readingpicnic's reviews
475 reviews

Such messy and unlikeable—but still loveable—MCs in this book. I loved the drama of it all, but I went against my rule of not reading books where sapphic couples fall out of love and cheat on each other, as it makes me feel great despair. The plot felt very original and interesting to me, but gender theory and gender roles are really talked to death by Reese et al.

I cringed quite a bit listening to this, ESPECIALLY at the end.

Like getting married again, buying a house, getting a dog named Pistachio? C’mon. And the name of their duo being Sea Glass doesn’t even sound good! UGH! And Brighton’s a better person than me I guess; I would have sued the Caties and caused a huge scandal for them.

Also this is my first time listening to an audiobook where the narrator really voice acts the spicy scenes and I was not prepared 😭 I felt quite uncomfortable listening to it in public.
I feel like they really tried to paint Charlotte to be just as much at fault for what Brighton did and I just don’t buy that…like from a certain point on Charlotte could not think of the alter leaving fiasco without also thinking to herself but it’s also my fault DX. You’re telling me they’re not going to have an argument sometime in the future where Charlotte pulls out her ultimate trump card: “you left me at the alter?” 
Also Charlotte treated Sloane so badly and it made me sad. 
High school romances lasting that long or being rekindled is also something I’m averse to for personal reasons so I guess this was never going to do it for me.

also the fact that Charlotte never slept with anyone after Brighton???

My Libby loan is about to expire, and this is honestly not the book to listen to while eating my lunch at work, as it really ruined my appetite. I don’t think I’m enjoying myself reading this, and I keep mixing up Beth and Fran in the audiobook, so I’m calling it quits. There were also too many POVs for me personally to keep track of.

Overall a sweet story with some good humor. I do have critiques though. Firstly, the rivalry felt a little half-baked and didn’t make much sense (honestly seemed like it was just there so this could be labeled a rivals to lovers story). There was also such little time spent on describing the food and drinks they were making! Give me the descriptions that I was expecting from a book about food please! It does feel like some parts of the book that would have benefitted from more description were kind of just fast-forwarded through like this, such as the dancing and soccer scenes. The ending was also too neat, and a little unbelievable to me.

And what if they break up! Then their families are all tied up with each other and they still have to work together…

Mellie was also pretty awful and didn’t face any consequences whatsoever for that. One scene that I thought was really well done was when Gabi came to Theo’s place to apologize for his gay comment and Theo immediately understood that his parents were homophobic and asked for them to take a walk together. It was so sweet :’)

Warmed my heart or whatever

I loved this book, I had dreams about this book. The ending was really messy to me though and somewhat confusing since everything happened so fast, so I did knock off half a star for that :(

Honestly, this was such an infuriating book, but I fell in love with Amy Zhang's writing style all over again. I can for sure say that she's still one of my favorite authors. I adored her first two books while I was in middle school and high school, and she's still so good. Massive content warnings for depression, s*icidal thoughts, and an insufferable philosophy dude. I just adored the main character so much and wanted the best for her, and therefore wanted to destroy Constantine. The mother-daughter relationship and the found family friendships in this book were so touching and broke me down. Reminded me quite a bit of Night in the Woods with the secretive college enrollment situation and mental illness. Also, this is for sure new adult, not young adult! 

I adored them all. Incredible and hilarious audiobook narration with just the right amount of sass for the delivery of Gwen and Arthur’s incredulance towards each other. And the gay romances for each of them were so cuuute, GAH! I don’t usually pay much attention to the politics in books, but they were pretty interesting to me in this one. Wholeheartedly recommend to any former or present BBC Merlin enjoyers.

Okayyy, I'm obsessed with them. Love the Our Wives Under the Sea vibes and just the "they came back wrong" trope overall.

Love a weird motherhood story 🫶