shania
This year, Christmas is anything but merry for sworn enemies Anabelle and Leo.
When Anabelle Spencer returns to her small hometown of Woodberry, Connecticut to spend the holidays with her family, she finds herself instantly regretting her decision. Not only is living with her handful-of-almonds mom much harder than she remembers, but she can't seem to stop bumping into her former neighbor and least favorite person alive, Leo, at every turn.
Leonardo Rojas is trying to keep it all together. Struggling to juggle the mess his father left behind and the pressure of his new promotion at the local bar, the only thing on his wish list is a nice, quiet Christmas with his mom. That is, until the girl who broke his heart nearly a decade ago comes back to town and turns his world upside down.
As accidental run-ins, holiday parties, and a late-night baking mishap force the two of them closer together, old sparks begin to fly. Soon the truth about their shared heartbreak begins to reveal itself, and they come to find that sometimes, it's the people you've known the longest who can surprise you.
———————
This book has a great premise. Second chance, enemies to lovers, neighbors, brother's best friend? Yes please. But I didn't enjoy it much and had quite a few problems with it.
The characters has zero personality. We never saw them develop. Their whole personality was being “in love” with each other.
I, for one, really wanted to see the main character, Annabelle, grow as a person and learn to love herself. But no. All we were told was that she was insecure and weak before, and now she's a badass (she wasn't). She was genuinely so unlikeable. I had to put the book down a few times while reading just because I could not handle how stupid and irritating she was! Definitely one of my least favorite female characters.
This book was supposed to be body positive. And yes, it was, sometimes. But, as i said, there were no actual scenes of her learning to love herself. I didn't feel like this book really showed that curvy girls are beautiful too. Annabelle is curvy, but she's just... there.
I absolutely despised Leo, the male main character. He was (shockingly) even more unlikeable than Annabelle. He gave me the ick. Not many characters give me the ick, so this guy... Super annoying. The author clearly tried to make him do “swoony” and “hot” things. But they just made me cringe. Like when he was all like “Is this guy bothering you?” Oh my god. I think I died. It was so random and out of nowhere.
Also, they didn't talk to each other for years because she thought he called her fat. I know. I wish it was for a deeper reason. I do realize that it was a betrayal, but really? At least have a conversation about it. You're adults.
There was so much unnecessary drama. Now, I'm not an expert on writing, and I've never written a book. But do you really need to write all that weird drama? Instead of that, the author could have fleshed out the characters more, and maybe give them a personality? Maybe some more details on their families. Like, are we even told what Simon (Annabelle's brother) looks like? I don't remember.
Them confessing their love to each other didn't give me the feels it should've gave. I read it with a grimace on my face.
The writing style was not my cup of tea. It felt really choppy to me, and could've used some more editing. There were so many of these type of words: “ughh” , “pffff”, “grrrr”. You get the point.
I was excited for the enemies to lovers, but.... enemies to lovers? Where? They were never enemies. They disliked each other at best. There was no tension or anything. They saw each other, like, twice, after YEARS and decided to be friends again. What?
This book was way too short. 223 pages is not nearly enough for a good romance. I think that this book would have worked great as a dual timeline. We could've seen these Annabelle and Leo become good friends and fall in love with each other as teenagers. Even though I don't particularly like dual timelines, I think I would've enjoyed this book more if it was.
Thank you so much, Julianne Baclayanto for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
girlies please rave about this book in the comments i NEED motivation to read it. i didn't really like dh1, does this get better?
4⭐
song: august by taylor swift
“sleep right here. on me.” he leaned over and kissed her forehead hard. “it's the safest place you'll ever be.”
“as long as you need me, i'm with you. whatever you decide, whatever happens, i'm your goddamn man.”
“i need my wife. i'll always fucking need my wife.”
“if the key to her happiness was at the bottom of the ocean, he'd strap on some flippers and goggles to dive down and get it. if she showed any signs of illness, even a common cold, he would consider bringing her to the ER. if she asked him to dress like Zack Morris at Halloween so she could dress like Kelly Kapowski . . . he'd already have suggested it first.”
3.5 ☆
so cute and cozy, but a bit too insta lovey for me :(
““That was love, wasn't it? It wasn't just a quick drop- it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn't something you could plan for. Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a time together.”
4⭐
“I'm terrified to admit that holding her in my arms is the closest I've come to feeling truly happy in a very long time.”
“The thing about quiet people is, we're only quiet because our brains are so busy overthinking everything.”
“Seeing her bathed in light and surrounded by flowers from out here in the dark makes me feel like a man who slipped out of hell and is glimpsing heaven.”
“Do you think I'm crazy?” she asked, quietly.“No.” I shook my head. “I think you're the best.”“Even though you know the worst parts of me?”“I don't know the worst parts of you.” I ran my thumb over her scar. “I just know you, Parks.”
sobbing uncontrollably on the floor, tears streaming down my face, will never be the same again. these two destroyed me
3.75⭐
song: mirrorball by taylor swift
“There is no universe in which I'm going to let you go. I want to be with you, on you, every second of every day.”
“You could be my entire world. If you let me.”
“But take your time, Elsie. I'll wait for as long as it takes.”
“You are the most magnificent thing that ever happened to me.”