Attain Something To Talk About Illustrated By Meryl Wilsner Delivered In Leaflet
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This book shouldve been amazing, Ive been dying for a good f/f romance and with that premise and that cover I was hoping this would be a five star for me
So boring, nothing has happened yet
These characters are so bland and boring and they dont have any chemistry, their relationship is so coworkers like but theres just no tension
It just isnt for me sadly
This is Berkleys first published f/f romance and Im sad that it was a disappointment.
I hope Berkley romance continues to publish f/f romances I just want them to be better than this one
stars
This book, . . I just. I am disappointed and I didn't even have super high expectations, either,
So, what's this book about
Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple.
The socalled scandal couldn't come at a worse timethreatening Emma's promotion and Jo's new movie,
As the
gossip spreads, it starts to affect all areas of their lives, Paparazzi are following them outside the office, coworkers are treating them differently, and a “source” is feeding information to the media, But their only comment is “no comment”,
With the launch of Jos film project fast approaching, the two women begin to spend even more time together, getting along famously, Emma seems to have a sixth sense for knowing what Jo needs, And Jo, known for being aloof and outwardly cold, opens up to Emma in a way neither of them expects, They begin to realize the rumor might not be so off base after allbut is acting on the spark between them worth fanning the gossip flames
This may be one of the first lesbian romances I've read.
. . ever. I've never really had an interest in them because beinggay, I am attracted to men, both physically and romantically, So, I love gay romances because it's two men, I enjoy straight romances because there's one man but lesbian romances don't have men and therefore, they don't have the same sexy, heartmelting chemistry, . . does that make sense
So, I wasn't expecting that same sexy buzz but I was hoping to be heartwarmed and entertained, And I sort of was, . . but not really. There was a decent plot but I did not enjoy any of the characters and there wasn't any character growth,
Jo I didn't really like Jo at first, She gave me a kind of alphay, badass vibe which can be well done but in this case, I just found her to be blunt and unkind.
I wouldn't have minded this if it had been a character flaw whether Jo was aware of it or not but it wasn't and it didn't really change.
She also had a tendency switch back and forth from cold and uncaring to sweet and loving,
Emma I just, . . eh. Didn't care about this protagonist, . .
My other problem was that there was no chemistry between Emma and Jo, They both talked about each other with obvious, . . love I apply that term loosely here, in spite of the fact that there were no experiences that should have or could have caused that, . . the "love" kind of just happened It wasn't totally unbelievable but it didn't have that magic touch I would have liked to see,
Overall, I ventured into newer territory with this book and I didn't enjoy it that much, I will definitely continue trying with this genre, though,
Bottom Line:stars
Age Rating R
Content Screening Mild Spoilers
Positive Messages/Female empowerment
Sex/Brief, semidetailed sex scene, Kissing, Sexual themes
Language/Brief language
Drinking/Drugs/Alcohol consumption
Content and Trigger Warnings Homophobia kind of, Sexual themes
Publication Date: Mayth,
Publisher: Berkley an imprint of Penguin Random House
Genre: LGBT/Romance
to come
ITS HERE ITS HERE ITS HERRRREEE
AND ITS NARRATED BY JORJEANA MARIE!!
Just requested the audio from my library!!! I'm honestly not sure how I'll end up enjoying this! I don't read lesbian romances that often so this is relatively new territory
COVER COVER COVER
omg, Berkley's first lesbian romance!!!!
This is really Something to Talk About.
. .
sorry i had to
sitelinkGoodreads sitelinkBlog sitelinkPinterest sitelinkLinkedIn sitelinkYouTube sitelinkInstagram NB: I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley, but that hasn't affected the content of my review.
This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I ended up being pretty disappointed with it,
It's pretty rare that a book charms me the way this one did, only to fizzle out so hard later on, Usually if I'm going to dislike a book, I know almost right away, But really, the first third of this book was great! Jo Jones is a Hollywood powerhouse, a childhood star who worked her way into being a writer and creator, and now runs one of the most successful, awardwinning TV shows on the air.
She's also in line to write a script for a famously masculine movie series, Agent Silver, and is already getting flack for not being able to handle it, just because she's a woman.
She takes her assistant Emma, who is very competent and wants to be a director someday, to the SAGs as a "buffer" so she doesn't have to talk to anyone.
But after years of taking no one to any award shows, and never commenting on her love life, when a suggestive picture starts making the rounds, rumors flourish that Jo and Emma are dating.
Jo is a no nonsense Chinese American who has worked very hard to become as successful as she is, and she holds things close to her chest.
Emma is beautiful and too qualified for her job, They have always gotten along really well, But the rumors throw things into upheaval, mostly for Emma, who is on the wrong end of the power differential, That's one thing this book gets right it's very conscious of the huge power difference between the two of them, and steps carefully, She's the one who gets hounded by paparazzi, joked at even by her supposed friends after repeatedly telling them to stop, and worst, made to seem like she is sleeping her way to the top.
If all of this sounds interesting, well just wait for the middle section of the book, where the author decided to have the two characters stop communicating with each other almost entirely, and have them by turns become upset and completely overreact about trivial matters.
Jo and Emma have always had a friendly, professional relationship, but when Jo does one thing wrong, Emma acts like she just isn't going to take this anymore! Wait, I have a quote:
"Emma had forgiven too many people in her life too easily.
She was finally learning to stand up for herself, "
I get the feeling that line was meant to land hard and make us like Emma more, but it had the opposite effect.
The author spent zero time before this scene establishing that Emma was a doormat, In fact, the opposite. She is portrayed as smart, competent, efficient and articulate, Zero mention is made of any selfesteem issues, or issues with people bullying or tearing her down, That line is also preceded by Emma thinking that she didn't need to apologize to Jo for an accidental drunken kiss on the corner of her mouth Emma had been aiming for her cheek it's as dumb as it sounds, that her actions were enough.
Immediately following this is Emma's thoughts that Jo needs to apologize more with her actions, I basically hated Emma in that moment,
It's just chock full of artificially inflated conflict, and it almost made me turn on the book completely the biggest source of "conflict" is that Jo befriends Emma's sister Avery at a baseball game for Jo's nephew and Avery's kids and neither of them tell Emma right away.
Upon finding out, Emma doesn't speak to Jo for a week aside from acknowledging her professionally, i, e. "Yes, Ms. Jones," kind of thing. My liking of the first section made me keep going, though, I get that the author was going for a slow burn, quiet pining sort of thing, but there are much better ways to do that that don't involve your leads not talking to one another for extended periods romantic pairs getting to know each other in new contexts is the entire point of romance as a genre, and we need to see it! not pages and pages and endless pages of them stewing in their own heads over nothing, and making mountains out of mole hills.
In romance, if you don't see the talking and the feelings grow yourself in authentic interactions between the characters, you're not going to feel it, and I didn't feel it here.
There is also such a thing as too slow of a burn, and that was also the case here,
Also, it was weird and slightly annoying that Emma called Jo "boss" all the time,
The rest of the book was less frustrating, but it was still full of them not talking to each other, and stupid misunderstandings like Emma assuming Jo's best friend is her girlfriend, when in real life Jo would have introduced her, like, "Emma, this is my best friend, Evelyn, we grew up together in Chinatown," not what actually happens, where no one tells Emma that Evelyn is Jo's girlfriend, she just assumes, and then gets butthurt about it.
Also, and please consider this a PSA for every author, nobody likes reading about characters misunderstanding everything about each other! It is not fun! Also, when your main characters spend more time talking to other characters about each other than they do actually having conversations, maybe rethink some things.
Anyway, this wasn't great, and I'm sad about it, and when is there going to be a good f/f romance that I can actually swoon over
.
rounded up, because I feel bad giving it two,