Love, Lies, & Cherry Pie (CBR16 #16)

I make a habit of reading Jackie Lau books when I can, and being able to read Love, Lies, & Cherry Pie as an ARC was something I just couldn’t pass up, particularly when the logline for the book is a Pride and Prejudice retelling having a good time with some tropes (Lau tends to always have more than one in her work). The tropes in question are fake dating, forced proximity, and enemies to lovers, and I think Lau did a good job with them.  

Our fake daters are Emily Hung and Mark Chan. Emily’s mom has been chatting up Mark non-stop so when they finally meet at Emily’s youngest sister’s wedding she is immediately closed off to him and what he represents to her as the perfect Asian boyfriend and comes away with the impression that he thinks he’s too good for her, since she’s an author who works part time at a coffee shop to make ends meet and he’s an engineer. At their next meet cute – which Emily’s mother tricks her into – Emily suggests they get their parents off their backs by fake dating. As the kids used to say, hijinks ensue.  

Fake dating has its pros and cons, but I really enjoyed Lau’s spin that her leads have to ‘real’ fake date to keep everyone believing that they are dating, and it is this forced proximity that gets Emily to reevaluate her position on just who Mark actually is. The emotional beats of the story lean hard into the characters senses of self-worth and ways in which our assumptions about others are a form of self-sabotage. The first half of the book is told exclusively from Emily’s point of view which worked well (although the end of the first half did drag a bit for me) because in a romance we care about who the characters are and why they (think) they cannot be together, Emily had lots and lots of reasons.  I was excited to get Mark’s POV because as is often the case in my favorite fake dating books, he was the half of the equation who agreed to the shenanigans because he thought there was something there with Emily from the beginning.  

This is a Lau book, so the Toronto and food details are excellent. As was the publishing meta commentary of Emily dealing with industry issues. Lau also name drops my favorite children’s book that I swear no one else has ever read, All-of-a-Kind Family so bonus points there.  

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios (CBR15 #28)

I love the nitty gritty inner workings of how movies and television get made. It’s the reason why I listen to so many pop culture and Hollywood history podcasts. Podcasts are another reason I knew I was going to enjoy MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. Two of its authors are podcasters that I have been listening to for the better part of a decade (Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales) and I trust them to be able to put together a narrative in a way that keeps me engaged and to do the work to bring a well-researched and nuanced take as they do in their various shows and articles.  

MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios delivers on that trust. The four years of research, interviews, writing, and addition of a third author in Gavin Edwards created a narrative that brings into focus all of the unlikely things that had to happen for Marvel Studios to exist in the first place and the strategies, luck, and good timing that led to the truly impressive track record and cultural phenomenon that it has become. I’m not a big comic book fan, but I watched almost all of the MCU content that has been put out since 2008 (well, with a significant drop off in Phase 4 which as the book chronicles is not necessarily uncommon). This book goes a long way to explaining the whys and how’s of fans like me and for fans like me. It even has its own version of a mid-credits’ scene, which while a bit silly is also indicative of the way in which this book was crafted.  

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. It has not effected the contents of this review, only its timing.

A Merry Little Meet Cute (CBR14 #61)

I’m the sort of person who loves ridiculous holiday romcoms and wishes they contained more romantic content. A Merry Little Meet Cute should have been aces for me: a steamy plus-size holiday rom-com about an adult film star who is semi-accidentally cast as a lead in a family-friendly Christmas movie, and the former bad-boy pop star co-star she falls in love with. This has potential!

The basic plot builds on that potential. We have Bee Hobbes, a successful career as a plus-size adult film star paired up with Nolan Shaw, an ex-boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. When Bee’s favorite porn producer casts her to star in a Christmas movie he’s making for the squeaky-clean Hope Channel, Bee’s career could move into a more family-friendly direction, something she’s been thinking about as her time in porn will eventually come to an end. For his part, Nolan’s goal is to be able to provide a more stable living situation for his sister and mom and the only way he can see to do that is to step back into the limelight, if he can manage to get his reputation to stop being the first thing every one associates with him.

But… while Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone show themselves to be highly adept writers who do a fantastic job balancing their authorial voices to create one for the book, the execution is uneven, leaving me feeling a bit let down. I loved everything about the fat rep (including Bee’s vacillating between being confident and not), and the sex and sex work positivity. But for the sheer number of times Bee’s sex toys and Nolan’s proclivities and preferences are mentioned, much of the raunchier sex was off page if alluded to at all. It was strange to me to read a book that was so up front in its positions regarding presenting less frequently mainstream topics in romance, but not following through on including them in the actual relationship that the book is focused on.

I had fun while I was reading the book, got pulled into the ever more complicated goings-on of the characters. But… I never felt that urge to get back to them after I put the book down, and I had to talk myself up to getting my review written, having ignored it for the better part of a week once I was finished. I think I’ve gotten to the heart of the matter, though. While I loved all the parts of this book, the reason I don’t love the book is because the emotional component of the relationship building between Bee and Nolan is the least present thing in the book, and that’s a damn shame.

Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beauty and the Alchemist (CBR14 #54)

Beauty and the Alchemist asks, what does it take to overcome a curse? Particularly if the world you live in is filled with magic. Throw in a bit of murder and you have quite the mystery on your hands.

Which is exactly what formerly traveling alchemist Red finds herself surrounded by. She’s been content to settle into life as a shopkeeper in rural Belville, expecting to focus on potions and finding her footing within the community. Red’s plans get changed when Belville’s lone police officer, Thorn, pulls Red into the hunt for a criminal who escaped from jail leaving a murder victim in his wake. From there the Red (and the reader) are treated to an abandoned castle, yet another murdered individual, a not-dead-yet ghost, a beautiful and ill-tempered suspect, and a horde of mysterious mist creatures that terrify the town. Oh, and then there’s the series of lost books that hold the key to the castle’s curse. Thorn immediately suspects Red’s friend Luca, a meek-mannered bookseller of the second murder. Red she rushes to prove Luca’s innocence, knowing there has to be more than meets the eye when it comes to the mysteries surrounding the castle.

What I enjoyed most about this book is the relationships that Elle Hartford creates. This book contains a large cast of characters and Hartford keeps the reader well-footed by making sure that Red’s interactions and observations are tailored to the relationship at hand. Red is different with William, her formerly a witch’s familiar talking dog best friend (a strong contender for my favorite character – he gives great exasperation) than she is with Thorn, or than she is with Luca (whom I also adore).  My only real complaint with this book is in its pacing, I would have loved for it to be a bit zippier, but I have no complaints at all about the well-developed characters and well-plotted mystery.

(As a note, I’m in a writing group with the author and as such was an early reader of portions of this work before its publication and was provided an ARC by the author. Neither has affected my review.)

Bet On It (CBR14 #48)

I requested this book from NetGalley specifically because of its Anxiety and Complex PTSD representation. On those fronts this book worked aces for me. The internal lives of Jodie Slaughter’s characters worked exceedingly well for me as a reader. I thought it was very thoughtful about the way mental health struggles were portrayed as part of the overall story, and as a driving factor in that story.

Because it is a driving factor, the leads could understand that part of each other’s experience and be supportive of each other. But let’s back up, the book opens with our heroine, Aja Owens, meeting a handsome stranger in the grocery store while having a panic attack and he stays with her until it passes. They go their separate ways, Aja not even sure she would recognize him again, until he turns up at her weekly bingo night – he’s the grandson of her best bingo buddy.

Walker Abbott is in town only to help his grandmother during her recovery from two broken arms, and he wants to be gone as soon as possible, as his hometown is full of judgement and the development of his PTSD and anxiety. But he finds Aja Owens irresistibly beautiful, they understand each other but know that any relationship that might strike up would be over in a matter of weeks as Walker is leaving and Aja is staying in the place that is feeling like home, finally, away from big city pressures.

The pair are swoon worthy. But… I’m rating this one three stars, not four and that’s because while lots of it worked for me, there were some things that didn’t. There was a certain amount of expectations problem, the book was heavier than I expected based on the blurb and cover. I also wished there were more quiet moments of seeing them fall in love, more lighthearted moments, and more time spent in this sweet small town, I wanted more of the side characters and charm to help balance the tone and move the plot more naturally.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

Content notes: panic attacks (on page), discussion of mental health/anxiety/PTSD. Parental trouble/toxic relationships (Walker’s father is a recovering drug addict), small town gossip (hurtful), child neglect (past).

Ten Steps to Nanette (CBR14 #30)

I feel like this is going to be a tough one for me to review, because my relationship with the content that Hannah Gadsby creates is so personal to me and has been frankly crucial to how I am coming to understand myself that it’s a bit difficult to try to take that out of the equation and look at Ten Steps to Nanette on its own. I’ve likely watched Nanette half a dozen times in the past couple of years (and once again in preparing this review) and I have easily watched Douglas, the next special, several dozen times. Partly because its very, very good but also because of how she discusses Autism and neuro-divergency more broadly, both of which are crucial to the story Gadsby writes in Ten Steps to Nanette, and crucial to the knowing of me.

I have been rabid for this book since I discovered it existed. Or would exist. I haunted NetGalley looking for it, put in my request as soon as it was listed, and waited impatiently for the denial I was sure was coming as I heard nothing for nearly three months. And then I got the email, and I did a weird happy dance at work, startling my coworkers. Because my brain works differently.

Which is a very long walk to telling you that there are portions of this book that made me cry, not because of what Gadsby has gone through and survived, but because of the eloquent way she has in describing what can sometimes feel so isolating, and the language she puts to not trusting a diagnosis that feels right because it doesn’t look or feel like you were told it would.  Of not feeling at home in your own skin when out in the world, but when you are in your own quiet home feeling deeply yourself. Of all the times that the world insists on being more than you can process in any given moment, how if you have just the right sorts of presentations or coping mechanisms you will have to fight to be taken seriously that you are not – in fact – doing all that well. That you will have to fight to believe yourself, to not let anyone diminish your own lived experience.

As much as Ten Steps to Nanette is set up in a typical memoir format, it also works differently. Some of it is a bit cheeky, starting with an epilogue and ending with a prologue, but they are also used exactly as they are titled. It isn’t a play on words, Gadsby is intentionally taking the pieces and putting them in the order that best serves her needs. Some chapters (or steps) are very short while others are much longer. Some bounce back and forth from the personal to the national, some are more biographical, others still are written in a more active voice much more like her stage work. But because Gadsby is very good at what she does the tone of this book stays the same: these are the facts, and this is how I felt, but the how of the tone is what changes because each step (and the wilderness years she generally leaves unexplored, this is not tragedy porn) need to be handled in their own way. By allowing her story the space it needs to be told in the manner it needs to be told in she is doing an incredibly important bit of writing as people all over who fall into many of her intersectionalities are struggling to remain safe and seen. She takes her rare bit of luck and her privileges and shines the light where it needs to be shined, without making herself or anyone else the victim of the story. Bad things happen, people are victimized, but that is not where the story ends or lingers.

I tried to take my time, craft an in-depth review as I needed to sit with it a bit longer, give it a good think. Something I think Gadsby would entirely understand as I waited for the words to form, and then come out of my head and into the world. There is so much here, so much truth, so much reflection, so much care spent weaving in actual history with personal history, all leading to something that aims to deliver great meaning (and succeeds). And with legitimately funny footnotes tucked in, a personal favorite (not to diminish the intentionally not funny ones). I’m still not sure I’ve been able to.

I have, for instance, not delved into the structure of Nanette and how it became the thing that Gadsby needed to do, how the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling became a thing she could no longer not prioritize for her own well-being. Of how the world in 2017 caught up to her in some ways and the international resurgence of #metoo provided a springboard for Gadsby’s work into a larger sphere. Of how deciding she must be done has meant that she is now continuing in a different but healthier way. Of how so much of this work is about reassessment and reexamination – about queer identity, past trauma, and Autism and of giving the time needed to move away from the mental landscape of “there is something wrong with me and I should feel ashamed” towards “this is how I am made, and that’s enough to be worthy of all the good.”

CW: Assault, molestation, rape, injury, isolation, suicidal ideation, body image or other mental health difficulties (It should be noted that Gadsby put these in the book’s early sections where they belong – and stopped several times in the narrative to level set and remind the reader what they were going to encounter if they kept going. It is the kind of empathy and critical thought which I love and wish more authors did, even while I am putting this near the tail end of my own review.)

5 unabashed neurodivergent stars.

I received an ARC of Ten Steps to Nanette from Ballantine Books via NetGalley. It has not affected the contents of this review, only its timing. The book publishes March 29, 2022.

Her Favorite Rebound and A Very Beery New Year (CBR14 #24 & 25)

Her Favorite Rebound

Sierra Wu is thirty-four, divorced, does not want children and is a constant disappointment to her family. They are horrified that she quit her engineering job (that she hated) to run a small greeting card store (that she loves) four years ago. Sierra is used to living a pretty small life, so the last thing she expected was being swept off her feet by Colton Sanders, the billionaire (think Jeff Bezos type). They’ve been together for a year, and despite his reputation with women, it’s going well, but she has yet to tell her family. There’s only one tiny problem: Jake Tong. A former friend and employee of Colton, the irritatingly handsome Jake tells Sierra to break up with Colton for her own good. She refuses, of course. Why should she trust Jake? But as she continues to bump into Jake, the attraction between them grows, and she starts wondering if he’s right about Colton, and then she must decide what to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jake and Sierra together. They work well as a couple and watching Jake live up to his promise to treat Sierra well soothed some very scratchy places in my heart. This book’s plot could be a tough sit, but Lau threads the needle carefully. Sierra and Jake begin the emotional side of their relationship while she’s still in a relationship with Colton, but by placing boundaries – and Jake accepting those boundaries – Sierra is able to take her time, and take the reader with her, through the process of ending one relationship and starting another. Even if she thinks its just a rebound, when its been obvious that there is much more here, it just had less than great timing.

This book is all about characters working through their emotions. Sierra’s relationship with Colton isn’t good, but it is also fulfilling a need for Sierra at the time. Through much of the book we are with Sierra as she unpacks what her relationship with Colton is, what her emotions about him are, can he be trusted, and is she happy. That question about happiness also extends to her family, who are quite awful overall. But the things she never has to question are if her work makes her happy, or if she’s attracted to Jake, and if he sees her in a way others don’t. We’re also with Jake as he is struck with seemingly instant love for Sierra the moment he sees her across the restaurant. He spends time deciding if that is even possible, and can he manage to demonstrate his emotions to her by respecting her boundaries – especially when he knows he can’t trust Colton.

The other major emotional beat here is worth and family expectations. Jake is recovering from working for Colton and tarnishing his soul in the pursuit of money. He is making amends for having helped a billionaire earn more at the expense of others. But he doesn’t feel he’s a good enough person, still, to be happy and at every turn his brother confirms that back to him. Sierra is made so miserable by her family by their expectations of who she should be that she has learned to accept less, to not need much of anything at all. She must find that she is worth happiness and someone who sees her as she is and is proud of her for becoming the person she wants to be.

Between those two things Jake and Sierra are a well-matched pair and this book works through the various things that are keeping them apart, and then the things that are keeping them from truly being together once they start a physical relationship. So why not more than four stars? The pacing in the chapters felt a bit off – sometimes hardly any time passed, sometimes weeks passed. I found myself wanting more of what we didn’t have on page, and for that reason I can’t rate this one any higher. But this is a story I am glad to have read, and that I’m glad Lau tackled writing. She works through getting her characters to let go of the shoulds, and that’s something many of us need to see reflected in what we read.

I received Her Favorite Rebound as an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.

It publishes March 29, 2022

A Very Beery New Year

While working my way through my ARC of Her Favorite Rebound I remembered that I had another novella in the series waiting for me as a newsletter exclusive. Feeling in the mood for more Lau I settled in to run through this 54-page story and am I ever glad I did.

A Very Beery New Year brings us to Thursdays at Leslieville Craft Beer where software developer Gerald Nakamura goes after work to “socialize”, which by his definition involves sitting at a bar, surrounded by a room full of people reading a book. The bright spot of this ritual is when he exchanges a few words with the cute bartender, Kelsey Rye. For her part Kelsey is finding that she looks forward to Thursdays at four when Gerald walks through the door and finds herself attracted to the slightly gruff but ultimately kind man. As the months go by, their conversations get longer, and her excited rambling makes him smile – or they would if that was a thing he did. They start texting and getting to know each other but Gerald and Kelsey both doubt the other wants anything more than what they have – which one will be the one to be brave, and take the next step?

I loved this one, it’s a delightful Grumpy/Sunshine studded through with so much great mutual pining while also doing one of my favorite things in being told episodically over a year. I think Lau’s novella length works are my favorite of hers, she nails the pacing of these dead on. She also gives us just enough exposition to know these characters, we’ve met Kelsey in the Cider Bar Sisters Book Three, The Professor Next Door, but Gerald is new to those of us reading through the series. He is a major Grump; he could easily veer into unlikeable. But because Kelsey sees him for how much that Grump exterior surrounds a kind center, we as the reader get to as well. My heart was made happy whenever Gerald quietly supported Kelsey, by unquestioningly supporting her need to be estranged from her parents or telling her that she never has to be sorry for telling him a thing she’s excited about, no matter how many words it takes. I could easily have read another 200 pages of these two, but I’m also glad Lau capped it here. I suggest getting your hands on this one if you can, it’s a good one. (4.5 stars, rounded up.)

Donut Fall in Love (CBR14 #7)

After the debacle of Always, in December I decided to make sure the next thing I read didn’t make me angry (don’t worry, future angry reviews will come – and soon –  I just usually like to give myself 24 hours to get eloquent with the rage) so I put down the two books I was reading and went back to an ARC that I had not been able to get to before the deadline (my apologies to the fine folks at NetGalley and Berkley) because I know a Jackie Lau romance is going to make my heart happy – and Donut Fall in Love is no exception.  

There is a certain alchemy to the way Lau writes books that feel like sitting down with a quick snack and a cup of tea, while also making them steamy. I am on the record of being all for it. Lau is an author who knows how to include excellent food in her books and this one made me daydream about the donut shop my sister used to work at, but its more than that. I enjoy reading along as two people are dumb about their feelings, get less dumb about those feelings at different rates, and eventually stop being dumb about their feelings and Lau nails that as well. But that is not all that is happening in Donut Fall in Love as Lau unpacks some bigger emotional truths, in this case how we handle grief and how it interacts with larger family dynamics. 

We join the story as actor Ryan Kwok has returned to Toronto following completion of the promotional tour for his latest film, a rom-com staring Asian leads that is getting less-than-stellar reviews. The recent death of Ryan’s mother and years of constant work have led him to take some time off near his remaining family to be supportive and connected. He struggles, especially with not knowing how to talk to his dad—who now trolls him on Twitter instead of talking to him on the phone. Our meet cute happens when Ryan collides with baker Lindsay McLeod at her shop and knocks two dozen specialty donuts onto the floor. Lindsay lingers in Ryan’s mind and after he signs up for a celebrity episode of Baking Fail (think Nailed It), he asks Lindsay to be his baking instructor. As Lindsay and Ryan spend time together, they begin to form a bond and things heat up in the kitchen, and outside of it.  

Donut Fall in Love shares some ground with Lau’s previous book The Professor Next Door with a heroine who is settled into her career and life, building a version of herself she believes she wants. Lindsay has sworn off romantic relationships following some emotional scars years earlier, instead enjoying casual hook-ups in the intervening years. Lau sets up her leads with emotional baggage that is relatable to the reader and matched to each other, in this case a shared lack of serious relationships in their recent pasts, while also providing hurdles to be gotten over – specifically Ryan’s fame and the intrusions it causes into their otherwise quiet lives. In this book we watch the pair grow into a functional relationship which showed growth for both parties, even when it felt as though the characters were too easily falling back into the same mental loops. The only drawback here is that sometimes Lau falls back on telling the reader how the characters are feeling, instead of letting the characters’ behaviors and actions do the speaking.  

This felt more like Ryan’s book than Lindsay’s even though the narrative is split between them, but I do not think that was a negative. Also, in the “not really a negative” category is I wonder if Lau turned her steaminess down a smidge with this book as it is her pub trade debut. While steamy, this was not exactly the steam level I am accustomed to in works such as her novella A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day.  

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley, it has not affected the contents of this review. Donut Fall in Love published October 26^th, 2021. 

The Life Revamp (CBR13 #58)

I received an ARC from Carina Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Life Revamp publishes November 30^th, 2021.

This was a first for me, a romance featuring a polyamorous relationship, but one I had been looking for. Kris Ritter’s The Life Revamp tells the story of Mason, who wants to fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. You know, live the fairytale a little. His luck has been less than stellar, including being left at the alter as a younger man, and the hunt is beginning to wear him down, to the point of settling for Mr. Checks All the Boxes. That is, until he meets up and coming local fashion designer Diego. Everything sparks between them—the banter, the sex, the fiery eye contact across a crowded room. There’s just one thing: Diego is already married, which includes outside courtships. In fact, Diego’s wife Claris, who is also friends with Mason, sets them up – she’s sure they are what the other is looking for. Mason thought he knew what would make him happy, but it turns out the traditional life he’d expected has some surprises in store. 

The thematic thrust of this book is expectations, what they are, how we come by them, and what they might prevent us from seeing. We are experiencing the story from Mason’s point of view, and we are therefore treated (burdened?) with his hopes, fears, and insecurities about finding the person who will choose him and allowing the possibility that Diego might be able to choose him equally to Claris. While much of this book focuses on Mason’s romantic expectations (and falling for the delightful Diego), Ripper doesn’t sideline the other areas of Mason’s life, and their incumbent expectations. We see how Mason navigates his found family, the wonderfully named Motherfuckers, his relationship with his mother – and by extension his faith. The story climaxes as Mason realizes he’s been coasting both romantically and professionally and does something about it, and the doing something about it worked for me in a big way.

There are a few things that I wished were fleshed out in order to balance the story, both from an arc structure perspective, but also from telling a balanced story about an open relationship such as Diego and Claris have. While we spend a good amount of time with the various components of the Gentleman’s Fashion week, we never hear from the POV of the pair in the existing relationship, but we also don’t see Mason and Claris have a conversation, really, about what it means to be metamours especially as that relationship would be based on their existing friendship. But by and large I felt that Ritter wrote a believable and entertaining romance with characters that I was happy to spend time with.

Battle Royal (CBR13 #38)

I absolutely adored Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities series and was excited to get my hands on the first book in her next series, Battle Royal. How could I not be excited for a book where the introduction to our protagonists involves a confectionary unicorn hoof hitting one of them on the forehead mid-judging of a televised baking competition?

After that first meeting four years ago Sylvie Fairchild has gone on to open her own bakery, Sugar Fair, across the street from Dominic De Vere’s eponymous shop. She (and her business) is all things fantastical while De Vere’s is much more classic in its aesthetic (Sylvie describes his color palette as ranging from white to cream). The television show where Dominic is a judge and Sylvie is a former contestant is in need of a new third judge, and Sylvie is tapped for the job as one of their most popular former contestants with a successful baking business. Dominic and Sylvie are thrown together during filming, and they are both in the process of trying to land the contract to create the wedding cake for the King’s eldest granddaughter whose aesthetic is much more in line with Sylvie’s, but Dominic’s family bakery has been the go-to for decades.

What I love about this book is that while a good synopsis I’ve just written, it covers almost nothing of the core of the story. Sure, it gives you the beats of the plot (mostly, this book has a lot of plot) but it doesn’t really give you the heart of the story. For the life of me, I’m struggling to review the heart of the book forty-eight hours out from having finished it. While Sylvie and Dominic are presented as opposites and rivals, they are much more kindred spirited than is initially evident. Parker does what she does best, she slowly but surely layers in depth to her characters and provides them with deep inner lives. Watching how Dominic is surprised, but not all that surprised, at how natural it feels to let Sophie in was one of my happiest reading moments of the year because it rang so honest.

One of the things I’ve been grousing about in other reviews is the un-needed third act break up. It is my contention that while there often needs to be a tension point to be released, it doesn’t always need to come in the form of a break-up or large, boisterous fight. Battle Royal does a great job of proving my point for me. Something happens in Sylvie’s life that makes her nervous about how fast and how deep her feelings for Dominic have developed and with that added to her personal scars surrounding death and loss makes her step back emotionally. Dominic gives her the space she needs to work through whatever it is, and once he’s called back to action by Sylvie’s friend and coworker, he waits for Sylvie to explain what’s happening, giving her the space to do so even while it makes him scared that she might be pulling away full stop. This is the tension point of the story: she has to be open to what truly feeling might cost, he has to be open to the vulnerability of truly letting someone in and the events of the 80% mark do that without making it a fight between them. That was the moment I decided I was rounding this one up to 5 stars.

Content warnings for: discussion of grief (death of family members, including a memory of a death scene in a hospital), parental neglect of child (memory), attempted knife attack.

I was granted an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.