CBR18 Book 23: "Margo's Got Money Troubles" by Rufi Thorpe

Page count: 320 pages

Audio book length: 10 hrs 21 min

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Adapted into movie or TV show (on Apple+ now)

19-year-old Margo Millet has an ill-advised affair with her English professor at college and gets pregnant. Against the advice of absolutely everyone, including her mother (a former Hooters waitress), she decides to keep it. Unfortunately, being pregnant and then a young single mother isn't especially attractive on the job market, and before she knows it, two of her roommates have also moved out, because they just can't handle the noise and the whole baby being there now of it all. She's at her wits' end, and while she loves her son, Bodie, she's also pretty sure she's made a huge mistake.

Then her estranged father, Jinx, a retired pro-wrestler, shows up on her doorstep and asks her if he can stay at hers, after yet another round in rehab. Since she needs both rent money and help with child care, she agrees to let him stay. She also decides to try making money through OnlyFans, where she uses advice from Jinx to craft her online persona. Soon she's making enough money to keep her head above water, but her English professor is threatening to sue her for sole custody of Bodie and her mother, who is getting married to a Christian pastor, threatens to disown her if she doesn't shut down her OnlyFans account immediately.

This book came highly recommended from many of my online friends, so when I saw it in an audiobook sale, I picked it up, despite being a bit dubious about the pastel-coloured cover and the unusual plot synopsis. Contemporary fiction with serious real-world problems?  Ill-advised affairs with your lecturer? Desperate young single mother? OnlyFans? Was this really a book I was going to enjoy? As so often happens, I then forgot I owned the book for quite a long time, until I read the announcement that the book was being turned into a TV series on Apple+, starring Elle Fanning, who also narrates the audiobook.

Apple+ has proven itself to be very good at adapting books I like in the past (I promise I am not being paid for this; I wish I were so lucky), and since I prefer reading the source material before seeing the adaptation, reading this in March seemed like a good idea. Since I listened to it in audio, it took me about a week to get through it, but I suspect that if I'd been reading it with my eyes, I would have got through it a lot faster. Despite its many serious issues, it is ultimately a very uplifting book. Margo may be young (and discovers fast that having a baby is for life, not just for Christmas), but she's very clever, and because of her unusual family situation (Jinx wasn't exactly a stable feature in her life growing up), she's learned to be independent and resourceful. She does the very best she can for her baby, even if that means coming up with creative ways to make people pay her for nudes on the internet. 

While two of Margo's roommates leave, one of them stays behind and even starts helping Margo in her new "working from home" career. Suzie is into fantasy cosplay and is able to lend Margo outfits and advise her on makeup and video ideas. She gets along well with Jinx, as well, which helps. Margo eventually meets and makes friends with other OnlyFans creators, and starts having actual fun when she comes up with a storyline involving a strange and horny space alien to attract more followers.

I wouldn't say that female empowerment is one of the main themes of the story, but it is absolutely a factor. Margo refuses to be dismissed by her baby daddy and his rich and condescending family just because she is young and does online sex work. She proves herself a fit and capable mother both to the custody lawyers and eventually to the CPS (who have had an anonymous tip that Margo's home life may not be safe for Bodie). 

Since I had seen the trailer for the show before I got around to reading the book, it was pretty difficult to create my own mental images for the characters. With Elle Fanning already voicing Margo in the audio, it would have been harder to picture her as someone else. Michelle Pfeiffer as her mother and Nick Offerman as her father also seem like spot-on casting, so I didn't mind them being my mental images for Shyanne and Jinx, either. Ironically, now that I have finally read the book, I'm too busy with correction work to actually watch the show until later this year. I'm glad I listened to the book when I did, though. 

Judging a book by its cover: Before I read the book, I always thought this was a really strange image to choose for the cover of the book. Now that I have read the book, I see how perfect it is, and how well it captures poor Margo's utter exhaustion.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 22: "Rules for Ruin" by Mimi Matthews

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Monthly Keyword 26: Ruin

Official plot summary (because I read this in February):

On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful politician’s systematic attack on women’s rights, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom.

But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats.

From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.

Euphemia "Effie" Flite doesn't have any grand plans for her life, but she wants her independence and enough money to settle down in the country, away from the intrigues and stresses of London. Yet Miss Corvus, the headmistress of the unorthodox school where Effie was raised, has one last mission for her before she will allow Effie her freedom. Miss Corvus needs Effie to pose as a debutante and befriend the daughter of a prominent viscount, so she can find incriminating evidence against him and ruin his reputation. 

However, Effie has to contend with the imposing Gabriel Royce, a betting shop owner from London's East End, who needs the viscount's wealth and contacts to help him source money to make improvements to the slums of St. Giles. He quickly realises that Miss Flite isn't the innocent miss she pretends to be, especially after she keeps shaking off the people he sends to tail her. However, he can't figure out what her motives are, and he can't let her meddling interfere with his plans.

Both Effie and Gabriel are stubborn and very independent, characters who believe they are perfectly content to be alone. Which, of course, makes it so much more satisfying when they fall for each other and discover that they may, in fact, want and need someone to share their life. 

I wish I could remember more specifics of the plot right now, but I've read 24 books (at least one of them, more than once) since finishing this, and my memory is getting a bit hazy. I remember enjoying the banter between the protagonists, and especially how Effie keeps frustrating Gabriel with her refusal to be easily spied on. I liked Effie's friendship with one of the other Crinoline Academy students, now a teacher there. I remember Effie being terrified of heights, and the rather heartbreaking reason for it, which is revealed towards the end of the novel. The villain is suitably dastardly, and it feels satisfying when they take him down. 

I already own the next book in the series (about Effie's friend) and am looking forward to getting to it, later this year. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is lovely, and I love that I see new things in it every time I look at it. I especially like that it is obviously an intricate garden gate, but also suggests the crinoline skirts of a lady's gown. The fact that the dominating colour is teal doesn't hurt either. I love teal. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 21: "Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

Page count: 453 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Dark Corner selection - February 26

Defeat the Goblin - The pebble book - a book that was gifted to you

Monthly Keyword 26: Sun

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book with multiple POVs

Read the Rainbow: Black

This is a book with a number of different POV characters. There is Serapio, a blind young man whom we first encounter as a child, being horribly mutilated by his mother (who subsequently throws herself off a building). All this horrific violence is to make him a suitable vessel for the Crow God. He is trained by three mysterious individuals who continue his grooming to fulfil his mother's twisted goals. There is also Xiala, who is a Teek sea captain, tasked with taking Serapio via ship to Tova, the capital city of the empire. The other sailors on the ship seem sceptical about Xiala, but all Teek have a special connection to the sea, and because of this, she can get the ship through storms and other dangers, and they are forced to accept her as their captain. Our third major player is Narampa, who was the unlikely candidate to succeed the previous Sun Priest, and who now wants the priests to make a difference in society. Some of her fellow priests can only be said to be rather hostile to her ideas of reform, and plot behind her back to get rid of her. Our final protagonist is Okoa, son of the Crow clan matriarch. He's called back to Tova from his warrior training after his mother dies, and he has to take his place as his sister's chief bodyguard, basically. 

I finished this book in mid-February, so my memory of all the intricacies of the plot is now rather vague. The opening chapter was almost a deal-breaker for me (I just cannot with children in peril), but because several people I trust had assured me that this book is worth reading (I was gifted my paperback copy of it by the lovely Rochelle), I persevered. The first third or so was rather slow, and I found Narampa's chapters, especially, to be hard going. I liked Xiala from the start, and she is one of the reasons why I will probably continue with the series, even after there were bits that I wasn't wild about.

We had an interesting book club discussion about the book, and while the majority of the people who came in February liked it, I don't think any of us loved it. We appreciated the unusual setting; it's always nice to read something a bit different from the Eurocentric medieval fantasy worlds we often find in the genre. Since I am literally one of only two members in the group who has a child, none of the others was as bothered by the brutal mutilation of a young boy as I was. There was general agreement that Narampa was the dullest character, and that both Serapio and Xiala might technically be adults, but they have both had such weird lives that it's no wonder they make some truly inadvisable choices. While I liked Xiala, she seems rather self-destructive and Okoa and his giant crow (who he can ride on) may be my favourites of the lot.

I probably will continue the series (I own all three books, after all), but I'm not in a hurry to read the sequels. Some of the others in the book club continued, and seemed to think book two was a bit slower, but that the series ends well in book three. So we'll see.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't like this cover, I think it looks bad, and the UK publishers have chosen to go with exactly the same ugly image, so I don't even have the option to get an alternate one.  The Broken Binding special editions are absolutely gorgeous, but they also cost an arm and a leg, so that's not a suitable option, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 20: "Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter" by Heather Fawcett

Page count: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book involving animals

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Cat

Official plot summary, because I finished this back in February, and my perimenopausal brain isn't exactly helping here:

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats.

Now it’s the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock—who also happens to be the world’s most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past—including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse.

Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop—and the cat shelter—in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart.

Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. . . .

This book takes some of the central elements of the Miyazaki adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle (the opinionated young woman determined to tidy up everything and everyone, especially the utter chaos that is the handsome, eccentric and possibly a bit socially awkward magician she shares a living space with) and adds cats! What's not to like? 

I would say that the official plot summary may mislead readers into thinking that romance is going to play more of a role in proceedings than it actually does. There is absolutely an attraction between Agnes and Havelock, but it is so slow-burning that it never really has time to become much of a blaze before the book is over. If Fawcett intends to write a sequel (which I sort of hope she doesn't, because the book works on its own, and standalones are so rare these days), I suspect the romance will be much more central. 

In my book club, we have a running joke that far too many books have exciting covers (and occasionally plot summaries) that promise the presence of cats, only for us to discover that it is all lies. Sometimes, the cover has a cat, and there isn't a single cat to be found anywhere in the story (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, to name one). Sometimes, the book summary promises us cats, and they literally only feature in two scenes in the entire book (Chilling Effect, I'm looking at you). This book, on the other hand, has so many cats. Tiny cats, shy cats, cuddly cats, eerie cats and absolutely dastardly tyrant cats. Several of them play important roles in the story, more so than some of the supporting human characters, frankly.

Agnes is wonderful. I would love to be her friend, especially because I suspect she'd come to my house and, after being gently disappointed in the absolute chaos that surrounds me and my family at any given time, she would roll up her sleeves and tidy and organise this place with military precision. I would bake her things to show my gratitude. 

Havelock (I am dying to find out if this is a clever Pratchett reference) is so incredibly Howl-coded. He is handsome, scatter-brained, antisocial, and lives for his magical experiments. He's basically a mad scientist, but with magic, who seems to have learned how to people from reading books (so not always that successfully). Both his living space and his personality are complete messes, and this is obviously irresistible to Agnes. She cannot rest until she has tidied and organised his multiple sub-levels of hoarded magical artefacts. 

There are some great supporting characters in this, as well. Both Agnes' and Havelock's sisters come to mind, and there is Yannick, Havelock's harried apprentice, and Mina, the hard-working volunteer helping Agnes get the cats relocated to good homes. This was one of my most anticipated books to come out this winter, and it didn't disappoint for a second. It is cosy and entertaining, and I highly recommend it. 

Judging a book by its cover: This cover is an utter delight. Look at all the different kitties, lounging and prowling and playing and generally being adorable and whimsical. I love that the artist has included so many of the cat characters from the book, very recognisably, on the cover. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 19: "Marry Me by Midnight" by Felicia Grossman

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book that takes place outside of the US

Monthly Keyword Challenge 26: Midnight

Defeat the Goblin TBR 26: The Locket Book - a romance or a book with a lot of yearning

Reading Rainbow - Blue cover

Isabelle Lira wants to take charge of her deceased father's business, but is hindered from doing so both because she is a woman and because the Jewish community she lives in finds it unacceptable. So she must find a husband who will not object to her controlling her family's interests, and who won't be cruel, abusive or who will take advantage of her and her wealth. In order to find a suitable match, she is arranging three festival events, where all eligible Jewish men are invited. 

Aaron Ellenberg is certainly not one of these eligible suitors. He works as a custodian for the synagogue, having failed to learn anything useful in a number of apprenticeships. He is about as lowly a member of the Jewish community in London as you can get, but he's handsome, polite, and unfailingly kind to the elderly, children and animals, down to even the rats and mice. He is known to everyone, yet not really noticed much. Isabelle offers to pay him to be her spy at the festivals; she needs him to observe her various matrimonial candidates and report back to her whether they might be men she could consider as suitors. 

Of course, every time they meet to talk, sparks fly. Their chemistry is undeniable, and while he may be far too lowly for Isabelle to consider him as a possible candidate, she feels safe and comfortable around him, as well as tingly in all the right places. Aaron, meanwhile, is baffled that such a beautiful, wealthy woman is even giving him the time of day, and with the money he will make helping her, he might be able to emigrate to America to make a new life for himself.

Marry Me by Midnight is the first of Felicia Grossman's fairy tale retellings, set in the Jewish community in London's East End. This book is a Cinderella retelling, with Isabelle being the prince to be wooed at a series of balls, while Aaron is our lowly scullery boy (of sorts). This story has adorable animal friends, an unexpected fairy godmother, and various fancy outfits to allow our hero to go to the ball. 

While I have read a lot of historical novels, I am not really familiar with the Jewish enclave of London during the Victorian era, so this book gave me some new and interesting insight, while also putting a spin on a familiar tale. Isabelle and Aaron are a lovely pairing who banter and yearn for each other, and eventually decide to act on their attraction (in some cases, in locations that seem somewhat exposed). The course of true love needs some obstacles in its way, and in this case, there is someone who seems determined to stop Aaron from finding his happy ending with Isabelle, using violence if necessary. 

There are three books so far in this series, and I know that the next one features one of the men who might have ended up as one of Isabelle's suitors, had she not pretty much had eyes only for Aaron from the start. The third one appears to be about Isabelle's friend, who is medically trained and works as a midwife, and both these books also really appeal to me, so this will certainly not be the only of Ms. Grossman's books that I read. 

Judging a book by its cover: While the exact scene depicted on the cover doesn't take place (because, really, why would they be dancing on the stairs?), it captures some of the book's magical atmosphere. The many shades of blue are lovely, and the couple on the cover seem to be really besotted with one another. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR18 Book 18: "Cherry Baby" by Rainbow Rowell

Page count: 416 pages

Rating: 3 stars, I think. It may be 3.5, but I'm not actually sure right now. 

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on April 14th.

Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Los Angeles, working on turning his web comic-turned extremely successful graphic novel, Thursday, into a movie. His semi-autobiographical comic, which happens to have a caricatured version of Cherry in it, who is called Baby. Now that there are multiple trailers, even complete strangers recognise Cherry in all sorts of strange places. She is trying very hard not to pay any attention to all the publicity.

Very few people know that Tom has been away for the last year, and that Cherry asked him for a divorce. The rest of Cherry's family is all very religious and keeps telling her to forgive him and take him back. However, Cherry is bitter. Tom's off living the high life in Hollywood, while she's at home, in the house they bought together to possibly build a family in, taking care of the gigantic dog that Tom wanted and left Cherry with. One evening, when Cherry is out at a concert, she reconnects with an old friend from college, whom she had always had a crush on but never acted on, because he dated her best friend. Russ Sutton is still very handsome and seems utterly delighted to see Cherry again. While she was pretty solidly friend-zoned back in college, he now seems absolutely crazy about her. He also appears to never even have heard of Thursday. 

But suddenly, Tom is back from Los Angeles, ready to pack up his things and make the move permanent. Deciding how to split the contents of the house turns into a long, drawn-out process (after more than a decade together), and Cherry starts realising that she might not be ready to give up on her marriage, after all.

I was so incredibly excited when I was granted an ARC for this novel. Rainbow Rowell is one of my favourite authors. So many of her books have elements that feel like they were written for me, specifically - especially Attachments, Fangirl and Landline. I bought Slow Dance in hardback when I was in Vermont visiting my best friend last year, so I could read it on release day. So it's really difficult for me to write this review, because this is the first book of Rowell's where I'm not actually sure what I think, and how I should rate it. I read it in two days (because I thought it was coming out on April 7th, and I like to try to get my ARC reviews done around the release date of the book - turns out I was a week early) and I feel really conflicted, because while there were things I liked about it, there were also a lot of things that I disliked and/or that made me uncomfortable. 

Things I liked:

- Cherry's friendship with Stacia. 

- The way Rowell's writing always makes the characters feel complex and real. 

- Some of the family dynamics in Cherry's family. 

- Cherry's relationship with her boss.

- Most of Cherry's whimsical dress sense. 

Things I didn't like as much:

- Cherry's insistence on wearing heels, even when it was clear that it was causing her excruciating pain in her feet, legs and lower back. 

- The way Cherry acted towards Russ after one argument

- Cherry may be very good at her job, but she seems like quite an unpleasant person, overall. Most of her sisters also seem quite petty and mean. 

What I actively disliked:

- The massive focus on fatness throughout the book. The word "fat" is used 72 times in this novel, and most of it is to describe Cherry, but it's also made very clear that her mother and four of her sisters are also fat. Cherry and three of her sisters have a group chat, excluding the eldest, Hope, because she has been losing more than half of their body weight in the last year, and they're sure she's on Ozempic and just not telling them. They are REALLY mean about it, and seem to think it's some sort of personal betrayal of all of them that she has lost the weight (even though it seemed incredibly obvious to me that it was probably because of health reasons, and moreover, none of their d*mn business). The fact that it's also mentioned at one point that Cherry is a US size 18, which happens to be the size I am now (after several years of treatment with GLP-1 medication, also for health reasons), made it seem all the more pointed to me. With so many books of hers that felt like they were mirroring me and my life in some ways, this felt more like a personal attack, which is never a nice feeling, and certainly not something I was expecting from a Rowell book. 

Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this, maybe it's just that I was still processing my book hangover from This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews (review to come when I catch up on my backlog), but this is my least favourite Rainbow Rowell novel so far, and the only one so far I don't think I actually want to spend money on while it's full price. I may get it if I find it for less than 3 dollars in an e-book sale, but unless I re-read this and discover I was completely wrong the first time around, I will not be wanting a physical copy of this book on my shelves. And that makes me really sad. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is simple and cheerful, and the cream, black and red, with a little bit of green makes it eye-catching. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR18 Book 17: "While You Were Seething" by Charlotte Stein

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book will be out on April 14th.

Daisy Emmett is an excellent PR manager and has successfully managed a number of difficult clients, but trying to repair the image of famous romance author Caleb Miller, after he very publicly declared to the world that "happy endings are for fools", might be her most difficult job yet. Their mutual dislike of one another started when they were both in college a decade ago, and despite their many shared interests, they seemed to constantly argue and provoke one another. Now Daisy has to get Caleb to agree to go on a multi-stop book tour, to make sure he can convince his readers that his books are still worth reading, and he doesn't hate the genre he's so successfully written in for years. He also refuses to fly anywhere and insists on driving to all the various locations in his beat-up old truck, so they will be forced to spend hours and days together in a very cramped space.

One of the things that avid fans love about Caleb's books is the dedications he writes to his long-lost love, but Daisy is pretty sure this woman never existed (mainly because she cannot imagine anyone putting up with him for any amount of time, let alone loving him). Nevertheless, since it is her job to make him seem charming, romantic and attractive, she has hired an actress to appear with him on some of the stops of the tour, to fuel the rumours of a possible reunion. Unfortunately, during the first stop, a misunderstanding leads to everyone believing that Daisy is the mystery woman of Caleb's dreams, and because Daisy needs the book tour to be a success, she is forced to agree to play her nemesis's romantic interest. What is even more unnerving to her is how easy she finds it to pretend to be his long-lost love, and how every new day makes her reevaluate their time together in college, and see things both of them said and did in a new light. Maybe Caleb didn't always disapprove of everything she said and did, and maybe she no longer hates him? 

This is my first novel by Charlotte Stein, and I gather from both her author's note and previous reviews I've read of her earlier books that several of Daisy's friends who are mentioned in this book have been the protagonists of at least two of her earlier books. I know my friend Ashley/Narfna mentioned in her review of My Big Fat Fake Marriage that the insecurity of the characters was an issue for her, and I think that is my sticking point with this book, as well. The reason I can't rate this book more than 3.5 stars (and that is me generously rounding up) is that both Daisy and Caleb (or Emmett and Miller, as they refer to each other for most of the book) are both so insecure and have so much self-loathing that it goes beyond being something sympathetic, and just gets annoying.

Daisy is from the UK, but attended university in the US on a scholarship. She grew up in a small English town where she always felt like an outsider, and comments from her family about how she "must have been switched at birth" probably didn't make her feel any better. At 24, she feels desperately out of place at college, and the only one she seems to have anything in common with is Caleb Miller, who, unfortunately, is so standoffish and rude, and seems to always criticise or scoff at everything she says, that she grows to loathe him. She considers herself too loud, too enthusiastic, too peculiar, and to fit in, she becomes the ultimate people-pleaser. She uses her sharp powers of observation to assess what people around her want and need, and learns to tone down every possibly problematic aspect of her own personality so she will be seen as invaluable and indispensable. 

Her ability to assess what other people want, sometimes before they themselves know it, is what makes her so good at her job. Of course, even though she has several loyal employees and friends, she doesn't really believe that any of them really like her, because she has had so many negative experiences in the past, with both acquaintances and lovers.

Caleb Miller lives like a recluse in a house surrounded by a massive fence, and many posters about how he has vicious guard dogs. He eats his very plain and flavourless meals at the same diner every day, and has, despite his deep misanthropy, managed to write multiple extremely successful romance novels (at least two of them turned into TV adaptations starring Nicole Kidman - loved that little detail). However, after a disastrous TV appearance, his fans are now turning on him, and his publisher has begged Daisy to help. Caleb hates flying and anything that forces him out of his routine. He insists on driving his own pickup truck to the various tour locations and seems appalled that Daisy refuses to leave his side (she's convinced he'll make a run for it the first chance he gets). 

While Daisy seems to think he hates everything about her, he seems to know exactly what her food and drink preferences are every time they stop to eat, and once he discovers that some of the things he said to her back in college have stayed with her and haunted her, he is genuinely appalled. When it becomes clear that the world now believes them to have been secret lovers at some point, and improving Caleb's image demands that they keep up the charade, he decides he's going to become the best fake boyfriend there is, despite his obvious social awkwardness.

I'm not a huge fan of "enemies to lovers" where it's obvious that they are really only enemies because of some dumb misunderstanding, where one or both of them said something insensitive at some point, and a conversation or two could have cleared it all up. In this book, that trope is further complicated by the fact that both Daisy and Caleb are so full of insecurities and self-loathing that they cannot believe anyone would actually voluntarily spend time with them, let alone see past their perceived massive flaws to learn to love them. It took them both FAR too long to get over this and move towards a happy ending. I also never understood why Caleb decided that he must forego absolutely anything that could bring a smidgen of joy to his life (he literally eats the saddest food and doesn't seem to allow himself anything that could be construed as comfortable). 

I should have felt a kinship with Daisy, because thanks to decades of anxiety and a family situation that wasn't exactly ideal, I, too, have spent so much of my life people-pleasing and trying to make myself indispensable, both in my personal and professional life. Yet even at my worst, at least one tiny voice in my head told me that I was being irrational, and I never ended up being as bad as Daisy or Caleb. 

It could just be that I've read a lot of romance novels, but I also felt that a lot of the "twists" of this story were very heavily telegraphed, and I was therefore never really surprised by the plot. I know that my friend Rochelle has been very enthusiastic about some of Stein's previous novels, so this is probably more a "me" problem, than something that will apply to all romance readers. I will probably check out at least one more of her novels to see if my misgivings are confined to just this book, or if Stein's writing just isn't for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: Leni Kauffman draws excellent romance covers, where the people portrayed look the way they are described in the books. If I was going to nitpick, Caleb is described mostly wearing worn-out jeans, rather than brown trousers, and I think Daisy's hair is described as a bit darker than this, but considering how many bad romance covers there are out there, that is negligible. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.