beloved404's Book Journey

What a delight!! The ingredients for this book were made in a lab, specifically to please me: gluttony, hedonism, chaotic bisexuals, patisserie, humour, art, sun-ripened fruit, and yearninggggg. It was a very visceral book in many ways, the sensuality of the food descriptions genuinely made my mouth water, I could swear I smelled the scents in the bakeries and vinyards, feel the sun on my skin, see some of my favourite art pieces. It made me want to eat cheese again after 6 years!!! The romance was also wonderfully chaotic, their flirting had me genuinely giggling and kicking my feet! It was also very hot without ever being repetitive or cringey. There were some issues with pacing and there was a lot of talk about just how much they loved each other, which was not necessarily shown. The characters sometimes felt a bit heavy-handed, often too perfect to be true - but I guess we do see them through each others' eyes! Plus, this got better as the story progressed and they felt more human. I understand some of the issues other people have had with this book regarding plot but I simply don't care, it was the perfect book for me, just when I needed it most (read: ill in a cold summer).

i love queer people. that can be the entire review. i chose this as a plane read on an 8 hour ride, which was… an interesting choice for sure. it read like a fanfic where the author has to work a sex scene into every chapter for the sake of the… plot. i love that about casey’s writing: they fully embrace the campy, silly, hot energy of fanfic. the best part is that they also embody that fanfic can be well-written and really thoroughly researched (like damn, i really loved reading the acknowledgments about all the research that went into this!) and still embrace the campy nature of the type of story they wanted to tell. i liked that the characters knew each other, so we got to know them both through their actions and the memories they had of each other. there was a sense of familiarity about the whole thing. most of all, i loved how over the top and unrealistic it all was. i loved that it never took itself seriously. queer books don’t have to make sense! you can write something big and hopeful and a little silly. i think more (good) queer authors need to embrace the cringe. cringe is dead & this is one of the hottest books i’ve read in a while.