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594 reviews by:
pinesandpages
This was……not good.
I thoroughly enjoyed Dial A for Aunties and recommended it to several people bc I enjoyed the fun hijinks that go along with an accidental murder and falling in love. It was fun and funny! A nice lark, with family at the center of it all.
But this….was far too over the top theatrical with the most wild and unbelievable sequence of events. It felt like the author heard the audience feedback from the first one that the outlandish aunties were everyone’s fav part, so she ramped it to up the nth degree. And I agree, the auntie antics were great in the first one. But the problem with the exponential escalation of antics is that it made the aunties turn into caricatures of themselves, and also made Meddy, the protagonist, highly scornful/critical of her aunts with much less of a thread of loving bemused acceptance; so there was no redeeming factor.
And the plot neatly resolved in the last 20 pages just like that? How.
I got this back in April near its pub date and after getting halfway through, initially was going to DNF this. But now it’s November and I’m going back through my dangling reads and decided to give this another go. I do not regret it exactly, but I didn’t have a good time either.
I thoroughly enjoyed Dial A for Aunties and recommended it to several people bc I enjoyed the fun hijinks that go along with an accidental murder and falling in love. It was fun and funny! A nice lark, with family at the center of it all.
But this….was far too over the top theatrical with the most wild and unbelievable sequence of events. It felt like the author heard the audience feedback from the first one that the outlandish aunties were everyone’s fav part, so she ramped it to up the nth degree. And I agree, the auntie antics were great in the first one. But the problem with the exponential escalation of antics is that it made the aunties turn into caricatures of themselves, and also made Meddy, the protagonist, highly scornful/critical of her aunts with much less of a thread of loving bemused acceptance; so there was no redeeming factor.
And the plot neatly resolved in the last 20 pages just like that? How.
I got this back in April near its pub date and after getting halfway through, initially was going to DNF this. But now it’s November and I’m going back through my dangling reads and decided to give this another go. I do not regret it exactly, but I didn’t have a good time either.
I read this in one day bc I had a very long flight and also I liked them! I really enjoyed the two MCs being atypical in romance in general but also specifically in the world of hockey//sports. Great discussions of the toll human bodies endure to pay sports, which are like a silly thing to wreck yourself over for the rest of your life. Lmao I have taken a surprising anti-sports stance in this review, despite being fully aware I am voluntarily reading a sports romance.
I also liked that Ryan’s anxiety and performance issues aren’t just solved immediately after he falls in love - certainly they’re better but it wasnt like “the power of love has cured his anxiety!!!” which does happen in books but is simply not reality!! And I liked that this was one aspect of Ryan and Fabian didn’t…react poorly or make it seem like a burden. Fabian just calmly tried various things that might work for Ryan. Lol the bar is in the ground but I enjoyed that part a lot!!
Also I liked that there wasn’t the huge pressure to remain in the closet like in most sports romances. No long drawn out conversations about what this will mean for his career. Ryan was just out and that was that. Perhaps a little bit too easily tbh and it was literally never mentioned again by any of his teammates but that’s fine. I don’t like when the literal entire plot is a fear of coming out which is VALID but also I could use other plot points.
As always, it does feel like Rachel Reid tosses in marginal diversity for the sake of it (Fabian is Lebanese which is mentioned precisely once and then never again) and doesn’t really explore this aspect of her characters’ identities.
I also liked that Ryan’s anxiety and performance issues aren’t just solved immediately after he falls in love - certainly they’re better but it wasnt like “the power of love has cured his anxiety!!!” which does happen in books but is simply not reality!! And I liked that this was one aspect of Ryan and Fabian didn’t…react poorly or make it seem like a burden. Fabian just calmly tried various things that might work for Ryan. Lol the bar is in the ground but I enjoyed that part a lot!!
Also I liked that there wasn’t the huge pressure to remain in the closet like in most sports romances. No long drawn out conversations about what this will mean for his career. Ryan was just out and that was that. Perhaps a little bit too easily tbh and it was literally never mentioned again by any of his teammates but that’s fine. I don’t like when the literal entire plot is a fear of coming out which is VALID but also I could use other plot points.
As always, it does feel like Rachel Reid tosses in marginal diversity for the sake of it (Fabian is Lebanese which is mentioned precisely once and then never again) and doesn’t really explore this aspect of her characters’ identities.
Ugh.
This was fine at best. Didn’t really enjoy, very predictable and not in the typical romcom way. I’m obsessed with romance, probably 70% of what I read is romance so it’s not like I’m anti “they end up together” tropes. I LOVE romance which is why I’m so upset at this one!! I quite enjoyed The Love Hypothesis so I was v excited for this one.
There is a LOT of emphasis on him being tall and her being small. And it’s fine if size difference is your thing but it doesn’t really do it for me, and this book cannot go more than 5 pages without mentioning it.
Another thing to dislike? Her constant and willful ignorance of his feelings. His inability to act like a grown ass adult (ie not rude and unable to be in the same room) when he’s near someone he finds attractive.
He made her feel bad and dumb for YEARS and then he apologizes once and she’s like “ok now I’m fully onboard, into you, and I have no more hurt feelings” ????? Why! Why is it that when men are bad at communicating, women must instantly forgive?
Cannot believe the ending (not in a good way). THE CAT??? The long villain speech??
It feels like the author and the publisher wanted to capitalize on the success of The Love Hypothesis and so quickly wrote a slightly different version and didn’t bother to really edit it.
This was fine at best. Didn’t really enjoy, very predictable and not in the typical romcom way. I’m obsessed with romance, probably 70% of what I read is romance so it’s not like I’m anti “they end up together” tropes. I LOVE romance which is why I’m so upset at this one!! I quite enjoyed The Love Hypothesis so I was v excited for this one.
There is a LOT of emphasis on him being tall and her being small. And it’s fine if size difference is your thing but it doesn’t really do it for me, and this book cannot go more than 5 pages without mentioning it.
Another thing to dislike? Her constant and willful ignorance of his feelings. His inability to act like a grown ass adult (ie not rude and unable to be in the same room) when he’s near someone he finds attractive.
He made her feel bad and dumb for YEARS and then he apologizes once and she’s like “ok now I’m fully onboard, into you, and I have no more hurt feelings” ????? Why! Why is it that when men are bad at communicating, women must instantly forgive?
Cannot believe the ending (not in a good way). THE CAT??? The long villain speech??
It feels like the author and the publisher wanted to capitalize on the success of The Love Hypothesis and so quickly wrote a slightly different version and didn’t bother to really edit it.
