Where I show you the overly ambitious pile of books that I would love to get to during the month of December📚
Links to the books (Bookdepository with FREE worldwide shipping):
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer
Hark! The Herald Angels Scream
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Night I Met Father Christmas by Ben Miller
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Phantom Lock: Mysteria by A. Charles Ross
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My review of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 📚
I read a hardback edition of Queenie.
Genre: Contemporary fiction, romance.
Publisher: Trapeze
Originally published: March 19th, 2019
Pages: 400 (hardback)
Audiobook length: 9 hrs and 45 mins.
Synopsis by the publisher:
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
My thoughts:
When I shared pictures of me reading Queenie on Instagram, I got a couple of DM’s from people asking me if it was true that Queenie was a lot like Bridget Jones’s Diary. I wasn’t aware that the two were being compared before that, but when I finished reading it, I saw that mentioned more and more.
I have to say (even though I think Bridget Jones is good fun and all that) that to compare the two is incredibly unfair to Queenie and to Candice Carty-Williams. Why? Because the two characters are so different! And the two stories are so different! Just because both books are about single women in London, doesn’t make them the same kind of stories.
Queenie is such a complex character and what she’s going through in this book when it comes to mental health and racism goes far deeper than the struggles Bridget Jones was facing in the fear of becoming an old spinster. I’m not saying that loneliness isn’t a subject that can be complicated and emotional, but Bridget Jones is not a book about mental health, at least not in my opinion.
And the big difference between the two is also that in Queenie we have a story that goes to some quite dark places, and that was something that I really appreciated with this story.
Dating in this modern age, with people walking around with all their own kind of bagage and own sets of issues, it can be difficult, challenging, hearbreaking and just downright frustrating and (at times) impossible to wrap your head around.
I’ve been there, and I know a lot of people have, and that’s why I think so many fall in love with Queenie and relates to her character so much. Even though you haven’t gone through the exact same experiences as she has, it is still easy to fing emotions and frustrations to relate to.
Queenie and her friends will make you frustrated at times when you read about the choices that they make (like having lots of unprotected sex and choosing dating partners that clearly isn’t a good match), but that is also what makes these characters feel more real. They make mistakes, they are imperfect, and they are trying so hard to navigate through a complicated and weird time in this world and their lives.
Queenie is a book with lots of humor, cringe worthy moments, diversity, exploration of mental health, friendships, love, and relationships for good and for bad.
It explores darkness and brightness and is also extremely entertaining! You can’t help but root for Queenie!
I would highly recommend Queenie to those readers out there who likes more complex and complicated contemporary/romance fiction. But it is not for the faint of heart! It was quite sexually graphic, and as I mentioned, it does go some pretty dark places, so that’s something to be aware of when going into this story.
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My review of Writers and Lovers by Lily King 📚
I read a hardback edition of Writers and Lovers.
Genre: Contemporary fiction, romance.
Publisher: PICADOR
Originally published: March 3rd, 2020
Pages: 256 (hardback)
Audiobook length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
Synopsis by the publisher:
Casey has ended up back in Massachusetts after a devastating love affair. Her mother has just died and she is knocked sideways by grief and loneliness, moving between the restaurant where she waitresses for the Harvard elite and the rented shed she calls home. Her one constant is the novel she has been writing for six years, but at thirty-one she is in debt and directionless, and feels too old to be that way – it’s strange, not be the youngest kind of adult anymore.
And then, one evening, she meets Silas. He is kind, handsome, interested. But only a few weeks later, Oscar walks into her restaurant, his two boys in tow. He is older, grieving the loss of his wife, and wrapped up in his own creativity. Suddenly Casey finds herself at the point of a love triangle, torn between two very different relationships that promise two very different futures.
Lily King’s Writers & Lovers follows Casey in the last days of a long youth, a time when everything – her family, her work, her relationships – comes to a crisis. Hugely moving and impossibly funny, it is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another. It is a novel about love and creativity, and ultimately it captures the moment when a woman becomes an artist.
My thoughts:
When I first heard about this book, I immediately felt drawn to it. An aspiring writer struggling with finding her place in the world while coping with her demons. It sounded like a book that I could relate to a lot! And on that point, it definitely did not disappoint!
I fell in love with Casey as a character from the very beginning. Her attitude and the pride she has in her work as both a writer and as a waitress was something that I thought was so brilliantly portrayed. As someone who’s worked a lot in customer service myself, I thought it was a breath of fresh air to read about a character that actually took pride in her work even though it wasn’t the profession she dreamt of having in the long run. King also wrote about the struggle and frustration of working with customer service and questionable management, and I thought she was right on point there as well!
Casey also navigates her way through writing, single life, and trying to cope with the grief of having lost her mother. We get to follow her as she tries to make the best choices for her life and her future, and finding it hard to differentiate between what seems like the best choices are and what the right choices actually are. I think this is something that most creatives can relate to in the process of following a dream as well as building a future at the same time.
I loved how none of the characters were perfect. They felt real and problematic, just like real people.
The way that this story touches on family and grief as well was really interesting to read about and I was so invested in all the emotions that Casey went through in her ups and downs.
“Writers and Lovers” was a fresh of breath air in the contemporary fiction/romance genre, and one that made me (as an aspiring writer myself) want to sit down and work harder and write more.
I have a feeling that this book is one that will easily find its way into a very special place in the hearts of a lot of writers, but I also think that it’s a romance that can be loved and enjoyed by those who don’t have a passion for writing.
It was a wonderful story that felt very easy to read even though it touched on some heavier subjects. A story that has stayed with me and I find my mind drifting back to quite often.
Highly recommend!
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My review of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas 📚
I read a paperback edition of House of Earth and Blood. This is the first book in the Crescent City series.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Originally published: March 3rd, 2020
Pages: 816 (paperback)
Synopsis by the publisher:
Bound by blood.
Tempted by desire.
Unleashed by destiny.
Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.
As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.
My thoughts:
I loved The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas and devoured those, and I did enjoy the first book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series (even though I haven’t gotten around to the next books in the series yet), so when I heard that Maas was writing a series for an adult audience I was very intrigued.
I heard mixed things about the books before going into it, and it seemed like it was either a love or hate relationship for most readers.
House of Earth and Blood is a chunker of a book (it seems like I’m quite into big books these days), coming in at a little over 800 pages.
What I think Maas does so well in previous books is making these really interesting and fantastical worlds come to life with a more subtle way of introducing the world she builds so that it doesn’t become super confusing.
In this one, however, I felt a bit lost for a while at the beginning. There were names and lifeforms thrown left and right, and I found myself feeling a little confused. This also took away my ability to connect with the characters early on in the story. That being said, the world-building that Sarah J. Maas has done in this series (and others before that) is impressive! After a little while, I did feel less confused and managed to just focus on the story and the characters.
When it comes to the characters I like that there are so many different beings and fantastical elements to them. It makes for an interesting cast of characters with endless possibilities. When it came to Bryce and Hunt I struggled to feel a connection with them. I was curious to see where the story would take them and found that part very exciting and interesting, but I did not get fully invested in the characters. It got better along the way though, but I didn’t find myself even close to being as invested in them as I’ve been with her other characters in previous books.
I also had some issues with the sexual tension throughout this book. For those of you who’ve stuck around for a while, you know that I have no problem with some steamy content in literature! But for some reason, it felt like all the sexual tension between Bryce and Hunt (and there’s a lot of it) felt like it was a part of the story just for the sake of having a lot of adult/sexual content. In some ways, it just felt a bit forced at times. I can’t really put my finger on exactly what it was that made it feel that way, but for whatever reason it just didn’t work as well for me as it did for a lot of other readers. I’m not saying that I would’ve wanted zero sexual tension between the characters, that wouldn’t have felt natural either, but I think it was more the amount of it being thrown into the story at all times that just made it less enjoyable for me.
That being said, this is a page-turner of a book! It did not feel like reading an 800+ pages book at all, and I flew through it pretty quickly. Maas writes action and drama so well and that’s one of the many reasons why Maas is on the list as one of my favorite authors. She also writes brilliant female characters that are really strong, but in no way perfect. So, even though she writes stories that are out of this world, a lot of the character, drama, and conflict feels relatable.
So all in all it was a very enjoyable, action-packed and interesting read with a lot of interesting characters, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get as invested in them as I would have liked to.
If you’re a fan of other books by Maas then I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one as well, but it is going to be a little bit of a different reading experience even though her writing style definitely shines through.
This story has potential to get very interesting, and I will pick up the next book in the series because I’m curious to see what happens next.
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My thoughts on Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins 📚
I read a Norwegian paperback edition of Anna and the French Kiss.
Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
Originally published: December, 2010
Pages: 380 (paperback)
Synopsis by the publisher:
Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her attention. So she’s less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking of word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he’s taken—and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she’s been waiting for?
My thoughts:
YA/Teenage romance novels aren’t really the kind of books that I tend to gravitate towards. But once in a while, I crave some light and fluffy romance as my escapism from the world.
I’ve had Anna and the French Kiss on my shelf for years and while I was trying to pick my next read it just caught my eye. I have to admit that I was skeptical because I haven’t read a romance specifically targeted for teens in a really long time.
Right of the bat I just found the novel incredibly teen angsty which came as no surprise to be fair. Anna started as a very unlikeable character to me at first, but there was some character development there that made her less so after she came to Paris and had to grow up a little bit.
There were some things that I just found weird about the whole story. If Anna is such a movie nut (that wants to become the next big movie critic in the US) I just found it very unlikely that her knowledge of Paris and its love for movies and theatres were so extremely limited. It just seems unlikely that anyone who’s supposed to be a complete movie buff would’ve overlooked Paris as much as she had.
The teen romance in itself was cute enough. I don’t expect characters who are 17/18 to have the same insight and understanding of romance and emotions as those who I meet in adult romance novels. Even so, the back and forth between Anna and Étienne was a bit much for my taste.
I did appreciate the way that this story tried to put some focus on friendship as well, but I would’ve loved to see more of it. I think that YA novels tend to focus a bit too much on unrealistic love and relationships, and have way too much girl-hate in them.
But again, I’m not the targeted audience for this novel.
Anna and the French Kiss just wasn’t my cup of tea. I seem to have outgrown the angsty teen romance stories a bit, and especially when they’re filled with a lot of the tropes that generally dislike.
Would I have felt differently if I read this as a teenager? Probably. And I can see how a lot of younger readers could like this book, but for me, it was more of a reminder as to why I don’t find myself gravitating towards these kinds of stories anymore.
I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t particularly like it either. It was okay, but just not for me.
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My review of Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy by SANZO 🐛
I read a paperback edition of the manga Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy.
Genre: Manga, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Yen Press
Originally published: June 26th 2018
Pages: 192 (paperback)
Synopsis by the publisher:
When a beautiful girl asks her childhood friend out, his response is a shocker: “You’re too perfect.”
What’s a girl to do, except transform into a giant caterpillar and try, try again?
My thoughts:
While my good friend Alex was visiting from the States here in December, we did what fellow booklover often find themselves doing when they come together; we went book hunting in bookstores here in Oslo. While we were at Outland (which is my favorite bookstore in Oslo) Alex wanted to look for a couple of mangas, and that’s how I ended up feeling like Alice falling through the rabbit hole and discover something truly new and wonderful. I’ve always loved how the manga art style looks like, but I’ve never really given manga a chance, even though I’ve read quite a few comics and graphic novels over the last few years.
But going down into the manga section at Outland had me more curious than ever, and I ended up picking up a few mangas that I stumbled across that looked interesting.
“Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy” was one of them.
What drew me to this particular manga was the absolutely weird and intriguing title. And when I read the short synopsis, I was sold!
This story has an eerie and dark weirdness to it. I really liked the art style, and especially the way that the Suzume is drawn as a caterpillar. Who knew a caterpillar could show so many emotions?
That being said, I have conflicting thoughts about the story.
Akane is a character that’s extremely hard to like. He’s the guy that refused to see what he had before it was gone, and when it comes back as something different, he doesn’t really learn to appreciate it as love before Suzume is absolutely miserable and became his “property”. But Akane also struggles with anxiety and his self-worth, which makes him more relatable as the story progresses.
Suzume is easier to like because of the cute weirdness of her caterpillar appearance, and it is easy to relate to the struggle of wanting so desperately to be loved by someone that you would do almost anything to get there.
It’s a story that reminds us to be careful what one wishes for, and also be aware of other people’s feelings. One about acceptance and mental health, and how self-loathing and events from one’s past can destroy the good things in one’s life.
I thought the book touched on some rather deep and interesting subjects but could’ve dived even deeper into them.
It’s different and it’s creepily cute. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t fall in love with it.
But if you’re looking for something that stands out (both as a story and as a standalone in the manga world of series) then this might be something for you!
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
My review of Sleeping Together by Kitty Cook 📚
I read a Kindle edition of Sleeping Together that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. Sleeping Together is the first novel in the Perfect Drug series.
Genre: Science fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Brass Anvil Books
Originally published: March 6th, 2019
Pages: 310 (paperback)
Blurb by the publisher:
Vanessa Brown is having nightmares: about babies. Ever since her husband, Pete, mentioned he wanted to start a family, Ness has been trying to convince herself she’s stoked to spawn despite her inability to keep a cactus alive–and a decade-old secret she doesn’t like to remember. So when she catches her slacker-cool coworker, Altan Young, stealing sleeping medication from the pharmaceutical company they both work for, she decides to try the pilfered pills to finally find some rest.
But side effects of Morpheum include headaches, nausea, and possible mind melding–a fact Ness and Altan stumble upon when they share the same freaky sex dream. (Awkward.) Now these two colleagues are joined at the brain by night, experiencing dozens of fantastic sleep-staged adventures courtesy of a little imagination and a whole lot of drugs.
With the stress of being caught between the men of her literal and figurative dreams (not to mention her nightmare of a boss), Ness starts to enjoy snoozing more than being conscious–and the company of her work husband more than her real one. If she doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee soon, her dreamy escape could become a dirt nap in this feisty debut novel about the dark side of dreams’ coming true.
My thoughts:
What first caught my attention with this one was the beautiful cover. Yes, I am an absolute sucker for a pretty cover. Well done on the beautiful cover design! And then I read the synopsis of the book, and I was immediately intrigued. A story about a drug that makes it possible for two people to meet and connect in their dreams. Interesting premise!
The whole story starts off with Vanessa’s baby/pregnancy nightmare, and I thought that was a good way to have that character’s anxiety and uncertainty come across to the reader. Vanessa’s dilemma of being in a relationship where the love is strong, but they want different things is oh so relatable to many.
I loved the fact that Altan is an Asian character. Yay for diversity! And the relationship and dialogue between him and Vanessa were one of the key elements to this story that made it so enjoyable to me. There was humor that had me giggling, sex (not very graphic) that made it slightly steamy, a horrible boss that made I want to jump into the book and punch the guy’s face, mental health issues that are important to address, romance that wasn’t too cheesy, and a pageturner of a plotline that had me up later than I should have been.
Kitty Cook has written the dream state of the characters so well that it all comes very easily to life as I was reading.
The characters are relatable and we do get to know both Vanessa and Altan quite well throughout this story. I didn’t find myself completely obsessed with them, but I was very invested in their story and with the mystery of how the Morpheum drug was actually working, and how it would impact the people using it.
Sleeping Together is an incredibly creative, intriguing and interesting story that touches on some sensitive subjects and has a slight element of science fiction to it that I really liked. I feel like I still have a lot of questions, and that these characters still have a lot more story to tell, so finding out that this is the first book in a series was definitely a pleasant surprise.
Highly recommend if you want to read a different kind of romance. And now, the waiting for book two begins.
Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of it💛
My review of Unteachable by Leah Raeder (Elliot Wake) 📚
A steamy story of an unexpected and forbidden relationship between a student and a teacher.
I read a paperback version of Unteachable as a part of my Exploring Erotica project.
Genre: Adult & contemporary fiction, Erotica
Publisher: Atria Books
Originally published: July 27th, 2013
Pages: 320 (paperback)
Audiobook length: 9 Hours 49 Minutes
Blurb by the publisher:
Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future.
But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall.
When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.
That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.
Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.
Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script
My thoughts:
I’ve been on the search for good adult fiction and erotica through my Exploring Erotica Project that’s been going on for a few years now. Around my birthday last year, I ordered a big bunch of erotica novels that were recommended to me in the comment section of one of the first Exploring Erotica videos I posted on YouTube. That is how I came across Unteachable and I was immediately intrigued by the story and the good reviews.
One of the first things I noticed that made me instantly like Maise as the main character was how strong and funny she was. Having read quite a few erotica novels by now, I feel like it’s a way too common thing to put young and inexperienced characters in these stories as sort of damsels in distress, and honestly, I’m not a fan.
When it comes to stories of love and sex, I much more enjoy experienced and strong characters that stand up for themselves. Maise, although she comes from a problematic upbringing, she is a very strong and passionate character. She’s very aware of her femininity, sexuality, and the power that comes with both.
I was worried that I would see the overly dominant and submissive character tropes when I saw that the story was about the relationship between a teacher and a student, but it didn’t have that.
Both characters are quite young(18 and 32), and the age difference between them doesn’t make the relationship between the characters uncomfortable and weird.
It’s more the story of an inconvenient setting of two young people that find themselves attracted to each other and trying to find out how to rightly maneuver their way through the jungle of love, lust, and judgment.
Something that adds to the depth of the characters is the fact they do carry each of their own demons into the relationship they start and that complicate things, as those pesky past demons tend to do. This makes it into a more realistic story.
Talking about realistic; the sex is very well written and fairly graphic, and there’s quite a lot of it, so this one is not for those readers who’re looking for “clean romances”. I really appreciated the erotica parts of this story. I thought it was well balanced with the rest of the story.
Unteachable is also a sort of coming of age story as well. It has the elements of worry and uncertainty about making big life choices, which is something we all can relate to on some level.
I think that this book also does a really good job of portraiting that slightly unhealthy obsession that sometimes happens when falling in love.
These characters and their relationship was interesting to observe as it grew and changed.
The secrecy and potential drama that comes with this forbidden relationship also make this story into a pageturner that’s hard to put down.
Unteachable is a breath of fresh air in a genre that really needs exactly that, and more awesome storytellers like Elliot Wake (formerly known as Leah Raeder).
Click on the Bookdepository banner below to get your own copy with free shipping, make up your own mind, and let me know what you think of it💛
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
I’ve been keeping you secret for a while now, and I will continue to do so for a little longer. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m overwhelmed with emotion that has a need to come out. So here it is, a secret love letter:
In a time when I had sworn off dating, promised myself that I wouldn’t put myself in a position where I could get hurt again, and found myself comfortable with the aspect of being alone, you just showed up.
A blast from the past that I never saw coming.
I was so unprepared for it that it still baffles me to think about having you in my life. It feels completely surreal, but it also feels more real than anything I’ve felt for a really long time.
It is not the obsessive uncertainty and constant worry. It is not a head filled with questions, and a fear of the answers they would possibly bring. It is not a tornado of butterflies in my stomach or the struggle with trying to understand mixed signals.
You are like the ocean. When you’re around I feel completely relaxed and at home, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
Your love makes me feel completely safe. It wraps around me like a warm blanket, and it keeps me away from the cold that I’ve grown too accustomed to.
I have so many questions, but they’re all out of excited curiosity, not fear. Our future together is like Christmas, and I’m the impatient child that wants to find out what kind of magic is wrapped up and will unfold when the time comes.
Watching you around the people I love the most, seeing how you fit in as if you were always there, is like watching the most beautiful sunrise. It warms my soul and moves me to tears.
It is awesome how your dorkiness goes so perfectly with mine. We’re both idiots, and I love it!
When you cried at the ending of one of my favorite movies, that was the moment I wanted to tell you that I loved you the first time, but I didn’t. That came later.
We can talk about anything together, and that’s magic in itself. We both have our pasts and our stories. Here there are no secrets, no shame. There’s honesty and openness in a way that I’ve never experienced before.
After getting you back into my life, I’ve woken up feeling grateful every single day. Most of my days are good, some are bad, but through all of them, I feel gratitude so intense that it sometimes burst out as happy tears at the most random times and places.
The awesomeness that is us has made me question a lot of the things I thought I was so certain about. It has made me do a lot of big-picture thinking, and it has been the most amazing surprise.
Your support for my passion feels like having a whole cheerleading team behind me. It means the world to me, and I have a hard time expressing it at times. I hope you know that I support your dreams just as much!
There’s no way to really end this letter because this is just the beginning after all.
But I just wanted to say that I love you, and I can’t believe we’re here at this time of our lives, together.
Thank you for being you, and for loving me and all my weirdness.
I will keep you to myself for a little longer, but I’m excited to be able to share our adventures with the world soon!
❤️
PS: If you thought this was cheesy, then know it is all your fault! You brought the cheesy romantic in me back to life. Blame yourself and get bloody used to it 😜
I listened to an audiobook version of The Girl He Used to Know on Audible.
Genre: Contemporary fiction/Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Originally published: April 2nd, 2019
Pages: 291 (hardcover)
Audiobook length: 8 Hours 10 Minutes
Blurb by the publisher:
Annika (rhymes with Monica) Rose is an English major at the University of Illinois. Anxious in social situations where she finds most people’s behavior confusing, she’d rather be surrounded by the order and discipline of books or the quiet solitude of playing chess.
Jonathan Hoffman joined the chess club and lost his first game–and his heart–to the shy and awkward, yet brilliant and beautiful Annika. He admires her ability to be true to herself, quirks and all, and accepts the challenges involved in pursuing a relationship with her. Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other, finding the confidence and courage within themselves to plan a future together. What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone.
Now, a decade later, fate reunites Annika and Jonathan in Chicago. She’s living the life she wanted as a librarian. He’s a Wall Street whiz, recovering from a divorce and seeking a fresh start. The attraction and strong feelings they once shared are instantly rekindled, but until they confront the fears and anxieties that drove them apart, their second chance will end before it truly begins.
My Thoughts:
I was looking for something light and slightly romantic when I was browsing through Audible for a new audiobook and found this one. Little did I know that what I thought was just a fluffy story of young love reconnected was to be so much more, and I would fall completely in love with it.
The Girl He Used to Know tells the story of Annika and Jonathan who meet when they’re both studying at the University of Illinois. We jump between the time that they met and got to know each other, and a decade later when they are reconnected once again in Chicago.
It’s easy to understand from the very beginning of the story that Annika’s mind works a little differently from most others. She is very anxious, and she talks about her experiences with therapy and how she struggles at times with everyday life.
I think this is what makes this story so unique and different. Told from the perspective of someone who obviously has some kind of mental disability (and the reader slowly, but surely gets a clearer picture of how much) but is also highly functional and tries to live as normal of a life as possible.
It was a very different kind of perspective in a love story that was new to me, and one that I really appreciated.
I want to see more stories like this. More characters with the kind of depth and difficulties that we see in Annika. And the fact that we also get a glimpse of how her challenges are perceived by Jonathan as well adds so much more to the story.
Tracy Garvis Grayes has written a beautiful and funny story. One that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. It took me on a journey I had no idea that I was about to venture out on, and I loved every minute of it. Even the ones where I bawled my eyes out.
This book is so much more than a love story. I wish I could explain why, but that would spoil too much, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you.
Highly, highly recommend if you want a deeper and different kind of love story that touches on some subjects of mental health and disabilities that deserves way more attention than it is getting.
Click on the Bookdepository link below to get your own copy with free shipping, and let me know what you think of the book!
💛If you buy via my affiliate links, I get a small commission 💛
Christina de Vries 