by Helen Hoang

I think this a case of it’s not you, it’s me. I gave 2 stars to her first book but thought I’d give her another chance as the reviews have been higher, and the summary sounded good. Indeed this one was better, but I still couldn’t make it past the 41% mark without having to start speed reading and skipping through to the end.

For me, I couldn’t really engage with it because it was all about describing feelings, struggling against feelings, misunderstanding feelings, denying feelings, will they or won’t they, blah blah blah. I found it very tedious to read about how the characters were feeling and that nothing much happening. It just didn’t seem to go anywhere. I felt no tension as to what was going to happen next. The search for her father and her secret child in Viet Nam, her education, and her possibly marrying the brother, all had potential but they were all just frittered away.

Everyone seems to love it. I’m the odd one out.

June 28, 2019