Mary Jane is as a very different genre from what I usually read but I enjoyed it. It was well written, heartwarming, and had you rooting for the characters in it, especially Mary Jane, the main focus of the book. The book tells of a summer for 14 year old Mary Jane as she gets a summer nannying job surrounded by people very much out of her family’s norm.

The characters and their families showed plenty of dysfunction in an often humorous way, and I thought the story portrayed really well how we all need to surround ourselves with people who are different than we are in order to grow, how to invest in one another and put aside judgement, and to fight for one another’s best even if it’s outside of your comfort zone. The only real reason for a lower rating is that it just isn’t what I’d normal choose and not totally up my alley in subject and genre.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sort of a hallmark movie on steroids. The writing itself was good but there were a number of practical things that I just couldn’t get past.

On a positive note, it was nice how the characters all cared for each other, how they didn’t jump to conclusions or take offense easily, and how they were generally pretty forthright with each other even if that wasn’t the most realistic. The concept of knitting back a community stilted by grief was a valuable one, and very sweet in how an outsider cared to help that happen.

On the negatives…she’s kissing the guy in less than 24 hours? And the speed of the relationship at 6 weeks is just odd, especially for early 30-somethings, who aren’t immature kids. The references to the whole cowboy thing was super weird for the northeast too.

Setting-wise a bunch of things didn’t make sense. I grew up in upstate NY (actually in Saratoga that was mentioned at the end of the book) so I know the area of the country well and late November and December is freezing. Not like Jean-jacket, have a picnic outside at night weather, or walk around all the time without a jacket. If it’s cold enough to create a foot of ice on the pond, it’s too cold for a lot of the descriptions that were given. Some of the seasonal timeline items were off as well.

We also used to joke that what we called “mountains” in the northeast were more like hills compared to the west coast. There just aren’t high mountains. So the reference of the VT mountain being one of the highest of the continent at over 10k feet? In reality it’s about a 3rd of that and not even close to one of the highest.

I get that this is fiction and the whole premise is fantasy, but it’s just weird to take real landmarks and change them for no reason. It just made it feel like it was not put together well and the setting poorly researched.

Sweet story, but more realistic or plausible events and settings would have helped me like it more. It just felt a little forced and rushed instead.

Such an interesting read on a potential scenario for the children of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The two fathers have so much history and information we’ve come to learn in the past few years but we know so little about their children, though I’m sure it would be very interesting and intriguing, with the houses they grew up in.

Love, Theodosia painted a brilliant picture of love forbidden because of family and political animosity. In a time where politics was cut throat (not that it often isn’t nowadays, just on different levels), these two decided forgiveness and love could cross over ambition and bitterness.

The beginning was a little wordy for me and for a few chapters was a little hard to get into but after that you got pulled in, rooting for both Theodosia and Phillip and dreading what you knew historically was going to eventually happen. It was so difficult to watch their choices when you knew if they just decided otherwise, their fates would have been so different.

The author also paints a very vivid and compelling picture of Aaron Burr, initially making him seem not all that bad, until you realize how his behavior in being manipulative, obsessively ambitious, and self-seeking came to light.

I enjoyed the book and an alternate filling-in-the-gaps story of these two characters and the inspiring story of love and forgiveness they painted.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. There was a real lack of depth, detail, and emotion that made the events in general but especially the panic attacks seem disconnected and like it was pretend even tho it wasn’t. Add to that the panic attacks, and therefore the trauma associated with them, being completely trivialized and invalidated often, was annoying until the therapist did it too and then it just became absurd and insulting.

Initially I thought it was going to be a light, fairly interesting book. I liked the idea of solving a mystery with clues, of Joan remaking herself while also standing up for herself after being cheated on. But as I got into the book I started getting frustrated.

You know that annoying person that has to constantly name drop? That’s what this felt like. Non-stop. I get that it’s fiction and they weren’t real events or anything but non-stop lists of celebrity names with every memory tour got really old and started to feel like a point was being made after awhile.

There was also a ton of very long reminiscing and very detailed art or modeling stories that were completely unnecessary to the story and felt more like filler than fleshing anything out. They didn’t actually add to the story other than pages and felt like a constant rabbit trail interruption.

Also that the romance side of things essentially came down to casual sex and no relationship bugged me as well in a supposed romance.

And the biggest thing honestly, the end of the book just made me angry. It’s a bit of a hot button issue for me but someone who egotistically controls and manipulates others is not ok. Not. Ok. In. The. Least. And somehow everyone at the end of the story was ok because his intentions were good?? Nope. I was probably at 3 stars for the book until that played out.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.