E. J. Noyes

"Some things are worth keeping even if it doesn’t seem like it."

This was not the one-woman-against-the-elements epic I expected it to be. Its setup feels contrived to precisely force the conflict its two leads experience.

It reminded me a little of the Tom Hanks film "Castaway" - when I saw it I signed up for Tom Hanks on an island, but a large chunk of that story is about what comes after, and that is also the case here.

This bothered me as I was reading. I felt like the story had peaked show more too soon, but in hindsight it works. Celeste and Olivia spend too long estranged when they just needed to sit down and share their feelings honestly, but that's how characters in a romance novel are wont to behave.

For me, ultimately this story is about Celeste coming to terms with a rotten start in life, recognizing her own strength and self-worth and learning to face the world ALONE. And I can get behind that and admire her for it.

Despite my misgivings expressed above, the writing kept me hooked. I enjoyed the first-person narration from Celeste and her highs and lows felt appropriately triumphant and devastating, and sex when it happens is super steamy and intimate.

4.5 stars show less

This, was a tour du force of a book. And I fucking loved it.

I love that I’m finally starting to click with EJ Noyes books, because the ones I’ve read before the last two I’ve only just liked, whereas most other people seem to adore, and I wondered if I was missing something or it we just personal taste stuff. But this was almost perfection and I’m thrilled about it.

I am a person who can (usually) absolutely be here for a slow paced book. I never felt like this dragged really (a show more tiny bit towards the end but dragged isn’t even the right word, there). This was a perfect example of when first person narration works in a “romance” (I only put the quotes because there is also so much more going on here). Usually, that’s not my preference, and I like getting povs for all the characters involved in the romance, but this is the absolute perfect example of when that’s not what I want. I clocked a lot about Olivia right when she first showed up, but I wasn’t 100% sure WHY and how until the blow up reveal and it was… so good. So painful. So perfect. I really liked both MCs, I would love like, a version of this book from Olivia’s pov though. I REALLY want to get into her head and see things from her side of things.

Abby Craden is perfection as always, I almost bumped it into a five just for her. Her voice for Olivia was so dreamy. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while. show less

Oof. Nobody is having a good time in this one.

This is not a pleasant read or listen, but not because it’s not well written, or the characters aren’t compelling or the narration is bad, just… it’s sad. Everyone in it is some degree of sad, and everyone in it is trying, and everyone in it loves each other and… that’s not always the cure. Love doesn’t solve things. It helps. But it can’t fix anything magically.

This… was a little hard to get through for me. Some of Sabine’s show more anxiety and compulsions hit a little close to home to one of my own family members and it was… well, frankly it sucked. I know how it feels to be Rebecca and Jana, trying to help, not sure how, and also… honestly, incapable of doing anything because this is the kind of thing that has to come from the person it’s happening to. It’s a really shitty situation to be in. I’m… sort of still in it, with my person, so this was a hard listen in that respect.

I was DELIGHTED that this was dual povs and we got to have Rebecca’s perspective. Abby Craden’s voice for her is just… so dreamy and sexy and I love it so much. I love Rebecca as a character a lot, and I loved seeing her relationship with Jana!!! (When Jana was just like “bye love you” in the beginning my heart soared!! Found family!!! Sisters!! Ahhhh!!) All in all, this was a hard listen, but a really good one and I really liked getting to have a continuation of these characters. It’s so nice to get established relationships and I wish we had them more often in sapphic fiction, honestly. I love to watch people fall in love as much as the next gal, but it’s also realllllly nice to see people build lives together and work through their issues in a totally different way. show less

i am not a horse girl.

frankly, i'm not an animal person, on the whole. i like them! i just have no real desire to have them around me all the time or live with them/i am afraid of some of them. that said, despite having a healthy respect/fear of horses, i would hang out (briefly) with dewy, the very charming cat loving, hoof painting, horse at the center of this tale.

i am also not a sports girl.

that said, the olympics is my single exception to that, and i found the whole horse dressage show more (sp?) competition stuff much more interesting than i thought i would. but the real draw of this story are the main characters, caitlyn and addie. i loved them both a lot, and i really enjoyed their dynamic together. i've been on a good streak of e.j. noyes books lately and i'm delighted by it. the first two or three that i read i enjoyed but didn't love, but the last two i've really had fun (and way too many feelings) with and i'm so happy to finally get on the e.j. noyes love bandwagon. i think part of my earlier disconnect with her books have been the single pov, first person narration. that is... not my preference when it comes to romance stories--i much prefer to get into the pov of all parties involved in the romance. there are definitely times where it works really well (alone, for instance, was perfect like that) but usually it's not my fav way to tell a romance tale. i LOVED that this had dual povs of both caitlyn and addie, because it really helped me fall in love with both of them.

i thought the pacing of this was great. abby craden was nearly perfection as always (accents aren't perhaps her strong suit, but i still loved it). i love me a longer book. and it was a great one to listen to while having hardly any energy and recovering from a cold. it was also a lovely, pretty low angst refresher after the intensity of emotions that blasting through the seven husbands of evelyn hugo in basically a day gave me before this. show less