Paula Nguyen > Recent Status Updates

Lol 7th book on currently reading

I’m pacing myself very well and I just realized it’s bc the chapters are getting a lot shorter lol so it’s easy to get through anyway big accomplishment congratulate me

Suspenseful

Break the seal already 😡

The part where he got caught again … omfg I had to put it down

Damn what a cliffhanger also this is lowkey good and I need to stop doing the entire reading last minute 🥴

can I say I saw it coming I kind of did and I’m scared

⚠️ spoiler ⚠️

so I can remember later; Hiram and Sophia tried to run away by asking for Georgie’s help but he was “one of those who task beyond the task” so basically he snitched and now I’m scared and don’t want to read the next chapter

Soo basically Sophia knows that Hiram likes her and she’s using him to escape Lockless even though there’s nothing in it for him to help her escape; Ngl Hiram a simp; Sophia has her priorities straight good for her; would’ve been into Sopham but ig it’s not happening

water and fire? … husband and wife ?? 😏😏

Maynard 🙄

Didn’t want to like it but I kind of like it so far :( atonement will always be #1 though

Idk how to feel about Rizha … Nin? lol

Hesperians = white people 🤔

When Chaghan and Qara saw her fantasy of kissing Altan 💀💀 embarrassing

She’s in Japanese Breakfast?? shook

yay Texas 😀

I almost feel guilty for saying all of the cons because it’s definitely a well-crafted and well-written book that made me think way more than the average romance but I also just … didn’t feel very emotionally connected to the characters like I usually do (ahem Helen Hoang) even though the strong aspects of it were…really strong; overall I’d have to say 3.5 rounded down because of enjoyment bc romance

Again towards the end Alex and Poppy just didn’t feel real; I had a moment where I was very aware that I was reading s book (if that makes sense) so that kind of illustrates how disconnected I was feeling from the story

they had a horrible day where nothing was working out things were breaking down everything was closed they were tired snd angry then they happened to reach the seeming climax of the book the emotion of the scene and the significance of the moment they had just didn’t match up, which led to an unsatisfying conclusion (mostly immediate post-climax tho)

If you put it in context (Croatia) it could make more sense but the 🌶 scene happened before the author introduced what happened in Croatia so I was just confused and kind of disappointed; also it happened after they were really .. not vibing with each other ?

Not going to blame this on the writer but I felt kind of disconnected from the characters / story towards the end especially when the angst post 🌶 scene happened I was just not really buying the way that the initiation of their relationship (12 years in the making I would like to add) happened; the author built up this very emotionally charged friendship just to let it completely shatter because of .. libido?

just wow especially towards the end it’s just really impressive the way the author illustrated their concerns with their relationship and how it connected with their values and past the whole time reading that dialogue I was just going wow this lady can really write a character … but we’ll get back to that

pros:
like I said the story was really well crafted the flashbacks cooperated really well with the present day timeline; the relationship was just so … nuanced? The dynamic between them the chemistry the reasons why they didn’t want to be together even though they were in love

idk where to start I had so many thoughts throughout and I feel like I won’t cover them all; I have no idea whether to give this a 3 or a 4 because I think it was a real well crafted story but I don’t think I enjoyed it enough to give it 4 stars; might have to ponder on that one

ok so none of her books deeply resonated with me but they all had me hooked from the beginning and were very easy to read; former did not hold up; there's nothing about either of the characters that I find particularly interesting; Auburn's only personality trait is being mysterious and having trauma; in general this wasn't horrible things still happened there was just no reason to care

drop @42% because Owen has no personality other than being a player and Auburn just exists; how is it that I'm already halfway yet nothing has happened; Owen is very committed to a girl he's only known for a few hours he was like I don't want her in my life until I've fixed my life she deserves the best version of me like you met her 3 days ago plz chill; also the only thing that's happened is they went out twice..?

I have no thoughts about this

Macbeth was better

lol I was so bored near the end I just wanted it to be over; the beginning was interesting and I was lowkey invested in her marriage / expected her to find someone new but like no independent woman too focused on her career 😳😳 ok then you go; I always take a while to listen to audiobooks and for the one’s that are average I just have like no thoughts after it’s over so.. yeah that’s it

waiting for this to be over the last 85% is so repetitive :/