This was a light and predictable romance, if a sometimes odd mix of modern and Regency elements. I loved the Shakespeare quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I did not like how the mother character was only talked about but never shown on the page. The romance felt a little rushed, and we didn't get as much depth from the dual POV as I'd hoped.

Read this in one sitting - it's exactly what it promises (lots of tropes - now with birding), and the cover is perfect. It was fun to have an Arizona setting and recognize some bird names. I thought Maria (the new mom friend) was a little too involved in her friend's life to be realistic - honestly, Morgan (the daughter) had a point that Celeste, the female main character, was overly selfish. The main characters didn't necessarily feel mature enough for their age and often made decisions that seemed more convenient for the plot than logical for two people in their 40s. But it was fun for what it was.

I did watch the show first and mainly my reading experience was comparing/finding differences between the formats. I wish the chronology was clearer in the book as some jumps were harder to follow. Because of the episodic nature, no stakes felt super large and we didn't see a lot of character growth or development on the page. Overall a decent introduction to the characters and world, but it has a definitively prequel status. 

I likely would rate this book higher if we had volumes combined. It was SO short and even some of the pages only had a line or two of text - I don't even think it took me an hour to read. It felt like an introduction, maybe half a novella, not a real book. We were just starting to get into Emma's story. She has a nice voice, but some of her decisions or circumstances don't quite feel logical or realistic - why would a 20-year-old heiress put up with rats in an attic of a house she owns? The journal style does fit her story well, overall, but it lends itself to frustration and some silliness - why would she explain all her relatives like that? 

I liked the concept and some moments of this book. The kids felt like fairly realistic characters, which was nice. I was more interested in the teenage storyline than the current one, though, and I didn't like how uncomplicated the ex-husband was or how most of the obstructions in the plot were just Cary and Shiloh not being willing to say words out loud to each other. The miscommunication stretched too far and deep at times. Mikey's story felt more believable than theirs.

I overall had a fine time with this but I think it was the weakest of the series and the only one that didn't feel like it could stand alone. It was odd to throw in a new character when the rest of the series had been building for Catriona's match to someone else. The backstory elements for both Catriona and Elias often felt lazy, with whole scenes inserted in without reference to what was actually happening in their present. The ending was for the series rather than the book - we got a perspective from each of the other main girls and then an epilogue of them getting the vote. It felt like fan service and most of the dialogue was inevitable and stilted. It also meant we didn't get a fully satisfying ending for this book's narrative.

If you can accept the incredible premise set up in the first chapter that the love interests would kiss the first time they meet, then this is a fun time. I really liked seeing characters get marry early so we get to experience their love grow through marriage and watching them navigate putting their lives together. I HATED that Dunmore 

broke up the couple just for Lucian to have to re-propose

because it felt so unrealistic that two people in love would need to go through that for purely the sake of drama. Still, this was overall cool - I hadn't ever thought about the complications of early photography either.

It's fun to get to see the friend's perspective on the couple from the first book and see a little bit of how their marriage works; I think that was my favorite part. This felt like the romance was a cover story for the struggle of the suffrage movement, which sometimes meant that the historical underpinnings felt more relevant than both the plot and the characters. Also I felt like the love interest, Tristan, was stuffed into the boxes of too many tropes - how can he be the best friend/boy next door who has loved her forever AND the bad boy who is good just for her AND a savvy business partner? Sometimes it was an interesting combination; sometimes it wasn't totally believable. I felt like Cecily's character didn't have clear motivations for her actions and her ending was too neat. I also didn't like how Lucie and Tristan had support from everyone to do whatever they wanted sexually with no consequences - they lived in an extremely rigid society, supposedly, but we don't see any resistance to their non-traditional path.

Very similar in plot, structure, and style to the Crazy Rich Asians books, but Eden is no Astrid, unfortunately, and often felt like a Mary Sue. I would've enjoyed more intertextuality - I loved the little tabloid articles etc. we get in Crazy Rich Asians. I solved the "mystery" way before the reveal. Still, this was a fun time overall.

For some reason I never read this in school (even though I have TWO degrees in English), but I'm glad I read it now. This is a hauntingly relatable coming-of-age account with the "Us vs. Them" as greasers vs. socs, and it was so visual - I could see so much of what was happening, internally and externally, for the characters, like it was a movie even though I've never seen this movie. Even the ridiculous names didn't ruin the mood of the story. It was complicated without being on the nose about morality/choices. The fact that only one girl was really a character in this book didn't even really matter the way it could have in a different story or the same narrative told in a different voice - because the whole point was that we can all relate to this. For example - it felt so realistic that they're in a high stress situation and yet finding the beauty of literature and worried about their hair.