hermusings's Reviews (303)

Ok this was a ride.
For context, I’ve read Daisy Jones & Malibu rising before this book.

I think this book starts out incredibly strong. I’m intrigued and engaged for the first 25%. However, somewhere along the 40-50% mark it starts to feel endless. It felt like there was one (or two) too many marriages and Evelyn kept sabotaging the harmony of her love life for the sake of her carrier. 
That whole middle chunk of the book made me feel like I was stuck in a time loop repeating the same day.
The only thing pushing me forward to continue reading was my intrigue of Monique’s connection to Evelyn. 

It does pick up again in the last 20% of the book but by then my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

Having read some of the later novels in the “Riva-verse”, I will say that it’s cool to see where TJR started and how far she’s come at developing these famous personas.

Lastly, I would like to petition for TJR to release a photo book with Evelyn, Celia and the gang’s outfits throughout the decades!!! 

There was a lot I enjoyed about this book but overall the characters fell a bit flat to me. 
I think the choice to make this an alternating story between past & present allowed for the plot twist to built whether you expect it or not.
I think one of my biggest con was the fact that they were in high school for the majority of the novel…. And

her cheating with the brother!!!!!!!!

As someone who watched Busy’s IG stories back when this book came out (2018) and knew some of her life stories, I was still pleasantly surprised by just how much she’s lived through. 

This book felt equal parts memoir and history commentary. I think Busy is inclusive and vulnerable with what she shares about her life on here. It’s relatable at times and just wild at others. 

It also still feels relevant today (specially post Roe v Wade decision).

I think this is a funny, deep and thought provoking book about a woman trying to find her way through an intensely patriarchal industry.

Pro tip: listen to the audiobook to hear Busy narrate it. 

This book was really cool because we got a whole 500+ pages of the same events but from the story of completely different people involved. 

It made the traitor queen and these kingdoms DLJ has built incredibly richer.

However, since you go into this book already knowing how the political relations will turn out, it takes the element of adventure and suspense out of the story. Which is is a shame since that’s one of my favorite things about the first two books in the series. 

That leaves this book feeling more like a romance. Which is not a bad thing, but since we’re a few books into the series it was an adjustment for sure. 

Im excited to see what will happen with Zarah and Keris in the upcoming book … and Lara and Aren, of course. 

This was a sweet and wholesome story about community & finding courage to move on. It’s a good read if your looking for something that’s gentle and light when addressing deep topics such as loss.

I do think it was cheesy at points but it adds to the tone and characters of this book. 

This book starts out promising and fun and then takes a turn for the cringe and bland. 

My favorite parts was when Solange would interact with her family and how being a first Gen filtered her thoughts and actions. Also loved the Brazilian rep. 

However, Solange and nick’s personalities fell flat. The dialogue was too pop culture heavy and cringy for my taste. 

It’s fake dating so there’s a lot of miscommunication which I’m not a fan of but I did expect based on the synopsis of this book. 

Towards the end, I found myself not really wanting to finish it. 

Will give this another go in the fall.

Update: I will in fact not give this another try.

I just don’t think this is for me.
I’m not invested in the characters and it feels like the author is trying to sell me on the idea that they have chemistry. 
May revisit but not finishing it for now.

Had to return to library. Will finish at a later time 

Sweet and funny wish a dash of depth that matches any good comedic set. 

A cross over between the love hypothesis and the big sick.