simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)

Let me hug all my Torquills please. Also the Lordens.

This was a lovely story. I'm so happy for August.

after having this book on my TBR for years, finally trying to read it and only getting until page 77, I think it's time to admit it's not for me. it might be for others, but I find it mostly incomprehensible and I don't want to get through 600 pages of this

This started out as a sweet lesbian ghost romance, with a sexy shower sex scene. Unfortunately, it didn't really commit to the ghost romance thing. It also gets pretty dark, especially in the last few chapters, so I have a lot of warnings to add.

Other than a main lesbian romance, this book also has a gay side character and side M/M romance.

Note on content warnings:

the child death is in the past/flashback. The outing and resulting suicide are off-screen and only referenced. Physical violence against female characters is both explicit and recurring.

Everyone in this book is bitter and miserable. The main character describes basically every woman she meets (including teenagers) as sluts, says that a woman who annoys her deserves to be physically abused, and then they laugh about it with her male friend. Overall, didn't really like anyone, and there were too many long flashbacks for me to really focus on the plot.

I'm struggling to feel anything about this book, honestly. It was okay?

This was an interesting twist, and I stan One Man.

Mixed feelings about this book - I enjoyed the second half way more than the first. Marianne's parts were frustrating to read, with a lot of internalized misogyny presented as fact, and there was also a pretty racist paragraph about Muslim women.

The plot/mystery picked up in the second half, and I found myself actually intrigued, and attached to the other characters who weren't Marianne. I liked the ending of the mystery as well.

Wooh boy. I'm curious to see where this is going, even if I'm a bit disappointed that this 'arc' seems to be done with.