Book Review BRYNN AND SEBASTIAN HATE EACH OTHER Bethany Turner

Thank you to the author π˜‰π˜¦π˜΅π˜©π˜’π˜―π˜Ί π˜›π˜Άπ˜³π˜―π˜¦π˜³, publishers Thomas Nelson, and NetGalley for a digital review copy. All views are mine.

This is a cute closed-door romance with a lot of miscommunication and a great deal of forgiveness and grace given. This isn't always a winning combination, but turns out to be here, despite my resistance. Please find below, my honest reactions as I read.

Three things I loved:

1. Third person from two perspectives. First of all, I like the third person style choice. Also, it works here with the alternating perspectives. Alternating first person gets confusing as the narrative voice is often difficult to distinguish.

2. I love the pacing of this romance! When a couple gets together too fast in a romance, it makes me apprehensive; too slow, I get bored. This was just write!

3. Mr. Fielding and his tree and what they say about growing up in small towns and going home again.

4. I loved the unlikeable Brynn! That gal's got some growing to do and she does it.

Three things I didn't love:

1. I did the audiobook this time and did not love the narrator at first. I thought her delivery was kind of jaunty and didn't always match what was happening, so it took me a while to connect to the story. However, it's great that there's only one narrator instead of a full cast of them. With alternating perspectives, it can get even more confusing when there's not just two perspectives but two different sets of voices for each character. 

2. I did not love how many of the other characters seem oddly forgiving of the main character's selfish and sometimes harsh behaviors in the first half of the novel. Only the antagonist ever questions her honestly questionable motives. It's a little hard to believe. It probably wouldn't matter, but ultimately, this grace the town gives the protagonist helps move the plot into the second half. 

3. I didn't love how this book talks about childhood trauma. 

"I'd spent twenty years trying to rid myself of Bren. Brenda Cornell wasn't bad or weak, but her life and her mind were chaos. She was full of regret and sadness. She was lonely. She's a fighter, but not the right kind of fighter to survive in the world I had chosen to inhabit." Ch15

Ratings:
Cover: 4 5
Concept: 3.8
Character Work: 4.2
Settings / World Work: 4.3
Narrative: 3.6
Pacing: 4.8
Plot / Logic: 3.7
Ending: 4.6
Steam: n/a
Style: 4.4
Overall Rating: 4.21 rounded up to 4.5

Star Rating: 4
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: August 12 2023

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