 4.5 stars
Honestly, this is a huge growth leap for Hazelwood emotionally and narratively. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am reinvigorated from my Reylo fatigue and excited for future Hazelwood books. Concept: not a silly rom-com Plot/Pacing: ★★★★ 1/2 Romance: ★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★ Kind of bummed to see the lower reviews for this story, not gonna lie folks. I thought this was Hazelwood's strongest emotional narrative that she's traditionally published and marks a new turning point for her writing. The niche that Hazelwood has comfortably inhabited for several years now is an expected one: she was a Reylo fanfiction writer (Star Wars fandom, Kylo Ren + Rey) who seriously loved Adam Driver and wrote funny / witty romantic comedies starring an Adam Driver-variant hulking dude with brooding silent issues falling in love with a tiny anxious girlie in STEM. The blueprint worked, the books are hilarious, and it made her a romance reader household name. Not in Love is a departure from this blueprint. (I found this tidbit extremely exciting.) It's still a woman in STEM, and it's still a tall dude. But here are the differences: physically, they're actually unique people and the woman is normal proportions and quite tall (stated as 6 feet tall in moderate heels). The male love interest is not silent or broody—he's driven, communicative, and the emotionally mature pilot of this romance. And most important to me, this narrative is emotionally complex and extremely nuanced. Rue, our female protagonist, has some pretty serious childhood trauma that has affected her to this day. She's also very clearly spectrum-coded, or at least to me. With her trauma and her autistic aloofness cocooning her in a blanket of perceived coldness, Rue's had an interesting go of relationships all her life. She has rules, she follows them, and the only true constants in her life are her best friend and her boss. Eli is a confident businessman who owns a company with his friends. They're in investments, they buy out other companies and make them succeed under their leadership. When his company acquires Rue's STEM corporate company in a gentle takeover, Eli is taken aback to realize that Rue, the woman he'd just met the night before in a failed hook-up, is one of his new employees. He's shook, as the brief contact with her the night before was electric and he was hoping to pursue it. But now it's complicated. Eli and Rue are quick to discover that their chemistry cannot be denied—no matter the stakes. And as the two of them spiral deeper and deeper into obsession, they realize that their pasts are each others for the discovery...if only they can get over their hang-ups to reach for it. Not in Love is, well, NOT a rom-com. It's a catharsis. Something that will either deeply resonate with you or deeply turn you off, depending on your personal triggers and your ability to step into the shoes of these two flawed characters. Rue's autistic-coded aloofness reads as extremely cold, and she's blatantly unapologetic about it in a way that I can see being off-putting to prior Hazelwood readers looking for the "cute quirky" variant of the spectrum girlie. And Eli's brand of sexual obsession and soft dominance is also a little different from the previous Hazelwood leads, in a way I personally found refreshing but others might not. Given this departure from Hazelwood's comfort zones, I'm very excited to see where she goes next. Don't sleep on this one if you're looking for a deeper emotional read!
1 Comment
 4.5 stars
Guess who's back?? You know it's summertime when a new Riley Sager hits the shelves. His perfect blend of atmosphere, twists, and propulsive narratives are always a hit with me. Come, join us for a deep dive into the dark pasts of suburbia in Middle of the Night... Concept: ★★★ 1/2 Pacing: ★★★★★ Mysteries/Final Reveals: ★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★ 1/2 At this point, you might as well call me a Riley Sager review plant, seeded to guarantee a positive review in the mix no matter the content. It feels that way to me, anyway--I seem to have an addiction to his stories and pacing structures. They're so perfectly paced for me. Middle of the Night takes place in the most Americana of locations: the suburb. And not just the suburb, but the microcosm: the cul-de-sac. Bonded by location and forced into tragedy by a disappeared boy in the late 1990s, this small group of cul-de-sac neighbors has weathered the decades with grief, life, and ever-present neighborly status. Who took Billy from his tent in the backyard one summer night? Why did they leave Ethan, the other boy on the scene, sleeping peacefully in the tent? Why has Billy never been found? Now in his 4os, Ethan is an adult haunted by the incident of his missing boyhood friend. He has recurring dreams and chronic insomnia and a bone-deep paranoia that doesn't seem to abate with his adult wisdom. At the start of the novel, Ethan's back in his cul-de-sac recouping from marital strife and housesitting for his parents. It's stirring up ghosts of all kinds in the sleepy—yet vigilant—neighborhood. And then they find Billy. Things are about to bubble to surface of this sleepy community whether the neighbors want it to or not... AH. Another winner from Sager. I said it at the beginning of this review and I'll say it again—I just really, really like his stories. The formula works for me and if you're a fan of his earlier books, let's just say you're going to love this one too. It's spooky without being a paranormal-driven narrative. It's split-timeline with the 1994 events spliced between Ethan's modern-day dramas in the neighborhood to create such perfect tension. And most of all?? It has some red herrings and distracting elements that make you feel like you're on top of the twists...and then it gets you. Even if you get some of it, there's enough nuance to the final third act that I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by at least something. (Always a treat to be partially surprised by a mystery when you've previously read/watched so many twist formulas in media.) I am very pleased to have this join my Sager shelf. And I'm already ready for the next one!  3.5 stars
When the Moon Hatched was equally interesting and unwieldy. It was a very cool world concept and an interesting premise, but the story fell apart under the author’s meandering scene structures and overwritten length. However, I did enjoy the raw hunk of narrative within the mess, so….? It’s one of those series that I think will improve with later installments. Concept: ★★★★★ Pacing: ★ 1/2 Action vs. filler scenes: ★★ 1/2 World building: ★★★★ This is a reaction review, please see the book's description for the blurb. When the Moon Hatched is one of those independently published novels that got picked up by a traditional publisher because of the grassroots marketing and hype. I'm not trying to knock it or call it out for this reason, but for those who are not plugged in to the publishing world updates and/or read this review after 2024 when the hype dies down, I think it is relevant information to have. I have mixed feelings about independently published books. On the one hand, I LOVE THEM. It's a way for authors to publish books without the red tape, and it often leads to more freedoms and control for marginalized authors who can't get through the maze of the uptight publishing machine. It also leads to some really, really great books. But on the other hand... traditionally published books are vetted like nobody's business. They're ruthlessly edited for length, consistency, pacing, and more. They're shaped into final products, and there is (usually) a quality control element that ensures that the book you pick up in the store is going to work out for you on a mechanical level, if not an enjoyment level due to optional factors like tastes, writer's voice, and actual plot contents. I unfortunately do not think that When the Moon Hatched is a final product like those traditionally published novels or some of my favorite independently published authors. It has such a cool world: There's dragons in it, but dragon's aren't the be-all, end-all of the world building (something that tends to be the easy hook for other dragon books). Everyone is fae, with all the usual tropes that entails PLUS a fun elemental magic element that is truly unique involving the elemental gods. The customs, phrasings, and set up of this world is SO intriguing and immersive that I found myself immediately wishing for more fanart and spin-offs to the concept—it's a rich enough world to sustain that. It also has a pretty decent hook: Raeve, our female protagonist, is an assassin-for-hire in the rebel underground who has deep secrets and a revenge vendetta that fuels her motivations—and she's about to find herself in the middle of a huge quest plot involving a hot dude. Yes, it's been done by many of the titans of romantasy and fantasy, but it's a solid hook and I like reading that kind of story. So where did When the Moon Hatched fall apart?? Easy answer: the meandering length. This whopper 700+ page tome did not have enough raw plot/action to cover that kind of page count, so what could have been an unputdownable 400-500 page experience became a slog involving multiple sessions of "sigh, let me try to get through more of this today" energy that felt unfulfilling due to the sheer amount of filler content and repetitive scene structures in the novel. Too many scenes with Raeve being the "mentally traumatized yet outwardly tough assassin who can't trust anyone" mixed with Kaan, the male love interest w/ harsh kindness and unbelievable magical strength who clearly knows more than Raeve and yet doesn't tell her the facts. (Such an annoying dichotomy that only carries you for the first few hundred pages before you lose all patience with the concept and just want the truth already so that the real plot can progress). I was tolerant of this trope for the first 400 pages because a) it's in a lot of these stories and I don't mind it when it's done well and b) there was so much going on / getting explored in the world and plot that it wasn't a plot crutch, it was just waiting for its turn. That patience dissolved with prejudice when, in the second half of the novel, we sat in this loop of nonsense—repeated types of actions, repeated interactions with characters, odd side quests, barely fleshed out introductions of new POVs after an already established 2-POV structure—where the delays to information served...no real purpose. The weight of the payoff collapsed, and I was left frustrated, angry, and bored. Never a good combo for a reader! HOWEVER, all that griping and negativity aside, I thought this tale had that extra "something" to it that makes for a good story. I think, with editing, this series could really turn into something epic. I am looking forward to the sequel and will definitely revisit this world again.  4.5 stars
Another adorable win from Julie Soto. Her brand of funny + emotional + medium-stakes drama really works for me, apparently. (Even if I'm getting pretty tired of the 'published Reylo fanfiction' element of romance books these days.) Writing: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★ Plot/Pacing: ★★★★ Not Another Love Song is for us musician girlies. You know, the ones who were too involved in their high school band or orchestras—or maybe even those of us who made it to college-level bands or orchestras too, or even beyond that. If you don't love the lifeblood of being a concert musician, I don't think this novel will hit you quite the same. But for those of us who remember those days... Gwen Jackson is a early 20s violinist for the Manhattan Pops, an orchestra group that plays non-classical orchestra arrangements. She's be a respectable member of the violin section, never standing out yet never flopping, for years. So when she is unexpectedly given the first chair / concertmaster seat, Gwen's floored. Xander Thorne is the bad boy of the Manhattan Pops, arriving late and barely practicing each piece. He's a musical prodigy and the headliner for a popular rock-strings ensemble (think Vitamin String Quartet) that tours the world. He's too good for the minor leagues, and the worst thing is he knows it. Obviously, Xander and Gwen are going to butt heads with Gwen's recent promotion and Xander's absolute fixation on Gwen's performances. There's something about Gwen's raw sight reading that calls to Xander in his blood, and he must know what it is. (Gwen has no idea what he's talking about, but she's pretty obtuse in this arena.) And the two of them find themselves fascinated by the other for various reasons. Fans of Ali Hazelwood and other "Reylo" fanfiction tropes will automatically recognize the arcs of this story. Aloof yet smart, hulkingly large dark-haired man with tiny, smart yet seriously situationally stupid pretty girl fall in love with the miscommunication trope. I'll be brutal, that's what this—and apparently every other Reylo story in the canon—is at its basic level. It either works for you or it doesn't, and for me, I'm in the "it works" camp for at least a little longer. I look forward to more Julie Soto—but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her next read freshens up the tropes a bit. (Even someone who enjoys the Reylo archetype gets tired of it.) |
Amy Imogene ReadsJust someone looking for her own door into Wonderland. Categories
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All reviews posted are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any other individual or entity. When applicable, reviewed titles sent to me by the publisher are noted at the bottom of each review.
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