A review by railway1721
All by My Elf by Olivia Dade

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 A perfect chance for a thruple.. dashed again by a wiener mobile. Though.. uh.. I didn't like Claudia. So we can leave her at her parents house.

Overall reco: I liked this one more than the last one (Tessa Bailey and her 'too large man') but I had issues with the characters. It was ok. Not the weakest of the 5 top but close.

Plot: 2/5
Spice: 2/5
Characters: 3/5

(The Good)
The FMC was plus sized and while I occasionally felt weird about descriptions, it felt way better than the 2nd book of the series.
The puns were spot the fuck on. I was snickering while reading this in an airport.
MMC was a cute nerd. Loved the adjust professor.

(The Bad)
So Claudia and Nina are 'besties' as Nine likes to remind us over and over again. But Claudia seems like a really shitty friend and/or bestie... 
Nina admits that she told Claudia of her attraction, but didn't think Claudia remembered. Had it been that they were drinking I might let it like.. go.. but Nina then goes on to say that claudia doesn't remember anything except her research topics. Like. Cool. That's find if she's scatterbrained. Why is she your bestie? Then that brings up another question.. why did you only tell her when you were drinking? Nina later on goes on to say that she don't look at men like potential dates and its been a long time since she has. So this crush is pretty monumental. Then Claudia and Will start like have secret convos and Nina never thinks to ask? Like SURE you BFF forgot what you said and then started dating/hooking up and didn't think to confide in you OR you couldn't ask her about it? What the fuck is this relationship? GIRL.

I know this is a novella and short and that's not a lot of pages to setup and tell a story in. But the first good part of the novella was gearing the reader up to HATE Claudia. Like I was so mad at the girl that when the misunderstanding is cleared up I was still just annoy with her. Like WTF.

And even with the misunderstanding.. The thing in the back of the van with sharing body heat. I'm sorry if I suspected a guy of being with another girl and I was in that moment? Nah. At least, not that early. They had gas left, they were on an interstate with cars around. Yes its a squall and bad things happen but they were all of an HOUR inside the backup?

Maybe I'm being too critical. But much like the 2nd book of the series, I don't know if I vibe with this author.