"A whole ass crudite platter with yogurt dip"
2 stars
I didn't like this book. Sorry.
I should have known better, it's not my first Casey McQuiston. As with One Last Stop, this was less of a romance novel and more of a greatest hits of queer history factoids with a romance plot kind of tucked in around the edges. It's got a lot of queer trauma in present day, which I find difficult to read - I read romance for escapism and relaxation, not depressing realism. Romance is junk food, a little potato chip you can finish in one sitting - this book was a crudite board ;)
The last half of the book slows down way more than I'd like, and instead of getting on with the plot, we slog through a ton of flowery, increasingly ill-advised emails that have me cringing just knowing the leak plot twist is going to come. And it does! But then it's …
I didn't like this book. Sorry.
I should have known better, it's not my first Casey McQuiston. As with One Last Stop, this was less of a romance novel and more of a greatest hits of queer history factoids with a romance plot kind of tucked in around the edges. It's got a lot of queer trauma in present day, which I find difficult to read - I read romance for escapism and relaxation, not depressing realism. Romance is junk food, a little potato chip you can finish in one sitting - this book was a crudite board ;)
The last half of the book slows down way more than I'd like, and instead of getting on with the plot, we slog through a ton of flowery, increasingly ill-advised emails that have me cringing just knowing the leak plot twist is going to come. And it does! But then it's like, good somehow, because queer people take to the streets to support the spoiled rich political offspring who jetsets around in a relationship with a prince?
Idk. I'm ranting. I didn't like it, it didn't even have good spicy scenes (McQuiston doesn't write explicit sex with nouns, just heavily implied sex full of prepositions), and the ending came together way too neat and tidy. Not for me.