Nicole > Recent Status Updates

I’m gonna need to know about this incident between Aris and Raker, PRONTO.

I’d love to cancel my plans and just read this book.

Ok. I’m listening.

This is giving “Willy wonka”. I don’t trust Atlas one bit.

Lor is giving major Celaena Sardothien vibes. Gabriel is giving major Chaol vibes. The sun king is slightly Dorian-esque. I like it so far.

Part Hunger Games, part The Bachelor and part Throne of Glass… I’ll take it.

Things are not adequately wrapped up, but we do have like 36 pages left so we’ll see.

I feel like this book is following the formula of the previous two and I have a pretty good idea who is harassing Sloane.

Lucian officially has the saddest backstory and I’m not even through it all yet.

Not much reading time lately but this is the perfect book for that. It’s not hard to remember the plot.

Lucy Score is close to as witty and funny as Abby Jimenez, without the (not totally unpleasant) corniness of Meghan Quinn.

Even being apparently hot as hell, Nash’s almost-begging would be a HUUUGE red flag. Just sayin.

You only have to read the back of the book to understand why Lina was thrown into the first book in such a haphazard way. But now she’s like apparently Knox’s bestie and I’m standing by my comment that she should have been better woven into the first book. I guess the good thing is that she’s a blank slate since we barely heard a thing about her until she was just THERE… so we’ve got plenty to learn.

Suddenly this is a creepy mystery.

Side note - how am I 344 pages in to this book and not once have they mentioned what a terrible and cold hearted name “Waylay” is????

Stef has entered the chat. And I already love him and his “car wineglasses”. But seriously how did Knox not recognize him as gay in the first five seconds of seeing him sitting on that porch?? I knew within 3 words. And obviously Knox’s bi bff and Naomi’s gay bff are going to like each other, right? RIGHT???

Meh. Very corny. Very stereotypical. We’ll see how the second half goes. Maybe it’ll pick up.

Oh boy… idk if I’m going to read the rest of this series. She is so sensitive and yet sexy and small, she’s so small…. And he is so mysterious. He’s so gruff and drives a sports car and has dangerous danger things he’s into. He’s so hot but he’s cold as ice. He’s assigned to protect her. Oh and of course he’s a millionaire. 🙄 I’ll see how this goes.

The shit has hit the fan!!!

This book is getting deep and mysterious. And so emotional between Celeste and her husband; Madeline and her daughter;Jane and her past and son. But you know what is on my mind? The apparently Australian punctuation of dialogue. They use a single quote for speech, and a double quote for words inside speech. It’s very distracting! 😂😂

It takes me a while to settle in to Liane Moriarty books. It sounds intriguing though - apparently a little champagne brunch has led to MURDER! Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN!!!!

Her middle school crush/boyfriend had “the coloring and personality of mashed potatoes.” 😂😂 I feel like all of us have had one of those. 😂

Second big thought from the first 10 pages:

2. The setting appears to be 90s ish when you could take your kid on vacation to get away from social BS. My wish for every adolescent is that they have the ability to extract themselves from the social BS somehow, even in this day of phones. My kids don’t have phones and I’m dreading the day that they do. 🥴

By page 10 I have two big thoughts:
1. The author describes what she likes about certain books as, “…both predictable and unique, comforting and unexpected. Safe but never boring.” And that’s EXACTLY how I would describe Carley Fortune books and why they’re so enjoyable.

** I’ll share my second thought in a new update. (I’m running out of characters)

I love this book. And I’m not even done w it.

Charlie’s hushed convo w his brother. He’s winded after working outside. Making the treehouse for an infant. “Time is short” comments. This book is going to break my heart.

Don’t mind me, I’m just smiling in my car waiting for the kids to get out of school.

Matt (Violet’s husband) is being a real dick about Jonah. It’s like he refuses to accept all of Violet’s past including Jonah and doesn’t want to be troubled by it. Idk why but it’s really grating on my nerves.

I would be further along except that I couldn’t do any reading last night because I forgot my book at Madeline’s softball training. I ordered another copy of the book so I could continue reading it, and it came this morning. Thanks goodness for overnight shipping.

The book is starting to have some optimistic spots. It’s opened pretty depressingly but now we are starting to delve into the every day which is - authentically - sprinkled w the good and the bad. Some characters are unexpectedly being a bit of a light in the dark, and there’s a certainly familiarity blooming that feels more realistic than sad. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

This is one of those books that start off with everyone being sad and unfulfilled in their lives. Fingers crossed it peps up a bit. Why is litfic always so damn depressing??