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kaity_b's review
4.0
3.5-4 stars
Cute and was nervous that there was going to be more angst but glad there wasn’t!
This had the trademark banter you expect from a Lily Morton book and made me laugh on a few occasions!
It was a good break from all the intense Tal Bauer books I was getting in to, I needed a nice palate cleanser so I don’t go in to a slump!
Overall I recommend this if you like Lily Morton’s humor and banter and low angst! Also Joel Leslie did an amazing job narrating!
Cute and was nervous that there was going to be more angst but glad there wasn’t!
This had the trademark banter you expect from a Lily Morton book and made me laugh on a few occasions!
It was a good break from all the intense Tal Bauer books I was getting in to, I needed a nice palate cleanser so I don’t go in to a slump!
Overall I recommend this if you like Lily Morton’s humor and banter and low angst! Also Joel Leslie did an amazing job narrating!
bookschaosnart's review
4.0
I love the long game of friends to lovers and this was provided in spades. Plus the characters were allowed to be flawed yet charming, funny, and themselves if you will. I enjoyed that the conflict wasn't about whether they were compatible but whether they believed themselves as deserving of each other. (ie Charlie not always being the Sunshine his nick name made him feel like he had to be). I believe the epilepsy aspect of the story line was well researched and handled well and again, did not become who Charlie was rather than just another part of him which I sometimes find in romance stories. If you're a Lily Morton fan, it's definitely a must read and if you're simply needing a bright spot in your current life give it a shot as it can definitely be read as a stand alone even though it's part of a series.
eesh25's review
5.0
4.5 Stars
One of the notable things about this novel is that, right off the bat, it's clear that Charlie and Misha are utterly in love. Every fucking person they've ever met knows it. Except for our two starring idiots themselves. They are each other's favourite person in the world. They're perfect together and somehow don't realize it.
It was actually funny how everyone was just waiting for them to stop being dumbasses. But they're both are so lovely together, even as just friends, that you never get annoyed at them for not realizing their feelings. Besides, when they're together, which is often because they share an apartment, other things and people just don't matter. Not even Charlie's total dick of a boyfriend who, in my opinion, doesn't get dumped soon enough.
But all adorableness aside, there's a serious aspect in the novel as well. Charlie is epileptic. And I thought his epilepsy was handled extremely well. Not just from a factual perspective, but also how it affected Charlie. We see him try to always be "Charlie sunshine" even when he's struggling because he doesn't want to worry or burden anyone.
As for negatives... there's only one issue that I've frequently had with Lily Morton. It's possibly just a personal preference, but some scenes try too hard to be funny. To the point that we get one joke after another, making the scene longer than it needs to be. And the scene itself is too aware of the purpose it serves, and of the fact that it's funny. It's not a big issue, and there's only one such scene that I remember, but I thought it worth mentioning.
And, because I like to be contrary, I wanna give a special mention to Doug, who was in only one chapter and totally stole the fucking show, making me laugh until I had tears coming out of my eyes.
Overall, this was a great book and I loved it. It's romantic, funny, cute, and has just the right amount of seriousness to balance all that. I also love both protagonists, individually and together. It'd be hard to find two people more perfect for each other. And I highly recommend reading their story.
One of the notable things about this novel is that, right off the bat, it's clear that Charlie and Misha are utterly in love. Every fucking person they've ever met knows it. Except for our two starring idiots themselves. They are each other's favourite person in the world. They're perfect together and somehow don't realize it.
It was actually funny how everyone was just waiting for them to stop being dumbasses. But they're both are so lovely together, even as just friends, that you never get annoyed at them for not realizing their feelings. Besides, when they're together, which is often because they share an apartment, other things and people just don't matter. Not even Charlie's total dick of a boyfriend who, in my opinion, doesn't get dumped soon enough.
But all adorableness aside, there's a serious aspect in the novel as well. Charlie is epileptic. And I thought his epilepsy was handled extremely well. Not just from a factual perspective, but also how it affected Charlie. We see him try to always be "Charlie sunshine" even when he's struggling because he doesn't want to worry or burden anyone.
As for negatives... there's only one issue that I've frequently had with Lily Morton. It's possibly just a personal preference, but some scenes try too hard to be funny. To the point that we get one joke after another, making the scene longer than it needs to be. And the scene itself is too aware of the purpose it serves, and of the fact that it's funny. It's not a big issue, and there's only one such scene that I remember, but I thought it worth mentioning.
And, because I like to be contrary, I wanna give a special mention to Doug, who was in only one chapter and totally stole the fucking show, making me laugh until I had tears coming out of my eyes.
Overall, this was a great book and I loved it. It's romantic, funny, cute, and has just the right amount of seriousness to balance all that. I also love both protagonists, individually and together. It'd be hard to find two people more perfect for each other. And I highly recommend reading their story.
ravenk28's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
zaza_bdp's review
3.0
3.5 ⭐
Sympa comme tout ce nouveau Lily Morton ! Je le dis à chaque fois, dans chacun de mes avis, mais punaise, j'adore le style de cette auteure, j'adore ses dialogues millimétrés avec ce fabuleux humour très britannique ! C'est un régal de lire les répliques des personnages, c'est vraiment le point fort de Lily Morton, c'est un régal dont je ne me lasse pas, mais vraiment pas du tout.
Ici, Lily nous fait le coup du friends-to-lovers, un trope que j'aime beaucoup et qui est réussi. En fait, tout le monde voit (et sait !) que Misha et Charlie sont faits l'un pour l'autre. Tout le monde oui ... sauf les principaux intéressés ! Ils se connaissent depuis l'enfance, et ont une relation vraiment complice. Tout l'enjeu, c'est d'assister au moment où nos deux gars vont ouvrir les yeux et admettre qu'il y a autre chose entre eux ... D'ailleurs à ce titre, j'ai adoré la jalousie de Misha ! Ce mélange de jalousie avec ce besoin qu'il a de protéger Charlie, c'est vraiment craquant.
J'ai adoré voir leur complicité, les voir se côtoyer au quotidien, on est quand même dans le slow burn, et du coup, c'est très cohérent au vu du fait que Misha et Charlie se connaissent depuis une vingtaine d'années. L'évolution de leur relation est finalement très naturelle, et j'ai beaucoup aimé lire la façon dont Misha prend toujours soin de Charlie. Au final, c'est une histoire assez douce et romantique, les scènes d'ébats sont moins ... corsées que d'habitude, et ça colle finalement assez bien avec l'histoire de ces deux hommes. Ils forment un chouette couple, pas mon préféré de cette auteure, mais sont très mignons tous les deux. En fait ils fonctionnent déjà comme un couple, les effusions physiques en moins ...
Mine de rien, Lily Morton aborde un sujet difficile dans ce livre, à travers l'épilepsie de son personnage : l'impact de la maladie sur la vie quotidienne, l'évolution de celle-ci, les risques potentiels ... Le sujet est très bien traité par l'auteur, avec pudeur et sans mélo, je lui tire mon chapeau.
Et sinon, il ne faudrait pas que j'oublie de parler du métier de Charlie !! Je crois que Lily Morton parle au coeur de tous ses lecteurs en ayant fait de Charlie un bibliothécaire si amoureux des livres. J'ai trouvé ça vraiment chouette de voir retranscrit cet amour pour les livres, et j'ai trouvé la scène du book club absolument savoureuse !!
Alors ce n'est pas mon Lily Morton préféré, mais j'ai passé un bon moment avec ces deux garçons ; leur romance est toute mignonne, les personnages secondaires et les dialogues sont au top, bref, voilà un bon petit roman !
Sympa comme tout ce nouveau Lily Morton ! Je le dis à chaque fois, dans chacun de mes avis, mais punaise, j'adore le style de cette auteure, j'adore ses dialogues millimétrés avec ce fabuleux humour très britannique ! C'est un régal de lire les répliques des personnages, c'est vraiment le point fort de Lily Morton, c'est un régal dont je ne me lasse pas, mais vraiment pas du tout.
Ici, Lily nous fait le coup du friends-to-lovers, un trope que j'aime beaucoup et qui est réussi. En fait, tout le monde voit (et sait !) que Misha et Charlie sont faits l'un pour l'autre. Tout le monde oui ... sauf les principaux intéressés ! Ils se connaissent depuis l'enfance, et ont une relation vraiment complice. Tout l'enjeu, c'est d'assister au moment où nos deux gars vont ouvrir les yeux et admettre qu'il y a autre chose entre eux ... D'ailleurs à ce titre, j'ai adoré la jalousie de Misha ! Ce mélange de jalousie avec ce besoin qu'il a de protéger Charlie, c'est vraiment craquant.
J'ai adoré voir leur complicité, les voir se côtoyer au quotidien, on est quand même dans le slow burn, et du coup, c'est très cohérent au vu du fait que Misha et Charlie se connaissent depuis une vingtaine d'années. L'évolution de leur relation est finalement très naturelle, et j'ai beaucoup aimé lire la façon dont Misha prend toujours soin de Charlie. Au final, c'est une histoire assez douce et romantique, les scènes d'ébats sont moins ... corsées que d'habitude, et ça colle finalement assez bien avec l'histoire de ces deux hommes. Ils forment un chouette couple, pas mon préféré de cette auteure, mais sont très mignons tous les deux. En fait ils fonctionnent déjà comme un couple, les effusions physiques en moins ...
Mine de rien, Lily Morton aborde un sujet difficile dans ce livre, à travers l'épilepsie de son personnage : l'impact de la maladie sur la vie quotidienne, l'évolution de celle-ci, les risques potentiels ... Le sujet est très bien traité par l'auteur, avec pudeur et sans mélo, je lui tire mon chapeau.
Et sinon, il ne faudrait pas que j'oublie de parler du métier de Charlie !! Je crois que Lily Morton parle au coeur de tous ses lecteurs en ayant fait de Charlie un bibliothécaire si amoureux des livres. J'ai trouvé ça vraiment chouette de voir retranscrit cet amour pour les livres, et j'ai trouvé la scène du book club absolument savoureuse !!
Alors ce n'est pas mon Lily Morton préféré, mais j'ai passé un bon moment avec ces deux garçons ; leur romance est toute mignonne, les personnages secondaires et les dialogues sont au top, bref, voilà un bon petit roman !
evethingiread's review
2.0
I almost DNF'd this one. I loved the first book in this series. LOVED it. But this book was just so hard to get through. I couldn't connect with the characters. All the side characters were way too involved and their banter was so boring. The book club library scene felt so forced. I don't get it. When Misha and Sunshine are together, I loved it. Their relationship is so special, but everything else was just so annoying.
Sometimes you just don't connect to a book, this happened here. Actually felt the same way trying to read OZ by Lily Morton. I still haven't gone through it. I've loved many of this author's books, but this was verrrrry hard to get through.
Sometimes you just don't connect to a book, this happened here. Actually felt the same way trying to read OZ by Lily Morton. I still haven't gone through it. I've loved many of this author's books, but this was verrrrry hard to get through.
kira_dance's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
theoguinto's review
4.0
Was alright. I did get a bit tired of the whole Charlie and Misha both don't realize they're actually attracted to each other thing since it was like that for like literally 60% of the book.
Charlie Sunshine was a bit of a misnomer considering how he spent a lot of the book being sad and angry towards his condition, but that's understandable since he's Sunshine outwardly to other people.
Misha was incredibly sweet. His protectiveness of Charlie really spoke to his emotions for his best friend.
I really didn't like how Charlie snuck out after sleeping with Misha because he felt embarrassed about having a seizure, but it made sense for the situation I suppose.
I also didn't like how both Charlie and Misha had individual "snap to their senses" scenes where a trusted friend literally had to spell out that they were perfect for each other. It felt very lazy just having a conversation to force each of them to realize and accept their emotions. Would've preferred Charlie and Misha to have worked on it together.
Low angst and generally fluffy. So nothing really great, or bad about the book.
Charlie Sunshine was a bit of a misnomer considering how he spent a lot of the book being sad and angry towards his condition, but that's understandable since he's Sunshine outwardly to other people.
Misha was incredibly sweet. His protectiveness of Charlie really spoke to his emotions for his best friend.
I really didn't like how Charlie snuck out after sleeping with Misha because he felt embarrassed about having a seizure, but it made sense for the situation I suppose.
I also didn't like how both Charlie and Misha had individual "snap to their senses" scenes where a trusted friend literally had to spell out that they were perfect for each other. It felt very lazy just having a conversation to force each of them to realize and accept their emotions. Would've preferred Charlie and Misha to have worked on it together.
Low angst and generally fluffy. So nothing really great, or bad about the book.
eliezrah's review
5.0
This was my first book by this author, and I absolutely loved it. I was drawn into the story immediately, and fell in love with the characters right away. I loved seeing how the MCs grew together. This is the second book in the series, but can be read as a stand alone. I enjoyed it so much, I definitely want to go back and read book 1 now.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily gave my honest review.
I received an advanced copy and voluntarily gave my honest review.
ankysbookbubble's review
5.0
How could I not love Charlie Sunshine?
Charlie and Misha were both such fun characters, and Lily's usual snark and sass was as always on point.
I absolutely loved the pair, and I've discovered that best friends to lovers is a trope I REALLY like, so I'm going to be looking for more books with that trope.
Now I'm gonna head over and read the sequel short story which promises me a "disaster proposal."
Charlie and Misha were both such fun characters, and Lily's usual snark and sass was as always on point.
I absolutely loved the pair, and I've discovered that best friends to lovers is a trope I REALLY like, so I'm going to be looking for more books with that trope.
Now I'm gonna head over and read the sequel short story which promises me a "disaster proposal."