eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

You don't read the Tea Dragon Society for the plot.
You read them for the beautiful art, great diverse representation in characters, but most importantly for the cutest creatures you will ever see: the tea dragons.
Pokemon in cuter. 100 times cuter.

I appreciated the duality of a mother wanting to be more open to her son but struggling because of trauma, and the son wanting to open up about being gay to his mother but struggling because of the fear of her not understanding. And seeing that through each other reading stories to the other was really sweet.
However I found myself a little disappointed. There was a large amount of fairytale telling and very little actual story... Which probably meant to be lyrical but ended up being just nonsense on regards to the main story I wanted to read (the mother-son duality)

As much as I adored Emily Henry's other books Book Lovers and People We Meet on Vacation, I didn't find anything special about this one.
I didn't really believe in the romance. It felt like simply sexual attraction and nothing else. We don't ever really get to see them spend that much time together. Most of this story is about fictional characters IN this fictitious book. Or the characters histories. But not them. In this moment. Doing things which make them fall in love. Not enough, anyway.

Bon, c'était bien long à lire avec tous ces éléments déprimants, mais c'était voulu j'imagine.
C'était bien de mettre en avant toutes les remarques que les femmes, notamment femmes enceintes ou mères, reçoivent, et comment souvent le père pense bien faire parve qu'il "aide" alors qu'évidemment ce mot ne devrait même pas être utilisé dans cette situation.
Un peu dommage qu'il n'y ait pas du tout de planche sur pourquoi, malgré tout ça, ils restent contents d'avoir un enfant... Parce que là ça ne montre que le calvaire, mais vu la fin, ils doivent bien trouver que ça en vaut la peine.

Toujours aussi chouette de retrouver la bande des mal-barrées.
Enfin on commence à comprendre pourquoi Sierra est toujours aussi en colère... Et comme attendu, son histoire relève de sujets très importants : parents absents, relations toxiques, maltraitance, mais aussi les sujets qui font que tout en vaut la peine : l'amitié, la famille choisie.
Je commence à trouver que les thèmes sont abordés presque un peu rapidement, finalement, "résolus" aussi facilement (même si ce n'est pas tant une résolution mais un premier pas vers l'aller mieux). Et que malgré les cinq tomes, finalement, on passe assez peu de temps avec chaque personnage. C'est dommage puisqu'elles pourraient être très attachantes.

3.5? Maybe? Not sure.
It's weird cause I have a few things I didn't really like, and they'd normally be decisive on not enjoying the book. But with this one I still really enjoyed the story.
I think it's partly thanks to the good and addictive writing. I really couldn't put it down!
Also Wyatt is very loveable.

I appreciated how there were multiple trans characters at different points of their self discovery, or people questioning their gender.
I also appreciated that the main character wasn't perfect and that his mistakes were directly addressed and ultimately he realised what a mean person he had been and tries to make things better.
Neil is, however, a little toooo mean. Too selfish. Too bad of a person. Enough that I don't really understand how two different people could be into him at this point...
Even his "big gesture" in the end wasn't very nice if you look at it through his family's perspective...
But other than Neil, I liked the rest of the characters, especially Wyatt, but couldn't quite get behind the romance, not as much as I wanted to, not 100%.

This is a solid 4 stars for me, because it's clearly a very well written book, but I must admit that for a Taylor Jenkins Reid book, it didn't quite live up to my expectations.
What I loved was the way this story was told. The narrator and main character has a great voice, she pulls you in and keeps you interested. In TJR fashion, there are also news excerpts, interviews with other people in this universe who have their own views on Carrie Soto and the people around her. And that part brings a whole other level and depth to the story.
Despite this, I just didn't care as much as I wanted to...
Carrie starts off pretty annoying, only doing what she's doing for her glory and never thinking about other's. And yes, she does grow, but only very close to the end. I could clearly see where everything was going from the beginning.
So despite the gripping way it is written, I didn't feel any surprise or anticipation or even care about the relationships which were somewhat developed throughout this story, not as much as I'd expect from a Taylor Jenkins Reid book anyway.

C'est difficile de donner une note à un livre comme celui-ci, un témoignage d'un vécu, notamment traumatisant. Mais je peux critiquer la forme, la façon dont c'est raconté et dessiné.
L'histoire d'une dame qui perd son enfant, mort-né. Son deuil, la relation avec sa femme, comment elle tente petit a petit d'aller mieux, de ne pas sombrer trop bas.

Les dessins de Carole Morel sont absolument magnifiques. Elle met cette histoire bouleversante en image si parfaitement.
Cependant jai été déçue de n'avoir qu'un si petit aperçu de cette histoire, de ce chemin qui a sûrement dû être très long et rempli de plusieurs hauts et plusieurs bas. Mais ici on nous présente que quelques petites planches. On comprend que Ingrid va mal, qu'elle est très triste sans son enfant. Mais à part ça, on ne voit quasiment rien de tout ce qui a pu se passer après pour ne pas sombrer. On voit juste qu'à la fin elle arrive à rester à flot. On devine que ça pourrait être grâce à sa compagne mais ça n'est pas clair du tout.
J'aurai aimé voir plus en détail comment décider d'aller au groupe de parole, comment la vie d'Ingrid a changé entre l'avant et l'après, et même sa relation avec sa compagne et si peu montrée. On ne sait pas ce que sa compagne ressent, du tout !

C'est vraiment dommage, cette BD de lit très rapidement, elle aurait pu être développée pour qu'on puisse vraiment comprendre tous les ressentis de cette période difficile.
Malgré cela, me peu qu'on nous donne est vraiment très joliment illustré.

3.5? maybe?
Reading about a bunch of asexual characters forming a found family and helping each other out is what I've always wanted. Reading such a perfect yet casual repersentation, and explaining the asexual experienceS and feelings (because there are multiples ace characters showing how different aces can be!!! *gasp*) hit me so hard I was so happy.
I AM so happy that this book exists. That I'll be able to throw it at everyone and show them that yeah, you can have great ace characters be the centre of a bad ass heist, without the focus being solely on the fact that they're ace.

Look, i'll be honest I didn't manage to get completely gripped by the plot but I did enjoy the book generally. I think I wasn't in the headspace for this this week but mydumb brain didn't realise it until the book was almost done and I hadn't been paying attention to a third of what i was reading.
I'd love to say I'll one day go back to this book and read it properly, but i know myself and i know that won't happen.
I'll just be content in knowing I loved parts of this book.

Well this was exactly what I was looking for. A sweet believable romance, the feminism was a plus.
Very enjoyable.