The writing was good and held my attention but holy crap these are miserable, awful characters. They’re petty, vindictive, bitter, whiney, selfish and self absorbed. Can’t say I enjoyed it…

 I enjoyed both MC’s and the struggles character growth they dealt with and overcame. Aleida’s struggle with her son, especially halfway thru was heartbreaking, but also inspiring. 

I enjoyed seeing more about how censorship was viewed and how the evacuation of children worked administratively. 

There were times I wish some of the story fleshed out a little more - it felt like some of the details of the experience of things like bombings or otherwise were glossed over and not as immersive as I’d like. But otherwise the story was great, as Ms Sundin’s always are. 

I listened to the audio on this and thought the narrator did a great job. The book is a little bit of a different story line of post-ww2 women trying to navigate jobs in the 40s/50s after being widowed while gender roles were sort of stuck in the past but opportunities were opening. I think the conflict of that was well done between Fannie, Ezra and others’ perspectives. The Blacklisting and anti-communist witch hunt was also crazy and well portrayed. I sort of wish more of that was in the book. 

Overall the book was a little slow and the romance predictable, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine. 

Highly enjoyable and captivating. I had actually picked it up because the title made me think it was a comedy but it definitely wasn’t. And for a character driven book with just a touch of mystery, this one still did so well at keeping my attention and I had a hard time putting it down, rooting for Lenny the whole way. 

Lenny is well portrayed as someone with both a lot of trauma because of an abusive stepfather and also is somewhere on the spectrum, so it adds to the character development and interactions she has with others, trying to sort thru daily interactions and idiosyncrasies, filtered thru her devastating childhood. 

I loved the themes of friendship vs self-protection, and how some things get translated in our heads negatively then how easy it is to snowball it when we isolate ourselves or stay silent. I thought the writing style was also really good and enjoyed it quite a lot. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

There was just so much going on in this, and the characters were all over the place. Some things just weren’t realistic or consistent, and the characters vascular between being unbelievable gullible and naive, to having insightful intuition and character judgement the next moment. 

It was also weird the way Quinn who was a college student, was referred to multiple times as a kid by someone younger than him, and Ollie’s character was portrayed as autistic in most scenes and completely neurotypical in others. 

It was just odd, wildly dramatic, and not believable to me. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

While the overall premise of the book was good - old loves reunited and a mother’s last wishes to help everyone do so - the whole thing was so dysfunctional, and excused itself for being so most of the time, I didn’t care for it. 

You’ve got a mother who just wants to have fun, no matter what detrimental attachment/security issues she’s causing for her daughter, everyone just constantly leaves when things get tough and refuses to have hard conversations with any sort of relationship - love interest or family, all the male love interests refuse to pursue the women when they leave or things get uncomfortable, a father who suspects her has a kid but does absolutely nothing about it, even waits for he to “say the words”. And no one confronts or challenges each other on it. They just leave ambiguous clues on what they feel or they let the house (yes the house) convey “its” feelings. 

Kept hoping it would get better but, while it ended with a neat bow, no one really learned anything out of the dysfunction. It was all just to-each-his-own. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

I related so much to Aubree (I really need to get a Not Awkward Heidi) as a character and the concepts of being seen with both MCs is such a good and identifiable one. It felt heartfelt and super sweet, and the patient pursuing had me in all the feels, I just loved it. 

And I loved that they communicated and were honest with each other at the beginning rather than dragging out the misunderstandings. Very refreshing. 

It was an interesting and well described setting to show both the naïveté of Americans and the brutality of communist Russians immediately post-WW2. 

I thought the characters were portrayed well, and the danger and mistrust the Russians had towards everyone because of the violent nature of the communist regime, not knowing who to trust, who would turn you in, and how helpless you were being at the mercy of corrupt superiors. But also how unprepared the Americans were to relate to them, not understanding how delicate and tenuous their situation was, and what retaliation they would face doing simple things for American culture like compete in a sport. 

The writing style was not my favorite. It would bounce between dialogue and good character interaction and events, to sounding more like a nonfiction book, in complete narrative, especially in beginning. 

Overall I enjoyed it, but I’m glad I listened on audio, as the beginning  was a bit to wade thru. It was very different from my norm, and I liked the story, even though it was a bit sad. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

Really cute and often funny, but did well looking at serious topics of grief and a light amount of ptsd. I especially enjoyed the antics of the fellow townspeople and loved that they took things into their own hands. 

Very cute and light. Remarkably short, so it felt sort of like a Novella and didn’t get as deep into the story as I’d have liked, but overall a good and easy