My department at work is doing a book club this year and it coincides with my new year’s resolution to stop doomscrolling on social media so much. It’s becoming increasingly important for me to find less self destructive ways to pass idle time and I liked the idea of book club helping keep me accountable to that. When the first book was a straight up romance novel I didn’t feel great about it (it was a me problem). I traditionally am a fantasy/science fiction/horror reader and haven’t read a romance novel since a pop literature course in college. I wanted to start the book with plenty of time because I thought I would have a hard time getting into it.
I read the entire book in three days and actually really liked it. The leads were likable and had good chemistry and I really liked the cozy/small town vibes. For the gamers, in some ways I was reminded of Life is Strange True Colors which also made me wistful about an idealized version of small town life. The dynamic with Daphne and Miles both trying to work through their breakups and confront their generational trauma was well thought out though I did find myself wishing we would somehow be forced to reckon with Miles’ backstory more directly, instead of just being told about it by him and his sister.
I thought some of the prose was quite nice and tried to take a few notes in my app of passages that I liked. I did think the dialogue got a little clumsy during some of the big feelings confessions and especially during the sex scene, which was probably the part of the book I liked the least.
This book got me reflecting on some of reading habits re: genre as I got to reflect on how much I liked the coziness aspect. I thought about my favorite Stephen King book 11/22/63 and how my favorite parts of the book are the protagonist living his life in Texas, falling in love, and teaching, and how it almost feels like an imposition when the story has to go deal with Lee Harvey Oswald stuff. It got me thinking about how there are entire genres of books where the fate of the world isn’t at stake, nobody is murdered, people can work through their issues productively, and there are happy endings. The appeal of the romance genre, or at least romcoms because idk if this is a consistent through line. I was very glad the book club suggested something out of my comfort zone and will probably seek out some of Emily Henry’s other work. Apologies if this thread is not of interest to subscribers here, I just wanted to get my thoughts out since the book club meeting isn’t for like three weeks.
by casedawgz