lenorayoder's reviews
120 reviews

Like the first book, there was a section in this one that dragged for me, but I zoomed through the last 100 or so pages. 

I understand that it's the point of the character, but it's still unpleasant to read Rebecca making the same mistakes she did in the first book. I get second-hand anxiety reading about her spending and the way she thinks about shopping, which is why the beginning and especially the middle of this book were rough for me. Rebecca definitely has a problem, but she's working on it and ends up better and better off by the end of each book. 

I really did like those last 100 pages so this is 3 stars instead of 2. Once again looking forward to the next one. The end of this book sees Rebecca

living in NYC in January of 2001

, so I'm curious to see how the author will decide to handle

9/11

in the next book (or maybe the fourth book as I don't know when the next book will be set).

Good, and I like how this was structured. The title is misleading, this is more of a short autobiography mixed with anecdotes about the author's experiences working in the Personals.

This would have been 4 stars if not for some of the punching down. I understand a lot of the meanness, it fits the tone and perspective of the book, but some of it just wasn't for me.

Giving this 3 stars because I think the middle of the book is a bit of a chore, but the climax and denouement were well done. This book draws you into its protagonist right away. I like how the author treats a character who could easily feel like a shallow stereotype with care and respect. I’m left wanting more and looking forward to reading the next book. 

short and sweet. clearly for a young audience, the dialogue is very exposition-heavy.

Interesting subject matter, but I don’t like how the author presents it. The order in which information is given is confusing, the author has clear and obvious biases, and I just don’t like the writing style. 

An example from page 31: “He may have been a ringleted, vain pretty boy wholly immodest about his own culinary talents, but Carême proved to be a prophet.” Annoying, immature, and unfunny. 

What made me keep reading is that Kamp often mentions and quotes other food writers I’ve never heard of, so now my TBR has books and anthologies that will probably be better than this. 

I loved this! Really captures what friend and family relationships can be like at this age. I like that it ends on a high/hopeful note without trivializing what the characters are going through or seeming too after-school-special.

Some cool ideas and pretty pieces of writing, but so much of this book is slow, confusing, gross, and/or boring that it doesn’t really feel worth it. A much longer book than the material justifies. Unsatisfying. 

This is a great entry level text that I’d recommend to anyone who grew up with the bible, or is interested in translation, feminism, christianity, and/or history. The author covers topics simply enough for a layman to understand (no need for a background in religious studies), and provides ample citations so that if something piques your interest and you want to learn more than the basic overview, you can easily do so. This book would be particularly helpful to christian women struggling to reconcile the sexist nature of the church with their faith. 

There are so many things wrong with this book we’ll just have to stick to the highlights

1. I love time travel and this is technically a time travel book but it might as well not be for all that it factors into the plot and character’s thoughts. The female lead could have been taken from England in the same time as the male lead and this book would have been basically the same. 👎

2. The female lead is the hottest woman who ever lived and the male lead is the hottest man who ever lived. You can’t go two pages without some super hot physical attribute being mentioned 

3. The characters are very one dimensional. When they each first think that they love the other, I’m left wondering why. They talk about each other’s non-physical qualities, but we’re never shown proof of them, or shown when the other learned of these qualities. We’re told instead of shown

4. Overall the kind of book people point to when they make fun of romance novels. Barely any plot, kind of silly, contrived conflict, boring characters, and the smut isn’t even good. 

I’ve been trying to find an alternative to Highlander that doesn’t have the weird vibes (if you know you know, the beginning was so promising too), and this was not it. Don’t recommend. 

This book is very hard to rate. I love a lot of the plot, though it’s a little slow to get started. Great ending. I like the characters at the end of the book, but the writing for our heroine is all over the place for the majority of the story. She’s inconsistent and unlikeable, and several times characters (mostly the heroine) make decisions that are entirely in service of a plot point the author wants to get to, and those decisions feel obviously out of character. Some great writing, but also some lazy writing. Annoyingly frequent fatphobia. A bit frustrating in that with some editing I think this book could be really great, the story has great bones. 

As a big time travel fan I have to add that the way Deveraux navigates it in this book is genius. We learn just enough for the time travel to make sense and no more - no getting lost in the weeds, no angsting over paradoxes. Its rules and function are perfectly molded to serve the characters, romance, and plot. 

Worth the read, especially since it’s my understanding that this is kind of a landmark romance book, but making it through the beginning was tough.