It’s okay to not know how to do something before you do it. If you’re scared, do it scared.
Taylor Jenkins Reid just gets it. She gets my soul. She getIt’s okay to not know how to do something before you do it. If you’re scared, do it scared.
Taylor Jenkins Reid just gets it. She gets my soul. She gets my mind.
It’s about long term relationships and the gray area that may come with life after marriage.
“You can’t go around assessing love by whether or not the sun rises. The sun doesn’t care about love. It just cares about rising.”
Like most (if not all) of TJR’s books, the story revolves around characters with complicated relationships dealing with complicated scenarios. What I like the most about these character discussions is that time and time again, we are shown how relationships aren’t always meant to be happy 24/6 365 and that love, family, and relationships are just about wanting to keep trying for each other.
This book most especially discusses the long term relationships and the bumps that come with it. The fact that there is no one answer that applies to everyone.
TJR’s writing style is a lot simpler than her more recent works but it’s carries out her themes just as good.
I CRIED. I WAS AFFECTED. Just like a lot of other reviewers, I honestly did not expect to love this as much as I did especially since this came between what can arguably be called TJR’s peak writing season with both Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones.
This deals with more simple and relatable everyday relationships but I think is still important to read and live through. It so reflects the realities of life, both the joys and the pain. My heart is filled. My heart is calm. I devoured this book.
“Maybe it doesn’t matter if you need someone during the everyday moments of your life. Maybe what matters is that when you need someone, they are the one you need”
Pain will keep coming. The sun will keep rising. And all we can do, is keep trying… Even when we don’t really know what’s coming or what to do right away.
Even if you don’t know what to do, just do it. If you’re scared, then do it scared.
“the young will continue their hope the fight for democracy won’t die his books the words the notes the letters the hope cannot ever end. It is a l
“the young will continue their hope the fight for democracy won’t die his books the words the notes the letters the hope cannot ever end. It is a love from which we never recover.”
I will never recover from this book. It has all the mix of political elements with the bittersweet love story that fits perfectly with the plot. This is the kind of story that embodies how we gain as much as we lose in life and how most of the time, it really isn't our fault or there's really nothing we could have done to change what happened no matter how much we blame ourselves/each other.
The pacing was done perfectly and it's incredibly well written. I didn't find myself cringing with the romance which is a winner for me. If I had a critique, it would be that the ending didn't blow my mind as I think all books I rate 5 star should make me feel. This does not mean that I did not love it, I really did, and it pulls of the war romance realistically. The characters were well-written but I felt they were a little too perfect in their roles or everything just fell into place too nicely. Even then, the way it was written distracted you from the reason all the chaos was happening in the first place and I think that's what makes it feel well rounded even when it seems predictable post-read.
That said, this was heartfelt as much as it was tragically dragging my heart and I know this is staying with me.
pre read: i saw a quote from this book that sounded lovely and i’m shelving this for when i feel like reading a book indoors with a good hot drink...more
“Life is too short to be ringed by other people’s expectations of proper behavior.”
Starting off by saying that the premise of this is absolutely e
“Life is too short to be ringed by other people’s expectations of proper behavior.”
Starting off by saying that the premise of this is absolutely exquisite from the vietnamese-inspired world to the politics and the sapphic romance. I could like in that premise alone but the execution just didn’t hit for me.
My favorite aspect was definitely the fact that this was set in a world where the norm is for women to be political, brash, and confident. Which is already different from the usual fantasy world where women are expected to be quite and soft spoken, so that was really interesting to me. The discussion on gaslighting and toxic relationships was also something that I liked and didn't expect going into this.
I loved that the story began as if in the middle of a scene and I liked learning more about the world as we carried on with the plot. But I really wished Aliette de Bodard leaned a little bit more on the fantasy political route. It started off strong in that regard but then I think there were decisions made in the end that I feel like didn't fit the narrative it was initially translating. I'm really trying so hard not to spoil anything because this book is so short.
“Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it needs to happen that way.”
However, this fell in the novella curse for me with the romance and the plot. I feel like I just wasn’t emotionally attached to the characters enough. It didn’t feel like they were flushed out and it was a little difficult to understand their motivations. It doesn’t help that I thought one of the people in the love triangle was platonic so I was really surprised with some of the things that went down because it didn’t feel like there was much of a connection there. Even though the story is so short, I feel like there would still be a way to do that, like how I feel with Nghi Vo’s short stories. There was a lot of assuming on my end on why they wanted to do this and that, which wasn’t really enjoyable for me. I like getting to know each character in depth.
“If love is what it takes to make her remember a girl in the midst of a fire, then how much can you trust her? How much can you trust that love?”
At the end of the day, it was really difficult for me to figure out what the message of the story was and how it translated into the story but I do like the themes on societal views on women. I’m still curious about more books from this author though because i liked the commentary and (going against the norm)
↣ A relatively short and fast adult fantasy read with politics and sapphics. I do love a lot of the themes that it wanted to discuss so it wasn't entirely disappointing. It felt a little like too many things came out of nowhere but if you can look past that… you can try it and hopefully this is more for you. ↢
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