I wanted to love this so much but alas my pickiness with romance novels struck again.

Let’s start with what I liked: •The ADHD rep •Easy enough to read •Teddy and Gus!! I’m more interested in them than the main couple 😬 (they had more chemistry in ONE CONVERSATION compared to Luke and Emmy in the entire book)

Now the endless list of what annoyed me (which gets nit picky because once I stop enjoying a book I pick it apart, tis my curse 😪): •Repetitive and telling over showing especially with how “attractive” they found each other which made it not feel like a slow burn (the only slow burn part was the spicy scenes not happening until almost 200 pages in) •Insta lovey/lust driven which is my least fave trope like there’s more to a relationship and romance than just wanting to boink •Yellowstone vibes in the ranch description (which I was here for) but this felt so much less cowboy than I expected?! Yes they work on a ranch and Emmy is a barrel racer but it’s missing the LIFESTYLE VIBES. There was zero y’all or yeehaws uttered and LUKE DOESNT WEAR A COWBOY HAT?! JAIL •Why does Emmy keep repeating "you’re welcome Gus" every time she closes the door to her cabin?! •Getting tired of the "I must claim her" straight man BS-Luke gives me the biggest ick •Cheesy and cringey as hell •What is with her obsession with her collarbone looking good? •Ugh spicy scenes were so so-parts were decent and other parts literally made me cringe-"my entrance" ewwww 🤢 •Didn’t feel the chemistry most likely because they’ve known each other since childhood but we don’t SEE that so we needed more build up of the deeper moments before they started lusting after each other. •Lacks tension and banter that I’ve found are a must for me in romance books. Tension comes from what goes unsaid and because we go between conversations and the characters inner thoughts both telling us constantly what’s going on, the tension is completely removed. •Listen this made me feel like a prude because the spice was cringey not sexy and the swearing was TOO MUCH! I swear like a sailor but this was a lot that it just felt over the top and once again cringey (luke dropping f bombs doesn’t add to his “bad boy” personality)

I’m very picky about adult contemporary romance novels because they’re often times too cringy/cheesy, but I will probably continue the series purely so I can read more about Teddy and Gus and see if it gets better 👀

TW/CW: infidelity, blood, injury, abandonment, death of parent, sexual content

RIP Casanova you would’ve loved Tinder and antibiotics

"The word for poetry in Arabic, sha'ir, doesn't refer to a particular form, it only has to do with feeling. So you have to be an expert in showing your feelings on paper or reciting your poetry to people so that they can feel what you're feeling. It can be an image but it does have to leave an impact on the reader. And if you can make them cry or smile, then you are a poet; if you can make them shiver, then you are a poet."

Liked some poems more than others as usual with poetry collections. I loved the inclusion of photos and an interview with the poet! Very moving, emotional, and informative

Bit telling over showing with unnecessary descriptions that dragged the pacing down 🥲 Dinan is saying so much while also somehow saying so little? I looooved Disappoint Me but was left disappointed with Bellies. I was just so bored and not feeling connected to the characters or excited to get back to the novel after setting it aside for a couple of weeks.

On the plus side it shows that Dinan found her voice and is improving with her writing compared to this debut. I look forward to her third book and hope to enjoy it more than this one.

This broke my reading slump!! The writing was captivating and had me picking it up to read every free moment I had. I loved getting to know these girls and their stories 🥹 Mottley has a way with prose and character development that you can’t help but feel as if you know them as real people not just fictional characters! Officially an auto buy author 💗

This is going to feel sooo dated soon (or technically in some ways already is) I fear with allll the brand name dropping. It makes sense for the story using some brand names like goodreads and Twitter to push the plot, but by the end I was getting annoyed by everything being name dropped (we don’t need to know you’re going to Starbucks and what you order; Seems characteristic of Kuang to have so many unimportant details jammed in).

Everyone is unlikeable! While I typically enjoy unlikeable characters, I was just annoyed with these ones. June is not a victim at all but the characters so against her are also wrong at times. They’re all comical caricatures but I appreciated what Kuang was trying to do, it just didn’t work for me because it had great potential but I was never fully pulled in!

Just when it would get good we’d then instead get chapters at a time of "this happened then this happened then this was said on Twitter then I did this" just recounting and TELLING us every tiny thing. The first few chapters and last few chapters were decent, the middle was a huge slump and I struggled to read more than a chapter a day.

The potential novel ideas discussed in the book sounded more interesting than the entirety of Yellowface itself 😬

Another example of “Great idea poor execution.” If she wanted the reader to be both bored and irritated by every character then she succeeded 😂

Really insightful read about the traditions of geisha/geiko! I had read and loved Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden in high school, but learning he twisted Mineko’s story to continue the misconception of geisha is disappointing.

I’m glad Mineko wrote her own story to set the record straight. I learned a lot and would recommend for that basis alone!

Now I didn’t always like the writing style whether it’s a cultural difference or due to the translator. Everything felt so dry and emotionless, jumping from story to story. I found it more fascinating to read the later chapters once Mineko starts training as a meiko.

I also found the translator made some weird choices; one of which was making the presentation of Japanese names in the western style with family name second instead of first. I guess he assumed it would be hard for westerners to make that switch but it’s really not that hard, and he made it much harder given that he kept the traditional Japanese name presentation for historical figures and then the western style for everyone else 🫠 Number 2- Brown also didn’t need to translate everything. For example when talking about the different dialects she repeats "yes" several times when trying to speak the Gion dialect as opposed to another version of the Kyoto dialect but instead of showing us the Japanese version (Hei vs Hae), the translator just kept writing “yes” over and over again which doesn’t give the reader any indication what’s going on.

Overall fascinating story that completely changed my previous held beliefs of what a geisha is (thanks a lot Arthur Golden🖕🏻).

TW/CW: child death, sexual assault, emotional abuse, death, grief