The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

I keep trying, but this is only okay. Setting aside at 39%. The grieving part of this is A+, and rang totally true to me. But! It is mismarketed as a romance. It is NOT a romance.

It's going back and forth between the present day, when Freddie is dead, but with the aid of sleeping pills, Lydia enters an alternate reality where her fiance is still alive and they continue along like he didn't die at all. It ... does not work for me. I want to know why Lydia and Freddie fell in love, I don't want to know what their future might have looked like if he hadn't died. That's not how this works! That's not how any of this works!

Neither Lydia nor Freddie are really people I want to root for either. Lydia is kind of snobby about how special her and Freddie's love is, not cliche like other people's love! And she's not very kind to Freddie's best friend, who also happens to have been her own friend for like a decade. I know from reading other reviews that Silver was going to try to make Fetch happen with the best friend, and I reject this very much because they have zero chemistry, just happen to be grieving simultaneously.

There's not enough character development, in either the waking or “dreaming” storylines. So much telling, not enough showing. I'll be kinda enjoying it while I'm reading, but the second I put the book down, my irritation with it starts up.

Meh. Next!

Edit: OH GOOD I'M GLAD I PUT IT DOWN NOW. Other reviews indicate that in the “dreaming” storyline, Lydia's sister has a miscarriage. Nope nope nope.