JP > Recent Status Updates

This is… I want to say SO BAD but I’ll just say it’s so not me. I’m going to give this to 30% to change my mind otherwise it’s going to be lucky second DNF for me ever.

“I care not on which lands you stand, only that you live. Cast all mention of the Underworld from thought. The very notion that your heart might stop beating causes mine to ache, so mention it no more.”

I mean, need I say more? SWOONINGGGG

So far this feels like a handbook of cliches and stereotypes to avoid. It’s a bit on the nose, let’s just say that.

Having said that, I am intrigued to see the connection between Joe and Noah development and how the chemistry ranks so we persevere!

Heaven

Oh god. Headline: “Gruff cowboy with heart of gold is great with kids”?

I’m an absolute fuckin goner

Okayyyy I’m one chapter in, how am I so smitten already? I hate hate HATE that I love a cowboy, but fuck I am down bad for Web already. I can already tell this is going to be one of those bittersweet books that’s achingly tragic but grips you with its heart. I am gripped, and considering how smutty chapter one was that was very unexpected for me. Onwards!

“Thank fuck it’s over and we can get the farts and coffee breath circulating out of this glass prison”.

That was the moment I knew I’d love this book, at 1% in. What a perfect description of working a corporate job in middle management. I already identify with Pete so much I can’t not enjoy this.

Oh god 😭😭
It’s 2:26am and I need to sleep, but it’s so hard to put this down. This book has destroyed me, but right now there are the seedlings of the HEA sprouting and it feels so fucking good. WHAT A BOOK. Part 1 felt so optimistic and sweet and special, until it crushes you. Part 2 crushes your crushed remains. Part 3 gives you that glimmer of hope and happiness back. I have high hope for part 4.

This is cute and flirty, and is giving me those butterflies I love early in a book when they’re just discovering that they’re into each other. It’s intoxicating as ever. But there is something with this book. The way it’s written, it’s odd. I say this often (maybe I’m the drama). But small things like the MCs referring to themselves as ‘jocks’. In what world? Using each others names in odd ways, etc.

Oy. Everything since moving into the Roosevelt has just been so utterly delightful. This book is delightful. Emmet and Jeremey are delightful. David is delightful. I am besotted.

This book is so beautifully sensitive. It’s giving You’re My Home by Katie Moore except where all the relationships aren’t toxic and problematic (not a read, I love that book, but c’mon.). Obviously there’s heavy themes being explored, but I feel hopeful. I can tell in the way the story is written that the author cares about these characters deeply, and will give them a great HEA. And not even at 50%. LOVE

Oh my GOD 😭😭😭

Coming for Jeremey’s parents Taken-style.

Me reading chapter 8: “what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you stop being mean to Jeremey right now that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you, but if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you."

No words just 🥹🥹🥹

10% in and I am CHARMED. Neurodivergent characters are an absolute weakness of mine and the portrayal of Emmet thus far is absolutely delightful. I’d be his friend if he introduced himself to me like he did to Jeremey. I’ve heard this book is very emotional so I know I’m in for a rollercoaster, but right now I am just soaking up the absolute 🥹🥹🥹 vibes.

Sooo… I got a little bored and my pace has definitely slowed. There’s still something not quite right about it. The dialogue feels stilted. As I’ve said already, almost like an AI version of a normal conversation. They’re saying all the right things but just in a weird emotionless way. The way Keller comes across because of this is basically obnoxious, where I think the author was going for happy-go-lucky.

“They should have some bargains since the new cars are out and you don’t want anything fancy, I’m sure”.

“The new cars are out”? What cars? Is there like a ‘new car season’ I’m not aware of?

Yes this is a silly thing, but it demonstrates my issue with this book. It feels lazily written, or like AI. It’s got all the parts of a good story, but as if they were assembled by a child.

I love the premise of this book, and I’m interested enough to continue reading for right now but… and no disrespect if not, but this reads like it was written by AI. It’s just very… simplistic. Very literal. Maybe it’s because I’ve just come off the back of Tal Bauer’s beautifully flowery prose but something about this just seems off

Nooooo

OOOF. Chapter 24 is an emotional rollercoaster let me tell you. I wept. I wept some more. I swooned. I wept because of how swoony it was. Really Tal’s writing showcased at its best. Tender, poetic, ethereal scene building, sickeningly romantic, with hints of sweet goofiness. It’s shit like this why I love this genre.

Damn being busy and damn having to wake up at 5am. I only got 2% in today, and 50% wouldn’t have been enough. I am addicted. HOOK IT TO MY VEINS.

Be still my heart. Tal Bauer’s writing is so beautiful and poetic and tender I just can’t even describe the gaping chasm this is hollowing out in my life. It will be impossible to fill when I finish this. Such. Big. Feelings.