Vacation Wars

2/5. Releases 4/18/2023.
For when you're vibing with... vacation romances, slow burns, female friendships in romance, and awkward heroines.

Tessa's high school pact to find love before her sister marries is catching up with her--because said sister's wedding is just weeks away. Fortunately, finding love shouldn't be hard in the family vacation spot of Santorini... and she has Myles, her childhood crush, here to help her out. But as they dodge her friends' pranks, it becomes clear that Tessa's true love could be closer to home.

I've heard great things about Meghan Quinn, but this one just didn't work for me. I wish it had.

Quick Takes:
--I do love the setting, and it is well-painted. I really want to read more vacation romances, and Santorini is an amazing atmosphere for romance. Is there a part of me that wanted to read more about locals and less about tourists as it went on? Yes, but "vacation" is in the title, so I knew what I was getting into.

--My biggest issue with the book is the heroine. Tessa is thirty. I'm all about being young at any age, but there's young and there's immature, just like there's awkward and there's "my God, how have you gotten through life as an adult unable to handle basic human interactions". If I understood more about why this was, maybe we'd talk. But mostly, it seemed like she was just "quirky", and I couldn't relate. She didn't have gumption, she didn't have get up and go, and I couldn't root for her because she didn't seem to root for herself.

--I wish I could say that I found Tessa's friends, who are much more bold and brash, better. And maybe they were better. But they didn't work for me. I admittedly should have seen the word "pranks" in the summary and known that this was not a good match for my sensibilities. When grown women are pranking another grown woman, I.... lose the plot. I love to have fun. My version of fun in Santorini would probably not be pranks.

--I just didn't feel like there was anything keeping our couple apart, and they weren't compelling enough for me to buy into internal conflicts doing the trick. So when it took them a while to get together, it got frustrating.

The Sex Stuff:
There is explicit sex in this book. I did not find it particularly engaging, but that could be in part because, by the time they had it, I was a bit... tired.

At the end of the day, I see that Meghan Quinn has wit and writing ability, but I don't think this book sold me. Maybe another will someday.

Thanks to Netgalley and Montlake for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Це так гарно починалося, навіть не дивлячись на безглузду причину на якій було побудована книга.
Але потім ці аб'юзивні відносини з подругами...