Late ARC Review | The Valencia Expat Club

3.5

I feel like I know more about paella than I do about the male love interest. There was an entire section about how to cook paella correctly, but as far as Liam goes? I know very little besides the fact that he owns a club.

Dahlia has recently split from her husband and is feeling lost because of it. She decides to take some time and go to Spain to reconnect with family she hasn’t spoken to in years. Her mother and grandmother had a falling out years ago, but she doesn’t know why. So she flies to Spain to find herself and hopefully learn what happened.

I like the idea of Dahlia going off to Spain to find herself and reconnect with family after a divorce. I even like the idea of her meeting a man and seeing what can come of it. The first problem is that there is literally no explanation of what makes Liam so interesting. He’s a tall, brooding, hot guy that Dahlia met in the past and didn’t click with and has now run into again in Valencia. But other than the fact that he owns the bar and ran away to Spain to escape, we know nothing about him. He is extremely two dimensional, which kinda ruined the romance part. The second problem is there wasn’t as much of Dahlia connecting with her culture and getting to know who she really was. We do see her reconnecting with family, which was nice, but she doesn’t spend any time learning about her history and culture, except for paella. Seriously. It’s mentioned on almost every single page, along with garlic, saffron, wine, and rapid-fire Spanish. Like I get that these are all used as descriptors, but they get old quickly. Also the reason that her mother and grandmother had a falling out was so… anti-climatic. After reading it my first thought was, “that’s it?” I expected a bunch of drama or something really earth shattering. But no. It was almost silly, especially considering no one wanted to talk about it.

This did have some heartfelt moments and funny lines. I think if there had been more actual time spent with Dahlia discovering herself and more depth given to Liam, this could have been a lot better.

Late ARC Review | The Tuxedo Society

2 stars

It’s like gay James Bond or Austin Powers, but unlike this book, James Bond movies are at least somewhat believable and interesting and Austin Powers movies are at least funny and entertaining.

I love James Bond movies. Yes they have their parts where you have to suspend your disbelief, but it generally isn’t over the top (with a couple of exceptions). I love the action and thriller elements, and yes I like the suaveness of Bond. Austin Powers, while a total spoof of James Bond, is still pretty well done. They’re funny (at least the first two anyway), but they also have some depth at times. This book felt like it was trying to be so much and incorporate elements of both James Bond and Austin Powers, but completely missed the mark.

The main character is a down-on-his-luck actor who gets a random chance to join a secret spy society made up of gay people. He gets about 5 minutes of training before being sent on increasingly unbelievable missions. This is made worse by the fact that he’s just not an enjoyable character. Yes, pop culture references can work, but my god you do not have to insert them in every single paragraph.

Also, can we please stop sexualizing children? There’s a scene where Reggie and Andrew pretend to be priests on a train. While on the train, a mother and her 12 year old son come up and ask them for a blessing, and Andrew’s thoughts immediately go to believing the 12 year old is gay because he’s looking at them. And then, in trying to connect with the kid, he asks if he enjoys Spiderman. Jericho (the kid) replies that he does and his favorite is Tom Holland. Andrew asks why, Jericho stares at him, and Andrew thinks the stare indicates it’s because of the way his butt looks in Spiderman spandex. Like. The kid is 12. An adult imagining a 12 year old pining over a grown man’s butt is frankly quite disgusting. A 12 year old boy probably likes Tom Holland as Spiderman because those movies are the most recent and he can understand them better culturally. We do not need to be putting anything about children thinking about how butts look in spandex. For fucks sake.

To go along with the above, Andrew enters the Vatican and is placed in a room with several other priests to sleep. At first he’s offended because he’s sexually rejected by the priests (even though none of them have said a word to him and he’s just assuming this because they looked away while eating dinner), and then when they undress for bed he’s disappointed because everyone is wearing big t-shirts and billowing shorts, and not “Mormon-style chastity garments.” And then, as Andrew pretends to read a Bible, a priest asks him what he’s studying, which turns into a discussion on the Prince of Egypt and then ends up with all the priests talking about all the men they think are hot and such.

Look. I may not be the most religious person around, and I understand everyone has their own beliefs, but there is just something about pretending to be a priest, sexualizing a child, and then getting into sexual talk with priests that gives me the ick.

I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention after the above, and then when Andrew is snuck into the Olympics to be a double for a diver and then actually has to perform I basically gave up. I did somehow still finish the book, but it was mostly against my will. Maybe this will appeal to people who love ridiculous and unbelievable spy stories with an obnoxious main character, but it did not appeal to me.

Late ARC Review | I, Spy

2.5 stars

This felt so disjointed and fell pretty flat. The idea of an ex-spy getting dragged back into the game while trying to navigate motherhood alone sounds great, but the execution for this wasn’t there.

Kendal is living a rather boring life in Switzerland with her daughter Rosie when her apartment gets raided by a bunch of masked men. In order to escape, she calls her former boss Rico for help. From there, she is taken to London with the promise of help in exchange for getting back in the game. Kendal had left that life behind after her daughter was born, and didn’t want her to be dragged into it like she was when she was a child. So with the promise of Rosie being left out, Kendal agrees to help Rico with a job. The job includes babysitting Joel, a new recruit who is tasked with getting information from his job about an app they are developing. There appears to be some shady stuff going on with it, and Joel is trying to find out what that is.

While this all sounds pretty interesting, it’s not. A lot of the focus is on the domestic goings-on with Kendal, Joel, and Rosie. There’s their interactions at home, and the interactions of Kendal with the moms of other kids at Rosie’s school. There’s a few “twists” along the way, but none of them are particularly surprising, and one is so poorly explained that it makes no sense to the plot. The ending is rather subpar, leaving a disappointed feeling for the whole book. None of the characters are standouts either, except for maybe Rosie. It was hard to connect with any of them, as most feel two-dimensional, and the relationships with each other don’t feel genuine, including the relationship between Kendal and Rosie, and Kendal and Khalil. There are a few funny parts, but they can’t carry the weight of the whole book.

This had potential, but ultimately did not live up to that potential.

Late ARC Review | The Parisian Chapter

3 stars

This just didn’t give me the same feel as The Paris Library. I really enjoyed The Paris Library and was hoping to get back into the familiar setting, but the magic wasn’t there.

The Parisian Chapter takes place in 1995, so around 50 years after the main events of The Paris Library. Naturally, that means we have a new cast of characters, along with a few familiar faces. I had actually kind of forgotten about Lily being in The Paris Library. I just remember the events that took place during the war. But the book does jump into the 80’s, where Lily is introduced. The Parisian Chapter mostly belongs to her. After making friends with Odile and falling in love with French culture, she decides to move to Paris along with her best friend Mary Louise. Part of the reason for her moving is so that both of them can become artistes – Lily a writer, Mary Louise a painter. The other reason (for Lily anyway), is to try and track down Odile’s long lost friend, Margaret. After some struggle, Lily lands a job at the American Library in Paris, where she hopes to fulfill her dream of being a writer and finding Margaret. This is where things started to fall flat for me.

Lily is a likable enough character, but most of the others are not. Hayes, her boss at the ALP, is an absolute jerk who can’t be bothered to treat anyone with any decency. Mary Louise decides to branch out on her own because of claims that Lily is suffocating, but doesn’t actually explain anything. There are a lot of different people that come and go, most of them forgettable. Really the only ones that made an impression were Chris, Lily’s crush, and Meg, an elderly volunteer at the library. I actually mixed up people a few times as there wasn’t much distinction between them. And while it was nice to see Lily working at the library, it just didn’t hold the same charm as when Odile was there. I get that obviously there are very different circumstances between when Odile was there and when Lily started, but this lacked the depth that The Paris Library had. Not only in the story itself, but in the characters and the setting.

This wasn’t a bad book, and it was nice to see the resolution between Odile and Margaret, but it definitely wasn’t as good as The Paris Library.

Late ARC Review | Master Alvin

3.5

I have waited YEARS for this book, and it felt… anti-climatic? Like I’m not sure how to describe how I feel about it. Disappointed maybe, or that my expectations were higher than they should have been. The last time I reread this series, I had said in my review of The Crystal City that this series deserved a proper ending, and I just don’t quite feel that this was it. I get that it was probably hard to come back to this series since The Crystal City was published in 2003, but the soul of the series wasn’t there.

It did take me a minute to get back into this series since it has been ages since I read it. I should have done a reread before starting Master Alvin, but with everything else I need to read and have going on, I couldn’t really justify it. There is a whole lot of talking in this book, but not a whole lot of doing. And when there was doing, it felt very rushed. I also felt like there was a lot missing. I’d be reading and all of a sudden it was like we were following a completely different subject. There was lots of jumping around and no cohesiveness. I had to go back a few times and make sure I read everything correctly, because I’d get lost in what was going on. There was also a lot that was left unfinished, like what the resolution was with Reverend Thrower, Cavil Planter, and Amy Sump. It seemed weird to bring them back and then not finish their plot points.

The one thing that really got me was towards the end with Alvin and Measure. Without spoiling it, their story felt so emotionless and I couldn’t believe how fast it was over. It was practically a “blink and you’ll miss it” type deal. I thought for sure we’d get something more out of it. I know the history behind the actual event it was based off of, so I thought we’d get something a little more in-depth, but it felt very cold. I think that one event in the book is what really brought down the rating. I could deal with some of the other stuff, but man I was disappointed over that scene.

I will say that the writing style itself still fit with the rest of the series. It still felt like it was written in the same time period (with a couple of small exceptions), and that the characters still sounded and acted the same from what I remember. I just think that it would have been better to finish off the series years ago, so that the story itself could have felt more cohesive.

Late ARC Review | Cherry Baby

3.5 stars

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Rainbow Rowell has again proven her skills as a great storyteller. She always has such great writing and I generally really enjoy her work. On the other hand, I feel like we were misled about what the story was actually about, and ended up with a character that felt like they weren’t always the adult they were supposed to be.

The blurb makes it feel like we’re getting a story about a woman who is finding herself after a divorce. I was really looking forward to reading about Cherry moving on, discovering her self-worth, and finding love again. Instead, we get 400 pages of Cherry constantly going on about how fat she is, how weight doesn’t define someone, and then bashing fat people (namely her sister) who take Ozempic to lose weight. You can’t say that a person’s weight doesn’t define them and then in the next breath say that people who take weight loss drugs are traitors. At one point, Cherry says that if her sister doesn’t like the way she looks, then she doesn’t like the way anybody overweight looks, which literally makes no sense. If someone is taking weight loss drugs, they have a reason, and it is their own reason. It could be a looks issue, but it could also be a health issue. But saying that they don’t like the way anyone looks because of it? Come on now. Towards the end of the book, Cherry and her sister Hope get in a fight about Hope losing weight. Cherry admits her and the other sisters started a group chat without Hope so they could talk about her weight loss and Hope says she didn’t tell them she was taking Mounjaro because she knew they would judge her. Cherry is so offended about Hope taking weight loss drugs. It just seems so silly to alienate your own sister about her own choice. They didn’t alienate Cherry when she admitted she was seeing and sleeping with someone while still being married, but they alienated Hope for taking Mounjaro. Unreal. Cherry can be mature for her age at times, and then very immature at others. It feels like she should have been aged a lot younger than she actually is. Cherry also claims to be comfortable and happy with her weight, but it is very clear she is not. Besides the fact that she brings it up constantly, she berates Stacia when she says she never thinks about Cherry’s weight and seems aghast that Stacia has her own body image issues because she’s “thin.” Thin women can have body image issues too. This isn’t solely an overweight woman thing. And again, it is okay for that to occur. It’s not okay for think women to put down fat women, but guess what? It’s also not okay for fat women to put down skinny women.

When Cherry was finally with Russ, it seemed like we might be getting the promised blurb. But that didn’t happen. Instead, we get this internal tug of war between Russ and Tom, which would have been fine if that’s what I was expecting. And then it was hard to root for either of them because they both turned out to be not great people. This is all well-written, though I don’t agree with Cherry’s choices at times. The biggest issue I have is the fact that almost every issue could have been solved if the characters would just talk to each other. Cherry’s marriage ended in shambles because her and Tom couldn’t communicate about anything. He left for California to work on the movie deal for Thursday and took trips for publicity events, and Cherry decided that it would be easier to just tell him things when he got home. She decided her career was more important than supporting him through this huge event in his life. I get that it’s not always easy to take off work, but he asked her to come with, and she said no without even trying. There was just so much that could have been solved if they had discussed these things like the married adults they are. I don’t agree with Tom cheating, but I can understand what led him to it. There was also no communication between Cherry and Russ, which again could have solved problems before they even came up. And of course, there’s the exclusion of Hope from the other sister’s conversations.

I get that this book was probably written messy and complicated because relationships can be messy and complicated, but it just seemed to be overly messy when it didn’t need to be. It sounds weird to say, but I think I prefer Rainbow Rowell’s YA books over her adult ones.

Late ARC Review | Stranger Things Have Happened

4 stars

I liked this a lot more than I was expecting to. I wasn’t really sure about the premise, but it ended up working rather well. Of course it helps that I generally love Kasie West’s books, but I still had a bit of hesitation going into it.

The story revolves around Sutton, who has returned to her childhood home to care for her mother who was involved in a serious accident. After a miserable night, she goes to a bar and runs into her best friend from high school, along with her fiancee and his brother. She ends up in a rather ridiculous bet with her best friend’s fiancee – pretend to be a couple with a complete stranger while attending couples therapy. The person she’s pretending to be with? Her best friend’s fiancee’s brother. This is where my hesitation came in. I wasn’t really sure about the strangers in couples therapy bit. It just seemed rather silly. And while I think the reasoning for the bet in the first place is kinda dumb, I ended up enjoying the rest.

Sutton finds herself trying to navigate the fake therapy sessions while battling real feelings cropping up, along with the stress of trying to help her mother and managing her restaurant business from hundreds of miles away. Sutton felt very real to me. She’s struggling with a lot of different things, and feels like she has to do everything on her own. I couldn’t stand her mother – while it’s understandable that she’s struggling with her injuries, she’s also extremely ungrateful and treats Sutton terribly. Elijah, who Sutton is going to therapy with, is also dealing with his own issues. We see a lot of these things come to light during the sessions, and then Sutton and Elijah trying to figure out how to deal with them, which is its own issue since they aren’t actually together.

There is your typical romance miscommunication trope, along with the fake couple and the one uptight person being with a laid-back, fun loving person. But it worked. The end wraps up a little too neatly, and I wish a few other things had been resolved, but all in all it was another good read by West. I think she should stick with adult romance – I have enjoyed a lot of her YA romance, but the adult novels have definitely clicked with me more and feel more relatable. Either way, I’m sure I’ll read whatever she puts out next.

Late ARC Review | Sarafina

4 stars

This was really good, but not really enjoyable, if that makes sense. There is a creeping sense of dread that you feel as the story progresses, and it’s hard at times to know who to root for as the characters navigate the story. We have who we think is the villain, but everything isn’t always black and white.

The story is mainly told from the perspective of Ethan, one of three brothers (Mason and Archie being the others) who are fighting in the Civil War for the South. The brothers decide to desert and make their way home while trying to avoid being caught. They keep away from towns and roads, but still run into trouble. While trying to lose the men pursuing them, they end up stumbling across a homestead seemingly in the middle of nowhere, where they meet Sarafina and her son Titus. This is where things go from bad to worse, and the horrors of war are traded for horrors of a completely different nature.

The brothers believe Sarafina to be a blessing in disguise, offering to help treat Archie’s wounds and giving them all food, clothing, and a place to sleep. It becomes evident pretty early on though that something isn’t quite right. The clothing each brother receives fits perfectly, even though they are all vastly different in size. Titus seems to have much animosity towards the brothers, but then offers advice on how to leave. Food grows that’s out of season, and the weather is always perfect, even though the brothers had been trekking for days through rain. Sarafina’s nature slowly unravels, and the brothers realize they are in a nightmare instead of a dream, with no way of escaping. While it’s a story of survival, it goes from a survival story featuring the war to a survival story featuring a new kind of horror. I don’t want to give too much away, but there are lots of things revealed throughout that will change how you feel.

None of the brothers are really likable, though Ethan is more likable than the other two. Each has done some pretty awful things, but Mason and Archie have an evil nature about them, which Ethan brings up more than once. Their nature began before the war, which only made them worse. Sarafina seems like a perfectly likable woman until her true nature is revealed. But even then, her story takes a different turn and isn’t as black and white as you first think. Titus, the brother’s sister Ellie, even Sarafina’s dogs – they al have hidden layers and are slowly revealed as the story progresses.

The story can be a little slow in spots, and I’m not really sure I understand Ellie’s choices in the end. One review I read stated they make more sense if you really pay attention to the few parts she narrates, as there are some subtle hints and a lot of reading between the lines. Overall it is a well-written horror novel and should appeal to horror fans everywhere.

Late ARC Review | Honey in the Wound

5 stars

This book is heavy. It deals with the brutality of WWII in a way a lot of people probably aren’t familiar with. Instead of concentration camps, we have the Japanese occupation of China and Korea and bear witness to the horrors they inflicted.

The story follows one family through several generations, starting in the early 1900’s before the war, and ending in the late 1900’s long after it. The war plays a pivotal role in what the family goes through, as the Japanese slowly take over and change the course of millions of people’s lives. While there are several people in the family followed throughout the book, the main focus is on Song Young-Ja, and the horrors she experiences. There is a thread of magical realism woven into the story, which also plays a big part. While Young-Ja’s mother can get people to tell the truth in just speaking to them, Young-Ja can cause people to feel her emotions in the food she makes. Towards the end of the book, we meet Rinako, Young-Ja’s granddaughter, who receives dreams about people and is eventually able to convince Young-Ja to tell her truth. I don’t want to go into too much detail, as I feel this story needs to be experienced without knowing too much beforehand, but be prepared for lots of heartbreak and loss.

This isn’t for the faint of heart – there is plenty of descriptions of the terrible things that occurred during the war, with a big focus being on “comfort women.” These women were kidnapped or forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Army, and it is truly awful what they went through. I couldn’t help but think a lot of Nanking while reading this, though that is a horror in its own right. If you have knowledge of Nanking or the other atrocities that the Japanese committed during the war, you will have a good idea of what awaits you. With all that being said, this was fantastically written. The characters were all very well developed, the story is immersive, the writing moving. It’s hard to believe this is a debut with how well it is done. It’s one of the best debuts I’ve ever read, which I think says a lot. I think it is one everyone should read, even if they may have a hard time with the subject matter. It is an important part of history that should be known to more people, especially because we are still seeing these things happening today without much being done.

Late ARC Review | Smitten

3 stars

Honestly, I had the hardest time paying attention to the actual science of this book, because I hit a certain part and realized it was exactly describing someone who seemed to have an obsession with me. Once I made that connection, basically all the objectiveness went out the window. So this may not be the best review I’ve written, simply because it affected me in a way I wasn’t expecting.

The book mainly focuses on what is known as limerence. Limerence is described as a “mental state of profound, involuntary, obsessive romantic infatuation with another person (termed the limerent object, or LO).” Symptoms can include frequent intrusive thoughts about the limerent object, an acute need for reciprocation of equally strong feeling, exaggerated dependency of mood on the LO’s actions, insecurity or shyness when in the presence of the LO, etc. And while some people may say these symptoms are simply part of falling in love, the book does go on to describe how limerence is different, or at least how it can be experienced differently by people. It can be described as an overwhelming feeling of euphoria and elation when in the presence of the special person, but it’s also fragile, in that the person can’t concentrate on every day tasks and is practically exhausted by their presence because they are so infatuated with them. It moves from being simply about liking someone to becoming infatuated and fixated on them. And while it is said that limerence is not a mental illness, it can certainly feel like it.

Here’s where my problem lies – I experienced something like this, and it really wasn’t enjoyable. I became the limerent object to someone, even though I didn’t know this term at the time. There is a chapter in this book titled “Can’t We Just Be Friends?” and I would personally say the answer is no. In the chapter, the author talks about the dilemma of when the person you are obsessing over doesn’t reciprocate your feelings. Can you put those feelings aside and just be friends? The author says the person experiencing limerence must be honest with themselves about their true motives and the choices they make. Are they emotionally capable of just being friends, or do they want to be friends so they can continue to obsess over the person, hoping they’ll change their minds? I would say it would take a very emotionally strong and rational person to be able to continue being friends with someone they were obsessing over after they were turned down. And unfortunately I don’t think most people in this state can do that.

In my experience, the person obsessing over me was married and had children. He started a new job, which happened to be where I worked. At first it seemed like he just wanted to get to know people and be friendly, but he had ulterior motives. He asked for my email address so he could send me his resume to look over, in case a better position opened. I agreed to look it over. However, what he sent wasn’t a resume. He waited until I was out of the country and then emailed me a confession of love. In his eyes, I had the same feelings and had been flirty with him (I hadn’t). I immediately turned him down. He begged me to stay friends cause it was a misunderstanding, and I agreed, which turned out to be the wrong choice. He didn’t have the emotional capacity to put whatever feelings he had aside and just be friends. I have had to talk to him several times about his words, as he would unload all his issues on me, including those in his marriage, which were none of my business. If I could go back, I would tell him no to the friendship. However, I didn’t know at the time that he couldn’t handle himself emotionally. Now I’m stuck because I still have to work with this person and be professional, which he doesn’t get.

I would say it’s a decent read for anyone who’s experiencing obsessive feelings over someone or anyone who feels like someone is obsessing over them. It can give come clarity on those feelings that the limerent is experiencing, and gives the LO a better understanding of what they should do if someone acts this way towards them. As far as actual explanations on how to make love last and what to do if you’re experiencing limerence, it is lacking. And though it’s stated it isn’t a mental illness, if someone is obsessing over another person to the point where they can’t focus on anything else, they should probably seek some professional help.