I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

The simplest review I can write is just telling you that I stayed up until 3 am finishing this book, and it was worth every second of lost sleep.

This is, of course, not the first time this has happened for an Ali Hazelwood book, nor will it be the last. There continues to be something so addictive and easy about her writing that keeps me reading, when for other books I’d already have put it down and taken a break. This only continues to be truer as Ali writes more novels and develops her craft further. 

I feel like romance books often get compared to guilty pleasures, or junk food, or other comparisons that seem to situate them as something that’s easily enjoyed but isn’t actually good (for you). Anyone who says that is just plain wrong, of course, and just needs to spend time with the genre, because the depth of human emotion and character-building that happens in some of these romances is just beautiful. For me, there are a few authors who continue to prove the depth of this genre to me, over and over, and Ali is definitely one of them. 

As she’s grown as a writer, her characterization has grown stronger and stronger, to the point where she can leave the ‘crutch’ of Reylo-style characterization behind (though I did enjoy those first books a ton as well). We already saw this a bit with Love, Theoretically, but Not in Love feels like the first book where she’s entirely left that space behind. Don’t get me wrong, I would have read thousands of Reylo fanfiction novels from her, but I also love seeing her spread her wings and apply her style of writing and ability of capturing deep emotions to different types of characters. I loved Rue and Eli with my whole heart, and I loved how much they were not like her previous characters. I love how prickly and closed-off Rue was, and how strong and in love Eli was. I don’t know if I would quite call it grumpy & sunshine, but it definitely has elements of that, except this time the woman was the grump, and I was entirely here for it. 

There’s also a lot of trauma in this book, mainly in the pasts of the main characters, and I loved how their relationship seemed to lean on it but in a way that wasn’t toxic. Most of those events had happened years ago, and the characters had already gone through quite some healing on their own, but that just meant that this story was able to instead focus on the power of feeling seen, and how amazing it is when you find someone you can be entirely open and honest with (and how that path to opening up and being honest with someone else (and yourself) is not a linear one). 

I also really enjoyed the STEM plot in this one. It tackled a new type of problem that people face in these kinds of academic spaces but looked at it from various angles and explored this sort of clash between legality and morality, and how just because something is technically legal does not make it right. There were also layers of power involved, and I loved the exploration of what certain characters thought their goals were worth sacrificing. 

Overall, I adored this book, and love seeing how Ali continues to grow as an author. I’m getting to the point where I’ve loved so many of her books that it’s hard to say which one is my favorite, though maybe it’ll always just end up being the most recent one I’ve read, with the way she keeps getting better and better as an author!

 

 

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

The Pairing is McQuiston’s return to adult romance after their recent YA release, and I was super excited for it. I’ve been following McQuiston’s writing since Red, White, & Royal Blue was released, and each new release continues to show their skill and range when it comes to writing. 

While I’m not sure if I can say this one is my favorite book of theirs, I really enjoyed this one overall. Something about this book just fully gripped me, to the point where certain parts of it made me extremely anxious (showing I was fully invested in the story!) There were just so many layers to the story for me to sink into, from strong emotions Theo felt about themself and their ex to the exploration of gender. There were points where it felt like a book written especially for me, with so many of my fears and emotions reflected in the characters (and especially Theo).

The setting of Europe honestly felt like a set dressing to me, because my focus was always more on the internal journeys of our characters than the actual physical one they were taking. For that reason, the characterization or stereotypes of the places they visited didn’t really affect me that much, even though I can understand the criticism of it afterward. I think your experience with this part of the book will really depend on what parts of the story are most interesting to you and what you end up focusing on more.

The one thing that keeps me from giving this book a perfect 5 stars is the POV shift that occurs halfway through. On the one hand, I loved the sudden shift itself and it felt like it hit me really hard in the moment to see it. However, I ended up disliking that the shift was so complete, and losing Theo’s voice and narration really hurt my enjoyment of the final half of the book. I still really enjoyed it, but I felt like I’d connected strongly with Theo, and losing their POV felt like losing a lot of my favorite parts of the book. Even though I enjoyed the surprise shift, I think I would’ve enjoyed the book more overall if the story was more consistently split POV instead. 

Overall though, I really enjoyed The Pairing and the comfort and understanding I could find in its pages. I can’t wait to see what’ll come next! 

 

This is my third Sarah Gailey book, and while you’d think that means I know what to expect from their writing, this book just continued to prove that I don’t (in a good way)! Gailey writes such a range of plots and manages to adapt the writing to each one, so reading each book feels like a whole new author every time.

While The Echo Wife isn’t my favorite of theirs, I did enjoy my time with it and I got what I wanted out of the book. The premise of this book was extremely unsettling and creepy already, what with the main character having been cloned and found having an affair with her husband. Gailey delivered on that feeling exactly, and reading this book made my skin crawl for quite a few reasons. It also explored a lot of the ethics and discussions around cloning, and it added an extra layer to the story that made it feel deeper.

I can’t wait to read even more from Gailey in the future!