Emily Henry did it again! Funny Story is your classic rom-com, following Daphne and Miles after their significant others leave them… for each other! Daphne, with nowhere to go after her fiancé Peter runs into the arms of his best friend just before their wedding, moves in with Miles. The two are an unlikely pair, but forge an unbreakable bond that blossoms into something special.
Emily Henry is one of those authors that before I even read the summary of the book, it’s already preordered on my To Read list. I’ve loved each of Emily’s books that I’ve read, but I’ve noticed that it usually takes me a little while (maybe 50 or so pages) to really feel like I’m engrossed in the story. But not with Funny Story – I was hooked from the very first page!
Daphne was a funny and relatable narrator and I loved watching how much she grew throughout the book. Daphne started out as a closed off individual who lacked a balance between doing things for herself and becoming a person other people wanted her to be.
It was so special watching her friendship with Miles begin and evolve, and their dialogue and dynamics felt realistic and mature. It can be hard to portray a realistic relationship within the romance genre, but I felt like all of the conflicts Daphne and Miles faced were things that could really happen.
Both characters on their own had very real issues they were working through and I loved seeing how they were able to grow together and as individuals. It felt like a privilege to watch Daphne open herself up to new friendships and acknowledge the issues she’d had with her family growing up and it felt the same when Miles opened up about his past with his family as well.
Funny Story had its cushy, cute moments that we know and love in romance novels, but overall, it wasn’t just a mushy romance and I think that’s exactly what I loved about it.
Not Another Love Song is a spicy love story about Gwen and Xander, two musicians who, from the very beginning, have a hard time fighting the chemistry that is working so hard to sizzle between them.
I’ve never read Julie Soto’s work before and boy did this book impress! I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Not Another Love Song (thank you NetGalley!) and from the moment I opened this book, I could.not.put.it.down. I finished the book in a single sitting and I wish I could go back and read it for the first time all over again.
Gwen’s and Xander’s chemistry was so beautifully written; they both just wanted each other so.bad. and as a reader, it was so fun to see how everything played out. These two were falling for each from the moment the story began and I loved seeing them fall harder and harder until they couldn’t fight the chemistry anymore.
I think the way in which this novel was written was genius and helped up-play their chemistry. The story was told primarily through Gwen’s point of view, but Soto sprinkled in moments of Xander’s perspective and I LOVED the parallels between how both characters were feeling, especially when one didn’t know the other was feeling the same way. They said so many of the same things in their narration and did so many of the same things as they fought the way they were feeling for each other and I think they were just such well written and realistic characters.
With that being said, I think Soto is a phenomenal storyteller. She knew exactly the right moments to divulge pieces of information about the dynamics of Gwen’s and Xander’s relationships and their relationships with the side characters as well. I was on the edge of my seat the entire book to see how all of the pieces were going to come together and once they did, there was a moment of such satisfaction.
Something else I think Soto did extremely well in this book was show how critical Gwen and Xander’s careers were; I don’t think this is something every author can convey on the page. In this novel, Gwen and Xander’s passion for music was at the heart of their every move, even their love and attraction for each other at times.
Music played such a crucial role in the story overall and I love how much music and the characters’ chemistry seemed to go hand in hand. I know I couldn’t actually hear the music as I read, but it felt like the spicy scenes got spicier as the music built up and as their chemistry overall intensified and I think Soto was genius for being able to achieve this.
Can’t wait to grab a physical copy of the book once it’s released in July!
I’ve lived in the South Shore in Massachusetts my entire life, and I’m trying to make an effort to try new places around here. Over the weekend, my friend and I went to High Limb Cider in Plymouth and I can’t recommend it enough!
If you’ve never been, High Limb is located inside Plymouth GPub. When you walk into GPub, there’s a taproom located in the back right corner and that’s where High Limb is.
I’m not well versed when it comes to ciders, but I loved everything I tried while I was there. My friend and I split a flight and the two ciders that I got were the Pineapple Upside Down Cake and the Chocolate Dipped Strawberry.
Of the two, the pineapple was my favorite, but when I say that they got the chocolate dipped strawberry taste completely spot on, they got it completely. spot. on. You know how when you walk into a chocolate or a candy shop, the chocolate has a very distinct, delicious smell? That’s EXACTLY what the cider tasted like. I took my first sip and I was in complete shock at how closely they matched the tastes.
We also tried small samples of some of their other ciders like Peach Rings, Peach Raspberry, Cape Daze and they were all so good I almost wished I’d gotten my own flight so I could’ve gotten more of a taste than just the sample. Something else we tried was a Peach Raspberry Lime seltzer which I absolutely LOVED.
I was stunned (and highly impressed) at how many different types of ciders High Limb had and how good each of them were. The flavors were so unique and there are so many that I still want to try like the Blueberry and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.
Beyond the ciders though, I think what stood out to me most was how kind everyone was. I had some questions when I got there and the woman I was talking to was so helpful and generous. I wish I could remember her name because she was kind enough to let me try some of the ciders before I decided what I actually wanted, she asked me if I wanted to taste some drinks she was working on, and she was great at checking in to make sure everything was as we wanted and seeing if there were any other samples we wanted.
With grad season coming up, my friend also wanted to buy a couple bottles before we left and she was so helpful in assisting him on what he should buy. And if I’m not mistaken, the owner came out to help us as well and gave us some of the company’s backstory and also helped in recommending what we should buy and gave us some samples to try at home.
I was astounded by their kindness and generosity, and even though I hadn’t heard of the company before Saturday, I’ve been telling friends about it left and right and already have plans to go back.
It’s also nice because it’s attached to GPub, so you can order food from GPub while you’re at High Limb, and GPub also has an arcade if you want to stay awhile. I didn’t spend too much time in GPub, but looking at their website now, I see they also have tons of events and live music throughout the week as well, so definitely check it out!
The Reunion follows Liv Latimer as she films a reunion for her hit TV show she starred on as a teen. Liv is excited to be back on set, especially because it means she’ll be reunited with her former best friend and crush Ransom Joel, who starred as her love interest on the show. Things don’t go exactly as planned once the cast is back together and it leaves Liv wondering if being back in the past is really where she needs to be to finally find her happy ending.
If you’re looking for a quick and fun romance, this is the novel for you! The romance was fast paced and each of the characters were so lovable. There were moments of great growth for these characters and despite what was happening in the plot, you were always rooting for them to end up together.
The Rachel Incident is a novel about the young lives of Rachel and James and the chaos that they find themselves in while living together in Ireland. At the start of the novel, Rachel and James quickly become best friends and when Dr. Fred Byrne enters their lives, they become connected in a way that can never be severed.
Rachel was a funny and witty narrator; I found her narration to be hilarious at times and I found myself empathizing with her at others. I loved her character and I loved her growth. I also loved her relationship with James and with both of their subsequent love interests.
The Rachel incident is a book of character development and I especially loved Rachel’s moments of introspection throughout the story. I think this was magnified because of the way the story was told; Rachel begins telling her story in the present day, then dives back into her past to clue readers into how she she ended up where she is in the present day. This gave her the unique opportunity to look at her past with the clarity of years of hindsight.
I also really enjoyed the way Rachel was able to look back at her past and contextualize it for readers. It was eye opening to think about concepts like homosexuality and abortion and be able to compare that with how they are viewed and handled today.
The reason though that I only give the book 3/5 ✩ is because I enjoyed the beginning far more than I enjoyed the end. The beginning drew me in so quickly, and I can’t really identify what it is, but I felt the whole time like something was missing. Almost like I was waiting for the story to actually start and I feel kind of like it never did.
And while most everything was tied together at the end, the final scene was such a let down for me and I was waiting for more. I feel like the book needed at least one more scene at the very end, because although Rachel’s part in the story is done, James’ isn’t and I really wanted to see the aftermath of that because he was such an integral part of the story at the beginning.
Overall, the book was was enjoyable and I really did like the characters, but it left me wanted a little bit too much more at the end.
This month was a little bit lacking in music – I was so busy this month that music just kind of took the backseat. I connected with a lot of friends and family members that I haven’t seen in while, so the time we spent together was time spent talking and connecting.
Usually, there’s a playlist that I have on a heavy rotation every month, but there was very little music I listened to consistently in April – the playlist I listened to probably the most was Forgotten Favorites, which you can listen to here! It’s a lot of easy listening with artists like Rhys Lewis, Matt Nathanson, and Jamie Lawson.
As for April’s playlist, check it out on Spotify! It’s mostly just songs that were recommended to me or songs that I coincidently kept hearing and kept hearing while I was out and about.
How to End a Love Story is a gripping love story about Helen Zhang and Grant Shepard, two writers whose lives are inextricably connected after a tragic accident in high school. Helen and Grant haven’t spoken to each other in a decade, and when they find themselves working together on the same project, they are constantly reminded of the pain of the past and the fact that there is also an unexplainable connection between them now. There are so many reasons they will never work as a couple… but there’s so many reasons why they will too.
This is hands down one of my favorite reads of the year. Kuang has a gift for being able to create dynamic characters that lift themselves off the page; they were dynamic and witty and each had an unforeseen depth to them.
Judging solely off the cover, this book looks like it will be light and fluffy, and while it did have those light and fluffy moments, the book also had serious, and at times heavy, themes sprinkled throughout it. I think an author has to have great talent to achieve both of those things and Kuang succeeded with flying colors.
Helen and Grant are two very different people on the page, but they compliment each other so well. They both are seeking love and connection, but whether they realize it or not, they both are also still dealing with the aftermath of what happened in high school and it’s impacting the ways in which they can (or can’t) love. With that being said, Kuang did an incredible job exploring the different ways in which we grieve. She shows that we don’t all grieve in the same way and also makes it a point to show that even though we think we’re the ones that have a right to grieve the most, there’s another party in the equation as well and it can take time and patience to understand the other person’s perspective and, when appropriate, forgive them for that.
The romance that develops between this unlikely pair is wholesome and loving. Their love had me in my FEELS and seeing the way that these two were able to grow with each other was so special. I was swooning over Helen and Grant the.entire.book. We see situationships all the time in our real lives, and the skill with which Kuang was able to so accurately depict a situationship on the page is so admirable. Plus, her characters were so lovable, especially Grant, who I felt was the definition of a golden retriever boyfriend.
I loved Helen, but I felt like I completely sympathized (and empathized) with Grant throughout the entire book, whereas there were moments with Helen when I wish I could’ve shaken her and made her open her eyes a little bit more. Grant is probably one of my favorite book boyfriends of all time. I really loved the part in the hospital toward the end of the novel when he said he would rather have a fraction of her than none of her at all. Even though I already knew how much Grant loved her, this reaffirmed how much he truly cared and I loved how he later brought this conversation up again at the end of the novel.
I also thought this book was very well done because of its exploration of the industry. We see a lot of books about writers, but because Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter and director herself, she was able to include details about the industry I don’t feel other books do and I really appreciated that. I truly can’t believe that this is her debut novel; this is one of the most well done novels I’ve read and it blows my mind to think that this is the first time Kuang has written her own book.
Something else I really enjoyed was the depiction of Helen’s family and what it can mean to be a child of immigrants and a child of Asian parents. I think there are a lot of stereotypes out there about how Asian parents treat their children, and while not every family is going to share the same qualities, I think Helen’s family was a very interesting family to immerse ourselves in. One side of my family is Asian and one is not and I found it quite interesting to be able to draw parallels (or spot differences) in how our families treat us.
Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough! And, if you’re a fan of tropes like enemies to lovers, close proximity, and novels where he falls first, then this book is for you!
Red Rising is dystopian fantasy novel about life on Mars. The story follows Darrow, a member of the lowest class in the society in which he lives. He works day in and day out to make the surface of Mars livable for future generations, but he quickly learns that the surface has already been reached and Darrow and his people have been treated like slaves by the ruling class for generations now.
Very early on in the story, Darrow faces an unimaginable tragedy and dedicates his life to getting justice for the mistreatment of his family and his people, enrolling at the Institute and competing for his life as he works to take down his enemies.
Red Rising was Brown’s debut novel and is the first book in the lengthy Red Rising series. Throughout the book, Brown did an incredible job with world building and with character exploration.
Brown’s characters feel multidimensional, even (and in some cases, especially) the antagonists. His characters, especially Darrow, Eo, and Cassius, are built like warriors. They are strong in body and in mind and while you may not agree with all of their thoughts and actions, you grow to fully understand each character’s motivations.
The world Brown was able to build was incredibly well thought out – well beyond anything my brain could have drawn up – and some of the parallels between the world we see in the novel and the world we live in were extremely thought provoking.
My only qualm with this book – which leads me to a piece of advice – is that I think the novel is best physically read, not listened to. While a strength of Brown’s is his ability to world build, there are SO many moving parts in this story and so many different characters that the audiobook felt confusing to me.
The audiobook’s narrator was incredible and I loved the way he was able to articulate Brown’s story, so if you’re insistent on listening to the story, I would recommend also having a physical copy handy to follow along as you listen.
I’m excited to see where the saga takes Darrow and his loved ones next!
What is Waitress the Musical and Why Does it Mean So Much to Me?
If there is one thing to know about me, this is it: I love Waitress the Musical. There are few things in this world that I identify with or hold so close to my heart, and Waitress will forever be one of those things (Vampire Diaries and the band Hot Chelle Rae are two others).
Waitress is about an unhappily married waitress who learns she is pregnant. The show emphasizes the importance of friends, family, and love and the power of independence and self-growth. It has moments of comedy mixed with deep, tear-jerking scenes that will forever resonate with you.
The show is based off of the 2007 film of the same name starring Keri Russel and Nathan Fillion and was turned into a musical in 2015 with music written by Sara Bareilles and an all-female production team.
Waitress opened at the American Repertory Theater in Massachusetts before moving to Broadway in the spring of 2016. It remained on Broadway until 2020 and then was the first show to re-open on Broadway in 2021 where it remained until the end of the year.
During that run, the company filmed a pro-shot – meaning, the entire live show was filmed with the intent of releasing it as a feature film – and the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2023. Then, in December, the film was in movie theaters for two weeks and it was released on digital January 9th, 2024.
I’ve always been a Broadway fan; I grew up loving Wicked, Legally Blonde, and Les Mis, but it was Waitress that truly igniting my love for live theater.
The first time I saw Waitress, I was too young to even understand all of the jokes in the show, but what I wasn’t too young to understand was the profound impact this show would have on me and amongst everyone who sees it.
As I sat down in the Brooks Atkinson theater, I knew very little about the show. Here’s what I knew:
#1– The show was about a waitress.
#2– As a HUGE Sara Bareilles fan, I knew Sara had been part of the production.
#3– I was upset that Sara wasn’t going to be performing in my show.
#4– There is a wacky song in the show called Never Getting Rid of Me that mentioned a cat named after a kind of fish which I listened to on the bus on the way to New York City. It was the only song I heard before seeing the show.
There was something so freeing about not knowing much about the story that was going to be unfolding in front of me. As I sat in the theater, I was so engrossed in the story; it truly felt like I was portaled into an alternate reality and when the actors took their bows at the end of the show, I could feel myself deflate knowing that the story was over and it was likely I wouldn’t be seeing it again (boy was I wrong, but we’ll get to that).
Waitress was only the second show I saw Broadway (I’d been to touring productions, but only once to Broadway), and I was so.lucky. I had second row seats, and the cast.was.incredible.
Stephanie Torns was playing the lead role of Jenna and Jason Mraz was playing Dr. Pomatter. Caitlin Houlahan and Natasha Yvette Williams played Dawn and Becky. Eric Anderson played Cal, Christopher Fitzgerald played Ogie, Will Swenson played Earl, and John Cullum played Old Joe.
While I had always loved theater, this was, like I said, one of the first shows I saw on Broadway. I knew so few Broadway actors, and this show and this cast catapulted me into a Broadway frenzy. Caitlin quickly became someone I looked up, Matt DeAngelis, an ensemble member, rose high on my list of favorite actors, and before I knew it, Waitress.became.my.life.
I loved everything about the story. I loved how it could make me laugh and make me cry, sometimes even in the same scene, and I found myself completely swept away by everything about it.
Before I’d even left the theater, I was planning my next trip back to the city and I was already trying to figure out who I could see the show with next. Over the course of the next 15 months, I took several trips back to the city with my dad to see the show.
I don’t know if theater was something that interested my dad before Waitress (or something that interests him now), but what I do know is that it’s something that brought us closer together. I have such fond memories of our little trips to NYC and I miss those drives we took together.
One time, we were given a backstage/on stage tour of the theatre – check out one of the photos we took!
I was so young and SO starstruck in these pictures – This was back in March of 2018.
When the show closed in 2020, I felt like I didn’t know quite what to do with myself. Because it’s a live musical, I was so discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to see it again. At least when a tv series ends, you can rewatch it. I couldn’t rewatch a live show.
So, when the announcement was made that Waitress was coming back in 2021, I was over the moon. The cast coming back was my DREAM cast – when you see a show as many times as I had, for better or for worse, you learn who like in what roles and who you maybe don’t like in some other roles.
I bought tickets the moment they went on sale, and after my first show back in September of 2021, I immediately bought tickets for another show. Annnnd then another one after that and after that and… you guessed it, after that too.
My dad couldn’t come with me to the show in September, so I went with my friend Morgan, one of my best friends from college. Morgan ended up loving the show as much as I do and she was living in New York after graduation, so between September and December, she and I were seeing the show almost every other week.
I’ll forever be grateful for those few months we had – for a little while there, our entire lives centralized around Waitress. Morgan and I had been close while we were at PC, but we shared so many laughs (and so many tears), so many drinks, so many songs over Waitress that it created a bond between us that will ever be able to be broken. It’s a period in my life I will never forget.
September 21, 2021
I often wish we could go back to those months – my wallet doesn’t agree, but my heart does! – and we got a little bit of it back when Waitress the Musical the movie premiered at Tribeca Film Festival last June.
Morgan and I had tickets to opening night and I’m not sure how the timing happened so perfectly, but we were actually able to walk to the theatre with Drew Gehling, his wife, Matt DeAngelis and his wife Christine Dwyer, and Stephanie Torns and Benny Elledge, which was SO COOL.
Of course, once we got there, they pivoted toward the red carpet and we pivoted to the line to get into the theatre, but for a few minutes there, we were all there together.
It had been around a year and a half since we’d seen the shown, and emotions were running high. To be able to sit in a theatre with so many other people who love the show was a dream, but there a magical feeling in the air that night.
Until you are in that space, you don’t realize how special it is to watch a film in a theatre full of the creative team and actors who made the film.
Not only were Drew (Dr. Pomatter), Matt (ensemble member), Christine (Jenna on tour), Stephanie (Jenna), and Benny (Cal) there, but Caitlin Houlahan (Dawn), Charity Dawson (Becky), Sara Bareilles (Jenna), and Joe Tippett (Earl) were all there as well! There were probably other cast members too who I didn’t even see. After the screening, I was even able to talk with some of the cast members about the movie.
There’s no other way to say it than to say the atmosphere was truly magical.
When the film was released in theaters, it was initially only a 5 day release, and my mom hadn’t seen the show since we saw it that very first time on Broadway, so she and I saw the movie the first night it was in theaters.
Before the movie even began, I had tears streaming down my cheeks and I was anticipating the laughter and tears that were to come.
The film was so incredibly well done and the idea of being able to see it again (and again) gave me such an immense amount of joy.
I can’t pinpoint exactly why this show means so much to me, but I know a good portion of it can be credited to the feeling of nostalgia I feel when I see it.
The story also puts so much love and faith into friendship – the song A Soft Place to Land will forever hold a special place in my heart, especially the line “May We All Be So Lucky”. I think I could point to something in every track that makes me feel “THE FEELS” but songs like Take It From An Old Man, You Matter To Me, and Everything Changes are just so.incredibly.special.
I’m being repetitive here and I know it, but the show is innately special.
Since the movie was released on digital, I’ve hosted Waitress parties, I was able to share the film with my younger cousin – and maybe that’s what it is: This show has been something that brought me closer to the people I love.
If you haven’t seen the movie – WATCH IT. It’s available now on dvd and to rent, and it’s SO worth it.
This will spoil nothing but please take this with you: the scene at the end with the lines “another lifetime” and “moonpie” will stay with you forever. I can’t watch that scene with dry eyes, but it’s worth it every.time. It cuts deep; the show will rip you apart and put you right back together, but that’s what makes it so special.
This show and this movie will forever be part of who I am, and if you’re ever wondering what movie I’m watching, it’s probably Waitress ♡
Expiration Dates, Rebecca Serle’s latest novel, is a novel about love and what it means for each one of us. In the book, each time Daphne Bell begins seeing a new man, she receives a slip of paper that tells her exactly how long she will be with that man for. She spends her life in romantic entanglements, never surprised when a romance fizzles and never too hurt when it ends. For years, she’s been waiting for the day that she receives a paper without an expiration date, and as the novel opens, she finally receives that paper with just a single name on it, Jake.
As the novel progresses, Daphne recounts her old flames, including her sweeping romance with Hugo, her now best friend, and as she journeys through her new relationship with Jake, we learn that there’s more to her than just a woman who is looking for love.
We begin to understand why she keeps men at a distance, even though she doesn’t see in the moment that she’s doing it. We watch her grow from someone who is a self-admitted commitmentphobe to someone who is ready to open herself up, truly open herself up, to someone else.
This novel was beautifully written. We spend some chapters in the present day, then we flashback to anecdotes of Daphne’s past loves, and then forward again to the present day. At times, it felt there was no rhyme or reason to the order in which these stories were told, but their chronology built up beautifully once we got to one particular story: Daphne’s and Tae’s.
If you plan to read Expiration Dates, I’d suggest coming back to this review after you finish the book. The rest contains big spoilers ☺
Daphne has spent her life keeping the men she dates at arm’s length, never fully letting anyone in, and as a reader, you assume it’s because she knows each relationship is finite. You assume that she grasps for the piece of paper without an end date because she so desperately wants to know that she’s found the person she’s going to spend the rest of her life with.
In reality, Daphne has congenital heart disease, and while a paper without an end date could mean that she’s found her life partner, it could also mean that this is her last relationship because she won’t live to commit to another.
In the past, only two of her partners have known about her condition: Tae, whom she was dating at the time of her diagnosis, and Hugo, whom Daphne begrudgingly told and promptly broke up with after.
Once readers find out about her condition, her actions begin to make sense; why she is so hesitant to fully open up to Jake, who lost his wife several years earlier, and why each anecdote about her previous partners is so crucial in the build up to the person she is now.
Something else that I found so special about this book was the different types of love felt in this book. There was passionate love, innocent love, easy love, a feeling of forbidden love, and Daphne’s awareness of this was so raw and special to me.
While she didn’t always know what she wanted and didn’t always know how to go about getting what she wanted, Daphne had a unique way of looking at love which I so enjoyed being a part of.
I also loved the looming sense of an impending love triangle.
Jake is perfect for Daphne. He is kind, he is straightforward, he knows how to communicate, he treats Daphne with nothing but love and respect, yet, to me, it felt like there was something lacking in their relationship.
It isn’t that I was searching for conflict, but Jake was SO perfect that their relationship felt a bit…flat. It almost felt to me that he was so perfect that their relationship was going to be left with nothing in the end; there would always be a desire for more.
Meanwhile, Hugo was on the sidelines, clearly (and not so clearly at other times), still in love with Daphne. Although their relationship was strictly platonic in the present day, there were moments that were so charged between Daphne and Hugo that I was itching to see them get back together, even though Daphne’s papers made it clear their time was done and she was happily committed to Jake.
To me, Jake felt like the person you SHOULD pick – he was, by definition, the Right Choice. Whereas Hugo was the person you shouldn’t pick, but you WANT to pick.
Would Daphne live a happy life with Jake? Absolutely. But here’s the thing: she would’ve been living a life where she was happy enough, but not necessarily happy.
At the end of the novel, Daphne does stand up for herself: she breaks off her engagement with Jake, she spends some time abroad, and when she comes back, she has a date with an anonymous man. When she arrives at the meeting place, the slip of paper with what can only be assumed to have been the expiration date on her relationship with the man she’s meeting, slips away from her and she doesn’t reach for it, effectively ending the hold these slips of paper have over her. Then, she sits down for coffee with Hugo.
I love this ending, I love that we’re led to believe she ends up with Hugo, but I will be completely honest when I say I wanted more.
Although this is a book about love, I do think the driving force behind it is character development. With that being said, the novel ends perfectly.
As someone who devours romance novels though, I definitely would have liked to see more of the rekindled romance between Hugo and Daphne.
Something else I think is special about Serle’s novels is the incorporation of magical realism in all(?) of her novels. I have read three of her other novels (One Italian Summer, In Five Years, and The Dinner List), each of which also included elements of magical realism.
Her novels are always realistic, but they mix in such unique elements, seemingly with no explanation at all. It’s not something I think I would ever be able to conjure up in my own brain if I were writing a novel, but Serle has such a gift at weaving these magical and realistic elements together.
She also is incredible at setting the scene. The specificity of setting in this novel was incredible; I felt like I was in each of these places with the characters, even though I haven’t been to every one of the places they went. I’ve felt this way with her other novels as well, especially One Italian Summer.
Lastly, one of my favorite things about reading is being able to identify and isolate quotes that hold profound meaning both inside the passage in which they lie and also carry that weight once isolated as well.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Expiration Dates:
“It’s hard to hold on to people the older we get. Life looks different for everyone, and you have to keep choosing one another. You have to make a conscious effort to say, over and over again, “You.” Not everyone makes that choice. Not everyone can.” (Page 120-121)
“But I have no memory of an aha moment, no recollection of any specific revelation. When do we stop believing in the things we do? And why does it happen so slowly instead of all at once?” (Page 127)
“We have to be cracked open sometimes. We have to be cracked open sometimes to let anything good in. What I see now, emerging in the mirror, is this one, simple truth: learning to be broken is learning to be whole.” (Page 231)
“Being surprised by life isn’t losing, it’s living. It’s messy and uncomfortable and complicated and beautiful. It’s life, all of it. The only way to get it wrong is to refuse to play.” (Page 238)
Anchored Musings 