Hello, all! Before I dive in, I would just like to let everyone know the site will be undergoing some changes. While this theme and style is crisp and organized, I need to make it match my “authorial identity” a bit more for my last class (woot woot!). It doesn’t really read fantasy or sci-fi…so expect some new appearances in the near future.
Welcome to the next real BookLook (since the last one sort of didn’t happen). This time I tried to go for a cutesy romance, which isn’t my normal genre of choice, but I enjoy the occasional foray into. This is a very recent novel, as well, having been published just last year. The second and third books are also available, and I’m absolutely going to read them after I gave this one a try and loved it.
Things We Never Got Over (2022)
Published by: Bloom Books
ISBN: 978-1-9456-3183-2
Worth your time? Yes
This book was an amazing read. From the beginning, we have an interesting story and a relatable main character in Naomi Witt. She’s a coffee fiend, a bit naive, an analyst, a planner, and believably fiery–not just arrogantly belligerent for the sake of being a “strong” female lead. We’re introduced to the main antagonist/love interest, Knox Morgan, quickly and vaguely given a preview of one of the secondary antagonists through indirect characterization. The story is told through the lenses of both Naomi and Knox, which allows us to see how they are both broken and flawed without giving the source of their respective baggage away.
The pacing of this novel is really well done. Although long at over five hundred pages, it wasn’t a drag to get through. It followed the typical romance formula of enemies-to-lovers plus a perfectly timed period of relationship difficulties and a climactic event that changed their perspectives and brought them back together, stronger than before. It hit all the right beats at just the right moments in the right ways.
Lastly, I will comment on the style and language of the book. I have a fairly extensive vocabulary, but I usually stumble across a couple of words that I have to look up definitions for. This book never had that, and I loved that about it. It was written simply–but not stupidly–but intelligently at the same time, especially when in the mind of Naomi. Knox’s POV was simple and crude but also witty, without being ignorant. Score used the right words and developed a nice flow that never broke, in my opinion. Nothing felt choppy or out of place.
Overall, this was a winner. I’ve already checked out a copy of Things We Hide from the Light from my local library.
