e-Audio, 10:56:57
Narrated by: Dorothy Dillingham Blue & Ashley Poston
Release Date: June 25, 2024
Published by: Books on Tape (Berkley)
Read from: June 20-21, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher’s audio app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Grief, Death, Alcohol,Vomit, Violence, Cursing, Car Accident, Infidelity
For Readers Interested In: Magical Realism, Romance, Adult, Books about BooksA professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I was expecting another book like The Dead Romantics, but this was more like The Seven Year Slip which I thought was just ok. I actually don’t think it was the book’s fault either. More like magical realism as a whole.
OK so the thing that got me about this was I was thinking she was going to be in the novel and have the love interest and do the things that the original FMC was doing. But this was way less exciting. Idk it was just kinda plain. I wanna say it was because I hadn’t read the books so I wasn’t super attached to these characters like she was. So basically I was just reading about these people that she was swooning over and I was having trouble trying to figure out which character was doing what.
The romance was ok, but the twist made it weird for me. Since she wasn’t the original FMC and the whole thing happened, I felt bad that he was still grieving. And I know that he took a break before the end. That actually worked best for me because that break was what made me feel like it was genuine and ie wasn’t like them saying he was all better. And we’re not going to talk about the enemies to lovers, we know how I am about that lol
The magical realism was what still made this for me. But even then I had some questions. Like how was she the only person other than him to find it? Was it because she was a kindred spirit? Was she a lot like the author? Idk, but I wish I knew. Magical realism is better for me than fantasy because it makes there doesn’t need to be as much world building, and that’s where I always struggle with it. But this one didn’t exactly have all the questions answered, soooooo yeah.
Other than that, it was just okay. I didn’t hate it. I love Ashley’s writing and I liked the plot, but I wanted this to be more like Dead Romantics but it leaned more toward Seven Year Slip and that’s what made me feel eh about it. Did I love Seven Year Slip? Yes. But Dead Romantics was the reason I read her entire back catalog and I wanted to be made into a series. So yeah, part of this is my fault and I’ll take that. But if you’re like me , I’m telling you now so you aren’t lol
Overall, I give this
Oh that’s a bummer. I still need to read Seven Year Slip myself. I had liked The Dead Romantics but I had expected more from it. So I feel like this and SYS will just be ones I like but not love, and that’s okay too. Glad to hear you enjoyed this one to some extent. I thought it sounded intriguing so I decided to order a copy! Nice review!