booksandbraids's reviews
1863 reviews

This was actually REALLY good. I can see why it became a classic horror and has withstood the test of time. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, though. I look forward to watching the movie. I hope that seeing the ending in film will give me more closure.

These all seem so disconnected. They are not bad- they just all feel very separate and unconnected (other than the involvement of the sandman, of course). 

 I look forward to seeing everything come together eventually!

I guess I liked it. I wasn’t like in love with it. The story was fine, but it didn’t really pull me in personally. I didn’t ever feel the need to find/make additional time to read this book. I didn’t have a longing to find out what happened next. It’s was sort of like, I’ll get to it when I get to it. If that makes any sense…

The family ties were a bit confusing as they started to reveal themselves there at the end, but I guess that was the whole point.

The whole possible ghost aspect seemed completely unnecessary. And the dog situation felt a little unnecessary as well, although I guess it served as sort of an icebreaker in certain social situations? 

I was really annoyed with the fact that this girl was supposedly a somewhat good NYC chef and had been for some time, yet she was basically broke and living off credit... I don’t understand. If you are not making enough money at your job in NYC, go elsewhere. Why live in one of the most expensive cities if you are struggling?? You came, you tried, You claimed you succeeded but clearly you didn’t if you are not able to make a living wage. She KNEW that the restaurant was underpaying her, yet she stayed. She even accepted a pay cut without even looking elsewhere!! She didn’t have any particular reason to be in NYC other than the fact that it was different from the outer banks. She must have gotten the family trait of poor financial life choices from Ruth. Her grandmother held on to that hotel despite the fact that it wasn’t making money- in fact it was losing enough money that the grandmother had significant debts. It’s madness. Why?! I hate reading about stupid people.

I was really worried about not liking this book (something I couldn't imagine for a Colleen Hoover) because of the reviews. The top reviews all talk about the abuse, torture, and gaslighting of women. And I will admit that when I first started the book I was convinced from those first few chapters that those reviews were right... but they were not! I LOVED this book. It was not your typical love story and I absolutely love how everything came together in the end.

I did not like Leeds was an awful person or an asshole like some of the reviews described. I thought he was doing the best he could do in the given situation.

I am not going to go into any more detail because I want to keep this review free from spoilers and unhidden so that hopefully it will convince people to give the book a chance despite the negative reviews that seem to be the top reviews for some reason. 

GIVE IT A CHANCE!

I give this book 4 stars on the Colleen Hoover scale because it is not as good as her others. BUT it is still amazing! So it gives 5 stars as its normal scale rating!

I got lured into this one thanks to Bookstagram- one of those short dramatic reels that make the book sound like a masterpiece of both story and spice. Most of the time, they are not worth the hype... but this was actually REALLY good. I will admit that the initial setup was a bit farfetched- who would be stupid enough to blurt out the random lie that they are engaged to a billionaire? But I knew that was the setup going in... that was what was described in the IG reel that lured me in. I thought it would be done a little more gracefully than it actually was, but that was probably stupid wishful thinking on my part- there really is no way to make that scenario graceful. Other than that, I REALLY LOVED this book. I loved their relationship. I loved their challenges. And I think I have decided that friends to lovers and fake dating are my two favorite tropes, so this was absolutely perfect. I lost two nights of decent sleep over this book from staying up to read it. 

I am probably going to try some of the other Cloverleigh Farms books to see if this was a one-hit wonder or if the entire series is just as good!

This book was actually amazing! I’m so glad it was available with the audio through Kindle Unlimited because otherwise I wouldn’t have known it existed. I’m so so happy I stumbled upon this book and that it fit a Bookish First Book Bingo square for November. I loved both the present day and the historic timelines. The ending was a perfect happy ending.

Random thoughts while reading…

- 47% For a random pick off of Kindle Unlimited to satisfy a bookish bingo square, this is actually REALLY good so far. I absolutely adore Evelyn. I can’t wait to hear how the story of her younger years unravels.
- This book makes me want to go to New England- one of the only parts of the United States that I haven’t been to yet. 
- 71% Fred is great and all and I’m happy Evelyn could be with him if she couldn’t be with Tony, but I feel like she moved on to the idea of Fred too soon after losing hope of Tony. It should have been a semester at least. They better not get married until after she graduates college.