Lee > Recent Status Updates

The pacing in this book is awful. Why are we in the full swing of this stupid elopement plot that just came out of nowhere two pages ago.

Afraid this is another one of those books where I have to acknowledge that lgbtq+ representation doesn't automatically equal a good, compelling story or characters.. they're so freaking flat, zero chemistry. Zero development between them at the halfway mark.

Okay, if I weren't already suspecting it was t4t, it's pretty much certain now

TIL which side do you dress on means which way does your dick hang

OHH Christopher is the trans one.. that fits better for me. Unless they're both trans. I guess they could both be trans.

Ngl, I'm not feeling this so far. Neither character had caught my interest yet. And then there's the cliche ohh my horse who doesn't like anybody let him get close.. meh. Why are romance writers so insistent that that means something.

"Many centuries of belief in the healing power of faith, for instance, make more and more faith healings happen." Bro.. all the Buddhist stuff already had you on thin ice, but holy, way to lose all your credibility in a single sentence

Things are being WAY overcomplicated by the insistence on all this Buddhist terminology. The title and synopsis say nothing about Buddhism, that's not what I'm here for. And the writing is just overly complicated in general. I know I'm not all that intelligent, but istg it takes 6 passes to parse a single sentence.

Okay, page two of the intro and we're already sounding a little woowoo.. fingers crossed that's not going to be the tone going forward

"Research shows it takes at least fifty hours of familiarity for an 'acquaintance' in your life to feel trusted enough to become a friend, ninety to be inner circle and a whopping two hundred to become a BFF."

Something I've noticed and am pleasantly surprised by is the lack of pop culture references in this book. Good job, Dan! The overabundance of pop culture references in a lot of modern books (especially in fiction but nonfiction as well, unless it's relevant to the topic), mostly by young/millennial influencer types (no offence), drives me nutty.

Shinrin yoku (forest bathing)

Mood congruence

Value/effort matrix

Not bad so far, I appreciate it's a practical guide rather than the typical influencer grift of a "self help" book that's actually just all them bragging about how good their life is but also they occasionally feel sad but if they got through it, so can you!! Just be positive go on a $7k meditation retreat!! Like, we all watched Dan struggle. We know he's actually been there.

The writing... eh. Should prob do audio.

I don't understand what he's doing here.. stealing from the barber, stealing clothes (that won't fit considering he said this guy is short?) from a random guest's room... if he's trying to disguise himself to escape, surely he can get clothes elsewhere without like. Setting the room service guy up to be accused of taking them or something.

Feels like it's starting to drag

It's not bad, but so far it's very... common sense? Like, even if I don't have the same vocabulary as her, everything's been kinda "yeah duh". Maybe I've just been exposed to very healthy ideas about sex despite not having it myself, idk. I'm not a fan of her overly casual tone/writing style. I'm not your girlfriend you're chatting with, this isn't a tumblr post. I'm trying to learn something.

K, I'm too stupid for this book.. I'm not picking up on even half of the things they're not saying beyond the fact that they're not saying something

So like, I knew Laurie and Andrew had been meeting up, but are they actually romantically involved? Did I willfully miss that because I don't give a shit about Andrew? Because they're sure acting like Lori has betrayed Andrew by reuniting with Ralph. But like. Are they actually a thing, because I'd thought Andrew was kinda clueless. Either way, Ralph over Andrew, 110%.

A little confused by the current chapter. The previous chapter was about the Christian crusades, this one is going on about persecution of Christians in like Greek/Roman times. Is this supposed to be a positive point for Christianity? It's more of a neutral. Being persecuted doesn't mean they're good. Is it supposed to justify Christian persecution of others, they've been victimized too so it's fair? Lol.

I am picking my way through this sososooo painfully slowly, but oh my god, get boring Andrew out of here and just give us Lanyon for the rest of the book, pleeaasee

DNF @ 83%. It's been so long and I'd already been forcing myself to get as far as I did, I just can't bring myself to go back to finish.

He's still got the book from Lanyon! Oh how I wish boring Andrew would go away and chapter 2 could just be extended to become the whole book...

Having trouble understanding what they're talking about on this page... what did andrew get help with? Being a conscientious objector, like it would have been too hard if not for a community backing him up in the decision?

Here's hoping this Andrew gets a decent personality, because I'm gonna be honest, there isn't much that I'd find less inspiring than "quaker"...

Okay, really liking so far. It's very vague in its queerness, you kind of just have to assume what they're talking about. This bit between Laurie and the prefect lanyon is kinda cute ngl.. and correct me if I'm wrong, but is there a kiss here!??:
"That's all, goodbye. What is it, then? Come here a moment. . . . Now you see what I mean, Spud. It never would have done, would it? Well, goodbye."

So like. There's a question mark before every cut off bit of dialogue like "this?—"
....and I'd love to know if that was some kind of formatting error in the file, or if the author and/or editor thought that looked right...

Bored... and really not enjoying this sex scene

So they're going to discover major secrets of ancient greece... in a little countryside town... in england?