MaryGrace’s Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

12,191

pages read

books read

MaryGrace

Shortest Book

144

pages

Longest Book

658

pages

Average book length in 2024

369

pages

Most Shelved

1,528,892

people also shelved

Least Shelved

13,673

people also shelved

MaryGrace’s average rating for 2024

3.7

Highest Rated on Goodreads

4.43 average

MaryGrace’s first review of the year

it was amazing

Without a doubt my favorite Emily Henry book

MARYGRACE’S 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

it was amazing

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

it was amazing

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft

The Cottage Around the Corner by D.L. Soria

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

it was amazing

MaryGrace’s last review of the year

liked it

On principle, I am not opposed to second chance romance. We all have someone who got away that we dream of. That being said, I don’t want to say I’m not the target audience for this book. I think I would do second chance provided enough character development. And if the first chance was not when the main characters were children.

To be fair, I want to step back and say everyone loves their own stories. To me no romance is as appealing as young adu On principle, I am not opposed to second chance romance. We all have someone who got away that we dream of. That being said, I don’t want to say I’m not the target audience for this book. I think I would do second chance provided enough character development. And if the first chance was not when the main characters were children.

To be fair, I want to step back and say everyone loves their own stories. To me no romance is as appealing as young adulthood, when you’ve come into your own and you by chance cross paths with someone else, and you get to unravel them slowly. At a bright 25, when you get to sit across a table from someone in low lighting and you cock your head sideways and look at them out of the corner of your eye, because you’re learning them and their penchant for ice cream sandwiches and diners. You get to see a (hopefully) fully formed individual who gets to see you the same way and learn your history and know that you’ve made friends and enemies along the way, that you’ve lived in many places or one, that you’ve grown changed and become a person you’ve hoped of becoming

Some would say they like when you grow up together. Not when you’ve spent years escaping your awkward stage but when you’ve overcome it together. I have to say this is my least favorite story. I know I would disagree if this happened to me. To each their own. However, if you are going to do a second chance romance that starts at such a young age, I think the characters need some real big development. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the millennial references. I’ve never felt a book more accurately describe my childhood references more than this one, especially the G note Black Parade thing.

But if you’re doing flashbacks to so long ago, I feel like you need to give me a reason to believe that the characters are not still living in 2009. Essentially, these characters peaked in high school. In the present story line, they are 31 and 32 years old. And yet they romanticize their moments from age 14 like nothing good has happened since.

And that for me is the very problem. The main character has her PhD. She’s studied abroad twice. She dormed at college. She’s worked in multiple states. Yet, in all those years, she’s made no friends, dated no one significant, and developed no new hobbies. You can miss someone and hold out for someone, but that doesn’t mean no one else should come into your life along the way. Her only friend is someone she met at camp at 14, and even then, she doesn’t seem to like her very much. And this is why I dislike this trope so much. When people or characters become a “We”. There is no one else who matters at all.

Even in the past timeline, the only real thing I found that the protagonist and the love interest had in common was their shared interest in history. And as this is a Fall book, with an academia element, I should appreciate that. But in youth, I found myself cringing as one does when they’re reminded of being that age and making those same jokes and comments, and in adulthood I found these characters to be completely bland. Do they still listen to the same 2 albums from when they were kids, and do they still only read history books? They don’t have anything to talk about with each other but their shared history because they haven’t really become anyone.

They also communicate poorly and the mc still is making the exact same kind of choices she made in the past which caused the breakup to begin with. She’s so concerned that the guy is going to resent her in the future for making him give up his choices ( which like, yeah if you only do everything together sure), so she decides to choose for him???? And then she does this to her younger sister. Who by the way reads much younger than 21 years old. I know they realize at the end that they should start looking forward instead of back, but unfortunately it was far too late for them to save this book for me.

Lastly, but not least, I just wanted a bit more fall vibes. Unfortunately this book was not for me. ...more

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