Genre: Romance

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned. I had a hard time trying to figure out why I couldn’t really get into this one despite the novel having all the elements to be a compelling and romantic read and I think the biggest problem I had was finding the protagonist August and her love interest Jane to be bland and uninspiring. There’s quite a colorful variety of characters of various ethnic backgrounds and sexualities that provide fun group dynamics and banter which help pad out the novel (the side characters are frankly more interesting than the leads), but I felt like the actual core story and romance was thin and lacking development. To their credit McQuiston tries to pull some creative scenes to break up the monotony of repetitive constant scenes all taking place in a subway train car, but I often found myself applauding the effort that went into the book rather than actually enjoying the book. I also felt like there was very little plot progression in the first 250 pages other than establishing that August is out of place in a big…

I am obviously far from the target reader demographics this book is intended for but I still found it to be an pleasant, if not predictable read. It’s a comforting feel-good romance novel ironically focusing on a protag who believes love is dead after being betrayed and taken advantage of by a insensitive ex/aspiring author. I’m not a typical fan of the romance novel genre so take my opinions with a grain of salt, but I picked this up based on intriguing synopsis and the extended pun on “romance is dead.” Also the concept of a ghostwriter having to write a novel while in the presence of a ghost of her editor, genius. Despite my initial excitement for the book’s concept and plot, majority of the time I wished the novel dug a little deeper (get it-) into the themes of coping with loss, healing from betrayal (both romantically and socially) and returning to one’s roots. I acknowledge the primary purpose of this book is the romance, but during some of the quieter moments it often showed signs of being something more profound and touching making it all the more frustrating when it settles for skimming the surface of these…

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned. As someone who does not like romance or comedy novels, this one was already fighting an uphill battle that it somehow got over (specifically the first 50 or so pages). A feel-good and easy casual read, this is a collegiate-set coming of (young adult) age story written with the unapologetically earnest and rose-tinted glasses tone that made Heartstopper so appealing. At times it tiptoes the line of being corny and cliche, but the witty banter and Wren’s hilariously relatable internal monologues helped to keep it in the perfect sweet spot comfort read for me. The inclusion of the senior and snappy divorcee/widowed character Alice Kelly who serves dual-roles as both a central plot mechanism and as a older social mentor for Wren was refreshing and different from what I’ve read in this genre. Timothy Janovsky also nails the internal battle introverted feeling folks go through when it comes to romance and the novel is filled to the brim with Millenial/Gen Z pop culture references and slang, some of which are incredibly recent or hyper-specific to the target demographics…