Here we are, mid-May, and I’m finally getting around to blogging about shit I read in February. Because I’m as bassic as the next bitch, I ended up reading a bit of romance; to make me even more bassic, my favorite was by Emily Henry.

It started in the beginning of the month. I received an e-ARC from Netgalley of Curtis Sittenfield’s Romantic Comedy.

Synopsis: Sally Milz doesn’t need love. She has a fast-paced career as a writer on a show that is clearly a thinly-veiled SNL. She lives in NYC, she can afford her apartment, and she has Tinder and her vibrator when the nights get lonely. But then… she meets a singer of one of the cheesiest songs that has haunted her since high school and feels *the spark.* She really does like her job, though. She really doesn’t need a man. But… like.. does she want one?
This book was fine. Just over half of it occurs over the span of a week as Sally works with the guest host she’s got butterflies in her stomach over and her co-workers to put together a show. Then, there is a fairly long section of e-mail exchanges that didn’t feel very realistic. But it’s a romance, you can suspend disbelief. Unfortunately, once the show that starts off the book ends, my interest in the story began to wane. I wanted to like this book; I thought the premise sounded intriguing (not my synopsis above, the actual premise) and I think I like Sittenfeld’s writing. Overall, though this book was a bit mediocre and disappointing.
I shifted to the YA romance/mystery Ghosted.

This book was heavy on the mystery, light on the romance, includes a supernatural element that is unnecessary and twists that I always saw coming well beforehand. It’s also written from the perspective of its’ teen protagonists, which is appropriate, but not necessarily a tone of voice I am invested in as someone who is now a couple of decades removed. If I want a YA mystery book/series, I’m going to default to Truly Devious. If I want a YA romance, I’d rather swoon over Stephanie Perkins’ non-horror work. And if I want a supernatural book with a supernatural element just for the hell of it, I’m going to ty to find some vintage Christopher Pike. Overall, this book was fine, but a bit underwhelming on all fronts.
I next pivoted to Katherine Webber’s The Revelry.

Every year, the seniors throw a huge rager in the woods. It’s called “The Revelry,” and no one gets to know what goes on until their senior year, and no one talks about it afterward. Bitsy Clark has lived in Ember Grove her entire life; she knows the rules are there for a reason, and has no desire to go against those rules… until her friend Amy is desperate for a good time and convinces her they need to crash. This book’s possibly not a romance at all; it’s a book about friendship and teen drama, with a twist of the supernatural. However, the entire time I was reading it, I though maybe Bitsy was devoted to her best friend due to romantic feelings. This is not explicitly stated, but the subtext of thwarted romance is, and I actually kept kind of hoping that this subtext would materialize because I thought that might give the book a bit more depth. Alas, it did not. Another underwhelming book, from a YA or a romance perspective.
The last romance book I read in February was Emily Henry’s Book Lovers.

I’m not going to insult you with a synopsis. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of Book Lovers. And if you have been living under a rock, congratulations on getting away from the parasitic influence of technology and social media, your skin looks amazing, and finding out what the popular book everyone’s talking about is exactly what Goodreads is for.
I was skeptical, going into reading this one. I had already been burnt by Beach Read, which had a premise I was so excited about I was salivating, akin to a lecherous cartoon wolf who sees a buxom blonde or a delicious-looking pig. My experience reading Beach Read was less Looney-Tunes-esque; it was more of a deflating balloon feeling as I became increasingly disappointed at the utter mediocrity of the novel. Book Lovers dealt with a lot of the same themes – enemies-to-lovers, publishing industry, swoonworthy romance. Maybe Henry just needed practice, because Book Lovers was good. One of the best romances I’ve read in awhile.
Definitely the best romance I read in February.
What about you? Any good romances lately? Or just book recommendations, in general? I’m always on the lookout for good writing!