Rowan's Bookshelf (Carleigh) > Recent Status Updates

Mordecai has autism and I love him

This is so sweet. I love that it's in 2000 so not a lot of phones around and she has to find a fax machine. Though some things like the diversity of this little town are fantasy ( but they acknowledge it's a bit magical). Or things like going to therapy being really acceptable

Yessss girl get positive!! Life is beautiful!!

Now that they are not hilariously misinterpreting each other they are cute!!

This is so funny Ellie is sooo oblivious

How is Aspen like Taylor Swift levels of famous but no one in this town even cares lmao like there would be reporters crawling all over there. Also she should have bought her parents a nicer house wtf

Honestly i have no idea why Roman is even into her in the flashbacks. He just picks her out randomly and wants to sweep her off her feet. If they weren't friends in the present timeline I would think he was just playing her

Oh my god this writing is so fanfic

Loving all the clever little changes to the George Bailey narrative. It seems to be holding true to the message so far!

I will say that the "Indians should move on forget the past" myth is not explained away very well. It should be more about how culture is not something to be thrown away. bringing in the cases on indian lands doesn't really explain away the myth of conquest imo

Just okay. The banter is good and cute, but not amazing. The diversity is great and the town has a wonderful Christmas atmosphere. But the scene skipping is just so frustrating, someone took an AXE to the manuscript because a sequence never really ends it just cuts to later. Why don't they just have sex the first 5 awesome times they hang out together?? Why on a random ass night?

How did I just notice this has the gay best friend stereotype?? I mean I like this and he's not obnoxious but it's there 😒

Cute enough and really Christmasy, but it kind of skips over a lot. They're flirting at trivia all night then it just cuts to a few days later

The real Christmas miracle is how this small town that is so "old fashioned" for Christmas has such a diverse population and is safe enough for gay couples to live openly and proudly
Weird that the FMC is half indian, the town is really progressive, but this isn't mentioned at all in the marketing

This is a great book to hand to racist uncles at Thanksgiving lol it doesn't go too in depth but it does provide a good basis for deconstructing myths

If the rest of this turns into a campaign for medical marijuana count me out. Ethan is a pretty good bf tho

Okay when Ethan can be a real person with her and be supportive, it's nice. I'm not sure if it's really in character for him bc he needs to be a Love Interest with her

Literally how am I supposed to like Ethan 😭 he's a pushover for his horrible grandfather and can't take out the trash or ride the bus on his own?? And none of this is being spun in some way with Avi to grill him or even find him cute clueless

Yeah I cannot respect Ethan for being a grown ass man and letting his grandfather talk to him like that, generational trauma be damned boy have some self respect

Man the writing for this is so good. Atmospheric and descriptive and amazing. Everyone says Starling house will kill her but I still feel drawn to it just like Opal is

YES BITCH set demons upon your enemies I love it

"His mother had been a natural to the sword, as if she had spent her whole life waiting for someone to put a hilt in her hands. She fought like an apocalypse, like a great and inevitable ending."

The atmosphere is so ** and I really like Tara and Penny. She's insecure, then gets swept up in the romance of her life and I totally understand. The pace is slow but the horror is creeping, not outright scary and I love it