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From canceling my Spotify Premium subscription to purchasing DVDs from the thrift store instead of streaming, I’m trying to be more intentional with my life in general. And yes, the media I’ve been collecting and drooling over includes the early-2000s Barbie movies and the Snoopy Xbox 360 game.
It’s been difficult to translate an intentional mindset to reading. Since I try not to read book blurbs, I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into when I check a book out on Libby. However, I keep reading 3-star books from my TBR, and I’m starting to lose faith in Reese’s Book Club as a result.
The easy solution is to give myself permission to DNF. I’m uncharacteristically stubborn when it comes to reading, so much so that I’ll force myself into a six-month slump (like I did with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) rather than let a book go. I think it’s time to go back to the 50 page rule; if I don’t think I’ll love a book after 50 pages, it’s time to move on. There’s a parallel to dating in there somewhere.
This summer, I read two Reese’s Book Club romances; the May 2024 pick, How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, and the August 2024 pick, Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. I would describe both books as story-driven slow-burn romances, and I’ll dive into the details below.
How To End a Love Story
Final Rating: ★★★
If you prefer to own physical copies, you can find a hard-copy of How To End A Love Story here.
I seriously think we need standardized spice level warnings in romance books. You see, I recognize that the implementation of such a system would be awkward (imagine arguing whether a certain paragraph is Level 3 or Level 4 smutty). Nevertheless, a nice little sentence in the introduction would have been helpful before I started reading How to Read a Love Story.
This is not to say that I’m averse to steamy romance; I just prefer my car audiobooks to be PG-13 (thankfully, I was alone when Libby + CarPlay started playing the book automatically).
How To End a Love Story was a refreshing read; it was fun to enter the world of Hollywood again through the lens of an TV-adapted novel series. I’ve always wondered what being in a writer’s room is like, and I think Yulin Kuang did a great job bringing this to real life. I hear that she draws from real-life experience being in a writers’ room which is extremely cool (this is another dream of mine, one of many). That being said, I think the interesting setting and spice were the main attractions of this book.
I know that therapy doesn’t turn out paragons of ethics and compassion, but I found it pretty hard to believe that Helen could be so nasty to Grant in the beginning of the book, despite how much therapy they both had been to. I feel like after ten years after the incident, she should have had more compassion towards him. And when she did finally seem to empathize with Grant towards the end of the book, we didn’t see nearly enough of an apology to him; I think he deserved more.
A lot of this felt like a lust story rather than a love story. The problem with situationship romances (for me) is that the will-they-won’t-they dynamic is more annoying than romantic. Helen’s reasoning for not pursuing a relationship with Grant is built on weak logistics. Her parents’ reaction seemed like a pretty weak argument to me. I know Helen’s relationship with her parents is sensitive and the circumstances are less-than-ideal, but too much blame was misplaced on Grant. A lot of this reflects a lack of maturity on her and her parents’ part rather than a realistic obstacle.
I do wonder if the author tried to balance out the lusty elements of the story with a long and depressing third act. It was more depresso than romantic; I like depresso, but I wasn’t a fan of this. I was sure there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, but goodness was the tunnel long. What was even less satisfying is that at the end of it, we didn’t get to see all the sunshine and rainbows of everything being wrapped up nicely.
Many of the characters’ arcs felt incomplete by the end of the story. We don’t really see a resolution with Helen’s parents, and Helen’s relationship with Michelle’s memory is never really healed. I know that sibling relationships are complicated, especially during adolescence, but given that Helen is in her thirties now, I would have liked to have seen her inner child healed a little, or at least forgiven.
Despite my complaints, this book was pleasant to read; I enjoyed it and I finished it quickly. Like I mentioned before, the TV-adaptation setting was fun to read, and the spice was fun. I don’t think How To End a Love Story constitutes great romance, but this was a unique story, and I applaud Yulin Kuang for her debut novel.
Slow Dance
Final Rating: ★★
If you prefer to own physical copies, you can find a hard-copy of Slow Dance here.
In my defense, I thought Rainbow Rowell changed. The last, and only other, book of hers that I read was Eleanor and Park (written twelve years ago), which left a lot to be desired. Slow Dance, her latest work, is the August 2024 Reese’s Book Club pick. As someone trying to work through Reese’s Book Club, I knew I might as well check it off the list. Here’s what Rainbow Rowell had to say after Reese’s Book Club released their August announcement:
“All I ever write are love stories, but I think Slow Dance is my most romantic novel yet. I wanted it to feel big and unabashed, like a power ballad — like the very last song at a school dance. Full-throated and full-hearted. I just wanted to leave it all on the floor.”
If Rainbow Rowell meant for this book to be some epic novel, then frankly, I couldn’t disagree more. Slow Dance is hardly on the top of my list of most romantic novels; I leave that for the likes of Pride and Prejudice and, a few tiers below, The Song of Achilles and The Stationery Shop. I agree that there’s a lot of heart in this book, but I would say this was more of a slow crawl than a slow dance.
The following has spoilers because I don’t recommend this book and therefore have no problem discussing the plot in the open.
Slow Dance yawns the story of Shiloh and Cary, two high school besties who are meant to be together forever. Cary assumes Shiloh knows this to be true, whereas Shiloh, like any sane adult, assumes nothing and leaves him alone to go off to the Navy. Miscommunication after miscommunication, Cary is butthurt that Shiloh stops pining after him. I’m not so sure I like the miscommunication trope anymore. It was all over the place and confusing (which I think was supposed to be the point? “Full-throated” and therefore messy?).
We get to see the progression of Shiloh and Cary’s relationship through high school-era flashback vignettes. Shiloh in her youth is obsessed with pulling on Cary’s pigtails, which is extremely annoying to listen to. She (or rather, Rainbow Rowell) is also obsessed with Cary’s cheeks. I think it’s nice that she recognized her childhood insolence and apologized for it sometime towards the end of the book, but goodness was it annoying to witness.
Honestly, I didn’t see it between these two. There’s an underlying dramatic tone during the high school vignettes where we, as the audience, are supposed to know that Cary and Shiloh are meant for each other. However, in reality, I think this was another Rainbow Rowell case of “they might have been better for each other as friends”.
I found the pacing in this book quite odd; this was the slowest dance I’ve ever witnessed. In fact, so slow that they were just standing on the dance floor and staring at each other, breathing heavily on each other’s cheeks. In fact, this book was so slow that when the plot finally did pick up, I was caught off-guard and out of breath.
When Cary finally proposed to Shiloh, it all felt so random and rushed. One moment, the two are sharing emails and seemingly friendzoning each other, the next Cary’s on his knees? It doesn’t make sense. Where was his head at? Spoiler: we never find out. I think it’s a shame that we don’t see much character development in Cary throughout the book, given how epic it was supposed to be. Shiloh seems to have mellowed out over the years, but Cary is still as proud and proper as he was in high school.
Do I think that Shiloh and Cary were meant to be together? Not really. By the time we learn about their history, I thought the fact they hooked up at Mikey’s wedding in the first 20 pages was extremely odd and inconsistent with their characters.
My favorite part of this book were the supporting characters; Junie and Gus were a joy, and so were Shiloh and Cary’s moms and Tom. The Omaha setting was also a nice touch.
Overall, I rate Slow Dance two stars; I don’t recommend it. Too much angst for too little romance. Too much “Shiloh”.
As far as slow burns go, I would say that How To End a Love Story was more satisfying than Slow Dance. Its third act is more serious and anxiety-inducing in a way that somehow (though I still hate anxiety-inducing literature) works better than Slow Dance’s sudden rush to the end.
I am realizing that reading a book just to “check it off” an arbitrary list like the Reese’s Book Club is not the best reading strategy for me. I’m pledging to read more book descriptions and be more discerning when it comes to the books I want to read. I don’t mean to sound snobby; this is more of a plea to myself to be more mindful. How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and I want my life to be spent having fun and reading books that I think I will enjoy.
