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A review by amberdlewis
The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
*Takes a deep breath*
Okay, I should have loved this book. It should have been a slam dunk. A RomCOm full of romcom references? Yes! A sapphic twist on said romcom references? EVEN BETTER! Alas, this was not a RomCOm because a RomCom is first a romance and second a comedy. This book was sadly neither.
That's not to say that there wasn't romance in the book, because there was. I actually thought Ruby and Saoirse were a good match. With all the depressing hardships in her life, Saoirse deserved someone optimistic like Ruby. I also really liked how the two bonded over the romcoms and how Soairse's perspective on love was able to shift. However, I really dislike when a book is marketed as a romance but the characters don't end up together. That's a love story, not a romance. I often get to the end and feel like I invested all that time reading the book and cheering on the characters for nothing. And while I think their decision not to stay together worked well enough, it was not the ending I feel I was promised. I didn't want an open-ended "maybe one day" I wanted "Hey, this is hard but let's give it a shot."
And as far as the comedy part goes, this book had some fairly heavy content in it. Soairse is struggling with a lot: her breakup, losing her friends, moving, her dad's new relationship, and watching her mom fade away due to dementia right before her eyes. Girl has is HARD, and a good chunk of the book focusses on that. In fact, there is so much focus on all the trouble and hardhsip in her life the Falling in Love Montage almost feels like a subplot in the background. Which would be fine because it handles it well but that's really not what I thought I was getting with this book.
All that aside, the book was okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the inner dialogue that seemed to ramble at times, but hat's obviously a personal preference. I did really like Oliver and almost wished his friendship with the MC had been more of the focus. I also wasn't a fan of how the MC treated her dad. Yeah, he wasn't the best and he made some mistakes, but she would go from talking about how much she loved her dad to being really harsh and hateful toward him. Once again, I know she was dealing with A LOT but a good chunk of her problems were her own doing. She purposefully kept things from Ruby and lied to her face dozens of times when Ruby was trying really hard to help her and be open with her. It was kind of hard to feel bad for her when she was merely serving out the consequences of her actions.
Anyhow, this book might be perfect for someone, but it was mostly a miss for me.
Okay, I should have loved this book. It should have been a slam dunk. A RomCOm full of romcom references? Yes! A sapphic twist on said romcom references? EVEN BETTER! Alas, this was not a RomCOm because a RomCom is first a romance and second a comedy. This book was sadly neither.
That's not to say that there wasn't romance in the book, because there was. I actually thought Ruby and Saoirse were a good match. With all the depressing hardships in her life, Saoirse deserved someone optimistic like Ruby. I also really liked how the two bonded over the romcoms and how Soairse's perspective on love was able to shift. However, I really dislike when a book is marketed as a romance but the characters don't end up together. That's a love story, not a romance. I often get to the end and feel like I invested all that time reading the book and cheering on the characters for nothing. And while I think their decision not to stay together worked well enough, it was not the ending I feel I was promised. I didn't want an open-ended "maybe one day" I wanted "Hey, this is hard but let's give it a shot."
And as far as the comedy part goes, this book had some fairly heavy content in it. Soairse is struggling with a lot: her breakup, losing her friends, moving, her dad's new relationship, and watching her mom fade away due to dementia right before her eyes. Girl has is HARD, and a good chunk of the book focusses on that. In fact, there is so much focus on all the trouble and hardhsip in her life the Falling in Love Montage almost feels like a subplot in the background. Which would be fine because it handles it well but that's really not what I thought I was getting with this book.
All that aside, the book was okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the inner dialogue that seemed to ramble at times, but hat's obviously a personal preference. I did really like Oliver and almost wished his friendship with the MC had been more of the focus. I also wasn't a fan of how the MC treated her dad. Yeah, he wasn't the best and he made some mistakes, but she would go from talking about how much she loved her dad to being really harsh and hateful toward him. Once again, I know she was dealing with A LOT but a good chunk of her problems were her own doing. She purposefully kept things from Ruby and lied to her face dozens of times when Ruby was trying really hard to help her and be open with her. It was kind of hard to feel bad for her when she was merely serving out the consequences of her actions.
Anyhow, this book might be perfect for someone, but it was mostly a miss for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia