It has been a HOT minute since I last read Kristan Higgins but damn I remember eating up her books as soon as they released back in the day! I've goodIt has been a HOT minute since I last read Kristan Higgins but damn I remember eating up her books as soon as they released back in the day! I've good feelings about this one! ...more
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
You Should Read This If You Like: historical romances with BIPOC characters, BritiI received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
You Should Read This If You Like: historical romances with BIPOC characters, British-Indian love interest, historical romances that don’t take place in a ballroom, sizzling chemistry, and seemingly doomed romances.
I adore Mimi Matthews, she has quickly become one of my favorite authors in the historical romance genre. Her books always have a melancholic undertone to them, the kind of tragic unease best suited for haunting, doomed romances. Which is why stories like Gentleman Jim and The Matrimonial Advertisement are some of my favorites of her works. Matthews' writing feels very reminiscent of older classics. If "The Perish Orphans" series has the gothic, eerie moodiness of Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, Then Siren of Sussex is more evocative of a classic Dickensenian novel.
It follows Evelyn Maltravers who’s in London for the season. On the brink of destitution, Evelyn desperately needs to make a wealthy match in order to pave the way for her younger sister's futures. But as a bluestocking wallflower, Evelyn is well aware of her lack of charms. In order to attract a wealthy husband, she hatches a plan to distinguish herself by making the biggest splash in the one sphere she excels: on horseback. But in order to attract the attention of a potential husband, she needs to dress and look the part. This is where she meets Ahemad, a British-Indian habit maker, whose revolutionary designs catches Evelyn’s eye. Together the two form a partnership to showcase their best designs to find Evelyn a wealthy husband, and Ahmad a wilder clientele guarding their hearts in the process.
The story is told through Evelyn and Ahmad’s shifting perspectives which makes for an interesting narrative as we get to explore both sides of British colonialism and the way that it shapes their relationship. In Evelyn we see the privileges of being born into the British upper class, even one that exists on the fringes. Confined within the limitations of her role as head of her household, Evelyn struggles to find a means to secure a future for her sisters in the wake of her older sister’s scandalous elopement. It lends a pseudo-claustrophobic undertone to the novel that never quite dissipates. However, Evelyn is a very dull protagonist, at times even laughably naïve in her worldview, which makes it hard to truly sympathize with her circumstances. Conversely, Ahmad is a more interesting character. He represents all the socio-economic struggles, microaggressions, and discriminations of being a racial minority and an immigrant working class in Britain. However, the novel only skims the surface of colonialism, only hinting at horrors like British soldiers “marrying” Indian women, indoctrinating families into the British lifestyle, forced religious conversions, or even the details of the Jallianwala Bagh massacres, etc.
In much the same way, Evelyn and Ahmad’s relationship feels superficial bordering on insta-love. There is an almost instantaneous attraction, the chemistry palpable in every stolen glance and every accidental brush of finger. The taboo/scandalous nature of their relationship drives the narrative tension. But their socio-economic, racial, and cultural differences set up various obstacles and narrative threats that are never fully realized. Seemingly insurmountable conflicts are easily resolved. There are cramped conversions on colonialism and colonial guilt with an attempt to highlight the impossibility of their relationship and yet the happily ever after never quite truly feels earned. With the writing style I almost wish this didn’t attempt to subvert the genre and ended as a tragedy instead.
Mimi Matthews’ writing has the kind of evocative quality to it that instantaneously transports the reader into the streets of London’s East End. The world building is fairly new as most of the action takes place on the fringes of London society. Unlike most historical romances, Evelyn and Ahmad fall in love in the cramped backroom of his Tailor shop, across racing tracks, and while browsing for books in closed bookstores. They exist on the fringes of society and these marginal spaces are described so vividly that you can almost smell the musty smell of old second hand books and cloth or leather. I just wish I could see more of it.
I struggled writing a review for this book. Sirens of Sussex has all the potential for being a truly outstanding novel in the genre. It had the promise of something new and no one is more disappointed that it failed to live up to the expectations I had built for this book in my head. 3.5 stars....more
I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Love on the Brain feels like a call back to a bygone era when contemporary romancI received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Love on the Brain feels like a call back to a bygone era when contemporary romances were marketed as “Chick-Lit” and all featured a quirky female protagonist that was most definitely not-like-other-girls: she was ditsy, clumsy, neurotic, not conventionally attractive (according to her) and tragically single. Think Sophie Kinsella’s I've Got Your Number or the Confessions of a Shopaholic series, the kind of old school rom-com where opposites attract, and our couple bicker their way from hate to love and eventually live happily ever after. Love on the Brain has all the trappings of such a cheesy, cliché romance and yet, for all of its tropes, it has none of its charms.
Love on the Brain begins well enough: with a cute anecdote about Marie Curie as one of the earlier, most well known women in STEM, and her struggles to gain recognition in her field while simultaneously falling in love with her husband, Pierre Curie. We then segue to our heroine. Fresh off of an engagement that ended in betrayal, Bee Königswasser has sworn off men and dedicated her life to science instead. She has just been offered her dream job at NASA. The catch: she has to work with Levi Ward, her attractive, broody college nemesis. Sparks fly, misunderstandings ensue, and somewhere between science talk, and road trips to conferences love blossoms.
But as much as this book sounds like a cute, fun enemies to lovers rom-com, a The Love Hypothesis 2.0. it gets old pretty damn FAST.
Really, it's been a hot minute since any book character has annoyed me this much. Bee radiates classic not-like-other-girls energy: she’s quirky, clumsy, relatable, loves star wars, and constantly talks in puns and is so nerdy she’s a walking talking Marie Curie encyclopedia. Bee is basically what would happen if twitter and tumblr combined together to generate a person with the most p.c. quicks in one: she is vegan, listens to 80’s alternative rock and Alanis Morris (while advocating for the inclusion of more female musicians on the playlist) but also hates Nickelback. Her favorite movie is Empire Strikes Back. She’s a cat person, is tiny, doesn’t like to exercise (but somehow still very hot), dyes her hair funky (read purple/pink) colors, has tattoos (like 2), likes deserts, is a feminist but totally aware of her own white privileges, and generally doesn’t have a single damn opinion that hasn’t been approved by twitter critics.
There is nothing wrong with liking (or disliking) any of these things. There is definitely nothing wrong with being a person who likes polka dots and cries for cute, dead animals like Jessica Day from New Girl who is one of my all time favorite characters. But Bee isn’t Jessica; blended together, her character traits feel less organic or flawed, instead creating the single most annoying person I've read in recent times.
It is not just Bee that feels like a computer generated personality. Every single other character in this book is an archetype: Levi is the classic broody, misunderstood type; Bee’s ex is the typical cheating boyfriend; her best friend is the type that sleeps with your boyfriend behind your back; her sister Reike is the eat-pray-love free will wanderlust type; Rocío talks entirely in occult memes, Kaylee is Malibu Barbie, and together they make the goth girl x cheerleader token gays of this story. Do I need to go on??
Everyone talks in memes, puns, or quippy pop culture references. Except Levi: boy is still stuck in his decade long re-enactment of that one scene in Twilight where Edward looks constipated, disgusted at the mere sight of Bella; she thought he hated her but he was just trying hard not to breathe her intoxicating scent. It is not a spoiler to say this is basically Bee and Levi’s relationship dynamic because it is literally so obvious where the plot is going from the first chapter. Yet, since everyone in this book is somehow is too stupid to function (despite being neuroscientists, the dichotomy), we have to wade through chapters of misunderstanding with Bee constantly jumping to conclusions and not letting anyone (Levi) get a word of explanation in. By 40% I was tired.
And then I was jolted out of my numbing reverie by that mind bogglingly wtf showdown. The book suddenly turns its painfully obvious protagonist into some kind of mustache twirling bond villain that so completely threw me off I had to check I was reading the same book. When I say I was shook, but at least I got some laughs out of this. You know what actually wasn’t funny? The smut. The way this book did a whole abrupt shift into fanfic smut territory I had a crick on my neck from keeping up with the turns. Levi jumped from lab dude to call me daddy so fast I had instant flashbacks to 365; the cringe was so potent I had to go out and touch some grass just to feel alive again.
Like Love Hypothesis, this book also has some relevant themes like sexism in academia, workplace discrimination, how outdated standardized academic tests like GRE really are; about the aftermath of manipulative relationships; the importance of communication and unlearning toxic behavioral patterns instilled from childhood; also therapy. And yet these themes are merely mentioned before we skip right ahead onto the next juvenile conversation.
Also, this book features a very utopian version of Twitter with Bee shitposting on her @WhatWouldMarieDo account about problems women face in STEM which comes off as laughably tame, entirely lacking the vitriol of actual twitter arguments. Trolls are spotted, and quickly vanquished; the discourse is civil and cohesive; there are no pornbots.
I've recently shifted away from the contemporary romance genre when it used to be a favorite in my late teens to early 20s. A change in taste might account for why I hated this book as much as I did. But I think it has more to do with the type of content: easily marketable, popcorn narratives with little to no substance, predictable or recycled plots no longer interest me even as casual reading. It's not fair to compare books between authors with vastly different writing styles, but after reading authors like Emily Henry, Mhairi McFarlane, or Chloe Liese whose stories are layered, with multifaceted characters, flawed female protagonists, and complex relationships, I’ve come to expect more from the genre. And this one, sadly, falls far, far short of the mark. 1 star....more
I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Look, full disclaimer, but the only reason I picked up this poetry collection was fI received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Look, full disclaimer, but the only reason I picked up this poetry collection was for the catchy title and that beautiful cover. I bet most people did. I mean that title sounds fun. And that cover, juxtaposing the kind of enlightenment era seriousness Thoreau would unironically approve of with the farcical addition of the “cat”, is the kind of absurdist humor that I love! It unintentionally raised my expectations. Ones that were pretty much crushed from the get go.
I cannot tell you the sheer, utter disappointment that is this “poetry” collection. I use the term “poetry” loosely as this is more a selection of jokes mimicking minimalist verses. I’m clearly not the target audience for these jokes as they seem to be more catered towards a) 12 year old kids going through puberty or b) dude bros who’s idea of humor is basically just fart jokes. There’s nothing wrong with a good fart joke or two but damn, these were pretty damn bad.
Reading this, rather than any kind of amusement, I just felt thoroughly annoyed. Almost all the jokes were set up so the punchline could somehow subvert expectations and really, I just never had that “gotcha” moment. The penis jokes just made me feel so much secondhand embarrassment, kind of like watching your dad try to use millennial humor to try and be one of the cool kids. I cringed my way through somehow.
Overall, this was just all kinds of terrible. I’m enraged on behalf of Himalayan, the cat, who is the bestest boy and was grossly misused for publicity’s sake in the title and cover page and never even got his poems in. Poor boy. I’m still waiting on his collection. 1 star....more
I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rooms of the Mind is my first foray into Mackenzie Campbell's contemporary poetryI received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rooms of the Mind is my first foray into Mackenzie Campbell's contemporary poetry. I went in fully expecting this to be more less similar to the kind of over hyped contemporary poems I’ve recently come across such as Milk and Honey, or The Smallest of Bones, etc. I found myself pleasantly surprised when this collection turned out to be a cut above these earlier examples: it was more, and in some ways, it was less.
Campbell’s writing is more substantial than most contemporary poetry which tends to emphasize style over content. While her poems appear to follow the same superficial conventions, everything from the grammar, diction, punctuation feel very deliberate. The format is an amalgamation of various styles, with some poems written in free verse forms, some following a rhyme scheme, while others read like streams of consciousness ripe with metaphors; certain emotions are personified and evolve with each progressive appearance lending the collection a sense of cohesiveness.
The poems themselves are divided into 6 rooms or chapters: In Lonely, In Fear, In Heartbreak, In Nostalgia, In Love, and In Hope. The concept behind this format is that the human brain compartmentalizes different emotions, feelings, experiences, and fears into separate rooms within the mind in order to make sense of them. In the same vein, this collection is Campbell’s attempt at revisiting these emotions.
Each chapter is also accompanied by a simple illustration of a door front to help conceptualize the state of mind each door represents. While the illustrations don't add much to the actual content, they are a cute visual representation of the themes or motifs that populate each feeling.
Below is a summation of my thoughts on each chapter, the accompanying illustration, and the themes mentioned:
1. In Lonely: Water under the door and grass growing to signify stagnant growth or passage of time.
Themes: Depression, suicide, missing an ex lover, death, grief, abandonment issues, toxic relationships, sexual assault, pessimism, over-thinning, etc.
Note: When you’ve lived with your loneliness long enough, at some point it becomes almost comforting to be one with that familiar feeling of loneliness, grief, and pain; you’re too tired to move on and feel something new.
2. In Fear: Bolted door for fear of letting your thoughts out.
Themes: toxic or manipulative relationships, sexual assault, rape, abuse, violence, non-binary or gender fluid identity, indecisiveness, fear of decision making, abandonment, commitment, love, insecurities, new relationships, new love, breakups, etc.
Note: Fear of not recognizing the person that you've become. Stuck in a sort of purgatory between what you were versus who you want to be. Yet another kind of stasis. Rooted to the present for fear of the unknown future.
3. In Heartbreak: Wilting flowers in need of water
Themes: breakup, heartbreak, memories, missing an ex, etc.
Note: sometimes heartbreak can be an insidious, creeping feeling, almost like a parasite invading your home and eating away at you till there's nothing left but the pain and heartache in place of empty memories.
4. In Nostalgia: Toys at the entrance, missing the simpler times.
Themes: the absence of things, nostalgia, hindsight is 20/20, memories of past relationships, heartbreak, breakups, etc.
Note: basically can be summed up by the one Taylor Swift lyric, “I always felt I must look better in the rear view/ Missing me. At the golden gates they once held the keys to.”
5. In Love: Door with the nameplate of the happy couple, a welcoming mat ushering you into a new relationship.
Themes: new love, happy memories, separation anxiety, fear of breakups, etc.
Note: Some of the imagery tries to capture the feeling of a love so grand, so cosmic that it can't possibly be contained. While others talk about the small things in love, the minuscule details of everyday life, the many small chance events that lead up to this moment.
6. In Hope: New plants on the doorstep promising new growth
Themes: healing, growing, learning to move on, leaving a toxic or one sided relationship, acceptance that all pain is temporary, optimism that out of this we can learn and grow, hope for a better future, catharsis, independence, self love, etc.
Note: I was having a good time when this one poem completely took me out of the narrative. When she says, “the only one holding you back is YOU” it suddenly took me back to that one disastrous appointment when my therapist said the same thing when I told her my anxiety was stopping me from doing things. I knew this, what else is new?? _______________________________________________________
As a whole, Campbell’s poetry collection is a step above some of the more shallow contemporary poems in terms of cohesiveness and content.
In some ways, this poetry collection feels very personal, like it originated out of that very specific feeling of insecurity, anxiety, depression, and loneliness that follows a very painful breakup and her journey of acceptance and healing. But that is not to say that they don't make sense individually or that it is not relatable.
The poems are evocative with its strong imagery, syntax, and distinct metaphors particularly in the first half of the collection. Especially memorable is the personification of Anxiety as a tyrant, forcefully invading the landscape of the mind in which the self is a tenant; as such you're constantly at war with yourself. As the poems progress, so too does Anxiety. Evolving into an unwelcome neighbor dropping by unannounced at the most inconvenient of times and refusing to leave. It is in playing around with metaphors and motifs that Campbell truly shines.
The poems are their weakest in its repetitive themes of love, breakups, and heartache. I found those a little tedious to read, and a little cliched, but this is a purely personal preference. Moreover, it bothered me that the poems start strong and build up the momentum with some strong imagery, only to fizzle out towards the end in a very anticlimactic manner. It took away from some of her strongest poems, and I hope that’s something her other poems improve on.
All in all, Rooms of the Mind is one of my more favorite poetry collections amongst those I've read in recent times and I look forward to exploring some of Campbell's other poems. 3.5 stars....more
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Smallest of Bones is a poetry collection consisting of bite-sized poems coverinI received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Smallest of Bones is a poetry collection consisting of bite-sized poems covering a wide range of topics from: love, romance, relationships, queer sexuality, religion, death, demons, ghosts, bones, gender, and darkness. The poems are arranged along the structural format of a human skeleton, starting from the cranium and working down to the temporal bones of the body. Each skeletal section is introduced to the reader through a mix of scientific, historical, mythological, and etymological information on the bones with the author adding their own personal interpretation at the end. The poems themselves are minimalistic, with the intention of stripping back the layers and exposing the raw essence of the self.
Initially, I was intrigued by the unusual format and premise of this collection. I generally tend to dislike contemporary poetry especially those that emulate the Rupi Kaur style of writing: lowercase lines that don't follow rules of grammar or punctuation; short, easily digestible verses that look great as social media quotes but are so superficial in their meaning that it rarely warrants any kind of in depth analysis. This collection of poetry, despite its interesting format, follows more or less in that same vein.
These poems are neither “haunting” nor “dark” ; they barely skim the surface of a topic before erratically flitting into another. The poems touch on some serious themes such as queer sexuality, gender, female body, violence and abuse in a relationship, etc. without offering any insight. Rather than “raw, honest, and powerful” it feels very shallow, superficial, and insincere. I felt no connection to any of these entries and they left no lasting impact.
The writing itself is so vague as to be devoid of any logical meaning; the metaphors stretched to their illogical limits come off as endlessly pretentious. What feels like an attempt at being profound ended up slightly comical in an ironic way. I imagine these are the type of poems Jughead from Riverdale might end up reading in his spare time. Poetry is, by its very nature, a deeply personal experience open to reader interpretation. But when the poems themselves are a confused mess of half baked metaphors, vague to the point of incoherence then it hardly warrants any further analysis....more
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