Janna > Recent Status Updates

I’m not connecting to the main character at all. She doesn’t feel like a person, just a collection of actions with no motivations or inner monologue. Also, why didn’t anyone tell these BookTok authors about “show, don’t tell”?

I want to like this book but the way it started is not good. It’s like the author didn’t know how to write an opening line so she didn’t bother.

The relationship between Violet and Xaden is the worst part of this series and I find myself skimming the scenes when they’re together.

This is how I feel so far.

AveryxJameson - cute and entertaining but the way it kept going back and forward in time wasn’t very effective.

HannahxToby- my favorite one so far. It felt like a fully realized novella with a beginning, middle, and end and it was absolutely perfect.

LibbyxNash - This appears to be the fan favorite one, but I found it boring. We already know almost everything that happens.

I’m having trouble with this book because the Denver stuff is all wrong (the medical campus is in Aurora and the main university is in Boulder. Someone with money who is a professor in Boulder wouldn’t necessarily know anyone from the medical campus and wouldn’t live in Denver) and I don’t understand why the MC is doing any of the things she’s doing even though it’s from her POV??

How can someone imaginative enough to invent dragon exterminators be so unable to imagine women as human beings with interests and inner lives that include things other than marriage?

This is an adorable book. I think I’d like to try reading it in Korean.

Oops. Enter the MPDG.

The pacing is rough. Also “chocolate hair” is not my favorite turn of phrase. Blech.

Today I read the word “Fizzgina.” It was a terrible day to have eyes.

I just started but man that was a bad commencement speech.

I want to read this book. I do. But why are there entire sections with no punctuation? Why are people who write like this being rewarded with literary prizes? What literary value is there to making your story so much harder on the reader? Can I skip this section and still understand what’s going on?

You know when you’re in an interview and someone asks what are your flaws are? This book is like if someone said “working too hard and caring too much” and this author thought “what a great concept for my main character!”

The writing is just so bad.

Most of the time, switching perspectives is a bad idea that kills pacing.

Idk if I’m going to finish this. Not much is happening and I’m kind of bored.

Nope. Dnf. It’s too self-indulgent, like she’s doing fan fiction of her own characters with an incredibly boring original character added in.

Idk if I will finish it. There are so many random changes in point of view, I’m getting whiplash, and Laura isn’t an interesting MC. I just don’t feel as immersed as I have in Waxman’s previous books.

I just finished a really good book and I’m having trouble getting into this one.

I almost DNF in the first few pages because I found Naomi’s behavior at the conference baffling, inappropriate and weirdly defensive, but I am giving this book another chance because the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.