Book Club September 2023- The Goddess Effect

By: Sheila Yasmin Marikar
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Little A
Pages: 288

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): All she wants is to be her best self. Is she ready? Absolutely. Does she know what to expect? Absolutely not.

Anita is over her life in New York: her dead-end job, tiny studio apartment, self-obsessed friends, and overbearing mom. So she moves west to Los Angeles in search of a new career, enlightenment, and that nebulous target…wellness.

She discovers an elite workout class called the Goddess Effect, run by a lifestyle guru named Venus who’s the very definition of #goals. One look at her Lululemon-clad acolytes sweating out their demons while dripping with confidence and Anita’s all in. When one of the class regulars takes Anita under her wing, Anita’s sure she’s found her people.

But Anita’s not so smitten that she doesn’t wonder about a few things: an inexplicable invitation to a Goddess Effect retreat, a strange tradition of secret sharing, and whispers about “enhancements” that only Venus can provide. Anita is awakening to a terrifying epiphany: the Goddess Effect isn’t quite what it seems, and it may turn her world—and that of everyone around her—upside down.

What I thought

This was not one of my favorite book club picks. The main character was so unlikeable and it felt like a story I had read a thousand times before. It was short and a quick read, and I did end up enjoying the final 25%, but overall it kind of annoyed me.

Anita is a first generation India-American who decides to move from New York to LA about 6 months after her dad has died to start over. She doesn’t really have any friends, the few that she does are not very kind to her and vice versa. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her mom, and she has quit her job on a whim. She decided to move to LA to find herself and go after her “dream job” by moving into a commune. While in LA she discovers the boutique fitness studio, The Goddess Effect. She becomes invested but soon starts to feel like it might not be all it seems.

This is your standard “female run company is actually up to no good” story. Anita is sort of in media, but she doesn’t have a job so she works out twice a day at this new studio. She doesn’t really even start to investigate it or feel like something is off until 75% of the way through the book when a media company tells her to. And even then, it’s not until some random dude comes and tells her shit is weird. Up until that point, she’s still considering going to work for The Goddess Effect!

Anita annoyed me so much. She was obsessed with VSCO filters, posting her life on social media with the perfect caption and hashtag, and clavicles. So much commenting on people’s clavicles. She’s shallow and lazy and she drove me nuts. I did appreciate towards the end that she at least acknowledged these negative qualities within herself.

The final 25% of the book saved it for me. Up until then, I was leaning towards rating it 2-2.5 stars. But when it finally got to exposing The Goddess Effect and Anita doing some actual investigative journalism, I enjoyed it a lot. I felt like it was not longer Anita just walking around and complaining about her life without doing anything. I wish the epilogue had been a little bit better, but it did wrap it up slightly.

What Book Club Thought

Oh boy. This was a fun one to discuss. One of our book club members didn’t end up getting around to it so we all got to explain the insanity of what went on and it was a lot of fun. It also helped us to remember all of the crazy details that happened. It was funny because we would be like “oh yea! That happened too but wasn’t as crazy as XYZ so I forgot about that!”

We didn’t talk much about the social implications and maybe the take on society. And one of our book club member’s boyfriends asked if it was maybe a take on the NXIVM cult scandal. We discussed that for a little bit and it could have been a nod to that and a way for the author to express some thoughts.

If you do choose to read this book, I highly recommend doing so with someone. You are going to have a lot to discuss or else you will just end up hitting your head against your wall at the stupidity of the characters.

The Wishing Game

By: Meg Shaffer
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 304

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing and whimsical novel.

Make a wish. . . .

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.

First Impressions

This book was given to me by a coworker. She said she had LOVED it and handed it off. The cover is cute but I don’t know if I would’ve picked it up off the shelf. She explained the premise as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but if Willie Wonka was a children’s author and I was in.

What I thought

This book was described to me as heart warming and good feels and that is 100% what it is.

Lucy is a teacher’s aid in a kindergarten classroom. She has been working with a young boy, Christopher, for two years now. He lost his parents and Lucy is hoping to foster and then adopt him but she doesn’t have the money, house, or car. When her favorite childhood author starts a contest for one person to win the only copy of his newest book (after no releasing anything for the last 6 years), she gets invited to participate in the contest on his magical Clock Island.

I honestly don’t think there’s any better way to describe this book as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There’s an older man who is rich, famous, and kind of reclusive who invites people to his magical world to participate in a contest. Yet the contest isn’t just what it seems with the different challenges. I am a huge Willie Wonka fan. It was one of my favorite movies growing up, so I was very into this premise. It does have a lot of similarities, so if that is going to bother you, then I wouldn’t recommend this book. I would also say that if you’re looking for something that is an unpredictable story this isn’t for you.

However, if you’re looking for a story that will make you feel good inside, pick this book up. I felt so warm and fuzzy after finishing the book. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I loved Lucy and how she was working through her own trauma to be a mom for Christopher. I loved how Jack, the author, worked his riddles ad magic to create this contest. And I loved Hugo, who even though he was supposed to be a tortured artist was a big teddy bear right from the start.

I guess, thinking on it, the only thing I would change would be some of Lucy’s trauma. It wasn’t until close to the end of the book that I truly understood it. Up until that point it seemed to me like she was making a big something out of nothing and I didn’t understand why it had impacted her as much as it did.

This book was so different from what I’ve been reading lately. An adult Willie Wonka full of books and riddles. The love in this story isn’t the romantic kind and it just filled me up. I completely understand why my coworker shoved this book at me and I will easily be recommending it to everyone I know for the foreseeable future. It’s short, quick, and just so satisfying.

Small Town Big Magic

By: Hazel Beck
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 411

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A witchy rom-com in which a bookstore owner who is fighting to revitalize a small midwestern town clashes with her rival, the mayor, and uncovers not only a clandestine group that wields a dark magic to control the idyllic river hamlet, but hidden powers she never knew she possessed.

Witches aren't real. Right?

No one has civic pride quite like Emerson Wilde. As a local indie bookstore owner and youngest-ever Chamber of Commerce president, she’d do anything for her hometown of St. Cyprian, Missouri. After all, Midwest is best! She may be descended from a witch who was hanged in 1692 during the Salem Witch Trials, but there’s no sorcery in doing your best for the town you love.
Or is there?

As she preps Main Street for an annual festival, Emerson notices strange things happening around St. Cyprian. Strange things that culminate in a showdown with her lifelong arch-rival, Mayor Skip Simon. He seems to have sent impossible, paranormal creatures after her. Creatures that Emerson dispatches with ease, though she has no idea how she’s done it. Is Skip Simon…a witch? Is Emerson?

It turns out witches are real, and Emerson is one of them. She failed a coming-of-age test at age eighteen—the only test she’s ever failed!—and now, as an adult, her powers have come roaring back.

But she has little time to explore those powers, or her blossoming relationship with her childhood friend, cranky-yet-gorgeous local farmer Jacob North: an ancient evil has awakened in St. Cyprian, and it’s up to Emerson and her friends—maybe even Emerson herself—to save everything she loves.

First Impressions

I went into the library to pick up a few books I had on hold and decided to make a pass through the romance section. This book immediately caught my eye on the shelf, so obviously made a great first impression. I love the cover and the title is super cute. It helps that we’re entering into fall so I enjoy reading more magical novels and that probably caught my eye.

What I thought

This book was so fun! I don’t know if I would necessarily categorize it as a romance but it did have some romance within it.

Emerson has lived in the same small town her entire life. Now, at 28, she runs the business commerce and lives in her family home with one of her best friends. She and the mayor have always had a rivalry, but when he tries to kill her with magical creatures, it goes too far and awakens the power within her. With this power awoken, she discovers that the town she has loved is a town of witches (including her friends) and that her mind was wiped at 18 when she didn’t show enough power. Now she has to learn how to be a witch, navigate her life in secret, and save the town.

Like I said, the romance side of it was a bit meh for me. I didn’t feel the chemistry between Emerson and Jacob. There was a lot of history that their connection was supposed to have been built on so maybe not getting that in the story made it harder to feel it in the present day. I didn’t mind them getting together and I didn’t mind their love story as it progressed, but it wasn’t one that jumped off the page and definitely felt secondary to everything else going on.

The Witchlore on the other hand I loved. I loved learning about the town and the way their witch government worked. Emerson rediscovering magic was so fun. I also liked the mystery of why Skip, the mayor, was trying to kill Emerson in addition to whether or not they’d be able to save their town. It’s this storyline that has me jumping to read the next one which comes out in late August.

The only other thing that had me sometimes annoyed was Emerson and her feminist views/language. I loved that she believed in strong women and that was essential to her personality and her strength. However, sometimes it got to be a bit much. Like, every comment she would make would be like “because of the patriarchy” or “what you think women can’t do that?” I just wish it had been edited down a tiny bit.

This is a solid 3.5 stars for me. I loved the witchy storyline, felt a little meh about the romance story line. I also felt like it was simultaneously too long and too fast. I would’ve preferred if the final conflict had been given a little bit more time than some of the slower stuff in the middle. I immediately put the next book on hold at the library and am curious to see what happens next!

The Bandit Queens

By: Parini Shiroff
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pages: 352

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Geeta's no-good husband disappeared five years ago. She didn't kill him, but everyone thinks she did--no matter how much she protests.

But she soon discovers that being known as a "self-made" widow has some surprising perks. No one messes with her, no one threatens her, and no one tries to control (ahem, marry) her. It's even been good for her business; no one wants to risk getting on her bad side by not buying her jewelry.

Freedom must look good on Geeta, because other women in the village have started asking for her help to get rid of their own no-good husbands...but not all of them are asking nicely.

Now that Geeta's fearsome reputation has become a double-edged sword, she must decide how far to go to protect it, along with the life she's built. Because even the best-laid plans of would-be widows tend to go awry.

First Impressions

This colorful cover immediately caught my eye. The summary made it sound like a fun mystery about a group of older, underestimated women in an Indian community taking down the abusive men. I saw this book all over online, and it made a very strong first impression, jumping to the top of my 2023 TBRs.

What I thought

Um, well, this book wasn’t quite as lighthearted as the cover makes it seem.

Geeta has been a “widow” for 5 years. Her abusive, alcoholic husband disappeared, but her community believes that she murdered him. When one of the other women in her community comes to her to ask for help to kill her own husband, Geeta is thrown off and finds herself sucked into a world that she never wanted to be a part of.

I feel like this book didn’t get goofy enough. I don’t know if it was the fact that Geeta was just kind of dumb and whiney, or if it was the seriousness of the abuse that happens within the Indian state and community, but it just felt darker and heavier than I expected. At first, Geeta’s naiveté with Farah is a little silly, but then it continues and just got annoying.

I liked seeing Getta realize that she needs her friends and then women in her community to be a stronger person. A lot of how she ended up where she was, was due to isolating herself. It was a struggle to read about the reality of the different Indian caste systems, even though I think it was important and eye opening to read.

There are parts of this book I enjoyed because I felt there were a lot of important lessons within this book. But then sometimes it still felt like it was supposed to be goofy and funny and it took away from some of this seriousness.

Overall, I think this book didn’t know what it wanted to be. On the one hand, I think it wanted to be a mystery/thriller, on the other, I think it wanted to be a contemporary fiction teaching about the Indian communities and their struggles. Unfortunately, I think it just ended up being a bit blah by falling in the middle. I didn’t mind the story and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it. however, I think the writing is a bit lackluster, so I don’t think I’d read more by Shiroff in the future.

Rock Bottom Girl

By: Lucy Score
Published Year: 2019
Publisher: That’s What She Said Publishing
Pages: 532

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Downsized, broke, and dumped, 38-year-old Marley sneaks home to her childhood bedroom in the town she couldn’t wait to escape twenty years ago. Not much has changed in Culpepper. The cool kids are still cool. Now they just own car dealerships and live in McMansions next door. Oh, and the whole town is still talking about that Homecoming she ruined her senior year.

Desperate for a new start, Marley accepts a temporary teaching position. Can the girl banned from all future Culpepper High Homecomings keep the losing-est girls soccer team in school history from killing each other and prevent carpal tunnel in a bunch of phone-clutching gym class students?

Maybe with the help of Jake Weston, high school bad boy turned sexy good guy. When the school rumor mill sends Marley to the principal’s office to sign an ethics contract, the tattooed track coach, dog dad, and teacher of the year becomes her new fake boyfriend and alibi—for a price. The Deal: He’ll teach her how to coach if she teaches him how to be in a relationship.

Who knew a fake boyfriend could deliver such real orgasms? But it’s all temporary. The guy. The job. The team. There’s too much history. Rock bottom can’t turn into a foundation for happily ever after. Can it?

Warning: Story also includes a meet-puke, a bouffanted nemesis, a yard swan and donkey basketball, a teenage-orchestrated makeover, and a fake relationship that gets a little too real between the sheets.

First Impression

This book had a solid first impression. It caught my eye while I was walking through Target and then I bought it on Independent Bookstore Day. I had never heard about it before but the colors and the fact that it was a book about soccer immediately launched it to the top of my list.

What I thought

This book was so fun!

Marley has moved back in with her parents after being let go from her job and being broke up with. She left her small town immediately after high school because of senior year drama and has been avoiding being back since. When she accepts a temporary position as girl’s soccer coach and gym teacher at her old high school, she discovers her old crush Jake is a beloved teacher at the school and also that her biggest high school nemesis lives next door to her parents. In her cluelessness, she and Jake find themselves in a fake dating/real coaching situation.

This is a longer book so it allowed for a lot of details and character building which I loved. There was a lot of growth in the characters and it made me feel like I got to know them and really connect with them. I am a huge soccer fan so I greatly enjoyed those storylines. There were some small inaccuracies in the soccer facts but they were small so I was able to forgive them.

Marley took a little while to grow on me just because she was so hung up on her high school past. In the book, she’s 38, but I felt like her story would’ve worked better if she was 28. I understand though that at 28 you wouldn’t have any of your high school peers having high school aged children that you would be teaching. However, the level of concern and the interactions with some of her old classmates felt a little immature to me.

I adored Jake and Marley’s chemistry though. I thought they had some very good banter and Jake’s maturity balanced out where Marley was immature. I also loved her friends and her family. I felt like no one was painted as old and crotchety. People were still fun, even when they were parents and I feel like often that is not shown in these types of book.

This was a solid 4.5 stars for me. It’s the first Lucy Score book that I read and I got completely drawn into the world. I would love to return back to this town and these characters. The ending was so fun and there were a few twists in the storyline that I didn’t expect which I enjoyed. I found myself laughing out loud while reading this book multiple times. I definitely will be looking into more of her books in the future!

Deaf Utopia

By: Nyle DiMarco
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 317

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A heartfelt and inspiring memoir and Deaf culture anthem by Nyle DiMarco, actor, producer, two-time reality show winner, and cultural icon of the international Deaf community.

Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multi-generational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.

In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.

A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.

Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.

Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.

First Impressions

I don’t remember how I heard about this novel but as soon as I did I wanted to read it. I am a speech pathologist and so I’m very interested in Deaf culture from that perspective. It was pretty much all I needed to know.

What I thought

This book was fabulous.

Nyle DiMarco is a winner of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars. I have watched both of these shows, but not the seasons that he was in. This memoir is the story of his childhood, experience as a member of the Deaf community, and his experiences with reality TV.

Nyle does such an amazing job explaining the Deaf culture. He splices in history about the culture, Gallaudet, and the Milan Conference. I learned so much about the Deaf school systems as well as some perspective of speech therapy from someone who is profoundly deaf and in a deaf family. I think that his perspective and experience alone makes this book worth a read. He comes from a family of deaf individuals, so just that alone is fascinating to learn about.

In addition to his Deaf experiences, Nyle talks about his struggles and growth with his sexuality. At the end of this book, he identifies as Queer, but at different points in the book he identifies as straight and as sexually fluid. His perspective about his changing sexuality was explained so well and really interesting to me. I am straight and always have been. I’ve never doubted my sexuality. But hearing someone explain how they could grow up thinking they were straight but then realizing there had bene an underlying attraction to the same sex all along was eye opening.

If you are reading this book because you’re a fan of his reality TV show appearances, you won’t be disappointed. He walks the reader through his experiences so thoroughly. I often feel like when I’m reading a memoir that they don’t go into enough depth or detail about a movie or a TV show of theirs that I loved. Nyle walks you through his season of ANTM as though you’re watching the show. It was so well don’t and so interesting.

The other part of this book that I loved was the way that both English and American Sign Language were incorporated. Because ASL is Nyle’s first and dominant language, it is hard to translate it to the page but they do a great job. The grammar of ASL is different from English and I think it’s important to show the conversation told in that language structure to maintain the truth and authenticity of Nyle’s experiences and his own language.

I adored this book. I was sucked in from the first page and I think there is something in it for everyone. Not only is it eye opening for the Deaf culture, but for the LGBTQ culture as well. In addition to that, Nyle’s experiences on reality shows will suck you in from the entertainment culture side. This is definitely up there for one of my favorite reads of the year.

The Princess

By: Wendy Holden
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 416

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Princess Diana was the most famous woman in the world, celebrated across the globe for her poise and glamour. But before stepping out of the royal carriage at St. Paul's Cathedral she spent nineteen years as the shy, awkward Lady Diana Spencer. How did the aristocratic ugly duckling become a beautiful royal swan?

Bestselling author Wendy Holden explores the astonishing backstory and young adulthood of the ultimate royal celebrity.

Britain, 1961: A bouncing blond baby is born to Viscount Althorp, heir to the Spencer earldom, and his wife Frances. Diana grows up amid the fallout of her parents' messy divorce. She struggles at school. Moving to London, she takes menial jobs as a cleaner and nanny. Her refuge throughout is romantic novels. She dreams of falling in love and being rescued by a handsome prince.

In royal circles, there is concern about the Prince of Wales. Nearly 30, Charles remains unmarried; the right girl needs to be found, and fast. She must be young, aristocratic and come to the royal family without any past liaisons.

The eighteen-year-old Diana Spencer is just about the only candidate. Her desperation to be loved dovetails perfectly with royal desperation for a bride. But as the ruthless Palace machine starts up, there are challenges for Diana to face plus mysteries she can't fathom, from the strangeness of life within the palace walls to a certain Mrs. Parker Bowles. Can her romantic dream survive the forces that shape her into a global icon?

First Impressions

I have been enjoying some more recent historical fiction, so when I saw this one I was intrigued. I’ve read about strong historical female figures in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so reading about Princess Diana seemed like a solid next step. I haven’t read the other Royal Outsider books by Holden, so this was my first experience.

What I thought

This book follows Princess Diana from childhood and up to the 1990s. She had a close friend named Sandy in elementary school and when her world starts to fall apart, she reaches out to her to tell her all about how she truly ended up as princess.

Being completely honest, if I wasn’t reading this book for review, I wouldn’t have finished it. It was slow to start and then by about half way I hated everyone. Granted, I’ve never liked Prince Charles but this book made me really dislike him. I was never one who knew a lot about Diana, since I was young when she was around, but always had positive feelings about her. This book made me dislike her too.

I don’t know if part of my issue was that I knew what was coming or just the way it was formatted. I thought at first it was going to be told through the eyes of her fictional friend Sandy. But instead, it was told from everyone’s perspectives. When Diana starts to share with Sandy how she was manipulated to marry Charles, the perspective switches to Charles’ valet Stephen, and then to the Queen Mother, and to Charles at one point, and even some other minor characters. It felt very disjointed and I never connected to anyone. Then it would jump back to the 90s and you’d have Sandy’s perspective again.

This book made Diana sound so dumb and whiney. I know she was 20 when she got married and 18/19 when they started dating, but this book makes her seem incredibly immature and naiive. I think it’s supposed to make you feel sympathetic but the book also has a ton of her friends telling her how dumb she’s acting and she chooses to ignore them.

I enjoyed the earlier years because I didn’t know much about Diana’s childhood or family life and that made me sympathetic. Considering how negatively this book paints everyone, I’d be shocked if it gets sold in the UK. Not to say they don’t deserve it or it’s not true, but wow. Holden does not like the Royal Family, that’s for sure.

I pretty much skimmed the last 40% of this book, so take my review with a grain of salt. I felt like it was slow, poorly organized, and not entertaining. I don’t think I’d read an other books by Holden because I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. I think there are much better books out there with modern historical fiction.

You, With a View

By: Jessica Joyce
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Two weeks on the road... stuck in a car with your high-school enemy.

Noelle Shepard is grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos and letters that hint to a forbidden love in her gram's past. Needing to know the full story, she creates a TikTok video appealing for information - and it goes viral.

Through her video, she manages to track down her grandmother's secret love, Paul, who offers to take her on the honeymoon road-trip he and Gram planned but never got to go on.

Noelle jumps at the chance to make this one last connection with her grandmother. There's just one problem - Paul's grandson is Noelle's frustratingly handsome high-school rival Theo.

And Theo has to come, too.

It's only two weeks. Surely Noelle can survive that long? But with one car between them - and often only one bed - it doesn't take long for things to heat up...

First Impressions

I love this cover. It immediately caught my eye on a list of books coming out this summer and added it to my list after reading the summary. Shortly after that I received the opportunity to read it for review and was very excited. Very good first impression.

What I thought

This was a cute romance and I enjoyed the travel aspect of it a lot.

Noelle is at her lowest point, 6 months after her grandmother passed away. She has no job, is living at her parents’ home, and is unsure where to go with her life. Her grandmother was her best friend and when she discovers an old love letter from a man she never heard her grandma mention before, she makes a TikTok to find out who he is. When she meets the mystery man, she learns he’s the grandfather of her high school rival Theo. The three of them decide to go on a road trip that her grandmother and past boyfriend had planned for their honeymoon that never happened.

I am a sucker for road trip novels. I think this one could have done that aspect a little bit better. I thought that the destinations and adventure were going to be a little more central to the story. Instead, it was a backdrop with the relationship between her grandmother and Paul and the love story between her and Theo.

I think that Joyce did a great job telling the story of two people struggling with finding themselves after the lives they imagined at 18 did not come to be at 28. Your late 20s can be difficult, especially when it’s not what you pictured it would be. I wish I had read this novel when I was 28. It was interesting to see how differently Theo and Noelle handled their issues as well. Joyce did a great job explaining the background and reason for why they reacted the way they did.

Noelle and Theo did have instant chemistry and I enjoyed their banter a lot. I do wish there had been a little bit more dislike from Noelle at the beginning, considering how much she disliked him growing up. But that’s just because I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers. I pretty much loved every relationship Noelle had. She had great family interactions and beautiful interactions with Paul as well.

The third act break up wasn’t even bad. It wasn’t a true third act break up which I appreciated. There was a conflict but it felt like it was handled realistically and not a dumb “just talk to each other!” type of conflict.

I enjoyed Noelle’s journey of growth. The romance was just a bonus. I think this is a great romance/fiction novel for people to read in the late 20s or at a time where your life is not moving the way you thought that it would. This is a very strong debut and I look forward to Joyce writing more. It wasn’t perfect for me, but it was still a fun and enjoyable read.