MyTiredBrain

My mom said she thought this book was on par with Incredibly Bright Creatures, so I had high expectations. Unfortunately this wasn’t even close. Overall all I thought the book was ok. My biggest problem is that I didn’t really like most of the characters, so I was slogging through the book. I felt for them at times. I appreciated their human-ness, sometimes, but other times I found myself annoyed at the poor decisions made by the four main characters. Newly divorced Suresh tries his hand at online dating. It’s tough out there and I empathize with him to a point, but often I found him whiney and irritating. His ex, Lata, has made a new life for herself working at a campus music library. After only knowing an arranged marriage, the dating world is tough to navigate, and I liked her character the most. Their daughter, Priya, manages to be whinier than her father, dating a married man and lamenting her life. Their son, Nikesh, lies to everyone around him, so he’s not overly likable either....

Daphne gets dumped by her fiancé for the childhood best friend he promised was never a romantic interest. She moves in with Miles, the other jilted party in the love square. I’ll admit there’s nothing overly new or surprising in the book, but the character banter is so engaging, it pulls you through. Daphne has to work through abandonment issues and forge a life on her own instead of as a “we.” She loves her job as a children’s librarian, but she originally moved to the town to be with her now ex, and she doesn’t have much of a life without him. Miles listens to sad songs even when he’s happy. Living together is awkward but relatively harmonious. When Daphne runs into her condescending ex, she panics and pretends she’s dating Miles. He goes along with it, and after a passionate kiss, the lines between truth and play-acting get blurred. AKA classic fake-dating troupe. Daphne has a quiet fierceness that I liked. Really, it’s just the writing. The story is pleasant enough but the word cho...

I kind of hated this book, because it had so much potential but I ended up rage-reading for a lot of it. Not exactly what I’m looking for in a romance. I was tempted to do a Goodreads score of two stars, but I rounded up instead of down, because it was so well-written, if you ignore the plot. Sigh. I just wanted to smack the “heroine,” Daphne. She’s going through a tough time after a divorce and gets drunk at a baseball game, and ends up heckling the local team’s third baseman, Chris Kepler. He hears her and breaks down right on the field. She reaches out to him via IG to apologize, but forgets to include that she was the heckler. They start texting, and having a relationship, but she doesn’t tell him her identity. She ends the texting relationship as they end up working together IRL, and hooking up, but she still doesn’t let him know she’s the person he was texting. It felt like there were many opportunities for her to come clean, and no real benefit to keeping the secret, but pages a...

A light, goofy romance with a little surprising depth sprinkled in. Rule-following Jada breaks character and mocks the new boss after suffering through his pompous conference call. But she wasn’t on mute, and the new boss, Jaxon, heard all of its mocking glory. Jaxon just took over the company after the death of his abusive billionaire parents, and decides to go undercover at the office to route out the “butt-dialer” and make them pay. What ”Jack” finds is a a close-knit family who won’t give Jada up, and he starts to thaw under their supportive environment. He initially just wants to ferret out the voice on the phone, but he gets invested in the office, including Keith, a dumpster cactus the office is trying to nurture back to life. Get it - he’s kind of like the cactus. Jada is all optimism and kindness, and Jack has no idea how to deal with this new supportive family. Jada is very likable, and Jack’s growth is almost touching for a softy like me. (8)

Effie flames out running a high-pressure kitchen and returns to her Maine-island home with plans to regroup for the summer. She finds work in the kitchen of a two-Michelin-starred restaurant called Brown Butter, which boast using local ingredients. The kitchen is run by a womanizing jerk, and Effie suspects he’s cutting corners (Costco-to-table instead of Farm-to-table). Outing him would put her co-workers’ jobs in jeopardy, and is it really worth getting involved if she’s just there for the summer? But on the island she also reconnects with her former best friend, Ernie, and feels torn between her love for him and her desire to live anywhere but the suffocating island of her youth. The writing is solid and Effie is rootable. Ernie is a bit cardboard perfect. There was a lot I liked about the book, but I didn’t feel a deep connection for some reason. It was an enjoyable read. (7.75)