romance

Book Review – The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I can’t promise that this will be the best thing I’ve ever written. At the time of writing, I haven’t slept for about 32 hours. After a bit of unexpected drama, I ended up spending 11 hours in an A&E department. Nothing to worry about in the end but there were some very stressful moments. By the time I got back, I decided it was best to power through for the rest of the day so I don’t mess up my sleeping pattern before work tomorrow. The last-minute outing to the hospital meant that I wasn’t able to get this review written yesterday, so it was my sole mission when I did get back this morning. Well, once I’d finished the last 30 pages of the book at least. I was so close to the end when the drama occurred and I was hopeful I’d be back in time to finish it that night/morning. I’d forgotten just how much of a mess the Tories have let the NHS in.

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Book Review – An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I was surprised by how into Bridgerton that I got. Okay, so it’s essentially just a sexy soap opera set in Regency-era London. I knew it would be a pretty casual watching experience but I didn’t think it would be my thing. I’ve never been a lover of romance novels, so didn’t think I’d care about all of those same tropes being dusted off again. I won’t pretend that I’m a huge fan but I binged watched both series 1 and 2 pretty quickly recently. An act that made me curious about the novels the show was adapted from. I had no illusions that I’d ever undertake reading the whole series but I did at least want to give one a try. Why start with book 3? Well, it made sense after finishing season 2 of the show, even if the next season is based on book 4. I also think that Benedict is the most interesting of the siblings, so was interested to see how he came across in the books. Also, I had to see if the Cinderella elements were as awful as they sounded. So, without having any belief that I’d enjoy this book, I set about reading it. How bad could it be?

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Book Review – Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

As if I wasn’t already feeling fairly old but I’ve just discovered that this book was the winner of the Goodreads Best Historical Fiction. It’s set in the early 90s.In my head, that only happened a few years ago. How can that be considered historical? The 90s is now officially vintage. Something to be viewed with a sense of nostalgia. I hope the 90s don’t replace the 80s as the top literary setting. I’m not sure I’m ready to deal with YA characters getting super excited about old Nickelodeon shows and floppy-haired boybands. Celebrating the discovery of a really cool retro album called Backstreet’s Back. I’m imagining Ready Player One but with much less cool references. I didn’t know that Carrie Soto is Back was set in the 90s. I’m not saying it would have stopped me reading it but it would at least have prepared me. Prepared me for hearing the words “my new favourite show: ER” spoken with utter sincerity. The 90s was a weird time.

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Book Review – The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

books, reviews

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Last week, a friend of mine asked for reading recommendations. I enjoy talking about books with people but I do find it stressful recommending them. Especially when the person doesn’t give me an idea of what they like to read. Especially as I like to read a variety of books. I don’t like to put myself in a box in terms of genre and tropes. Although, there are certain books that I do tend to avoid. I’ve never been a lover of romance books which makes me avoid them most of the time. I’m trying to embrace more genre fiction this year and that includes romance. There might be something out there that works for me. So, I’m open to suggestions. It’s the reason why I ended up listening to TikTok and buying this book. Normally, I would have just forgotten it existed and moved on.

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Book Review – This is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

books, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

This is one of those books that I really wanted to read. I always meant to suggest it for our virtual book club before it disbanded. Every month, we would pick one book under 300 pages and we had a lot of ups and downs. Most of the other members just wanted books about people getting killed. From my experience, crime fiction under 300 pages doesn’t tend to be that great. Unless it’s Agatha Christie but they’d already torn And Then There Were None apart before my eyes. I thought this sci-fi romance book might have something to keep everyone entertained. Especially as I’d pretty much only heard great things about it.

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Film Review – I Believe in Santa (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 0.5 out of 5.

I absolutely promise that I had planned to watch something sensible this week. At least, as sensible as a Christmas film is ever likely to get. Then I discovered that Netflix had released a film called I Believe in Santa about a grown man who still believes in Father Christmas. How could I not watch that? It sounded so stupid. Even more ridiculous than any of their previous festive offerings. Could this possibly be a new low for the streaming service or would it end up being the best thing they’d ever done? I suspected it would be the former but I had to find out for myself.

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Film Review – Your Christmas or Mine? (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Am I going mad or are there two different films with this exact premise this year? Either that or the main actors in this film are so utterly generic that every time I see the trailer I forget that I’ve already seen it. It’s not as if I ever expected this to be one of the greatest Christmas films ever. After all, the trailer makes it pretty obvious what’s going to happen. In fact, the premise alone makes it pretty obvious what’s going to happen. Both halves of a young couple end up at their partner’s house for Christmas. Hilarity ensues. Even if I was pretty convinced that hilarity would be the last thing on the menu. The least I could hope for would be an easy watch that didn’t require much attention.

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Film Review – Falling For Christmas (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

It’s December, which means things are about to get a lot more Christmassy around here. Obviously, most of the streaming services have already been pushing their festive content since the 1st of November but I like to put it off for as long as possible. There’s only so much that I can take. In the past, I’ve attempted to watch one Christmas film every day in advent. I really don’t think I could do that to myself this year. There’s so much happening. Instead, I’ll just review one every week of the month. Seems manageable. And what better place to start than Netflix. The platform has long been giving Hallmark a run for its money with their paint by numbers approach to holiday films. One year, I dare them to do something unique. Until then, we’ve got the same old story but with new faces.

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Film Review – Marry Me (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Hollywood is a strange place when it comes to beauty standards. This isn’t news but every so often a film will come along that pushes me to the brink. Like when I Feel Pretty tried to convince us that Amy Schumer was fat. Or how they keep casting the phenomenally beautiful Kate Winslet in the dowdy role. Not jut Kate Winslet. Hollywood is so obsessed with only casting beautiful people that they often have to stretch reality for the sake of the story. Take Marry Me. One of the major plot points of the film is that Jennifer Lopez marrying the age-appropriate and handsome Owen Wilson is considered a sign of madness.

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Book Review – The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

It should be obvious by now that I’m really far behind the literary trends. This book was all over Instagram ages ago but I just didn’t think it was the book for me. It’s just not my typical genre. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with romance but it’s just not my favourite. Still, when I found a copy of this book in a charity shop a while back, I had to buy it. Although, it wasn’t until the audiobook came up to borrow at the library that I finally went to read it. It seemed like the perfect book to listen to at work when it was super hot.

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