ŷ������

Attention to the following things:
- raindrops on roses
- whiskers on kittens
- bright copper kettles
- warm woolen mittens
- etc.

You are officially ON NOTICE.



Because you can no longer qualify as a few of ANYONE'S favorite things when Sarah Hogle is writing romance novels.

I almost never love anything. The idea of wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings can hardly bring even the ghost of a smile to my evil face. My average rating on this godforsaken website has been under three stars for more than three years. I eat pain for breakfast. And those are just three examples.

But one thing I did love is Sarah Hogle's debut, You Deserve Each Other. In fact, I loved it so much that I read it like a million times (okay, four, but honestly that's almost as shocking) and felt Emotion and Pangs To The Heart and Butterflies and otherwise feelings that tend to be the stuff of my nightmares every time.

And since lightning doesn't strike twice (lightning in this case being me acting like a normal person), I assumed this would be a three and a half star read, tops. Because I do not deserve happiness and have presumably been cursed by some sort of witch or creature with haunting capabilities or mean anthropomorphic pond dweller to ensure it.

And this isn't a five star read.

But it's pretty close.

I tend to like a little hatefulness in my romance novels. A little darkness. A little b*tchiness. That's why You Deserve Each Other, a book with several top reviews that are like "why are this people so mean," worked for me SO well.

And this is a VERY sweet book. A little too much so, for me. I like a daydreamer or a sweetiepie as much as the next person, but as it turns out I draw the line at elaborate romance-novel-within-a-romance-novel AUs.

But this is fun anyway.

Bottom line: Cure for cynicism discovered by Sarah Hogle! Yours for the low low price of like...under $20, or something. I don't know. It's worth it.

------------------
reread update

this particular reread was not EXACTLY what i needed, but this book was the first time i read it, so i'm (mostly) leaving the review and only dropping it a star.

also, when you're comparing something to the perfect romance, it's hard for anything to live up to it.

------------------
pre-review

a few things:
1) while reading this, i pressed my hand to my heart on multiple occasions, like an affronted victorian woman
2) i feel like my emotions and brain and soul just went through a blender, which it turns out is a good feeling
3) i might cry????
4) i think this is the best romance i've ever read.

review to come / 5 STARS!!!!!!!

------------------
tbr review

I AM HOLDING MY MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR IN MY HANDS.