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Talk Bookish to Me by Kate BromleyPublished by Graydon House on May 25, 2021
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Inspiration can come from the most unlikely—and inconvenient—sources.
Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist and influential bookstagrammer, she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after fix between the covers of a book.
But right now? Not only is Kara’s best friend getting married next week—which means big wedding stress—but the deadline for her next novel is looming, and she hasn’t written a single word. The last thing she needs is for her infuriating first love, Ryan Thompson, to suddenly appear in the wedding party. But Ryan’s unexpected arrival sparks a creative awakening in Kara that inspires the steamy historical romance she desperately needs to deliver.
With her wedding duties intensifying, her deadline getting closer by the second and her bills not paying themselves, Kara knows there’s only one way for her to finish her book and to give her characters the ever-after they deserve. But can she embrace the unlikely, ruggedly handsome muse—who pushes every one of her buttons—to save the wedding, her career and, just maybe, write her own happy ending?
Trigger & Content Warnings: cheating, death of a loved one, grief and loss
Look, I was having a fantastic time with Talk Bookish to Me. Second chance romance, pre-wedding shenanigans, and bookish main character? The amount of history and backstory involved and the angst — I’m so in.
Second chance romance tends to be a hit or miss for me, but I was genuinely thinking this was going to be an absolute hit. Kara and Ryan have the typical misunderstandings and falling out when they first broke up nearly a decade ago when Kara was finishing college and Ryan was an intern in his hometown.
They don’t meet again until Kara’s best friend Cristina’s wedding, who Ryan just so happens to be a close friend of Cristina’s husband-to-be. Ryan stays with her during the pre-wedding preparations after he gets kicked out of his hotel due to his dog, and Kara (at the encouragement of her agent) decides if hanging out with her ex is going to get her out of her writing block then she was going to take that opportunity.
“So you really want to do this then?” he asks, turning back. “You don’t think the two of us sharing a space will be at all dangerous?”
“Dangerous for me or you?”
Kara and Ryan have a lot of complex backstory and history, and they have amazing chemistry together. Also, Ryan giving her scones (because it was her favorite in college when they were dating) and being so considerate of her??? Maybe they’ve grown up and gotten their acts together. I was practically kicking my feet happily and giggling while reading because I loved every moment from the first page — the characters, the story, the romance. I especially liked the moments when Kara gives us a peek into her process as a bookstagrammer, which is something that every bookstagrammer (or anyone aware of the process) could relate to.
Talk Bookish to Me really felt like it was going to be one of my top reads of the year, and I was going around in Ruby from Bookishy Ruby’s DMs begging her to also read this (as one does with their friends when they consume something fantastic).
Then I get to the third-act breakup. And everything fell apart. And I probably sat there alone looking like the saddest Stitch ever in major disappointment.
It truly pained me to DNF this at 70% when I was having such an amazing time reading this, but Ryan enraged me to no end with a twist that I was screaming in poor Ruby’s DMs at the crack of dawn on her side of the world. I’m all for unexpected twists to a story, but this was just not it. There are so many other twists and options that would be just as unexpected and better than what we got.
Spoilers, if you will (I guess it’s a rant?)
Cheating is not romantic. At all.
I mean, I was extremely nervous when Kara was telling her best friend Maggie about her history with Ryan and how him going distant with her was the beginning of the end of their first breakup. So Kara gives him a surprise visit (which he still doesn’t respond to her) and finds out he got drunk, so he stayed with the intern girl he was “friends” with the night before.
And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Kara — they exchange extremely hurtful words (Kara saying she was happier without him; Ryan saying he really did cheat when he in fact didn’t) with each other and go on with their lives, hearts broken. Now, I was giving Ryan over here the benefit of the doubt and thinking he said the first thing he thought of in anger when they broke up — the words that would hurt Kara the most. And that’s fine and dandy with me if that were the case because people sometimes say hurtful things when they’re emotional and angry and also at the time they were young.
But this man has the ABSOLUTE AUDACITY to hide a fiance while trying to get Kara back — and to top it off? It’s the same intern he was “friends” with during their first breakup, the same girl who made Kara feel miserable and go into a downward spiral and made her think he was cheating on her with. BRO? Girlie only had like 2 pages of screen time — she was practically innocent. Honestly, I think that was what really pissed me off the most.
Oh, yeah, and Ryan’s dad cheated. He didn’t understand it at first. And then he does it himself, going “I understand why my dad did it” and compares it to Kara not telling him about her upcoming trip to Italy for six months right after the wedding. It’s not the same thing (though he’s valid to feel hurt about it considering the distance played a part in their first breakup)! Absolute trash behavior, and he deserves to be kicked to the curb. I had a lot more colorful words, but we’ll keep that in the group chat with my close friends, yeah?
Anyway, I really did love Talk Bookish to Me, at least until where I stopped because it was an absolute hard no for me. And while this book ultimately spiralled down and fast towards the end, I found Bromley’s writing engaging and entertaining to read, and I’d definitely pick up another of her works.