Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

This was the kind of debut novel that started out surprisingly well and then turned into a bit of a nightmare for me. I wanted to rate the author higher for her potential, for how the book started (multi-faceted characters, engaging style, enough detail to feel real without bogging down the plot), but I was too disturbed by the way everything played out to recommend this book.

Kara’s backstory gave me a stomachache, but in the sense that it felt very real and well-described — I empathized with her and Ryan’s past a little too much for comfort, and was eager to see how they handled it. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like that past was really handled at all, with Kara and Ryan seeming to forgive and forget too easily until the final conflict when everything blew up … and then was patched up after a long period of self-reflection and with a sort of “we’re meant for each other” attitude that I felt was both unrealistic and kind of gross given their history. I would have much preferred to see a romance where Kara had this backstory and then worked through her hangups with a new love interest, rather than a second-chance romance with someone who I didn’t feel earned his second chance.