Battle of the Books: Love & Other Words vs. Every Summer After

On social media, two books that I frequently see recommended for the romance genre are Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren and Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. Often, I see these books recommended for people who love the other, as they are frequently compared for their plots. As a result, I decided to read both books and see which one I liked best.

Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren was originally published in 2018. The story follows Macy Sorenson, an aspiring doctor, who runs into Elliot, her childhood friend and boyfriend, years after they broke up. This novel follows a dual timeline: part of the story takes place across several years in the summer, when Macy would spend time in a cabin next to Elliot’s family home. Meanwhile, the current timeline focuses on Macy and Elliot reconnecting, with the dark reason they broke up looming behind them.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune was published in 2021. The story follows Persephone “Percy” Fraser as she returns to the lake town where she spent her summers following the death of a family friend. There, she runs into Sam, the son of the family friend, who she developed a friendship and relationship with across several years. This novel follows a dual timeline: part of the story takes place across several years in the summer, when Percy lived next door to Sam during the summer. The current timeline takes place over the weekend of the funeral, when Percy and Sam reconnect, but also confront the reason why they broke up.

Just based on the synopses, it’s clear why Love & Other Words and Every Summer After are frequently compared. Both take place in small vacation towns, where the main female character spent her summers and developed a friendship-turned-relationship with the boy next door. In both novel, the love interests come back into each other’s lives nearly a decade later after a devastating breakup. There is even more in common regarding characters and the plots below. Just a warning, there will be major spoilers for both books below.

There are many similarities between characters within these books. In Love & Other Words, Macy is becoming a doctor and Elliot is a writer. Meanwhile, in Every Summer After, Sam is a doctor and Percy is an editor who wants to be a writer. Macy and Elliot bound over books and their love of words. On the other hand, Percy and Sam bound over Percy’s love of horror movies. In both books, readers get to see they characters grow up and see the relationship between the characters grow and change.

That being said, there are still some differences. In Love & Other Words, I found Macy to be a very complacent character who was unwilling to make change. One aspect of Macy’s story is that she is engaged at the beginning of the book. When she runs into Elliot, she realizes she isn’t completely in love with her partner. However, she stays with him anyway because it makes sense. When she does finally break up with him, they amicably part ways. I found Macy’s choices made very little change in the book, which resulted in little tension throughout the book.

On the other hand, Percy makes a lot more waves in the story. Percy is a very flawed character who makes many poor, but realistic choices throughout the story which results in a lot of conflict. While I would say the major twist in the novel felt very inconsistent with her character to me, it at least added some tension to the story overall. In her author’s note, Carley Fortune said she wants to make Percy realistic, even if it may make her seem unlikable at times, and I felt like she succeeded in that aspect.

As for the love interests, Elliot and Sam are extremely similar. Both over infatuated with their love interests to the point where it seems a little overbearing to me. They also have some identical choices, such as immediately breaking up with their significant other the moment when they run back into their first loves. Sometimes, Elliot and Sam both came across as a little too perfect.

Like with the characters, the plot of these two books are very similar from the basic premises down to scenes, plot twists, and even conversations. As I was reading, I couldn’t believe some of the parallels between these two books. Similarly, the ending of both books majorly disappointed me. With both books, I found the endings didn’t really match the rest of the book and dragged down my final ratings. In Love & Other Words as well as Every Summer After, there was a huge build-up to the events which broke these couples up for over a decade. In both books, these were quickly resolved with a couple conversations, which didn’t seem realistic or consistent with the characters or stories.

Initially, I rated Every Summer After higher than Love & Other Words by rating it 4 stars in comparison to the 3.5 stars I gave to Love & Other Words. However, after thinking further, I would probably rate each book at 3.5 stars. For this Battle of the Books, it will end in a tie. If you enjoyed Love & Other Words, then you will probably enjoy Every Summer After and vice versa.

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Conversation Hearts Book Tag

In honor of Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought I would complete the Conversation book tag created by That Bookie on Youtube. In the video, she pulls out conversation hearts and chooses a book that relates. Since I don’t have any conversation hearts nearby, I decided to look up some phrases and create some of my own! Here are my answers:

One book that I Purchased recently based on the cover was Ice Breaker by Hannah Grace. I thought the cartoon cover was cute and I heard a lot of positive buzz surrounding the book. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t a huge fan of Ice Breaker. For me, the plot wasn’t very well developed and it was a little too long for a contemporary book. While I do still think the cover it cute, I’m not a huge fan of romances that are just a series of cute moments strung together.

One love at first sight book that I enjoyed this past year was Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. Typically, I don’t enjoy the miscommunication trope, but this book was a fun and easy read. Even though we don’t really get to see the love at first sight on page in this book, I still overall enjoyed the romance.

One group of friends which I enjoyed recently was the cast of characters from Throne of Glass. Many of these characters didn’t like each other when they initially met, but they grew to respect and fight for each other. The cast of characters and friendships in this book are one of the reasons which I loved this series so much.

I would love to have a conversation with Holly Black, the author of many popular faerie books. Recently, I have seen a few different interviews of Holly Black pop up on my TikTok and I really enjoyed how she described creating the world of Elfhame, particularly how she imagines the appearances of the faerie characters. I am also a huge fan of her writing style and I love how she describes different things in her books. I think she would love to her more about her writing and world-building process.

When I think of a musical character, I have to think of Colton Wheeler from A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams. Colton is a country singer, which typically isn’t my favorite genre. However, I really enjoyed him as a character in A Very Merry Bromance and he seems really proud of the direction which his music makes at the end of the novel.

While they aren’t my favorite couple ever from a book, I did believe by the end of the novel that they were soul mates. Since Love & Other Words has a dual timeline, readers really get to see how Macy and Elliot’s relationship develops and changes by the end of the year. At the end of a romance novel, you want to believe that the love interests will be together forever and I definitely believed that for Macy and Elliot.

Have a great Valentine’s Day! 

Recent Library Books (January 2023)

One of my reading goals for 2023 was to visit my library more frequently, rather than just borrowing books from the virtual library. While I do prefer reading books on a device, I have noticed that my physical library has more of the books on my TBR than the virtual library, so I decided to request some books that have been sitting on my TBR so that I could finally read them. Here are five books that I recently borrowed from my physical library location and the virtual branch:

• The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

I was excited that my library had a copy of The Stolen Heir available right after its release… and there was no wait! The Stolen Heir was the first book that I borrowed from the library in 2023. The Stolen Heir is the first book in a duology which occurs after The Cruel Prince series. This duology follows a teenage Oak who recruits Lady Suren from the mortal realm to rescue his imprisoned father. I read The Stolen Heir back in January. For me, The Stolen Heir was too plot-driven in comparison to the original series, although it has an interesting premise which could make the second novel in the duology more successful.

• Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Ship Wrecked was the first book which I borrowed from Cloud Library, the virtual system which my library uses. I have borrowed this book in the past, but I didn’t read until I re-checked it out this year. Ship Wrecked is the third book in the Spoiler Alert series, which follows two co-stars as they film a popular television series on an isolated island. While I think Olivia Dade’s covers and synopses usually draw me in, I usually find her pacing to be inconsistent. Unfortunately, I had similar issues with Ship Wrecked.

• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Every Summer After was the next book that I checked out from my library. Every Summer After has been on my TBR and I have been waiting for it to come onto the virtual library. However, I recently read Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren, which Every Summer After is frequently compared to online. As a result, I didn’t want to wait to read it any longer so I could read these two books close together in order to see the comparisons. Every Summer After follows Persephone “Percy” Fraser when he returns to a lake town where she spent her summers as a teenager, in order to attend a family friend’s funeral. There, she runs into Sam, the boy next door. Since this book is so hyped, I was expecting this to be a five star read, and while I like some aspects of this novel, the last act wasn’t my favorite as it seemed inconsistent with the rest of the book.

• The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez

The Happily Ever After Playlist was one of the books that I have borrowed from the library in February, but have not read yet. I have read two books by Abby Jimenez and loved them, so I wanted to read her two other books currently published before her new book releases later this year. From the description, this book seems to be about a woman who lost her fiancé and then finds a lost dog who connects her with a famous musician. Abby Jimenez writes such excellent realistic relationships and this book seems like it will address many real life topics, so I definitely looked forward to reading this book during February.

• The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Last year, I read mostly contemporary books, so I’ve been wanting to pick up more fantasy novels in 2023. I’ve frequently seen The Atlas Six online, with people either loving it or hating it. I don’t have much an idea of what this book is about besides the synopsis, but when I saw this familiar title on my library’s website, I decided to check it out. It looks like The Atlas Six is about six magicians who want to be initiated into an academic society, but only five will make the cut. With this book, I am interested to see where my feelings will fall.

What books have you recently borrowed from the library?

Taylor Swift Lover Book Tag

Taylor Swift’s Lover is the perfect album for Valentine’s Day, so it makes for the perfect book tag for Blogentine’s Day! This book tag was created by Nish and Ngoc.

• I Forgot That You Existed: A book that you want to forget you ever read

I don’t necessarily wish that I could forget this book, but a recent book which I didn’t like was Ice Breaker by Hannah Grace. I initially was interested in this book because of the cover and a lot of positive reviews which I saw on TikTok. However, for me, the plot of the book felt very disjointed with unmemorable characters. I also found that the synopsis of this book didn’t necessarily match the contents inside. Overall, it was a very disappointing and unenjoyable read for me.

• Cruel Summer: A book that you turn to when things get tough

If I’m ever in a reading slump, I usually pick up one of the books from the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I really love the characters in that series, so it is definitely one of my comfort reads!

• The Man: Favorite female protagonist

A female protagonist who I enjoyed recently was Maria from Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade. While I wasn’t extremely impressed with the book itself, I really liked Maria as a main character. Maria was outgoing, positive, and always stood up for herself. Throughout the book, Maria dealt with awful producers who attempted to shame her for her body and tried to make her change her body, but Maria always stood her ground.

• The Archer: A book with good mental health representation

As I mentioned earlier, Ice Breaker wasn’t one of my favorite reads, but there was one aspect which I did appreciate in the book. In Ice Breaker, the female main character is constantly criticized for her weight. While the text doesn’t explicitly state that she has an eating disorder, she does have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I think this book brought up a huge issue in women’s sports where women who excel at their sport are often criticized for their appearance, despite needing to eat healthily and maintain muscle in order to perform well in their sport.

• I Think He Knows: Favorite fictional crush

One love interest who stood out to me this past year was Daniel from Part of Your World by Abby Jiminez. Daniel was a patient and kind love interest who supported the female lead in becoming more independent. This was one of my favorite books of 2022 and the healthy relationship featured in this book was a huge factor in that decision.

• Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince: Favorite angsty romance

One angsty romance which I read recently was Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. The miscommunication trope plays a large role in novels by Ali Hazelwood which causes a lot of angst to appear throughout her novels.

• Paper Rings: A book with an ugly cover that you absolutely adored

I’m actually not a huge fan of this series, but one series which I think needs an update for covers is the Off-Campus series. This series was published several years ago and it looks like it is still stuck there. Since this series has gained a lot of popularity in recent years due to TikTok, I think it would be a good idea to update the covers.

• Cornelia Street: A book or series you never want(ed) to end

One book that I never wanted to end was A Very Merry Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams. This was an unexpected five star read for me. I was a huge fan of the romance in this book and I loved the main couple featured. The Bromance Book Club books aren’t usually my favorite, but this book makes me want to read whatever Lyssa Kay Adams writes next!

• Death by A Thousand Cuts: A book or series that deserved a better ending

This is an oldie, but it is one that has stuck with me for years after reading. The Divergent series definitely went downhill for me after the first book and the ending of Allegiant just destroyed everything else that I liked about this book. While I appreciate Veronica Roth tried to write an ending that would stand out in a sea of YA dystopian at the same time, I dislike when an end of a series makes the rest of the series seem pointless. Unfortunately, that is how I felt at the end of the Divergent series after I finished reading it.

• London Boy: Your favorite British male protagonist

Although the Bridgerton books often have insufferable male love interests, I do enjoy how they change their characters to be less toxic in the show. Jonathan Bailey played an excellent Anthony Bridgerton in the show and it made me interested in watching other television shows and movies where he appears because he was such a strong actor for the role.

• Soon You’ll Get Better: A book that your heart will never recover from

I don’t typically read books that make me sad, but I wasn’t expecting Love & Other Words to be as emotional as it turned out to be. However, that was one aspect of Love & Other Words which I thought made it stand out for me.

• You Need to Calm Down: A book with a powerful message

Recently, I have been rereading the Lore Olympus series through the published book versions. One aspect of Lore Olympus which I really appreciate is how it tackles difficult subject matter in a thoughtful way. Additionally, I have always appreciated that Rachel Smythe gives warnings to this content at the beginning of the book in order to be mindful of readers who pick up her book.

• Afterglow: A book you want to give a second chance

It’s not that I want to give this book a second chance, but I do want to give this duology a chance for redemption after the first book. Recently, I read The Stolen Heir by Holly Black which is a duology taking place several years after The Cruel Prince series that follows Oak, Jude’s brother, and Lady Soren from The Court of Teeth. I had high expectations going into The Stolen Heir because I loved The Cruel Prince series so much. While The Stolen Heir wasn’t the worst book that I’ve ever read, it didn’t have the same magic as the original trilogy for me. That being said, I do plan to read the next book in the duology and I hope it is a little stronger than the first book.

• Me!: Best character development

One of my favorite character developments in a book is Manon from Throne of Glass. Due to her upbringing, Manon suppresses her emotions and doesn’t believe that she could ever love another person. A lot of pressure is placed on Manon to follow very rigid rules and orders, as there is a swift and brutal consequence for disobedience, so she will typically follows the rules set by her grandmother as opposed to her own heart. However, throughout the series, Manon slowly opens up to other people and begins to make her own choices, often due to her love for other people.

• It’s Nice to Have a Friend: Fave friends-to-lovers story

This isn’t necessarily my favorite friends-to-lovers romance, but I was impressed with how Love & Other Words was able to build such a successful friends-to-lovers romance through flashbacks. Typically, I am not a huge fan of dual timeline books. While I did have some other aspects of this book which I didn’t enjoy, I did think the scenes that readers get to see of the development of the relationship in book really reinforces that the main characters are soulmates, which is what I like to see in a romance book.

• Daylight: If you could read one book or series again and again, what would it be

If I could read one series again and again it would have to be A Court of Thorns and Roses. Like I mentioned earlier, I love the world and the character inside, so I could read it again and again without being bored.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune is a Goodreads Award nominated book which follows Persephone “Percy” Fraser when she ventures back to a small lake town where she spent her summers in order to attend the funeral of a family friend. There, she encounters Sam, the family friend’s son, who she developed a friendship and romantic relationship with during the summers of her childhood, but she has spoken to in twelve years. Every Summer After is a dual POV book, which focuses on one weekend in the present day as well as across several years in the past.

I put Every Summer After on my TBR after seeing many positive reviews about this book online. However, I also saw online that this book contained many similarities to another book on my TBR, Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren. As a result, I wanted to read these books within a short time frame so I would be able to see the similarities and differences. I will discuss these similarities and differences more in depth in a future post. That being said, like other readers, I noticed several strong similarities in plot, tropes, and even conversations between the characters.

As for my reading experience specifically with Every Summer After, I did enjoy this book. However, I think I may have enjoyed it more if I didn’t see all the hype before I read it. Going into Every Summer After, I expected this book to be a five star read. Ultimately, I rated Every Summer After as four stars, but as I continue to think about my reading experience, I fluctuate between 3.5 stars and 5 stars. While I did enjoy several aspects of this book, there were several moments and plot points which hindered my reading experience.

One aspect of Every Summer After that I thought was well-executed was the dual timelines. I’m typically not a huge fan of dual timelines because they can throw off the pacing of the novel. While I did have some issues with pacing more towards the end of the novel, these issues didn’t necessarily come from the dual timeline aspect of the story. I thought Fortune did a good job of selecting scenes that gave us an idea of who the characters were at each stage of their lives and each scene was cut off at a good stopping point.

Like I mentioned, however, I did have some issues with pacing mostly at the end of this novel. As I was reading, I thought the story would culminate at the funeral. However, once readers reach this book part of the story, there is still one third of the book left. What happens at the story is heavily foreshadowed throughout the rest of the book. It seemed like this part of the story was really dragged out and moved much slower than the middle part of the book. Then, there is a huge reveal which is quickly wrapped up and readers get an epilogue of a year later in the story. As a result, the pacing of the last act of the novel felt very inconsistent.

Speaking of the end of the novel, there is a major plot point which annoyed me. I won’t give away any spoilers, but it felt really inconsistent considering the development of the characters. This plot point wasn’t surprising considering the hints sprinkled throughout the story, but it was still frustrating. There are so many directions that the plot could have taken which would have been more true to the characters and the twist felt like a quick way to some last minute drama. It also irritated that this big event which caused the characters not to speak for twelve years seemed to easily be solved and led to a quick resolution.

While I did enjoy parts of Every Summer After, I did enjoy it as much as I had expected to enjoy it. Like I mentioned before, I originally rated this book four stars, but I find myself fluctuating between 3.5 and 4 stars.

Reading Journal: January 2023

This year, I decided to create a reading journal in order to be a little more creative with how I track my reading progress throughout the year. In January, I posted some of my set-up pages which I included at the beginning of my journal in order to give an overview of my year. Every month, I plan to give updates on what my pages look like for the month.

Below, I have included my video from TikTok where I showed all of the pages which I created in January:

@beautyandthebeanboots

my january book journal pages ☃️ #booktok #books #bookjournal #journalideas #goodnotes

♬ Cool Kids (our sped up version) – Echosmith

January Overview

Every month, I would like to do a monthly overview where I track different statistics, list books on my TBR, and document other important information (such as new releases). For January, I did a blue, mint green, and purple color scheme to go with the cold temperatures in January. While I really liked my calendar, next month, I plan to put a larger difference between the colors in the key so it is easier to differentiate how much I read in a day. One of my goals this year is to check more books out of the library, so I created a graph to document my progress.

The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

I had so much fun creating my first book spread! The cover of at first, I was going to stick with my January theme colors throughout the month, but I decided that I liked it much better when I leaned into the colors on the cover of the book. The American Roommate Experiment is pink and blue, so those were the colors that I utilized. That being said, in later spreads, I started to include a song that I associate with the book, which I didn’t do for The American Roommate Experiment. I thought it would be fun to make a playlist at the end of the year. Even though it isn’t documented on the page, I plan to use Dancing Queen by ABBA.

Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren

With Love & Other Words, I started to develop some consistency. For each book spread. I want to include a synopsis, statistics, a review, and likes/dislikes. I feel like these mini-reviews and lists help me when writing longer reviews for my blog. With this spread, I decided to start including a song with the book. This song, like many others this month, is by Taylor Swift. My goal in February is to include more artists for my end-of-the-year playlist.

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

Ship Wrecked was one of my easier to spreads to complete. After finishing the first two layouts, I had a pretty good idea of the pattern I wanted to follow with Ship Wrecked. I also liked how the cover of Ship Wrecked brought in a different color palette than my previous two designs.

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

The Stolen Heir is probably one of my favorite spreads of the month. On this page, I started to experiment with more textures and different layouts. I also liked how this page had a different color scheme than many of my other spreads, which tend to be more colorful. For this page, it was hard to narrow down which quotes I wanted to use since Holly Black often has several stand-out quotes in her works.

Lore Olympus, Volume One by Rachel Smythe

My Lore Olympus spread is definitely my favorite for January. Like with The Stolen Heir, I started to experiment with a different layout and including more embellishments. I liked adding a flower theme because I thought it was a nice nod to Persephone, the main protagonist of the series.

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

Every Summer After was one of the hardest layouts for me to make this month! I had to keep moving around different parts of the layout until I came up with one that I liked. I was very excited to find pierogi clip art on Etsy to reference the restaurant in the book.

How do you document your reading progress?

Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren Review

Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren follows Macy Sorenson, whose father buys a cabin in the woods after her mother’s death. There, Macy meets Elliot Petropoulos and their relationship slowly develops from a friendship bonded over books to something more. However, one night changes everything, and it isn’t until eleven years and an engagement later that the two meet again.

I was on the fence about reading Love & Other Words. On one hand, I have heard amazing reviews for Love & Other Words and have seen that many Christina Lauren fans regard it as one of their favorites by the author duo. On the other hand, I have encountered several misses from this pair recently, including Something Wilder, which I did not finish last year. While I did overall enjoy Love & Other Words, I did not quite love it as much as I expected.

One aspect of Love & Other Words that I enjoyed was the dual timeline. This story takes place in present day, but also gives flashbacks to different parts of the relationship between Macy and Elliot. Sometimes, I am not a huge fans of dual timelines because they can disrupt the pace of the story if not executed well. However, I do think Christina Lauren did a good job of including scenes which showed the progression of Macy and Elliot’s relationship. In a romance novel, I want to believe that the love interests are meant to be together, and by the end of the novel, I did see Macy and Elliot as soulmates.

Additionally, I appreciated the emotional impact of this story and the emphasis on family throughout the novel. What happens to Macy’s family is tragic, but there is so much love readers see in such a short amount of time. Macy also has sort of a found family through Elliot, who still love and care for her after time passes. In the past, I have read books by this author which lean more lighthearted, so I didn’t necessarily anticipate all of the emotional moments throughout this novel. That being said, I think the emotional aspect of this novel was very well executed.

On the other hand, this created a lack on tension in the novel. At the beginning of the story, both Macy and Elliot are in relationships. While Elliot quickly ends his relationship, Macy stays engaged. However, Macy’s partner has a very flippant view of the situation. It seemed that he didn’t really care what Macy chose. Besides the major event which originally caused their split, this was the only other major obstacle which kept them apart. Even though the author’s tried to create parallels between Macy’s situation with her partner’s past to make his lack of concern seem understandable, it resulted it in a weak portion of the plot.

Another aspect of the novel which hindered my enjoyment was the ending of the novel. Throughout the story, it hints at a major event which triggered the demise of Macy and Elliot’s relationship. It was a shocking reveal, despite clues sprinkled throughout the story, so I do give kudos to Christen Lauren for planning that aspect of the story. On the other hand, the authors drop a massive emotional event onto readers… just to end the story with a quick resolution that doesn’t match the weight of what they just read. It was hard for me to believe that situation which resulted in eleven years of separation could easily be resolved with one conversation. This created an incredibly disappointing end to the story for me.

Overall, Love & Other Words had some aspects that I enjoyed and appreciated. However, there were some aspects of the novel which I found to be weak. I give this book three and a half out of five stars.

February TBR

One month down, eleven to go!

First, let’s see if I finished my January TBR. Here were the books that I wanted to read in January (any books with reviews will be linked to the book’s title):

• The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
• Lore Olympus, Volume One by Rachel Smythe
• Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren

During January, I managed to read all of the books on my TBR! Overall, my reading experiences with my January TBR books were positive. I rated The Stolen Heir as three stars, Lore Olympus as four stars, and Love & Other Words as 3.5 stars. Out of the three, Lore Olympus was my favorite.

Now onto my picks for February:

• Lore Olympus, Volume Two by Rachel Smythe

I really enjoyed reading Lore Olympus Volume One in January so I hope to continue reading the series in February. It is my goal to read at least three graphic novels in 2023, so this will keep track of my goal. I have previously read most of this series on WebToon, where it was originally published, but I don’t remember all of the details. I am hoping this volume has more interactions between Persephone and Hades compared to the first volume.

• Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

I’m not a huge Tessa Bailey fan. However, this seems like it could be a fun, quick read for the time around Valentine’s Day. This book will be the first book in a new duology by Tessa Bailey. It doesn’t surprise me that she is releasing a new duology after the success of It Happened One Summer. That duology was only average for me, so I’m hoping that I will like this duology better than her previous one. Secretly Yours appears to be an opposites attract/childhood friends romance which takes place at a vineyard.

• The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren*

I received an e-ARC of The True Love Experiment via NetGalley. Even though this book won’t be released until May, I like to read books that I receive on NetGalley quickly in order to keep my review rating high on the website. I am also excited to read this in January during the premiere of The Bachelor. I’m not too invested in the current Bachelor season so far, but the synopsis of this book has a similar feel as it focuses on a filmmaker who casts a romance author as the new lead for a reality dating show.

What books do you plan to read in February?

*ARC was obtained via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade Review

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade is the third book in the Spoiler Alert series, which follows various cast members of a popular fantasy television show throughout the filming of the series. This book focuses on Maria and Peter, two cast members who play love interests and must film together on a remote island after a hookup. Throughout the years of filming, Maria and Peter develop feelings for each other, but question a relationship due to their pasts.

Overall, I haven’t been a huge fan of the Spoiler Alert series. While I typically enjoy the characters which Olivia Dade writes, I am not a huge fan of her writing style. Often, I find the books in this series to not be well-paced, which causes the story to drag. Additionally, I typically find many scenes and conversations to be repetitive, which stops the story from moving forward. Unfortunately, I had many similar issues with Ship Wrecked, the third installment of the series.

One aspect of Ship Wrecked which I enjoyed were the two main characters, Maria and Peter. I enjoyed that Maria always stayed true to herself and would not compromise her morals just to move forward in Hollywood. I appreciated that Maria has a bright, extroverted, optimistic, and confident personality which made her stand out from other characters in the same genre. Additionally, I enjoyed Peter as a male lead character. In romance book, it annoys me when the male characters are “too perfect” with their words and actions. At first, I found Peter very unlikable from his early interactions with Maria and his unwillingness to back her up in order to suit his own needs. While his actions aren’t excusable, it allows his character to undergo a lot of growth throughout the novel.

That being said, I do have mixed feelings towards the relationship between Maria and Peter. On one hand, I enjoyed that many of the disagreements and bumps in the road of their relationship were realistic. The two love interests in this book have two very different views of the world. Based on experiences in their pasts, they have insecurities which appear periodically throughout their relationships. On the other hand, I found these issues to be resolved a little too quickly at the end of the novel. Maria and Peter eventually understand the other person’s perspective at the end of the novel and agree to a compromise in order to keep their careers and their relationship. While I like Maria and Peter and saw them take action to maintain their relationship, I felt like each character made too much sacrifice from what they personally wanted in life to keep their relationship. Even though I was told that these characters would be together forever and ever, I found it hard to believe that they wouldn’t start to resent each other later in life.

A part of this book which frustrated me was the pacing and structure in this novel as well as the series as a whole. This book takes place during the six years of filming for the series and then right before the final season airs. The beginning of this book was stronger than the end of the book for me. When the book reached the current time, the story started to drag with many repetitive scenes and conversations where Maria and Peter speculated about their future careers and relationship with each other. Plot-wise, there wasn’t much moving the story forward, which caused the story to drag, only to end with a very rushed and unsatisfying conclusion to the relationship which I previously mentioned. Additionally, while I did enjoy the beginning of the book more than the end, I felt like it could have been shortened to only feature important scenes which gave readers a better understanding of their relationship.

Some of these issues could have been resolved if written in a different story structure. I feel like the pacing of this story could have been improved if written in the present day with the beginning of the novel appearing as flashbacks throughout the story. As a whole, I’ve had issues with the timeline of this series. Typically, contemporary companion series follow a very linear timeline where once one story ends, the next picks up where the last one left off. However, this isn’t the case with the Spoiler Alert series. In this series, all of the novels occur at the same time, so they will occur at the same time as many major plot points from previous book. For example, part of Ship Wrecked occurs before any of the events in Spoiler Alert, the first book in the series, but then has parts of the novel take place during a major plot point which happens in All the Feels, the second book of the series. As a reader, this made it difficult for me to keep track of what point I was at in the timeline of the overall series, not just in the book that I was currently reading.

While I liked the characters of the book, I did not enjoy this book as a whole. The second half was particularly difficult for me to get through because I felt like nothing was propelling me to the end. I give Ship Wrecked two and a half out of five stars.

January 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

This month, I started off the year strong by reading the most books that I have read in a month in quite awhile. This month, I focused on reading one new release, as well as some other books which have been on my TBR. Overall, I would describe my reading month as average. While I didn’t have any one star books, I didn’t have any five star books either. Additionally, I found some books that I was really excited to read were too hyped up for me before I read them. Below, I included some of my monthly reading statistics:

Books Read: 6

Number of Pages Read: 2,222 pages

Average Rating: 3 stars

Now, onto the books! Any book with a review will be linked to the book’s title.

• The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas

I was not a huge fan of the debut book by Elena Armas, The Spanish Love Deception, but I hoped to see a decrease in the amount of cringeworthy scenes and dialogue in comparison to the author’s first book. Unfortunately, many of the aspects which I did not enjoy from the first book which I read by Elena Armas also appeared in The American Roommate Experiment. I found the characters to be inconsistent, the plot to be repetitive, and the dialogue to be incredibly cringeworthy. I have The American Roommate Experiment 2.5 out of 5 stars.

• Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren

While Christina Lauren can be hit-or-miss for me, I went into Love & Other Words with high expectations because this book is extremely popular. While there were some elements that this story that I enjoyed, such as the dual timeline, the ending brought down my rating. At the end of the book, there is a major plot point which occurs, but then the story ends too quickly to process the emotional impact of that reveal. Since this event caused the two love interests to stop speaking for around a decade, I think this aspect of the plot needed more of a resolution. I gave Love & Other Words 3.5 out of 5 stars.

• Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade

I want to love books by Olivia Dade, but they often fall flat for me. Unfortunately, my experience with Ship Wrecked as similar to my experiences reading the first two books in the Spoiler Alert series. While I did enjoy the characters in this novel, particularly Maria, the female protagonist, there were several aspects which I did not enjoy. The pacing of this novel is off and would have benefitted from a different structure, such as a dual timeline, to keep up the energy throughout the story. Additionally, while I liked the characters, I didn’t fully believe in their relationship, which I need to be in order to enjoy a romance book. I gave Ship Wrecked 2.5 out of 5 stars.

• The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

I was a huge fan of The Cruel Prince series, so I was hopeful to enjoy The Stolen Heir. However, I was also wary because sometimes series continuation books can lack the magic of the original series. I think The Stolen Heir has the potential to have an interesting conclusion in the second book of the duology, but the first book wasn’t interesting enough on its own. The Cruel Prince is a character-driven story which focuses on court politics. Additionally, it possesses many twists and turns. The Stolen Heir, on the other hand, was primarily adventure-driven with one predictable twist at the end of the story. While it was a decent book, it didn’t live up to the original series for me. I gave The Stolen Heir 3 out of 5 stars.

• Lore Olympus, Volume One by Rachel Smythe

I’m a huge fan of the Lore Olympus series so I enjoyed re-reading the first 25 episodes which are featured in the first published book of the series. For me, the major standout for Lore Olympus is the beautiful artwork which uses color beautifully. That being said, the story itself featured in the first book feels incomplete as it ends with many unfinished plot points. I give Lore Olympus, Volume One four out of five stars.

• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

I was eager to read Every Summer After as I recently read Love & Other Words which often draw many comparisons from readers. Plot-wise and story structure-wise, I did find Every Summer After and Love & Other Words to have striking similarities, which I will detail in an upcoming Battle of the Books post. That being said, I did enjoy the realistic characters in Every Summer After as well as the writing style. However, I found the beginning to move slowly and I wasn’t a huge fan of the twist at the end of the novel, as it seemed very inconsistent with the characters inside the novel, despite the heavy foreshadowing. I give Every Summer After four out of five stars.

Favorite Book: Every Summer After

Least Favorite Book: The American Roommate Experiment / Ship Wrecked

What was the best book that you read in January?