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slowburnsrus's review against another edition
2.0
Here’s where this book lost me: our heroine decides to order a slice of lamb pie for her first pub dinner in Britain and the book felt the need to overexplain why she was allowed to eat pie. You see, she hadn’t eaten all day. She usually wouldn’t order anything this heavy. She was required to sample the menu as part of her new role as a pub owner. The pie wasn’t that tasty anyway. And she immediately thought afterwards that it wasn’t the sort of thing she’d ever want to eat outside of winter, that magical season when one is allowed to eat pie.
Just eat your damn pie.
Before this, Lauren, the main character, fell in instalust with her love interest, Cam, because she was even more beautiful than the first beautiful woman she glimpsed in the U.K. Nothing about Cam’s personality, carriage, energy etc. Just, she’s pretty so I’m going to stare awkwardly at this person I just met, saying nothing, as she walks past. This is after she dismissed much of what she saw in England as in need of an American-style makeover.
All I wanted was a little love in the English countryside. I don’t have time for this mess.
On a positive note, Cam is a smart, down-to-earth character whose work at a gin distillery is described in an evocative and engaging way. She’s attached to her neighborhood pub but attracted to its brash new owner, which sets up a clash that might be interesting to read if I didn’t hate Lauren so much. DNF
Just eat your damn pie.
Before this, Lauren, the main character, fell in instalust with her love interest, Cam, because she was even more beautiful than the first beautiful woman she glimpsed in the U.K. Nothing about Cam’s personality, carriage, energy etc. Just, she’s pretty so I’m going to stare awkwardly at this person I just met, saying nothing, as she walks past. This is after she dismissed much of what she saw in England as in need of an American-style makeover.
All I wanted was a little love in the English countryside. I don’t have time for this mess.
On a positive note, Cam is a smart, down-to-earth character whose work at a gin distillery is described in an evocative and engaging way. She’s attached to her neighborhood pub but attracted to its brash new owner, which sets up a clash that might be interesting to read if I didn’t hate Lauren so much. DNF
synth's review
1.0
This was extremely formulaic and conventional and insta-lust and insta-love and I was just so. bored. I didn't like the main characters, I didn't hate them but one doesn't really get a sense of them until it's way too late, and even then it's still a very flimsy and superficial depiction. I didn't like their dynamic, both because it's so over-the-top from the very first second, and because it's a little too butch/femme-y with the power/possessiveness dynamics during and outside of sex.
apostrophen's review
5.0
Aurora Rey audiobooks are the audiobook equivalent of putting on a warm sweater and finally sipping a hot tea on a chilly rainy day. I most often listen to audiobooks while I'm walking Max, and now that there's (already!) snow on the ground, they're one of the ways I make it through winter—so I generally try to make the books last by only listening while I walk him. The Inn at Netherfield Green made me break my usual pattern, and I listened to it throughout the day, indoors and out, over the last three days or so.
It's delightful. There are a few key things that Rey does so incredibly well that I really adore in her books: one, the angst levels simmer on low, without robbing the "black moment" of any power. That's a delicate balance to strike, but for someone like me who really does enjoy a good love story where the impediments to the love aren't an onslaught of pain and misery, it's golden. There's a country-mouse/city-mouse vibe to Inn, but there's also more than that: Lauren is only in the UK temporarily, Cam's life (and business) is solidly (and immovably) there. There's enough stacked against them right there.
Second? Rey's characters are often a mix of backgrounds and connections and she doesn't shy away from giving characters less-than-stellar relationships with their families and then sticks to it, not forcing a reconciliation sub-plot. Lauren's family isn't close, her parents are more or less "meh" (at best) and Lauren knows this and is a fully functional adult. At no point are there lightbulb emotional moments in regards to Lauren's family, and though of course it impacts Lauren character, she is never the lesser because of it. As a queer reader, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for characters like this.
Third? Sizzle! Rey's characters connect, spark, and then sizzle. Her turn of phrase is often cheeky, very grounded in emotionality, and so sensual. You believe their attraction, and want the best for them, even when they're not communicating well and you'd also like just as much to reach into the book and give them both a good shake.
Lauren and Cam were a great pair—their personalities are such that they clash at the start in a believable, understandable way. This isn't a case of miscommunication so much as it's a conflict of point-of-view: Lauren sees the world one way, Cam another, and neither are wrong, exactly. Watching them compromise (especially Cam, who I adored because I'm all about the curmudgeon "change is bad" characters if I'm honest with myself for, y'know, reasons) was a genuine delight, and the cast of characters around them—another thing Rey handles so well, support networks existing via friendships—were charming, to boot. Also the reality of the little-English-village was spot-on, at least from my memories of little-English-village life.
The audio performer did a constant and decent job, and while I'm not always a fan of forcing accents for characters, keeping track wasn't an issue, and the cadence and characterization was on point.
It's delightful. There are a few key things that Rey does so incredibly well that I really adore in her books: one, the angst levels simmer on low, without robbing the "black moment" of any power. That's a delicate balance to strike, but for someone like me who really does enjoy a good love story where the impediments to the love aren't an onslaught of pain and misery, it's golden. There's a country-mouse/city-mouse vibe to Inn, but there's also more than that: Lauren is only in the UK temporarily, Cam's life (and business) is solidly (and immovably) there. There's enough stacked against them right there.
Second? Rey's characters are often a mix of backgrounds and connections and she doesn't shy away from giving characters less-than-stellar relationships with their families and then sticks to it, not forcing a reconciliation sub-plot. Lauren's family isn't close, her parents are more or less "meh" (at best) and Lauren knows this and is a fully functional adult. At no point are there lightbulb emotional moments in regards to Lauren's family, and though of course it impacts Lauren character, she is never the lesser because of it. As a queer reader, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for characters like this.
Third? Sizzle! Rey's characters connect, spark, and then sizzle. Her turn of phrase is often cheeky, very grounded in emotionality, and so sensual. You believe their attraction, and want the best for them, even when they're not communicating well and you'd also like just as much to reach into the book and give them both a good shake.
Lauren and Cam were a great pair—their personalities are such that they clash at the start in a believable, understandable way. This isn't a case of miscommunication so much as it's a conflict of point-of-view: Lauren sees the world one way, Cam another, and neither are wrong, exactly. Watching them compromise (especially Cam, who I adored because I'm all about the curmudgeon "change is bad" characters if I'm honest with myself for, y'know, reasons) was a genuine delight, and the cast of characters around them—another thing Rey handles so well, support networks existing via friendships—were charming, to boot. Also the reality of the little-English-village was spot-on, at least from my memories of little-English-village life.
The audio performer did a constant and decent job, and while I'm not always a fan of forcing accents for characters, keeping track wasn't an issue, and the cadence and characterization was on point.
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