make a good couple, down the road. But this book takes place in the course of what? A week, maybe 10 days? Amy spends most of that time feeling guilty about her father’s death and wanting to honor his memory and Roger’s thoughts are taken up with wanting to track down his ex-girlfriend. A romance between the two of them at this point just didn’t feel authentic to me. I could see laying the groundwork for it, maybe even have them share a kiss. But their relationship goes from 0-80 in about two pages and it’s intense. And then it’s just over just as quickly. I guess I just wish that if their romance was supposed to be such a big element to this book that it would’ve been given a little more time, a little sturdier foundation.


3. The flashbacks. I just didn’t think they added much to the narrative. That information could’ve been relayed to the reader in a more effective way. Every time we flashed back I felt the momentum of the story come to a grinding halt.

4. The ending/loose threads
I didn’t like how abruptly this book ended. I wanted to see Amy have a real conversation with her mother about how she felt about her father’s death. Because honestly, I was more interested in Amy’s journey through her grief than I was her romance with Roger. But we don’t get to see any of that. It felt like my copy of the book was missing a couple of chapters.
Also, I was expecting we would get some sort of resolution to her story with her best friend, Julia. Not that we actually know that much about Julia, but we know that they were best friends and she wasn’t able to open any of Julia’s emails because she was afraid she would break down reading them. It didn’t have to be a long, overdrawn thing. It could’ve been as simple as Amy opening one of the emails at the very end of the book. Maybe the last lines of the book could’ve been her writing Julia back. I don’t know. I just felt like the book has absolutely no closure. Also, there is a character Amy has a flirtation with who is never mentioned afterwards. It felt totally unnecessary to the story.

I enjoyed my reading experience, but as I digest my feelings for this book I don’t see it being one I’ll revisit in the future or even remember a month from now.

3.5 Stars
I can't decide whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars. It truly is a 3.5 star book for me.
Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite Shakespeare play. I've loved it ever since I was young. I think part of the appeal for me was the hate-to-love aspect of the story between Benedick and Beatrice. That has always been and will always be one of my favorite tropes. I also love retellings of my favorite stories, so when I heard this book recommended for lovers of MAAN, I knew I had to check it out.

The first half of the story was 5 stars for me. Now, does that mean that this book was filled with incredibly complex characterizations, intricate world-building, and groundbreaking plot? No. But that's not what this book was supposed to be for me. I already know these characters and how they relate to each other and the world around them. I just wanted characters with wit, zippy dialogue, and that hate-to-love goodness. And the first half of this definitely delivered on that. I loved Trixie and Ben's progression as friends and then more. I loved the way they bonded over their love of all things nerdy. It was utterly satisfying.

However, half way through (I say half way, but it was probably more like 2/3 of the way through) the main conflict of the story arises. That is where this story loses something for me. Now, in the original source material,

Claudio sees a woman he thinks is Hero, his betrothed, being intimate with another soldier. The next day he publicly shames her at their wedding and she collapses as he storms out.

I appreciate the author wanting to update this point of the story, but it still could've worked with just a few minor tweaks. Instead, the author decided to go in an entirely new direction that I didn't think worked at all.

Now,the main conflict arises when Harper (Hero) is framed for hacking her school's computer systems and framing other kids in their year to make it look like they were cheating. And when it starts looking like she's guilty, her boyfriend Cornell (Claudio) breaks up with her because he thinks that she was trying to take over the valedictorian spot in their class, which is his spot.

There are so many things about this that don't make sense. Characters in the story even admit that it doesn't make sense and all the reasons why. But it takes a lot of convoluted deduction and technical jargon to uncover the truth. A truth which, sorry to say, doesn't work for me at all.

Once all of that was out of the way I started to like the story again, but by that point there was just one chapter and an epilogue remaining, so I wasn't left totally satisfied with this, which is a little disappointing. That being said, I did really enjoy the first part of this book and would like to check out more from this author in the future.

This book is actually deeper than its synopsis would suggest. There are things about it that I really appreciated. There are other things that I didn’t like so much.

What I liked:

1. Discussions about writing and art. Andi is a writer and Devin is an art lover. I like their discussions about art and writing and the intersection of the two. There are a few times this gets a little bit pretentious for me, but as something who appreciates both mediums of expression, I liked their intellectual discussions.

2. The arc of their relationship. I liked that these two really get to know each other and are legitimately friends before they are truly intimate with one another.

3. The other suitor. I don’t generally like books with love triangles, but this one actually worked for me. Sam was a great guy. I could definitely see why she would be interested in both him and Devin. And I like that she does have genuine romantic feelings for both of them. Too often in books the ‘triangle’ is actually just two guys panting after a girl who only has feelings for one of them. This is not like that.

What I didn’t like:

1. Andi was really frustrating for me. I’m a bigger girl, and the fact that she was as well was intriguing to me, as I don’t see many plus-size female protagonists. And I’m not saying I don’t have insecurities. After all, I probably wouldn’t be overweight in the first place without some deep-seeded insecurities. But Andi was so annoying in hers. Every time she and Devin would meet, she would start out all meek and shy and uptight, and by the end she’d open up and be fine. Then the next time they meet she’s all uptight again. But at the same time, she can be incredibly blunt and outspoken. That was, after all, how she and Devin started their arrangement in the first place. It felt a little inauthentic to have her characterized as this blunt, direct person and also someone with insecurities so crippling they send her into traumatic flashbacks.
Also, I didn’t like how she looked down on the women Devin took on as clients, as if she was so much better than they were. Luckily, Devin finally calls her out for this, but it happened so much before that point that I was over her self-righteous attitude.

2. The dialogue was clunky. I did appreciate some of the prose, especially when the characters were talking about art and writing, but so much of their dialogue to each other was awkward, bordering on cringeworthy. There was very little subtlety to their intimate conversations, and characters would just blurt out phrases that seemed out of character. People don’t talk to each other the way these characters sometimes did.

3. The structure of the book. The book is told primarily in first person through Andi’s perspective. There are a few passages from Devin’s journal as well. I think this would have been more effective if it had been a little more prevalent throughout the novel. We get two or three journal entries all talking about one event from his childhood, then one entry talking about a present-day event. It felt a little like cheating to get his input. I wish we would’ve had more of it. Maybe because I disliked Andi’s whiny selfishness so much of the time.

I read this book relatively quickly, and I’m interested enough to read the sequel, so this book did its job in my opinion. At the same time, it was far from perfect, and I could see people really disliking this for a variety of reasons.

I read this book primarily because I liked the way the first book ended. Andi, who had annoyed me throughout most of the book, seemed to grow and be content with herself. I kind of liked that the protagonist had ended up with someone other than the main male character, even if I couldn’t really understand how this insipid woman was attracting so many eligible men.

What I didn’t like:

1. The exploration of Andi’s grief. When I started this book, I knew right away that it was going to be a struggle to get through. The book is set six years after the first book ends, and Andi’s husband has just passed away. Now, I don’t mind books dealing with grief. I understand that when someone experiences loss, the grieving process can takes many shapes. My problem is that this book and the characters within it lack subtlety. It was a problem in the first book in scenes talking about intimacy, insecurities, and sex. In this book, it is a problem when exploring Andi’s grief. Also, there is a whole lot of telling, not showing in this series. There are long passages that sound like they could’ve come from a textbook about grief where Andi is talking about grief as if it’s something she’s studying from afar, not something she is wallowing in herself. It just made it very difficult to connect with her.

2. Andi. Andi as a character backslid from the end of the first book. Now, I understand she lost her husband tragically, but she is even more insufferable in this book than she was in book one. The way she treats David (yes, Andi. His name is David. Call him by his proper name, you twit!) is just awful. He is there, being caring, loving, and supportive. And she’ll flip out because he refers to her as ‘sweetheart’ because that’s what her husband used to call her. As if ‘sweetheart’ is a totally rare endearment that her husband had trademarked or something.

Also, her insecurities reach hypocritical levels in this book. She gets jealous at every woman in David’s orbit, even asking if one of them used to be a client of his when he was an escort. He mostly takes this is stride in his attempt to appease her. Later, she is going out to coffee with a man she admits is good looking and says that if she weren’t seeing David, she would be interested in him. When David sees them together and questions her, she blows up at him and says, “Jealousy doesn’t become you, David.” As if she has the high ground where that is concerned. As if her insecurities aren’t on full display at all times.

3. The ‘romance’. I honestly do not understand what David sees in her. We are supposed to believe that he loved her at first sight; loved her even after she moved on with another man, to the point that he moved to the same city that she was living in just to be in the same vicinity; loved her the entire time they were apart. And after the horrible way she’s treated him, he still supposedly loves her. Why? I don’t get it. She is selfish beyond reason. She is insecure, petty, and emotionally closed off. Honestly, she’s just plain mean! What on Earth does he get from that relationship?

4. Dialogue. I still find the dialogue atrocious in this second installment. People don’t talk the way these characters talk to each other. If I was to attempt to give examples I would have to cut and paste pretty much all the dialogue. It’s not good. I find the instances where the characters swear a perfect example. I don’t have a problem with swearing. At all. But when these characters swear, it feels so clunky and awkward and disingenuous. The scenes of intimacy struck me in the same way and I just didn’t like it at all.

Other odds and ends:

-I liked the idea of Andi going to exotic locations trying to find herself, but I didn’t really feel like I was transported. It just didn’t work for me. Especially when we get lines like: ‘The Sistine Chapel was a shitbox compared to the Incan remains of Machu Picchu.” That one sentence actually represents many of my issues with this book.

-I wish we’d seen something of David’s perspective in this book. The first showed a couple of his journal entries which were probably my favorite parts of the book. This book was strictly from Andi’s perspective, and since I don’t like Andi, I had a hard time enjoying this.

-I will say that I did appreciate the ending of this book. I won’t say exactly what happens, but it did feel like Andi actually did what she needed to do in order to be content with herself and move on with her life. But I thought the same thing at the end of book one, so who knows if it will stick?

-One last thing...this book asks the reader from the beginning to suspend disbelief to an unreal level when it asks us to believe that it’s possible that Andi and David would be in Italy at the same time and then just randomly bump into each other when Andi walks into a men’s room by mistake. Seriously? That’s a little much.

1.5 stars

What I liked:

1. I liked that Andi was a grown woman who decided that motherhood wasn’t for her and didn’t change her mind or cave to pressure. I am a mom and it’s the greatest joy of my life, but I totally respect people who fee differently. If you’re not sure it’s something you want, you shouldn’t do it.
That being said, I didn’t like how Andi blamed her poor relationship with her mother for the reason she didn’t want kids.

2. I didn’t have to pay for this drivel because it, along with the other books in the series, was on kindle unlimited.

What I didn’t like:

1. Character assassination. I hated that David acted completely out of character. I don’t care what he was going through. He never would treat Andi the way he did. He was turned into a total jerk in an attempt to get the reader to sympathize with Andi. This was completely unsuccessful. I still disliked Andi as much, if not more, than I did in the second book. Honestly, I kept having to remind myself that this was a 43 year old woman. She reads like a petty, selfish, insecure 20-something. To have the character of David morph into a completely different person was absolutely absurd.

2. Miscommunication as a plot device/toxic relationship. These two have such a toxic relationship. I don’t think they have a single conversation in this book that doesn’t begin or end with a fight or some sort of miscommunication. Both of them keep things from the other, even knowing that it’s hurting them in the long run.

3. Terrible dialogue. It’s awful. I go into more detail about this in my reviews for the previous books, but the short story is that people don’t talk the way these characters do. At one point, Wylie, David’s 15-year old daughter, says the line, “I was bored beyond measure.” I’m sorry, but 15-Year olds don’t speak that way. They just don’t.

4. Telling, not showing. This has been another prevalent problem of mine throughout these books. Andi’s inner voice becomes very philosophical and preachy, almost like she is reciting a textbook or something. It wasn’t quite as pronounced in this book, but it was still there. Also, there are several intimate scenes with absolutely no description. Now, I’m not saying I need all the details, but we’re given nothing.

One example of an intimate scene:
“And that was just the foreplay—the sex, God The sex! I don’t think we’d ever had sex like that.”

Ummm...what’s the point in writing sex scenes if you aren’t actually going to write them? Especially considering how blunt these characters are with each other—they casually discuss ‘fucking’ this person and that in the middle of relatively public places on a consistent basis. It just seems strange the line that the author drew when it came to what she chose to be descriptive about.

5. Andi. I know I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating: Andi is one of the most petty, annoying, selfish, insecure people I’ve ever had the misfortune to read about. She’s insufferable. Not only that, but she justifies all her bad behavior while vilifying others for similar behavior. She is such a hypocrite. I don’t know how many instances while reading this series I said to myself, “Pot, meet Kettle.” Pretty much every time she would get all judgmental and self-righteous...which was at least once per chapter.

Other odds and ends:

-Did you know that Wylie has David’s eyes? Because she totally does. She has his eyes. And don’t forget. Not that you would be able to forget, because you’re reminded every 15 pages or so that she has his eyes. Not just the color, but the shape! 🙄🙄🙄

-I don’t like when books use cancer as a plot device. It’s literally in this book to throw a wedge between David and Andi. There were a couple of moments, especially at the end, where I had some mild feels about it, but it didn’t feel particularly well-developed.

-Oh, and Andi has her father’s eyes. So she and Wylie have something in common. They both have their father’s eyes. Because in case I forgot to mention it 632 times, Wylie has David’s eyes.

I thought for sure this was going to be a five-star read when I first started this book. This is my first Neil Gaiman book. I’ve seen and loved the movie based on this book, and I almost always prefer the book, no matter which I experience first.

This is one of the few occasions I can say that I preferred the movie to the book.

What I liked:
1. I listened to this on audiobook, which I feel like is the best way to experience this book. It’s narrated by Neil Gaiman himself, and I love the lyrical style of his narration. His inflection and emotion comes through, and that kept me involved in the story, even when I had issues with the pacing and the plot.

2. This book led to one of my favorite movies. I absolutely love the film.


What I didn’t like:

1. The pacing was off for me. I was expecting since this was a fairly short audiobook that it would be fast-paced and fun, like the movie. But I found myself really getting bored at certain points. Wonderful narration can only go so far.

2. The characters/relationships aren’t well-developed. This is not only true of the minor characters, but also Yvaine and Tristran. I didn’t see any sort of romantic chemistry between these two at all. The section where I’m assuming they fall in love is glossed over in a couple of chapters. It felt very lukewarm and anti-climactic.

3. The ending. The way this book ended was so anti-climactic for me. There isn’t really any kind of showdown with the witch. She just accepts that Yvaine ‘gave her heart’ to Tristran and that’s it. After all she did and all the people she hurt to try to get it, she just gives up? Doesn’t make a lot of sense. It just felt very rushed.

4. Huge jumps in time. Tristran and Yvaine get stuck in the clouds and rescued by sky pirates. And months later they return to the ground. Their time on the ship is condensed to about five pages, of that. I hate to keep comparing this book to the movie, but that subplot with the pirates is one of my favorite parts of the movie and it’s almost non-existent here.

I think it’s safe to say I was disappointed in this book. Luckily, because it’s so different from the movie, I don’t think it’ll spoil my enjoyment of the movie itself. In fact, it may be time for a rewatch.

2.5 Stars

I enjoyed this more than By Your Side and Lucky In Love, but still had serious issues with several different aspects of this book, namely the romance. And when you don’t like the romantic plot in a YA contemporary romance, that’s a problem.

What I liked:

1. Readability. I found myself flying through this book. Part of that is because it’s very easy to consume. I would say that Kasie West’s prose is on the simplistic side, which is perfectly adequate for this kind of fluff.

2. Lacey and Elliot. I wanted more of these characters. They were great. Elliot deserved better than Abby.

3. Abby’s relationship with her father and grandfather. Most of the way through the book, I liked her interactions with these two. Her emails with her dad were fun and lighthearted, and I liked the sarcastic nature of her banter with her grandfather.

What I didn’t like:

1. THE ROMANCE. Rant incoming. Kasie West writes fluffy YA contemporary romances. I understand that she wants these books to have depth, which is probably why one of her romantic leads always has some sort of struggles with their home life. HOWEVER, that doesn’t change the fact that these books are marketed as romances. All you have to do to confirm that is look at the book covers/titles.

The romance in this book is seriously lacking. Most of the way through, I couldn’t care less about Cooper or her feelings for him. We are led to believe that he laughed off her declaration of love a year ago and went on as if it had never happened. I didn’t mark the page, but she actually says that. That he ‘laughed it off’. So when the actual interaction is relayed to the reader on page 302, we find out that she backed off on her own, telling him that she was just kidding, and it was only at that point that he laughed and let it go. It was just as much her fault as his.

Most of this book is just Abby mooning over Cooper, to the point of concocting an elaborate plan to kiss him at her art show even though he is dating another girl. There is never any hint that he actually feels any romantic feelings where she is concerned. Then she gets angry with him and cuts him off and he realizes he was in love with her the whole time. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
I hate that trope, by the way. The ‘I-never-realized-what-I-had-until-it-was-gone/best-friend-turned-lovers’ trope. Which is funny, because my husband and I were friends long before we ever started dating. But there were flirtations for quite awhile. This is not the case in this book. They go from friends to in love in a snap. There’s no real romantic foundation for their relationship, with the exception of her previously unrequited feelings. It was way too cheesy.

Honestly, I preferred Elliot as the romantic endgame. He was there for her at her art show when no one else showed up. He went to her house to try to bring her mom and grandfather when Cooper flaked out, without even being asked. He’s an artist, which is something they have in common. But I knew he wasn’t going to be her endgame because they had so few scenes together. Honestly, what was even the point of having Elliot in this book if he wasn’t going to be given anything to do? I really liked his character, but he was only there to prop up the protagonist and I feel like he deserves better.

Also, I am so tired of reading reviews for her books where the reviewer calls her books ‘swoony’ or ‘swoonworthy’. This book had one, just one, scene that even approaches anything steamy. It is about five pages before the book ends. Up to that point, there is zero romantic tension. Nothing. Her last two books (this and Lucky in Love) have been lukewarm at best. Nothing even close to creating a feeling like I might pass out from the heat. Just saying.

2. Lack of quirkiness/unique structure. This may seem like a strange thing to critique, and maybe I’m not wording it right, but stick with me. Kasie West’s books remind me of Morgan Matson’s books, without the depth. One thing I like about Matson’s books is that she includes things like hand-written lists, pictures, playlists, etc. to create a fun reading experience that actually works to create connections with the characters.
Abby is supposed to be an artist. Why couldn’t some of her art be included in the book, on the page? They are described, but seeing them would’ve given this book something a little different.
She also talks about her heart list. Why would the author show us a page with the list written out? And then notes as she checked things off. I don’t know. It just felt like this could’ve been played with a little more.

I have a lot of other thoughts about specifics in this book, but I just kind of want to move on at this point. I keep reading Kasie West books hoping to enjoy one as much as I enjoyed PS I Like You, but I continue to be disappointed. Although I did enjoy this more than I thought I would.