Again, but Better

I'm gonna be honest here, I bought and read this book mostly because I enjoy the content Christine makes in the Booktube community and I wanted to support her. This isn't really a book I would have looked twice at, otherwise. Especially because the synopsis actually leaves out a kinda crucial(albeit spoilery) detail that makes the story slightly less generic.



I don't hate this book. It's very middle of the road as far as I'm concerned. I've read far better and far worse. I knew I would feel this way when I bought it-- I just don't jive with contemporary romance all that much. And just because I'm a fan of Christine doesn't mean I'm going to give it a glowing review.



Like I said, this book is pretty generic. Strong language and some "adult" implications aside, this isn't too different from the type of stuff I read in elementary and middle school when realistic fiction was my biggest jam. It's not anymore, because. Well. I've read these stories before. I read them as a kid in the school library, and I read them as a teenager scrolling through fanfiction.net until 3 AM every Friday.

------From this point on I freely discuss spoilers---------



That's not to say I think the writing is bad. It's not. Christine has prior writing experience as a Screenwriting major so it's not like she's unskilled, or even that she comes off as unskilled in her book. It is, perhaps, obvious that this is a debut novel, and the writing isn't super strong, but that comes with time. But the writing isn't juvenile. It just sounds like the voice of a 20 year old. Probably because that's how old Shane is. And the tone of Shane's voice changes when we get a timeskip.



I had trouble relating to Shane at first. I even found her kind of annoying. But then I thought, 'would I have related to this at 20?' And, yea, I think I probably would have. And in the second half of the book when we see Shane at 26(note: I'm 25) I was able to connect more strongly.



But since we're talking about Shane, we have to talk about Pilot. Pilot is. Basically what makes this story so. Very. Bland. He's bland. The romance with him is bland. He's not even that good of a person(He gets better, but we don't see that development so). He's just a better person than like 90% of the other men in the book doesn't make him good. [For those keeping score, Atticus is the other 10%]



Pilot is just. Painfully boring. His one hobby is music until Shane tells him to watch/read some of the things she's interested in. And even then it's just. those things?? That said, Shane's instant infatuation with him is not unfounded. He DOES have some funny dialogue and is kinda generically charming. I've developed crushes based on less. ESPECIALLY when I'm letting myself develop said crush and not ignoring and suppressing it. So I don't really think it's unrealistic or even insta-love in this case. They spend a couple months together both before and after they start dating(there's time travel involved. It makes more sense in the book), and they don't get married for 6 years after they start dating. The "I Love Yous" don't really come from nowhere.



What does come from nowhere? The time travel. The hints dropped were both obvious and super not obvious at the same time. It wasn't lead up to it well, but the hints that were dropped look like mines once it happens. It's... odd. But I just shrugged it off and kept going. It happened and. That's kind of it. Maybe if the book was shorter and we just got to see Shane pick herself up after the first confrontation with her parents and do all the successful stuff she does without needing the time travel nonsense? I don't know.



I will say, the bes part of he book was in part 2 when Shane drops Pilot for a while and decides "I'm doing this right and I'm doing it for me" and just goes and gets published in a magazine and learns to enjoy herself and get her shit together. And it's only when she's got her shit together that she can start to care about if Pilot got his shit together. And they can live happily ever after, the end.



All in all, this was an easy contemporary. If that's your thing, you'll probably like this book.