hermusings's Reviews (303)

High key not enjoying my time — why does she sound like a high schooler??? She’s 30

This was a sweet and fun road trip romance. It had its fair share of depth as FMC works through the grief of losing her grandma.

It also does not shy away from being a bit silly and outlandish in its plot devices. However, it adds charm to the plot.

I think the best part was how greatly developed the main three characters were. You can picture them living outside of this book. 

This was equal parts delightful and thought-provoking. 
Honestly, such a quick and easy read with some heavy messaging (as expected from the synopsis, however still got me crying). 

The magical realism was very tasteful and complementary to the plot. Very wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey type of wholesome.

This was such a fun, funny, witty and, to be completely honest, giddy  read!! 

MC Sally is hilarious and anxious and insecure in a way that really grounds this story. 

The SNL of it all was fascinating and thrilling. I loved how you could name real life celebs for different characters, including Noah, which added to the charm of this book.

I think the biggest cons are the covid of it all, I don’t feel like we’re removed nor recovered enough from 2020 to fully accept it into our fiction just yet. Which slightly made this book feel ahead of it’s time.

Sittenfeld is an astonishing writer and will be checking out her other works after this!

I have a few issues with this book but the biggest one is that it spent way to much time on the cities and not nearly enough on the main characters. I felt absolutely nothing for them — they felt like complete stranger the entire time. 

Thinking of coming back to this one

This book is about Maggie going through a divorce at the young age of 29….. that is something I cannot relate to at all. HOWEVER, this book narrows down that depressing period of time where you are grieving someone/phase in life/thing that was fundamental to your identity & vision for your life. 
In that sense this book was incredibly cathartic and relatable. In the ways that it was not, Maggie compensates with how hilarious she is. Her self destructive tendencies are pretty wild and cringe at times but I honestly found myself laughing more than I thought I would.

This had all of the ingredients to create a great story yet the execution felt underwhelming.

Lily & Leo felt rushed and I think it has to due with how much time we, the readers, get to engage with who they are before we are meant to care about them.

The treasure was exciting when they would talk about finding it but the actual findings were fast and felt too easy for these characters to guess at points.

However, this is a lovely upbeat read. I don’t think the authors intended for it to be looked at with a magnifying glass but just enjoyed. And this rating is based on enjoyability. 

I’m a sucker for a full cast audio so I decided to revisit this in this format.
Was bittersweet to listen knowing what the twist were going to be. Made the book a bit sadder & less thriller knowing where all the characters would end up. 
However, it’s still such an ambitious book and greatly executed.

I will inevitable come to finish this … but I put it down and was never able to get into it again. Violet has such an annoying voice imo