Adult Assembly Required by Abbi Waxman Review

 

* This review is spoiler-free *

3.5/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Neighbors to lovers

➮ Slice-of-life

➮ Forced proximity

➮ Instalove

Synopsis

When Laura Costello moves to LA to escape her overprotective family and the memories of an accident, she doesn’t expect to be homeless after a week. She also doesn’t expect to find herself adopted by a rogue bookseller, installed in a lovely but completely illegal boardinghouse, or challenged to save a losing trivia team… but that’s what happens. Add a regretful landlady, a gorgeous housemate, and an ex-boyfriend determined to put himself back in the running and you’ll see why Laura is so frazzled. Luckily for her, her new friends Nina, Polly, and Bob aren’t sure either, but maybe if they put their heads (and hearts) together they’ll be able to make it work.

Best Quote From the Book

“Someone once told me that anxiety lives in the unknown future, depression lives in the unforgettable past, and peace lives in acceptance of the present moment"

LGBTQ+ Representation

3.75/5 🌈

Every single character in the book is incredibly chill about people being LGBTQ+. Polly in particular is incredibly supportive of anyone and will ask about your sexuality and not just assume. It was refreshing to see a group of potentially straight people just be such open allies.

My Thoughts

This book feels like it truly does not know what genre it wants to be in. Most of the book honestly just feels like general fiction, a slice-of-life type story. Then it shifts back and forth to being a romance story. It is too much romance to be a subplot but not enough to really feel like a romance story. For some reason, this ambiguity really diminished my reading experience. I have seen this book described as chick-lit lit which is the best term I've seen to describe it so far.

The best part of this book was the Winnie the Pooh reference. For context, I absolutely adore Winnie the Pooh. Any moment it is so much as alluded to makes my heart very happy. It got at least a bonus quarter-star just for that. (Another example of my ratings being highly subjective). 

My favorite character in this story is Polly. She is just a hoot! I love her eclectic vibe and overall calm nature. She adds some much-needed kookiness to the story. I wish I could befriend her myself!

The family drama in this book feels quite generic. I would've loved to see some element of it to make this book more unique. Laura acts like her relationship with her parents is incredibly stilted and full of bad memories. Honestly, it just seemed like they were poor communicators. That said, it is very realistic for that reason. It is a delicate balance between uniqueness and realism.

I found myself getting frustrated when it was incredibly obvious Laura and Bob fancied each other. Neither of them was willing to make a move or even outwardly convey their feelings to the other. The plot couldn't propel forward because the characters did not have the guts to say anything. 

Overall, this story was quite cute. The side characters are what drew me in and made me want to keep reading. The romance elements and the story as a whole just didn't hit.

Twisted Love by Ana Huang Review

 

* This review is spoiler-free *

4.5/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Brother's best friend

➮Dual POV

➮ Forced proximity

➮ Grumpy x sunshine

➮    Alpha male

➮ Interracial romance

➮ Billionaire MMC

Synopsis

Alex Volkov is a billionaire with a cursed past. He desires to get revenge on those who have wronged him. He meets his best friend's little sister Ava Chen, who has a lot of trauma of her own. When forced to become neighbors, their stories begin to combine more than before.

Best Quote From the Book

“You want the world to think you have no heart when in reality, you have a multilayered one: a heart of gold encased in heart of ice. And one thing all hearts of gold have in common? They crave love."

My Thoughts

I love seeing a book with a main character that is a photographer. I have a passion for photography and capturing the beauty of the world around me. It is so beautiful to see a character have that same passion. That said, I would've loved to see a bit more with Ava interacting with her career. We see a lot of Alex's career (which makes sense for the plot), I would've loved to see more of hers. 

Ava's friendship with Bridget is truly iconic. Seeing them take on the world together and always have each other's backs is the friendship dedication we all dream of. I could easily read a whole book of their friendships before Alex was nearly as involved in Ava's life. 

Alex's protective nature is by far one of the best parts about him. You can tell everything he does has protecting Ava in mind. While a lot of what he does ends up being quite toxic, I appreciate that it comes with good intentions. 

This book (and series overall) is incredibly tropey. There are a lot more tropes than I listed at the top of this review including a third-act breakup that can make the book a bit hollow. That said, all of these tropes are written incredibly well. Listening to the audiobook read like a movie. I could easily picture all of the characters doing what the did and saying what they said. All of the chracters are well-established and clearly fleshed out. 

My biggest complaint about this book is how difficult I found it to root for Alex. There are a number of awful things he does that if this were real life, I would encourage Ava to run for the hills. He is often not a good person and has a lot of trauma and resentment that hinders him as a person and as a character. I almost didn't want them to end up together in the end for Ava's sake. Even so, when Alex stops being toxic, they do make a very cute couple. 

Notable spice warning for this book. There are a lot of chapters in this book that surround spice. If you do not like that sort of thing, I would say these scenes are skippable as they do not involve the plot too much. I would also like to warn that there are some quite dark themes including kidnapping and violence in this book. Please review all of the trigger warnings before reading this book. 

In sum, I defintely enjoyed this book, if I view in with the lens of a tropey romance book. It isn't going to change your life, it isn't a must read. If you like these tropes, it will fulfill your craving well. It is good for the tropes it has and has a good cast of characters.

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry Review

 

* This review is spoiler-free *

4.25/5 ⭐

Tropes

➮ Best friends to lovers

➮ Vacation read

➮ Timeskipping

➮ Travel

Synopsis

Poppy and Alex are a duo that loves to travel and experience the world together. As they have grown up, Poppy has stayed traveling for work while Alex became a teacher. While Poppy misses the past, she tries to devise a way to get Alex back in her life. Perhaps a trip would bring them back together?

Best Quote From the Book

“Maybe things can get better when people want to do a good job loving each other. Maybe that's all it takes."

LGBTQ+ Representation

2/5 🌈

This story has a brief bit of representation during Alex's brother's wedding. His brother is gay and Poppy and Alex attend the wedding. The wedding was very normalized and showed how a family can be supportive of an LGBTQ+ family member. That said, the representation was only used as a turning point in the plot of Alex and Poppy's story so I cannot rate it higher. It is also the only form of LGBTQ+ representation I noticed in the book. 

My Thoughts

The flashbacks to previous trips Alex and Poppy have taken together were wonderfully timed and sprinkled throughout the story wonderfully. As we watch Alex and Poppy become reacquainted with each other, we get to see how they once were. This building felt very natural and was the greatest strength of this book. 

The same classic comfortable but realistic relationship that is a staple of Emily Henry's writing. As I have made clear in some of my other reviews, I am a sucker for a duo that has good back-and-forth. Alex and Poppy aren't afraid to give each other a bit of a hard time. It shows the trust they share is strong. 

As I'm reading this book and getting to see glimpses of Poppy's family, they truly remind me of my own. They are wacky, silly, trusting, and entertaining. It can be a bit much to be thrown into the goofiness of it all, but that is how I see my own family. It's nice to see characters that are unafraid to be silly and different. It was also nice to see how Poppy's family never changed no matter who they were meeting. They stayed authentically themselves. It was a wonderful reminder that some of the best families are those who can have fun together. 

Without revealing spoilers I do want to take a brief moment to mention my favorite scene in the entire book. At one point there is a scene involving Tinder. I can say that it genuinely made me laugh out loud and was the easiest part of the book to visualize actually happening. This book was worth reading for that scene alone if you ask me. 

The reason this book is rated a bit on the low side for how much I enjoyed it is because of the last 20% of the book. At that point, it was incredibly obvious where the story was going, and the ending was inevitable. It took forever for it to actually get there. It was frustrating to have to sit through the characters simply being stubborn. This book would've been much better if the ending portion was greatly reduced. As a result, I knocked it down to 4.25 instead of 4.75. 

As a small note, there is a bit of spice in this book. It is not at the forefront but if that kind of scene makes you uncomfortable you might want to skip this book. 

Overall this was an excellent book. If the ending were reduced significantly, that would've made it nearly perfect. It is an excellent vacation (or I miss my vacation already) read. It has a very natural progression and doesn't fall into the instalove trap or a "perfect couple" who never has issues.