eemilycolleen's reviews
532 reviews

just absolutely devastating in its monotony and pain and grace and hope. like truly so expertly crafted. i cried 

 FAMILY!!!!!!!! whew!!! i miss my mommy! 

adorable!! made me desperately wanna rewatch sweet home alabama! loved julia whelan’s narration as always. 

i didn’t feel this QUITE showed the depth i wanted to feel from the non-harriet/wyn relationships, and it’s nowhere near the heights of book lovers or beach read, but few could be. still delightful, thank you e henry! 

eminently readable and enjoyable. i love astrid, uptight prissy bitches who feel More Than They Let On are my absolute catnip. 

for me this had the same issues as the first book; i don’t feel blake lets her characters really sit in discomfort enough to develop, both on their own & together. it’s all very formulaic, which makes everything seem easier than it should. i can so easily see a version of these characters who are messy and real and awful and also likable, but i can’t quite reach those characters: something about the way the story is written just keeps me at arms length. alas! still very fun 

this one is somehow worse than the others but i do love when modern au ben solo just fucking hates his soulless corporate job. inspiring stuff 

ali trying her damnedest to convince herself ginger adam driver is as hot as normal adam driver. she’s the strongest woman alive 

my favorite thing is when ali explicitly references star wars like you know she must be SO excited every time 

BIG lion in winter guy here, so, yeah: absolutely insane book i absolutely adored. truly, like, frankenstein’s masterpiece mashup of the lion in winter (1968) + the queen of attolia (2000) with an ungodly amount of captive prince fanfiction (2010s)??? the absolute conviction this woman had to write capri fic about the lion in winter! i’m obsessed! i had ENORMOUS fun. i love politics and i love war and i love pining. sometimes romance is waging a war to get closer to a cute boy, amirite!

i will say i think this could’ve used a stronger edit— it worked for me because i had such a clear & immediate understanding of the characters and all their intricacies & motivations (see above); but/and i’m not really convinced they’re supported in this text itself? i do think there’s some essential characterization & development missing somewhere here and we’re left to fill in the gaps, which personally i feel VERY comfortable doing and it didn’t lessen my enjoyment at all, lmao, but still 

soothing like sinking into a plush couch after a long day. bless kjc! as ever, i find her books too plotty BUT i largely tracked and cared about everything here :) extra points for the setting, which is so carefully & lovingly rendered. smuggling on the marsh!!! delightful! 

oh man this is SO GOOD i loved it SO MUCH. so confidently paced! they really throw you into every time jump with such faith and it works so well. and all the water/swimming/marine bio metaphors!!! excellent. i loved river so deeply 😭 it’s about creating yourself and accepting support from the people who show up and letting go of the people who don’t. it’s so tough!!! it’s so joyous. i’m so grateful that the younger generation has stories like these 😭