Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Camille Baker for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review 📚
Rating: 2/5
“Even a shortened stick can be formed into a weapon against the things that have hurt me.”
To start with what I liked first, it is only right to start with the book cover. It drew me in immediately and looked like the kind of book I would enjoy reading or, at least, would want to know more about. I had no previous experience with this author but upon reading the summary I could instantly recognise a unique concept that would make for a very interesting story.
‘The Moment we Met’ concerns our main character, Tiwanda, as she juggles various aspects of her life that prove to be challenging in their own ways: work, family, friendship, and romance. The societal pressures Tiwanda experiences can easily be related to by the reader, especially when it comes chasing dreams and not fitting into the norm. Within this same vein, the story also greatly celebrates diversity.
Unfortunately, however, the cons outweighed the pros for me and my reading experience with this book. Right from the start, I felt like, as a reader, I wasn’t given the adequate opportunity and time to fall in love with the characters. I am not sure if they feature in any of the author’s other books, but seeing as I was reading this with a fresh set of eyes I felt that I was expected to know them already. This, topped with the fact that there is an overwhelming amount of characters mentioned throughout the story, made the narration feel very two-dimensional for me. I was getting easily confused who is who, and who had said that and why this person is saying this. I think this story would have been ten times more enjoyable if half of the characters didn’t exist and I didn’t have to keep up with remembering so many names and their roles to the main character.
Secondly, I wouldn’t go so far to say that the main character was unlikable- but, even by the end of the story, I felt like I still barely knew her. A lot of her actions took me by surprise and she was very dismissing and poorly-mannered at times (which seemed to magically turn around in the last twenty pages of the book). Her negativity- whilst I understand stems from her previous experiences in life and more often than not has a legitimate reason behind it- was still exhausting and unpleasant to read through.
‘The Moment we Met’, whilst perfectly capturing a new adult life, tried to do everything at once. I wasn’t sure from which genre lens I should view this story. The focus is on everything and nothing all at once, heavily backed up by staccato sentences of info-dumping paragraphs. I found myself often asking which information was important and which wasn’t? It was pretty difficult to differentiate.
As for the romance, I think the story would greatly benefit if it where to be better sectioned and took the time to give equal attention to all four potential love interests. Whilst I was content as a reader with whom Tiwanda chose, it was still very predictable due to the fact that her choice was allocated much more attention than any of the other love interests. The romance part of the story could have been better structured in general. The general pacing was equally as very difficult to keep up with, especially in between chapters.
Finally, I felt like for most of the book we are only told about her passion for chocolate and soap making, and only really ever see her doing either until the final half of the story. It was hard to imagine her being so passionate about kick-starting the business surrounding the two when we barely see her actively pursuing and indulging in them.
In conclusion, I think both this universe has a lot of potential and I still enjoyed my time reading it, and I will certainly still be looking out for more of Camille Baker’s future works!