Review: 3.5-star review
Summary:
This book follows three women (Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane). They do not know each other but have someone in common0- Joseph. They all three get stood up by the same man on Valentine’s Day. Each relationship with Joseph is different: Siobhan is a casual fling that turns into feelings; Miranda is the serious girlfriend; Jane is the fake girl/boyfriend trope. Each relationship with joseph is a little different.
My Thoughts:
I love Beth O’Leary’s books. I have enjoyed the last 3. But this one fell flat. It had a unique plot though. It is hard to label it as a rom-com or romance, but it also is one. You will see when you read the book! This book is unlike her other 3 novels.
First, let me discuss the characters. There were a LOT of characters. I keep track of them due to me reading a lot of books at once. I had 3 pages of characters to keep track of. The characters (three main characters) were all likable. I kept pausing in the middle of the chapter and not knowing who I was reading about. A lot of the characters were similar.
The ending did wrap up everything nicely. I do not want to give anything away. But the ending was worth reading through this book!
It was VERY slow throughout. If it was a movie, I would have fast-forwarded through some of the scenes.
I loved that one of the main characters had a non-traditional career for a woman. I always enjoy it when an author does that but still makes the character a girly girl and not a butch woman. They tend to do the stereotypes of women in those fields.
The romances in the novel were lacking too. When you pick up a book with a title and cover art like this, you are expecting a rom-com with a cute romance story. But what I got was no chemistry between the characters. Now when you get to the end of the story, it all makes perfect sense. But until then, I was wondering why I am investing time into the book.
There are numerous trigger warnings in this book including but not limited to sexual harassment, an elderly parent with dementia, death, loss of pregnancy, cheating, etc.