what_is_daphne_reading's reviews
388 reviews

I have a love hate relationship with Ali Hazelwood books I think. I’ve been trying to wrestle with what is it about them that I both love and hate. So here’s what I’ve come up with after reading this book. 

Love: Her MMCs are perfection. Each of them is described as incredibly handsome. Then they are all so caring, so emotionally mature, and so so into the FMCs. 

The pinning is top notch, always. 

The spice is spicy. She can write a sex scene. 

The FMC are ultra competent in their niche field and it’s usually STEM related. 

However, and this is what’s mostly bothers me I think, the FMC still always needs to MMC to do something to further her career. Sometimes it fits nicely with the story. Other times not so much. I think that’s why I like Love, Theoretically so much. Jack’s letter was more about proving himself to her than him helping her further her career. But when I started reading Deep End and Scarlet is seeing a therapist about her block I immediately thought, “the dick better not cure her.” You guys, I regret to inform you. 😒

I mean seriously. I can’t. 

Aside from that, (which took a lot of out of the enjoyment of this book for me,) I liked the book. Did I cry along with the characters? Absolutely. But I also famously cried at the Furry Vengeance trailer so make of that what you will. I thought about the characters for several days after finishing the book. Wondering how they are doing now, like they are friends. Overall it was a fun read but not a great one. 

This was an interesting take on a vampire story. I don’t usually do scary because I am a baby. Although this had some frightening moments, (for me), I was fine with it. 
The main story is a love story. They were childhood loves, like real childhood, that were separated by a crazy circumstance. I liked that when they came back together they were both immediately happy but also, so very sad to see the other. They had told themselves one story that seeing the other threw a monkey wrench into. 
Again, the way they handled vampires was new for me. And if we hadn’t seen one in the first couple of pages, I would’ve thought it was all made up too. I almost did.
There is some romance but it is closed door. This fits the timbre of this book. My kids loved for me to tell them the plots of the books I’ve read and this was one I could do fairly easily and they loved it. 

The relationship between the sisters was so well written. They bicker but it’s obviously they love each other. When they both now the other is hiding something but neither of them fesses up. That is timeless. 
And the mom was fantastic. I love that when Elinor asks her mom to confront Maryanne about whether she’s engaged or not the mother responds that if Maryanne wanted her to know she would’ve told her already. I also liked when Sir John is telling the mom that Elinor and Maryanne would be trying to “catch” Willoughby because he is such an eligible bachelor she responds with, “Mr. Willoughby will be incommoded by the attempts of either of my daughters towards what you call catching him. It is not an employment to which they have been brought up. Men are very safe with us, let them be ever so rich.”
What a boss way to say, “don’t call my daughter gold diggers.” 
And what a f*** boi that Willoughby was. I am glad that in the end Maryanne realized what a waste he was. 
Lastly, I am convinced that Margaret existed only to remind readers that the youngest children are almost always forgotten and basically raise themselves. (I am the third child.)

Wanted the first time I experienced this book to be unabridged. 

This is my first Ruby Dixon book and I really loved it. I liked the voice of the main characters. Aspeth was super smart but without real life experience and that read through exactly. She was like a hesitant sunshine. She kept insisting that everything would work out somehow, even with all the evidence to the contrary. When someone, (I think Lark) finally questions her on what does she think will happen if she does manage to get an artifact for her father’s hold Aspeth in just like, “idk okay I haven’t taught that far,” which just fits in with character so much. Like yes of course you have this grand broad strokes plans but you haven’t thought of the particulars. 
Hawk was the ever patient, wet cat MMC. Loved him.
The rest of the 5?! Are they not adorable?! I looked and looked for some Kipp fanart. I tried so hard to imagine him and his little house but I still don’t have a solid image. 
I picked this book up just based on the cover really. I didn’t even notice that it was a Dixon book until I had it at home. Then I hemmed and hawed about reading it for a while because I know that people sweat her and I wanted to be able to give this book my full attention. Once I started it I didn’t want to put it down. Definitely moving Ice Planet Barbarians up on my TBR. 

My Feb non-fiction read. 
It was very open and vulnerable. There was a lot that I related to. I also lost my dad to “America,” although in a way less dramatic and traumatizing way. 
The book was not linear and there were instances that made the timeline murky for me. Glory doesn’t owe us full transparency so I am not mad, but it did trip me up at times. 
Having said that, the quiet inner feelings and turmoil were so candidly expressed. She spoke of her missteps and her willfully misinterpreting some books to fit her narrative. This is something I bet all of us do, but few of us see how we are conspiring to sabotage ourselves. 
Overall a great read. I wish I was extroverted enough to go to a Well Read Black Girl Bookclub meeting but as it is, I sit in my car and cry and have to talk myself into walking into a local library’s bookclub once a month (not the one I work at) and that’s enough for me. 

Was it witty and funny? Yes. Did I like seeing a close knit Hispanic family?  Also yes. I mean her family calls her aceituna. That’s hilarious. My family use to call one of my cousins Purina Cat Chow. That was her actually nickname. The whole thing. 
So the family dynamic was great. The banter between the MCs also great. The whole side plot with the sister… meh. And the sister believing some dude over her identical twin?! Hated that. 
But if I am honest with myself and with you, the internet void, the fact that it was a closed door book is what kept it below 4 stars for me. Maybe I’m too lascivious. 🤷🏾‍♀️ A closed door romance is not for me. Closed door fantasy, closed door horror, it can be closed door literally anything else, but if I’m reading a romance, open that dang door. I want HBO not Hallmark.  

Finished this book in a day. 
The premise seems absurd. When a Lauren’s husband goes into the attic a different husband appears and a different life to go with it. 
It starts suddenly and Lauren doesn’t know why. 
Because the set up is so out there, you can just put that whole thing aside and focus on what it means to be able to change your husband and life at will. How do you know when you’ve chosen correctly? What kind of person do you want to be? What would you do if you know all your actions could be wiped out.
Also, I’ll say that like in life, Lauren (a woman) has to make more drastic decisions and overt actions to get rid of some husbands. The burden is put on her to do some wild things to get some husbands to comply.

Meanwhile, Bohai, who is experiencing the same thing but as the husband, is allowed to make his own decision to leave whenever he wants to, without involving his significant other at all.

Listen, this was not read in the hopes of a complex meaty plot and in that sense, it delivered. 
The FMC gets picked up at an airport bar by a hottie that she thinks is a famous hockey player but is actually his twin brother. Already, this is  fantasy as far as I’m concerned. You mean to tell me that a woman alive will meet a rando at an airport and go home with him after one drink?! And not just him, him and his roommate. Girl please. Okay so the fantasy is that she didn’t end up in a ditch after this but actually in this super rich and hot guys apartment banging not just him but also his roommate. At the same time. That is the bulk of the book, which is excellent because that is why we are here. 
Then, she gets unreasonably upset because he let her think he was the hockey player when he wasn’t. But honey, he wasn’t expecting to ever see you again. That’s how one night stands usually work. Anyway, she runs away and the 2 dudes do a grand gesture together, which okay fine. 
Finally, there is an epilogue where the two guys ask her to marry them, symbolically of course because in real life that’s illegal. And she says yes? Listen, I am married to the love of my life or whatever, he is 1 guy, and sometimes I feel like I am literally carrying around an albatross. Two men? GTFO, no. I guess some people want every romance book to end in wedding bells or whatever, but in this instance to me it’s jumping the shark. 
Three stars because it’s I picked this up for spice and spice it did deliver. Everything else was not for me. 

This is my non-fiction read for January. Generally, the type of  nonfiction I enjoy is either about animals or social justice. This is both. Whereas most of the book deals with the plight of turtles, which was way more dire than I realized, the book very much takes place in time. It touches on Covid, Black Lives Matter, and trans rights to name a few. It was hopeful, showing people doing something rather than just reiterating what is wrong.  So it didn't just leave me feeling sad.