A short story about The Love Hypothesis, my TBR, and my 2-year hiatus from reading Romance Books.
It is Labor Day weekend 2021, a man, let's call him Romance-Book-Dad or 'Dad' for short, reads The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. It is the best Romantic Comedy he has ever read. It convinces him of something he had been thinking for about a year and a half...Romance is his favorite literary genre. His decision to read it was due to it being recommended in a request post on r/RomanceBooks. He quickly dives into another recommendation from that post Headliners by Lucy Parker. He loves it as well – he finishes it in 1 day. Next he reads another recommendation from that post Dating You / Hating You by Christina Lauren he likes it but not as much as The Hating Game or Headliners he drops a few other CRs1 from that post into his TBR2 list. The date is September 11, 2021.
A few days later Ali Hazelwood's debut Novel, The Love Hypothesis, releases to instant praise. How much praise? Enough that Dad adds it to his TBR on September 16, 2021, two days after its release. Dad takes a break from Romcoms after finishing The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon to read some Romantic Fantasy and Sci-Fi. In early October, Dad's Libby hold for Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, another top recommendation from that post, arrives. From October 2021 to November 2022, Dad would read 23 books, 12 by Ilona Andrews, 4 other sci-fi/ Fantasy Romances, The sequel to The Boyfriend Project, 2 other Romances, and 4 other books. For many reasons 2023 & 2024 would be two of the most challenging years of Dad's life, resulting in Dad only having time to read 6 books over 2 years. Consequently, The Love Hypothesis sat quietly near the top of his TBR for the better part of three years.
June 1, 2025, The Love Hypothesis makes it to the top of Dad's TBR. June 3, 2025, Dad finishes The Love Hypothesis. It is the best Romantic Comedy he has ever read.
Dad's Quick Takes – A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
I finished A court of Frost and Starlight this week primarily via audio-book on Hoopla (even though I own the paperback) because I had some driving to do. I enjoyed it. It was nice to see many characters I have grown fond of in a slice of life setting. I do think if it had been any longer it would have over stayed its welcome a bit. It made me slightly more excited to start A Court of Silver Flames which is on my 2025 reading goal list but was put there before I knew that the first three books were a Trilogy and A Court of Silver Flames is primarily about Nesta.
Rating: 💜💜💜
3 Things I loved
Snow Ball Fight
Emerie
Cassian and Nesta Sass
3 Things I didn't like
No more info on Bryaxis
Feyre jumping from not ready for kids to wanting kids so quickly
Why I think I will finish this book series unlike the television series Dexter.
I originally wrote this review in January prior to creating this blog.
Content Warning for this Review
(Items with hidden text formatting spoiler like this only appear in the spoiler sections).
* References to serial killers
* References to violence
* Sexually explicit references
* References to rape
* References to violent torture
(Content warning for the book is below spoilers section).
Medium Used: eBook via Kindle iOS and iPadOS apps.
(I am not sure what the KU publishing rules are where these authors audio books are on Libby and Hoopla but not the eBook but if you're an audiobook person my Libby and Hoopla both had the whole series).
Content Warning this review contains references to the sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, and domestic abuse that take place in this book.
Medium Used: Paperback.
Thank You to my 2021 Reddit Secret Santa (RIP) for getting this book for me.
