Genre: Fiction/Contemporary Romance/Chick Lit
Date Started Reading: 10 December 2019 
Date Finished Reading: 24 December 2019

SYNOPSIS

The only child of a single mother, Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. If she sometimes suspects there might be more to life than reading, she just shrugs and picks up a new book.

When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They’re all—or mostly all—excited to meet her! She’ll have to Speak. To. Strangers. It’s a disaster! And as if that wasn’t enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. Doesn’t he realize what a terrible idea that is?

Nina considers her options.

1. Completely change her name and appearance. (Too drastic, plus she likes her hair.)
2. Flee to a deserted island. (Hard pass, see: coffee).
3. Hide in a corner of her apartment and rock back and forth. (Already doing it.)

It’s time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell, but she isn’t convinced real life could ever live up to fiction. It’s going to take a brand-new family, a persistent suitor, and the combined effects of ice cream and trivia to make her turn her own fresh page.

T H O U G H T S…

This is my first time to read Abbie Waxman’s work and I have to say… I truly enjoyed reading this book. Let me start with the things that I liked!

• Love how the characters complimented each other, though there were times that I got confused because there’s a lot of them! So you gotta familiarise yourself. Raise your hand if you also drew the family tree ONLY to find out that there’s an actual sketch in the book!
• I love the exchange of dialogues! This must be one of the main reasons why I found myself spending time with this book. It’s like watching the book version of Big Bang Theory, only they are not Physicists but they’re still damn smart! – Witty, hilarious and then a lot of romantic moments that made my heart flutter at 2 am! haha! Oh, the magical hour of reading romantic books!
• I love the trivia night part, too! While I was reading the quiz master’s scenes, in my head I was reading it in Ross’ voice when he became the game host during the trivia game episode on FRIENDS.

HOWEVER! towards the end of the book, I was talking to myself saying “Hmmm… okay.. is that it?! Hmmm…

<reading>

<reading>

Oh! okay! but..okay…

<reading>

<reading>

“I see.”

Don’t get me wrong! I love the story! But to me, it seems that the scenes/parts were somewhat developed to stand alone? (Oh gosh! It’s hard to explain! But I’ll try) I feel that it needs more development so it’s gonna be cohesive with the rest? Maybe a little arrangement on the turn of events? Because I feel that the last part was hurried?

TOM & NINA

Their love story is another highlight because it’s nakakakilig! it’s gonna give you that “oh-My-Gosh!” feels plus the bookish reference & stuff! And as a romance reader, I was a bit thrown when the development of their story was almost mushroom-like. Pasulpot-sulpot! it’s like a Go-Stop-Go kinda thing! I feel that the overall series of events could have been more polished.

Lastly, a couple of times or maybe 3 times in this book, Nina told us how she grew up with her Nana and without an actual set of parents with her. But in my opinion, the facts that were laid out at the beginning of the story were simply repeated in the middle & then some towards the end. And then, in the end, there was this huge revelation from her father.

What I’m trying to say here is… I wish that it could have been a slow revelation instead of same old..same old..same old…then BAM! Am I making sense here?

But anyway, there’s that and overall, I enjoyed this one. I’m giving it 3 stars!

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