I'm a little unsure how I felt about this. It was a pretty messy setup which took me a while to get past - just each of them being in love with another person (and those people being engaged) using each other to make them jealous gave me a little ick.
But once they caught real feelings I did like their romance and them together. Of course it starting as a fake dating/just a rebound thing just leaves a lot of loose ends that have to eventually be tied up. So you're just waiting for those shoes (plural) to drop the whole time.

Glad Ben ended up with no one cause he sucks and deserves to die alone

For fans of the movie you'll see how the main plotline is the same, but some details were changed/rearranged which (imo) makes sense for a movie plotline. Each chapter in the book is sort-of a vignette, or short story as Kiki operates her delivery business and meets various characters. Adorable for sure!

I honestly really struggled through this. Idk if it's the whole trope of "we're finally together but something happened and we hate each other and have to find love again" which is really not my favorite. But I actually mainly had a hard time following the fantasy plot here. I think I find the worldbuilding to generally be a bit hard to follow. I can't really keep track of who's side I should be on. 
There's something to be said for Oraya's reckoning with her father and who he was to her in her memory vs who he actually was and what he was doing behind her back. I think the complexity there was done well.

I'm invested enough in the series to continue as I did like the first book and novella, so we'll see where it goes...

Best in the series! I'm obsessed!
A near perfect romance: -.25 star only bc he's a billionaire and I am morally opposed to their existence, but he's about as good as you can get

This has surpassed Bride as my favorite Ali Hazelwood book, which honestly I wasn't sure she'd ever do. I generally have liked most everything she's written, but this one I LOVED.

Maya is my favorite FMC that Ali has written. I loved how strong, witty and sure of herself she was. She spends the book telling Connor she knows what she wants and he just has to listen to her. I thought the age-gap was done well and mainly Connor not wanting to give into their connection is where the turmoil comes in. I loved how they formed a friendship over the course of a couple years and that we got to see the flashbacks of that happening. The YEARNING sent me to space! 

Connor is the perfect example of that brooding MMC that had a crap family dynamic, but he's not toxic. So many times I read this 'type' of guy but they actually just are assholes and treat the FMC horribly, so the romance comes out of nowhere. THIS IS NOT THAT! Connor despite still working through his inability to confidently express feelings all the time, is able to get there by forming the friendship first with Maya.

4.5 is about as high as I'll rate romance (unless it makes me cry which is a rare thing) but this one did have me in my feels for sure. I did at multiple points have to remind myself this was a romance so the HEA was all-but assured, but she kept me guessing for a while! Hats off Ali, MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

I also immediately went to follow the FMC narrator Elizabeth Lamont - a truly outstanding performance!

This was a perfectly fine F1 romance. I didn’t really feel like either main character was super distinct but it was overall fairly cute. 

The audio was a little hard to follow as the pov changes mid chapter and there’s no indication when that happens nor does the narrator really change voice so that was a little frustrating.

This was my least fav of the series so far. I just found it boring. I wasn't into the lone-alien living outside the tribe thing and them spending most of the book alone. It was frustrating to have to go through the language barrier thing again, after the rest of the books that was solved. There's also no furthering of the overall sci-fi plot in this series (learning more about the aliens coming to the planet etc etc). I already struggle with all of these books ending in every woman getting pregnant so not enjoying everything else in the book made this one rough 

I finished this a week ago and I think I'm finally ready to put my thoughts down.

My main thesis is if you're a reader/consumer of Schwab's source inspiration (namely Interview With the Vampire) you may have mixed feelings about this book, as I did.

I think I should note that Schwab is an author I have mixed results with. Addie LaRue was the first book I read by them and that remains one of my all time favorite god-tier level books: I've read it multiple times and sobbed each time. I've dabbled in the other worlds/series Schwab has written with varying degrees of success, but nothing has hit the high of Addie for me. On the other hand, I've also not actively disliked any of their books or even regretted reading them. I also think Schwab's books are all very different so honestly there's probably something for everyone in their catalog. They do tend to write more character-driven work which is not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely can be for me when executed well...

My main issue with Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is that it's at least 100 pages too long, and has some pretty glaring pacing issues. The first 20% of the book I really enjoyed being in Maria's pov and that historical setting juxtaposed with Alice's modern setting. Initially Alice's first chapters at the party were super relatable to me. Being an 'Addie' fan it was giving a similar narrative structure, and reading to figure out the connection between these timelines/povs was intriguing. At about the 30-40% mark the pacing becomes like sludge and we follow Sabine through 100s of years of daily life just being a vampire in the world which I found to be rather uninteresting.

I understand that Schwab has written this book to be "in conversation" (I believe is the phrase used) with Interview With the Vampire / The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: the book series, and the subsequent recent tv adaptation. The problem for me was I'm deep in that source material. I've read the first 4 books in the series, have watched the 1994 movie countless times, and watched the first two seasons of the show multiple times. And unfortunately beyond Schwab writing a sapphic version of Lestat and Louis's (or possibly others, there's many) toxic relationship into the vampire canon - it didn't do enough for me as someone super steeped in vampire lore. On top of my love of Anne's vampires, I've consumed tons of other vampire-media for most of my teen and adult life. Ultimately I didn't really find that Bury Our Bones was expanding upon vampire canon in any way, which I guess is what I wanted? I could tell while reading that Schwab was inspired by Anne's series (even if I didn't know for sure until after finishing and looked up interviews), but I think the comparison has done a disservice to Bury Our Bones, at least for me. 'Toxic vampires can be sapphic too' just wasn't quite far enough for me.

Any initial connections I felt towards these characters were left behind by the pacing, and so by the ending I wasn't emotionally invested in them. I think Schwab bit (lol) off a little too much by trying to tell 3 characters long complex back stories and it was a lot to fit into one book. For example, Alice's whole backstory with her sister. It's pretty clear you know where it's headed, but I'm not really sure why it was included? Did her sister really impact the overall storyline that much? IMO no besides giving some reason as to why Alice is a 'sad girl'? or is it the sole reasoning for her to logistically be in Boston? I think it feels especially disjointed since it's so separated from the rest of the book (these are only told in flashback's of Alice's memory in her mind).

Part of the pacing issues is that it took too long to get to the "toxic lesbian vampire" parts of this book. Because we have to wait until a certain reveal which happens

almost 60% in

for that part of the 'plot' to happen. And even then it feels like a completely different book because the main pov is completely abandoned. In theory I understand why this choice was made, but it feels like two completely different books.

I'm not rating this any lower than 3.5 stars because there is some beautiful writing in here, and I respect the attempt at what Schwab was trying to do. But ultimately, this was a disappointment for me which is a bummer because I've heard a LOT of chatter about this book and I'm sad that it didn't hit for me.

Yeah idk ultimately I didn't like Declan and I think Iris can do better

This is quite a funny romance! The premise and setup is ridiculous in the best way. The absurdity of what they do in this fake engagement to pretend (especially to be pregnant) is hilarious. 

Because these are two quite literal strangers who agree to fake-be-engaged it works that there's quite a bit of animosity between them which makes for some delicious tension that also feels pretty real, and not too over the top. The spice was overall great! I def wish I could continue with the series but the rest of the audios aren't on Libby 
:(