Back of the book
When Georgia Stanton discovers that her late grandmother, Scarlett, the infamous romance author, didn't get the chance to finish her last book, she is determined to share her story. But first, it needs to be written.
Enter Noah Harrison, the bestselling romance author of his generation. When Georgia meets him, she is distraught – although he's charming and handsome, there's nothing beneath the surface. But as they start working together, Georgia begins to see that there might be more to Noah than meets the eye.
Together, they realise that Scarlett was saving the greatest love story of all until last – her own. While serving in World War Two, she fell in love with the handsome and enigmatic pilot Jameson.
But are Georgia and Noah about to discover that not all love stories have a happy ending?
My thoughts
To make it abundantly clear up front, I did not like this book. Having just read a 'trashy' romance novel, I thought I liked the genre. I also know I like Yarros' writing since I devoured Fourth Wing about three times in two weeks, so I thought I was in for a decent read.
Wrong.
This book felt like one big cliché in the worst way. The skin colour descriptions had me angry very early on. Firstly 'olive' skin for Noah. So, his skin is black? Green? Then the contrast of 'delicate ivory' skin for Georgia... Can men not have white skin and it be attractive? It has to be tanned, or ethnically ambiguous for adequate romance? But the paler a woman is, the more attractive? She also had blue eyes and black hair which is super rare but okay.
Further cringe occurred as early as the first meeting between the 'love interests' where they started out arguing, so Yarros was going for a 'hate to love' kinda trope. I really dislike the dissonance between saying you hate someone, but also acquiescing that they are attractive. That uncomfortable rift of conflicting ideas is hard to portray in an authentic way. Nothing was authentic in this book. The characters were flat and 2D, I didn't feel any of their passion. The funny thing is, Noah is a romance novel writer and Georgia says he sucks at writing romance books and the sex is unsatisfying...so Noah wrote this book?
When the book finally captured my interest, it was the 1940's love story that I was invested in. Scarlett and Jamesons' story is somehow just written better, characters more interesting, and the love felt more real. I was invested in those characters the most.
I didn't love the juxtaposition of the stories, at any point. Going from Georgia talking wistfully about her Gran raising her, into a steamy sex scene with said Gran was uncomfortable, even if they were the better sex scenes. Then when I was invested in Scarlett's story, I didn't like going back to the present day where Yarros forced Noah and Georgia together.
I liked the 'unhappy' ending to the Scarlett and Jameson story. I didn't like the cheap happy ending. As Noah is a romance writer it is mentioned 'romance likes happy endings' because no one reads romance for real life... I guess I just read for real life then? Good endings don't have to be happy. Noah and Georgia ending up together felt forced and unnatural, did not create a satisfying ending because in no circumstance was I hoping for them to be together.
This book would have been greatly improved if it was about Georgia uncovering her Gran's last unpublished story, her story moving on from divorce, then the twist that her Gran is the sister to Scarlett, not Scarlett herself. Noah was an unnecessary and forced participant to this story. A woman discovering her own heritage, family tree and reading love stories to heal from a bad marriage is all the story needed. It didn't need to be an attempt at two love stories layered across one another.
To sum up, I did not emotionally connect with any of the characters or their struggles and the rest was also boring. The parts I liked were too few and far between to save this book. I skimmed some reviews that were highly emotive, which I simply could not understand because this book made me feel nothing. To quote a review I found that explained it perfectly: this one should have stayed unfinished.
TL:DR
Don't read this book. A romance novel about a romance novel writer finishing the romance novel of a dead romance novel writer.
YOU ARE READING
Spoilery Book Reviews
Non-FictionBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
