Book Club January - Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

ordinaryjelly · Nov 30, 2022

Apologies for my tardiness, I was celebrating my birthday.

I have added up the votes for the books nominated for December and they are:

December 2022 Book

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune - 14 likes

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay - 7 likes

The Santa Killer by Ross Greenwood - 5 likes

This is Happiness by Niall Williams - 5 likes

The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber - 4 likes

Which means our December book is Every Summer After by Carley Fortune. I know a lot of us have already purchased this based on the regular book thread, but in case you haven't it is a 99p deal which will change on 1st December.

Amazon product

Happy reading! And again I am sorry I left it so late to add up the votes.

fudgebox · Nov 30, 2022

Excited to start this

thanks for organising @ordinaryjelly

Caffeine Fiend · Nov 30, 2022

I am so excited for you all to read this. Ill wait a few days and post my thoughts

epl000 · Nov 30, 2022

Happy belated birthday @ordinaryjelly

hope you had a fabulous day with plenty of cake and a good book! Also v pleased with the book choice as I really like the sound of the blurb and am looking forward to getting stuck in.

theaceofstace · Nov 30, 2022

Excellent - have purchased and will get cracking! Looking forward to joining in with you all

Tit4Tattle · Nov 30, 2022

Happy Belated birthday @ordinaryjelly

theaceofstace · Dec 1, 2022

Eeeeeeeek just finished!!
I don’t know how to do a snazzy comment with a spoiler box though

Caffeine Fiend · Dec 1, 2022

I loved this book, I actually gave it 5 stars which I think was perhaps over zealous. It was maybe a 4.25/4.5.

I am a sucker for contemporary romance books which also explore other relationships within the story. So it wasnt just focused on Percy and Sam, but also Sam and Charlies relationship, the relationship the boys had with their mother, Sues relationship with Percy. Percy's relationship with Charlie too. The differences in the parenting of Sue compared to Percys parents. I loved the setting, felt like the characters were fleshed out well and flawed. Im also a sucker for a flawed character.

The fact Sam knew broke me

was a sucker punch at that point but also loved that he had clearly used the years to try and get over it.

I see that the author has her 2nd book being published next year and Id definitely read it.

It was definitely giving 'the summer I turned pretty' for adults imo. The brothers. The setting.. but more down to earth.

Carapop · Dec 3, 2022

One sentence in, and I want to ditch it. The writing is just a bit cringe worthy. But then it’s a bit witty and I scold myself for my inability to relax and just enjoy. But then. Her name is PERSEPHONE.

Carapop said:
One sentence in, and I want to ditch it. The writing is just a bit cringe worthy. But then it’s a bit witty and I scold myself for my inability to relax and just enjoy. But then. Her name is PERSEPHONE.

I hate it. It reads like dear diary YA, 90’s tweeny language all wow and cool. But I mostly hate it because I have to keep reading. It’s annoyingly addictive and more than a little alluring

Sarah123456789 · Dec 3, 2022

Ooh I’m not the only one finding it a bit dull then. I’ll stick with it but I keep finding myself confusing it with other similar books so far and I’m not sucked in! I’ll keep going!!!

Carapop · Dec 4, 2022

Finished!

I have no idea how to rate it. I tore through it in 24 hours. I enjoyed the story, the romance, the characters. It was a very good easy read and whilst it was all awfully predictable , I was still eager to keep the momentum going.

However, I just think the standard of writing really was very average. It occasionally distracted me from the story. It just felt very young, even when the story was being told from modern day perspective.

I’m just a sucker for beautiful writing and think I’d choose it over plot or character development if I had to make a choice.

all that said, I’m glad I didn’t abandon it and I want two hot brothers fighting over me

a sequel with Delilah and Charlie next…?

Caffeine Fiend · Dec 4, 2022

Carapop said:
Finished!

I have no idea how to rate it. I tore through it in 24 hours. I enjoyed the story, the romance, the characters. It was a very good easy read and whilst it was all awfully predictable , I was still eager to keep the momentum going.

However, I just think the standard of writing really was very average. It occasionally distracted me from the story. It just felt very young, even when the story was being told from modern day perspective.

I’m just a sucker for beautiful writing and think I’d choose it over plot or character development if I had to make a choice.

all that said, I’m glad I didn’t abandon it and I want two hot brothers fighting over me

a sequel with Delilah and Charlie next…?

I would love a sequel like that! Her next book is out in the summer I think but is unrelated to ESA.

I feel the same as you, it drew me in and I devoured it so I rated it highly for that reason alone.

Carapop · Dec 4, 2022

Caffeine Fiend said:
I would love a sequel like that! Her next book is out in the summer I think but is unrelated to ESA.

I feel the same as you, it drew me in and I devoured it so I rated it highly for that reason alone.

That’s the thing. I can’t give it a poor rating because I haven’t read a book so quickly in a long while and it really did distract and entertain. That earns major kudos. But I can’t give it a strong rating knowing the quality of that which I’d usually give a 4/5. So I’m refusing to rate it!

Tit4Tattle · Dec 6, 2022

I’ve just finished it was a nice easy read (read in 24 hours) but nothing groundbreaking

Marylou · Dec 6, 2022

Just finished and it's the first book club pick that I didn't enjoy. Very predictable story and I gave it 2*

Sarah123456789 · Dec 7, 2022

Marylou said:
Just finished and it's the first book club pick that I didn't enjoy. Very predictable story and I gave it 2*

I finished it last night and only stuck with it as I’d started it but felt like I just wanted to get it over with! It was dull and nothing interesting happened imo!

nbt · Dec 10, 2022

Sarah123456789 said:
I finished it last night and only stuck with it as I’d started it but felt like I just wanted to get it over with! It was dull and nothing interesting happened imo!

I agree with this review. I’ve just skim read the last 20% just to get it read.

Katykatykaty · Dec 10, 2022

I’ve not started the book yet and with these reviews coming in, I might just return it and not bother. It’ll be the first book club pick that I miss this year but I’m just getting out of a slump and don’t want something to pull me into another.

Tit4Tattle · Dec 10, 2022

Katykatykaty said:
I’ve not started the book yet and with these reviews coming in, I might just return it and not bother. It’ll be the first book club pick that I miss this year but I’m just getting out of a slump and don’t want something to pull me into another.

I don’t think it would pull you into a slump I read it quite quickly it did pull me in it’s just when you finish it you realise nothing really happened!

ToxicPony · Dec 10, 2022

As I mentioned in the book thread, my main issue with Every Summer After is that it is an absolute carbon copy of another book, with the setting, characters and storyline all extreeeemely similar.

Judging it entirely on its own merit, I just find it quite slight. The characters have very little depth to me and I don't get any sense of personality from the main two. The supporting characters were all far more interesting. It is an easy read but there's not much to it, the plot unfolds quite predictably and any conflict is almost immediately resolved, so it loses any emotional stakes.

Basically, I finished it wondering what the point had been.