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Wilfair #4
Fairwil: Wilfair Book 4
Fairwil follows Los Angeles hotel heiress Fair Finley and her two handsome motel-managing neighbors, Gomery and Monty Overbove, as they attempt to solve a caboodle of metaphysical mysteries (like if a whole world is beneath their feet, where the guys’ parents are, and if Fair and Gomery will ever kiss beneath the diving board that sits at one end of the motel’s swimming pool). Movie stars, teleportation, kittens, balloons, finding one’s power, mystery, club sandwiches, stringless banjos, and intimate handholding round out the humorous and heartfelt coming-of-age tale.
Unknown Binding
First published March 17, 2015
About the author
Alysia Gray Painter
4 books26 followersPros: I write about travel, hotels, festivals, and food for NBC Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. The Discovery Prize in American Humor and a regional writing Emmy nomination are two bullet points on my CV. I'm that person who will kiss your dog even though I just met your dog. I pre-like everything.
Cons: I'll sometimes list pros and cons rather than write an actual bio. I'll use "CV" even though I am not British and should probably say "résumé." Eating the leftover French fries off your plate is my thing. I regularly ruin punchlines then make the situation worse by restarting the joke three times.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 29, 2022
Trigger warnings: nothing springs to mind.
28/5/2022
This book, this book, this book. My heart.
3/5/2019
This book is my everything. The end.
10/3/2017
*screams forever over the cute*
I honestly can't believe I went nearly two years between rereads of this book. Because it. is. DELIGHTFUL. I'm not a highlighter of books, as I said below. But I found MORE things to highlight on this reread, and I now have 172 highlighted passages from this book.
I just ship it so hard and I love how slowly everything moves between them. I love that friendship plays such a critical role in the story and that it's about making new friends as much as it is about falling in love with the boy next door. It ties everything up so nicely, while also not ending with the big dramatic revelation that you expect based on the previous books.
In short: I want to be best friends with these characters and I relate to them like whoa.
6/6/2015
After a particularly painful day earlier this week, I decided that the time was right to reread this. I beta read it for Alysia last year, and basically rushed through it as fast as I possibly could to find out what happened, pausing only to find appropriate reaction gifs for my thoughts on particular events. This time, though? I took my time. And I highlighted all the lines and passages that gave me feels.
I'm not a highlighter when it comes to books. I have 246 books on my Kindle (I've read about 235 of them), and prior to this book, I had 63 lines or passages highlighted. And 13 of those were from Stay Awhile, the third book in this series. Over the course of Fairwil's 429 pages, I highlighted things that made me swoon, things that made me feelsy, things that made me laugh, things that I wanted to read again and again because they were so totally perfect. I highlighted ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE PASSAGES. Some are a single line. Some are three pages long. All of them are glorious, and I'll be going back to them time and time again.
Everything I said last time around still stands. But really? This is a book to be savoured. Because that's when the details jump out at you. Lines like "Have you ever not exactly broken the rules, but lightly mocked them?". Lines like "She's going full greeting card, LA!". Lines like "Your food shall be butt-water free".
In short, you should read this book, and the three that come before it. And not just because Alysia is a wonderful human being. Because Fair and Gomery are the cutest cute to ever cute, Monty cracks me up, Sutton is a gem, Prior gives me feels, and essentially? I want to live in this series. Forever. Go. Read. Report back immediately.
17/6/2014
To paraphrase Fair Finley, this book, this book, this book.
I don't think I will ever be over this book. I was lucky enough to beta read it for AGP, and I squealed and flailed and cried my way through it to the point where the comments that I sent her started out as helpful and well structured, and by the end were either "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" or gifs of Jeremy Renner bouncing in his chair and/or looking adorable. So that should give you some kind of indication of how my reading experience went.
I'm not going to say anything too specific because nobody likes spoilers. But rest assured, the swoon factor has been upped once again. Revelatory moments abound, Gomery remains the most adorable thing of ever, Monty made me giggle pretty much every time he turned up, I still relate to Fair more than is probably healthy, and everything ends exactly as it should.
There were a million squee-worthy moments, as well as a bunch of moments that made me tear up, and a ton of lines that gave me goosebumps. In short, it was everything I wanted and more. So much more.
Choice non-spoilery quote: "I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love. It’s the emotion you experience when two people you care about connect in their own way, outside of your sphere, and you no longer have to coax them because they've found the particular friendship road they’re going to walk together."
28/5/2022
This book, this book, this book. My heart.
3/5/2019
This book is my everything. The end.
10/3/2017
*screams forever over the cute*
I honestly can't believe I went nearly two years between rereads of this book. Because it. is. DELIGHTFUL. I'm not a highlighter of books, as I said below. But I found MORE things to highlight on this reread, and I now have 172 highlighted passages from this book.
I just ship it so hard and I love how slowly everything moves between them. I love that friendship plays such a critical role in the story and that it's about making new friends as much as it is about falling in love with the boy next door. It ties everything up so nicely, while also not ending with the big dramatic revelation that you expect based on the previous books.
In short: I want to be best friends with these characters and I relate to them like whoa.
6/6/2015
After a particularly painful day earlier this week, I decided that the time was right to reread this. I beta read it for Alysia last year, and basically rushed through it as fast as I possibly could to find out what happened, pausing only to find appropriate reaction gifs for my thoughts on particular events. This time, though? I took my time. And I highlighted all the lines and passages that gave me feels.
I'm not a highlighter when it comes to books. I have 246 books on my Kindle (I've read about 235 of them), and prior to this book, I had 63 lines or passages highlighted. And 13 of those were from Stay Awhile, the third book in this series. Over the course of Fairwil's 429 pages, I highlighted things that made me swoon, things that made me feelsy, things that made me laugh, things that I wanted to read again and again because they were so totally perfect. I highlighted ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE PASSAGES. Some are a single line. Some are three pages long. All of them are glorious, and I'll be going back to them time and time again.
Everything I said last time around still stands. But really? This is a book to be savoured. Because that's when the details jump out at you. Lines like "Have you ever not exactly broken the rules, but lightly mocked them?". Lines like "She's going full greeting card, LA!". Lines like "Your food shall be butt-water free".
In short, you should read this book, and the three that come before it. And not just because Alysia is a wonderful human being. Because Fair and Gomery are the cutest cute to ever cute, Monty cracks me up, Sutton is a gem, Prior gives me feels, and essentially? I want to live in this series. Forever. Go. Read. Report back immediately.
17/6/2014
To paraphrase Fair Finley, this book, this book, this book.
I don't think I will ever be over this book. I was lucky enough to beta read it for AGP, and I squealed and flailed and cried my way through it to the point where the comments that I sent her started out as helpful and well structured, and by the end were either "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" or gifs of Jeremy Renner bouncing in his chair and/or looking adorable. So that should give you some kind of indication of how my reading experience went.
I'm not going to say anything too specific because nobody likes spoilers. But rest assured, the swoon factor has been upped once again. Revelatory moments abound, Gomery remains the most adorable thing of ever, Monty made me giggle pretty much every time he turned up, I still relate to Fair more than is probably healthy, and everything ends exactly as it should.
There were a million squee-worthy moments, as well as a bunch of moments that made me tear up, and a ton of lines that gave me goosebumps. In short, it was everything I wanted and more. So much more.
Choice non-spoilery quote: "I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love. It’s the emotion you experience when two people you care about connect in their own way, outside of your sphere, and you no longer have to coax them because they've found the particular friendship road they’re going to walk together."
February 25, 2016
Chocolate sparkle rainbow kittens!
Proper review to follow...
Edit: I exaggerated. I don't actually have a proper review of this book. Chocolate sparkle rainbow kittens (the good stuff, not the swearing) pretty much sums up my feelings. This entire series is amazing and everyone should read it, and if they don't completely chocolate rainbow sparkle kittens over it, they clearly have a lack of whimsy in their life which ought to be addressed immediately for their own health and well-being.
Proper review to follow...
Edit: I exaggerated. I don't actually have a proper review of this book. Chocolate sparkle rainbow kittens (the good stuff, not the swearing) pretty much sums up my feelings. This entire series is amazing and everyone should read it, and if they don't completely chocolate rainbow sparkle kittens over it, they clearly have a lack of whimsy in their life which ought to be addressed immediately for their own health and well-being.
January 3, 2015
PERFECT AND SQUEE-TASTIC. Thoughts later.
December 27, 2017
27.12.2017
I'm downgrading this to 4 stars from my previous review because on re-read, it didn't hold up its magicalness. It was still a great book with lots of love and everything in it but it didn't made me squee as much and I don't exactly know why. Just, when I started reading this right after I ended book 3, this felt different in tone. Plus, it's pretty long and the whole Fair/Gomery dynamic is a bit too drawn out for my liking. I loved the slow burn but this was just full of unnecessary stuff.
Also, I seem to have graduated from the Sutton Imaginary Girlfriend School to Clementine Hwang and her audiophile greatness. Totally okay with this development.
29.12.2014
I yelled 'Yell' after finishing this book. I also held my Kindle close to my heart because everything was rainbow kittens puppies and 500 Dip awesome. Also, have you heard that 'love' and 'everything' have shared custody of the 'e'?
Seriously, this book is beyond cute and the perfect ending to this perfect series. It's also pretty long but there is a lot of stuff to be revolved and explained and really, the longer one can stay in Wilfair-Land, the better. I woke up this morning to more snow and started reading the last part of this book which took until after noon and then I leapt out of bed with the biggest grin on my face because who would have thought talking about boilers could be sexy? I had no idea.
I love how the characters grow and evolve and it's not just Fair though I think she sees the biggest grow throughout the entire serious which is legit. She starts as a frou-frou figurehead and turns into someone taking care of her own life, her decisions and empire building. I greatly enjoy that. And she found a way for everyone to be happy and nobody to be sad. Obviously this is not real world because there sadly are no World's Basements in this life and all the other cute things in the series but I'm right now content with knowing we live in a world where we can imagine those things.
It took me way too long to realise Dadted and Dadtom were a gay couple but yeah. And then there was a little bit more of Rosa and Hannah who apparently are pretty quirky themselves and everything is lovely and nothing hurts right now.
Not sure what else to say aside from thank you to AGP for bestowing this ARC upon me through the holidays and making the end of my 2014 a little bit quirkier and definitely lovelier.
I'm downgrading this to 4 stars from my previous review because on re-read, it didn't hold up its magicalness. It was still a great book with lots of love and everything in it but it didn't made me squee as much and I don't exactly know why. Just, when I started reading this right after I ended book 3, this felt different in tone. Plus, it's pretty long and the whole Fair/Gomery dynamic is a bit too drawn out for my liking. I loved the slow burn but this was just full of unnecessary stuff.
Also, I seem to have graduated from the Sutton Imaginary Girlfriend School to Clementine Hwang and her audiophile greatness. Totally okay with this development.
29.12.2014
I yelled 'Yell' after finishing this book. I also held my Kindle close to my heart because everything was rainbow kittens puppies and 500 Dip awesome. Also, have you heard that 'love' and 'everything' have shared custody of the 'e'?
Seriously, this book is beyond cute and the perfect ending to this perfect series. It's also pretty long but there is a lot of stuff to be revolved and explained and really, the longer one can stay in Wilfair-Land, the better. I woke up this morning to more snow and started reading the last part of this book which took until after noon and then I leapt out of bed with the biggest grin on my face because who would have thought talking about boilers could be sexy? I had no idea.
I love how the characters grow and evolve and it's not just Fair though I think she sees the biggest grow throughout the entire serious which is legit. She starts as a frou-frou figurehead and turns into someone taking care of her own life, her decisions and empire building. I greatly enjoy that. And she found a way for everyone to be happy and nobody to be sad. Obviously this is not real world because there sadly are no World's Basements in this life and all the other cute things in the series but I'm right now content with knowing we live in a world where we can imagine those things.
It took me way too long to realise Dadted and Dadtom were a gay couple but yeah. And then there was a little bit more of Rosa and Hannah who apparently are pretty quirky themselves and everything is lovely and nothing hurts right now.
Not sure what else to say aside from thank you to AGP for bestowing this ARC upon me through the holidays and making the end of my 2014 a little bit quirkier and definitely lovelier.
May 1, 2019
To paraphrase Fair Finley, this book, this book, this book.
I don't think I will ever be over this book. I was lucky enough to beta read it for AGP, and I squealed and flailed and cried my way through it to the point where the comments that I sent her started out as helpful and well structured, and by the end were either "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" or gifs of Jeremy Renner bouncing in his chair and/or looking adorable. So that should give you some kind of indication of how my reading experience went.
I'm not going to say anything too specific because nobody likes spoilers. But rest assured, the swoon factor has been upped once again. Revelatory moments abound, Gomery remains the most adorable thing of ever, Monty made me giggle pretty much every time he turned up, I still relate to Fair more than is probably healthy, and everything ends exactly as it should.
There were a million squee-worthy moments, as well as a bunch of moments that made me tear up, and a ton of lines that gave me goosebumps. In short, it was everything I wanted and more. So much more.
Choice non-spoilery quote: "I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love. It’s the emotion you experience when two people you care about connect in their own way, outside of your sphere, and you no longer have to coax them because they've found the particular friendship road they’re going to walk together."
I don't think I will ever be over this book. I was lucky enough to beta read it for AGP, and I squealed and flailed and cried my way through it to the point where the comments that I sent her started out as helpful and well structured, and by the end were either "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" or gifs of Jeremy Renner bouncing in his chair and/or looking adorable. So that should give you some kind of indication of how my reading experience went.
I'm not going to say anything too specific because nobody likes spoilers. But rest assured, the swoon factor has been upped once again. Revelatory moments abound, Gomery remains the most adorable thing of ever, Monty made me giggle pretty much every time he turned up, I still relate to Fair more than is probably healthy, and everything ends exactly as it should.
There were a million squee-worthy moments, as well as a bunch of moments that made me tear up, and a ton of lines that gave me goosebumps. In short, it was everything I wanted and more. So much more.
Choice non-spoilery quote: "I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love. It’s the emotion you experience when two people you care about connect in their own way, outside of your sphere, and you no longer have to coax them because they've found the particular friendship road they’re going to walk together."
August 19, 2020
This one dragged a bit and could have down with some editing down a few hundred pages, but the whole series is an absolute delight and much recommended.
November 10, 2017
You know how series oftentimes get worse as they go on? Wilfair is the opposite. The exact opposite in every way possible.
If you had told me after I finished Wilfair, the first book in the series, that I'd be freaking out waiting for the fourth and final book to come out, I'd have laughed at you. I liked the first book, but it was weird. It wasn't until the end of the second book that I became firmly encamped in Team AGP. The third book made me think it was true love between me and the books. Now the fourth, oh gosh, can I marry a book?
First of all, AGP totally brought the swoon. You thought the other books were swoony? You have no idea what swoon is. I wanted to rainbows sparkles kitten want to drive to LA and hug AGP for a long time, and that's before I even finished the entire book.
Secondly, the book was everything I wanted it to be and more. There aren't enough words to describe how perfect the ending was and how much I'm going to miss these characters who had such a strange beginning.
Thirdly, I'm super Sad Town the series is over, but also super Happy Hollow that I got to spend four books with these characters. If they magically popped up in another book or story or, from my fingers typing to the Universe's ears, a tv show or movie, I'd be so happy.
Lastly, I feel like discussing plot and happenings will be wasted here, because everyone who makes it this far in series has to be totally in love with it. You all know what happened, you read the book and experienced the insanity, so dissecting the plot is boring for us.
Instead, let's talk about things I LOVED (maybe don't read this until you're done, although I spoiler-cut one thing for definite spoilerness):
"Is that a thing now? Hiring people you're in love with?" YES, YES IT IS A THING. STOP JUDGING.
"I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love." Maybe my favorite line of the series.
"It's cotton candy messed up, but also gingersnaps candy amazing. Like most things." Maybe my second favorite line of the series.
"Hot's six." DUDE. Love this. Hilarious moment with excellent entendre. Totally my style of funny.
"For all the times I theoretically drooled over his forearms, it was bound to happen literally." Gah, so fantastic!
I like whenever Fair has to put Prior to bed. It's inexplicably charming. Bonus points if Gomery is there.
A little thing, but I love that the construction foreperson is a woman.
The bowl spoon bed conversation killed me in the best way possible.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't stop at cry at this for five minutes: "My whole life was pure She Wouldn't," I shared. "And I would dare look back and wallow in any of that, not to the expense of my now. My now would get very cranky." I just, I don't know, love it so much.
Also, there was just a lot of crying at the end of the book in general because, well, I'm a crier. I hate seeing things end, even when they include such a delightful ending as this.
So long to The Wilfair, Fairwil, and your magical cast of characters. I'll miss you.
EDIT 11/9/17: I still love this book so much and am still super Sad Town the series is over.
If you had told me after I finished Wilfair, the first book in the series, that I'd be freaking out waiting for the fourth and final book to come out, I'd have laughed at you. I liked the first book, but it was weird. It wasn't until the end of the second book that I became firmly encamped in Team AGP. The third book made me think it was true love between me and the books. Now the fourth, oh gosh, can I marry a book?
First of all, AGP totally brought the swoon. You thought the other books were swoony? You have no idea what swoon is. I wanted to rainbows sparkles kitten want to drive to LA and hug AGP for a long time, and that's before I even finished the entire book.
Secondly, the book was everything I wanted it to be and more. There aren't enough words to describe how perfect the ending was and how much I'm going to miss these characters who had such a strange beginning.
Thirdly, I'm super Sad Town the series is over, but also super Happy Hollow that I got to spend four books with these characters. If they magically popped up in another book or story or, from my fingers typing to the Universe's ears, a tv show or movie, I'd be so happy.
Lastly, I feel like discussing plot and happenings will be wasted here, because everyone who makes it this far in series has to be totally in love with it. You all know what happened, you read the book and experienced the insanity, so dissecting the plot is boring for us.
Instead, let's talk about things I LOVED (maybe don't read this until you're done, although I spoiler-cut one thing for definite spoilerness):
"Is that a thing now? Hiring people you're in love with?" YES, YES IT IS A THING. STOP JUDGING.
"I was suddenly awash with the magical feeling adjacent to love." Maybe my favorite line of the series.
"It's cotton candy messed up, but also gingersnaps candy amazing. Like most things." Maybe my second favorite line of the series.
"Hot's six." DUDE. Love this. Hilarious moment with excellent entendre. Totally my style of funny.
"For all the times I theoretically drooled over his forearms, it was bound to happen literally." Gah, so fantastic!
I like whenever Fair has to put Prior to bed. It's inexplicably charming. Bonus points if Gomery is there.
A little thing, but I love that the construction foreperson is a woman.
The bowl spoon bed conversation killed me in the best way possible.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't stop at cry at this for five minutes: "My whole life was pure She Wouldn't," I shared. "And I would dare look back and wallow in any of that, not to the expense of my now. My now would get very cranky." I just, I don't know, love it so much.
Also, there was just a lot of crying at the end of the book in general because, well, I'm a crier. I hate seeing things end, even when they include such a delightful ending as this.
So long to The Wilfair, Fairwil, and your magical cast of characters. I'll miss you.
EDIT 11/9/17: I still love this book so much and am still super Sad Town the series is over.
May 1, 2019
ETA (April 29 2019) that this is still the best series. BEST. so if all you see if my review of this book, go see my reviews of the others.
Regardless of my feelings on this last book, I still think this is one of the best series I have read in a while. I'd recommend it highly overall. It lacked a little editing polish, but more than made up for it in charm and good characters.
This one took me more time to get through than all the others combined. There was no conflict. No nothing. The last half of the book was just wrapping up predictable loose ends. I was not impressed.
You know it's bad when I think Prior's story is the most interesting one in the whole last book.
Edited: I just read all my friends reviews and they clearly loved it more than me :(
I do love Fair and Gomery. And it had some great lines. But nothing really happened. I found her insistence that she didn't "love" him yet grating because she so clearly
Regardless of my feelings on this last book, I still think this is one of the best series I have read in a while. I'd recommend it highly overall. It lacked a little editing polish, but more than made up for it in charm and good characters.
This one took me more time to get through than all the others combined. There was no conflict. No nothing. The last half of the book was just wrapping up predictable loose ends. I was not impressed.
You know it's bad when I think Prior's story is the most interesting one in the whole last book.
Edited: I just read all my friends reviews and they clearly loved it more than me :(
I do love Fair and Gomery. And it had some great lines. But nothing really happened. I found her insistence that she didn't "love" him yet grating because she so clearly
February 1, 2017
Even though I only gave this three stars, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. I can't believe it took me so long to read Book 4, after enjoying the others so much, but sometimes I get really distracted (for a really long time) by other books that come out (is this what the kids mean by FOMO?) Anyway, I enjoyed being back in the Fairwil world and I enjoyed how everything wrapped up in this final book -- although the wrapping up took too long, which is where the 3 stars comes in. I embrace the quirkiness of this novel and the characters, but it just got a little too repetitive and draggy, particularly in the last third.
October 7, 2015
When I was a kid, I used to love starting to write stories. I wasn't great at traditional stories, though, because I hated conflict. My "stories" were usually just descriptions of girls living with unicorns and visiting their friends. They were happy descriptions rather than plots, and they were really fun to write.
Fairwil is a little like this. Some things happen, but for the most part it's a lengthy celebration of the end of conflict. There is hugging, and kissing, and laughter, and revelry, and kittens, and epiphanies. And you know what? Sometimes that's what you need to read.
Fairwil is a little like this. Some things happen, but for the most part it's a lengthy celebration of the end of conflict. There is hugging, and kissing, and laughter, and revelry, and kittens, and epiphanies. And you know what? Sometimes that's what you need to read.
April 8, 2015
AGP kills it with the final book of this series. If you've been burned by a disappointing ending one too many times (because seriously haven't we all?) get thee to the internets and download the Wilfair series posthaste! This is one series that gets better with each book. Fairwil is the book equivalent of an explosion of stomach butterflies and fist pumps and happiness and diving boards and I never wanted it to end.
June 25, 2015
At least once, Monty refers to Fair, the protagonist, as being annoying and off-putting and, many times, weird. But he does so with the utmost of affection. I think that best summarizes where I sit with the last book in this series; it can be a bit twee for my usual tastes, but that’s kind of the point and I like it all the more because it owns that quality. Everything about this whole series is just fun and quirky and I can’t help but love it dearly.
March 30, 2015
Such a whimsical book. I'm pretty sure Fair and Gomery's love story can be summed up in just one gif:
May 26, 2015
Can't believe this was the last one, will miss these people!
October 25, 2014
Delightful. Pure fizzy happiness.
December 12, 2014
A perfect ending to a fantastic series. This book made my heart sing.
December 26, 2014
This series of fun and quirkiness comes to a fitting (and sweet) conclusion. See my entire review here:
http://thebookfix.wordpress.com/2014/...
http://thebookfix.wordpress.com/2014/...
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews