Cover Image: The Language of Cherries

The Language of Cherries

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Member Reviews

Interesting lyrical read, but a little slow for the first half of the book. Thought about putting it down a few times, but glad I didn't because the last half was so good!

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I cannot begin to describe how beautiful this book is. The writting is so poetic and atmospheric. I don't want to talk much about it because I genuinely think the best thing is to go into The Language of Cherries blind, but the relationship between the two main characters has such a right pacing, it's a progression of accepting who you are and accepting love into your life.

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I really enjoyed this book. I stayed up all night just to see what will happen. The story drew me in from the location, the main characters, and the cherry trees. Thanks for the free read!

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This book will definitely pull your heart strings and make you think. I wasn't sure about this book but I really enjoyed it. I loved that this book was set in Iceland. I also could really relate to the main character which doesn't always happen when I read. I will be purchasing this book for my libraries YA collection.

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I dont think I can explain how much I loved this book. The slow burn romance was perfect. The small amounts of magical realism made it perfect. You also have two MCs who have an amazing storyline. It follows a girl named Evelyn and she goes to Iceland to stay with her dad (I cant recall if it was for summer or Winter vacation. There she meets Oskar. He has a speech issue and decides to not tell her about it for fear of being judged by a girl that he develops feelings for. They go through many different adventures and she learns some secrets about his family.
My heart truly hurt for both of them. Oskar made me so angry at times but, I also felt his pain and love.

I recieved this book for review from Netgalley!

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The Language of Cherries, an apparently simple romance story with a pretty cover written for teenagers, is a wonderful story that portrays the way loss, in spite of being terribly painful, might sometimes bring you positive change. It also showcases the beauty with which cultural barriers can be overcome. The action of Jen Marie Hawkins’ first novel (published by Owl Hollow Press on February 11, 2020) is set in an Iceland cherry orchard, which is one of the most unique and appealing aspects of this book. It’s full of beautiful Nordic sceneries.
Evie Perez is a Latin-American 17-year-old who has to leave her life in Miami behind to spend the Summer in Iceland with her dad, who’s working on a project for US Geological Survey. She’s missing out on the opportunity to have a real summer with her dear Abuela, whose degenerative illness is only getting more worrisome, and with the first boy who’s shown an interest in her. She’s even missing out on sleep, thanks to the Icelandic midnight sun. What can a girl do in a place where she knows no one and where everything is so different?
She can paint. Evie’s paintings are usually inspired by the music she listens to and she only paints in the Winter – she can’t paint without music, nor can she do it in the Summer. However, in the orchard near the house where she’s staying, her painting hand takes on a life of its own and paints things she’s never seen, while her other hand puts cherries in her mouth. She paints a blond teenage boy who’s stupid cute and who soon shows up in front of her, a real person with a symbol tattooed on his arm – a symbol which she had included in her painting and that keeps showing up everywhere. Is it related to Icelandic magic? What secrets are the boy and the orchard hiding?
In alternate chapters, the book is written from both Evie and Oskar’s points of view. His chapters are part of his journal, which is written in a straightforward manner and in verse. He writes what he doesn’t tell the American girl. He refuses to talk to her, since she must suffer from the same “American mentality” as the tourist who killed his entire family (except for his aunt, who runs the orchard) in a car accident. He leads Evie to believe he doesn’t know any English and cannot therefore understand her. But there’s something instantly attractive about her… She makes him feel like writing songs again, something he hasn’t done since the accident. And how is she able to paint scenes from his past family life in such detail? Will he be able to come out of this lie and talk to her?
This book really shows how true and healthy love stimulates and encourages creativity – instead of draining it, as unfortunately happens in many romanticized toxic relationships in Young Adult novels. Evie gets Oskar to get back into his art again after a traumatic event, and he makes her paint in a new, freeing way, fearlessly and without restrictions or criticism. This story also shows how love can help you get over terrible loss and helps you believe that life goes on and you don’t have to let the bad stuff get the best of you forever. The complexity of family dynamics is also very well-developed: the relationship between the two survivors of an accident which took all their loved one, the relationships between a daughter and her absent parents and between a sick grandmother and her granddaughter.
Finally, the presence of different cultures and the existence of characters who simultaneously belong to two different cultures – Evie is an American of Cuban ancestry and Oskar is the son of an Icelandic man and a Scottish woman – also make this book special. The Spanish and Icelandic words throughout the book get the reader more involved in those cultures without making the reading experience confusing (thanks to some lovely footnotes). The stories of both protagonists’ families’ past also don’t take away from the main story for too long and they create a good sense of their backgrounds. That way, the book becomes more than a one-dimensional heterosexual romance between two white, American people (yes, this is Nicholas Sparks-directed shade).
I have no negative things to say about this book. I’d just like to have read The Language of Cherries as a teenager, when I would have felt even closer to the story and the teenagers’ feelings. Jen Marie Hawkins’ prose comes off as that kind of invisible writing style, perfectly correct and simple, that allows the actual story to shine through, and she wrote a very well-thought-out one, that’s moving and stands out. I will for sure follow her career.

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the languae of cherries is an intersting read. it's young adult and kinda on the cusp of that. so i think you should read it.

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'While cherries tell tales...'

After being dragged to the town of Elska in the Icelandic countryside, Evie is less than impressed with her father. She wants to be back in Florida with her Abuela, not freezing in her flip flops in Iceland, of all places.
That is, until she meets the tall blond and handsome Oskar. And it is anything but love at first sight catching Evie under the sacred Aisling tree, devouring her stash of freshly picked cherries.
As the days stretch into weeks, however, Evie and Oskar become closer, spending hours in the orchard as Evie paints and talks... and talks and talks, and Oskar listens.
But there's something Oskar isn't telling her, quite literally, he remains completely silent towards her.
Under the presumption that he doesn't understand English, Evie pours her heart out, but what would happen if, or when, Oskar finally breaks his silence?

There was so much to love about this book, the way it tackled overcoming adversity through the alternating perspectives of Evie and Oskar, how Evie related her struggles to her Abuela's experience of first arriving in the states as a teenager, depression and loss, the importance of family and love. And the portrayal of young love! Poems from Oskar's journal entries were written the way seventeen year olds poetry should be written - sappy! Embarassing! Not perfect prose!!
I especially loved the way Evie knew what she wanted from the relationship and went for it.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the amazing read!

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What a fantastic read! An artist and a music loving boy what more could you ask for? I loved the writing style, the chemistry, and the setting was lovely! Oskar is such an amazing character and I can't wait to read more from this author! Now I wish I had a physical copy because the cover is beautiful and this is definitely a re-read for the future!

thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC!

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The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is a beautiful young adult love story, and my first book by this author. I love this book! Evie Perez is taken away from her home, friends, and most importantly her grandmother to go with her dad to Iceland for the summer. Evie is a painter, who starts painting people she has never seen before. The next day she meets the young man she painted, Oskar. Oskar stutters, so he pretends he does not understand her. There is so much going on in this book, I don't know where to begin, take my advice and just read it. I strongly recommend this wonderful book. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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I am never going to read Jen Marie Hawkins again. I never enjoy this book which is the important thing when reading for fun and entertainment, but that's not the reason. No, I'm never gonna read Jen Marie Hawkins again because in the acknowledgements she thanks her husband by saying he's "The Joker to her Harley" which tells me she does not understand relationships. I know tons of people somehow miss that Joker and Harley are an abusive relationship, but seriously you need help if that's your ideal. The darker interpretation is that she outing her husbands in the acknowledgement. I don't normally review what authors say in their acknowledgements unless to see if they had information given by their knowledge on the subject the book deals with. Like if they used sensitive readers which Hawkins did.

This is another book with a weird stereotypic Scottish character who has red hair and uses Lad and Lass as though she is 180 years old. It's not that she uses lad or lass instead of boy or girl. No, it's that she says it at nasal as though you might forget that she a walking stereotype. Every other sentence, at times. The Catholic main character asks the Scottish character who named Agnes by the way, another reason why I think she 180 if she is Catholic. I get American wouldn't know how bad that is to do, but it's just a terrible thing to ask someone in general. This a book that wants to be about religion, but goes in no

I almost DNF the book when she appeared, even before I knew she had red hair because I knew by the way she was described I wasn't going to enjoy this nonsense. However, I thought that was kinda silly to be my last straw. They were other things in the book that I wasn't enjoying but this book had revealed itself to have one of my pet projects. This is a proof so I'm not meant to quote from it, so let's call this paraphrasing. Ages is called pushy like most Scots. What? Frankly, that's a new one and blatantly American thing to say. Like it's Heritage has the most to do with nature, rather than culture which varies town to town.

This a contemporary with magic cherry trees. It has the usual tropes, including the one I dedicate too much time, it seems, to discussing.

That's right a Silent Protagonist, okay, I don't expect everyone who reads this review to know what that is. Basically, a Silent Protagonist is the main character who for some reason does not speak for the majority of the novel. Sometimes this because they have a medical disorder where they are mute or have a mental disorder such as Selective Mutism but most of the time they're just doing it for kicks. So I have Selective Mutism so I'm interested whenever I see this in media, and since it's relevant, I also have a speech impediment and a slight stutter. Actually, a lot of kids do develop anxiety around talking due to speech impediments (not me, I just don't know how people work) so this interesting in its realistic but it's a 17-year-old boy that's decided not to talk to a single person because he dislikes her and then he fancies her. I've seen worse ways of doing it and he is my first boy. It goes on too long and Evie really should have figured out that he understood English, even if he didn't speak it. It never discussed properly why he did it.

The way language is used in this book is very performative and doesn't feel natural at all. Random mixing in Icelandic words into English sentences for no reason and the same with Spanish ones in a way that does not flow naturally. I'm not someone who has two first languages. I have Scots and figuring out what of those words don't exist in English, which is another reason why Agnes play as stereotype more than a general. I have been learning Gaelic so I can tell you that Welsh and Gaelic are not the same thing. I could have you that before, but now I know more of the differences. I could get Confusing Irish and Scottish Gaelic since they have similarities but besides being both Celtic languages they not that similar.

English is a useful language to have, but it has no sentimental value because its not our language. It's not Scots or Gaelic, its something that was forced on to us. I probably speak English to my kids if I lived in a foreign country because it's my first language and English is a useful language to know. No idea why his dad thought it was important they know both through, like its a thing. It made it seem like it was a sentimental thing for him when they living in Iceland and he was the Icelandic parent.

I think the biggest problem is that I don't like the main characters. I feel sorry for them sometimes but they haven't presented themselves as real people. This book is told in the third person closely following Evie and an obvious fake journal by Oskar, who writes in verse. Him writing in verse does nothing for me and often is not poetic at all. I'm not expert on poetry and I didn't read any of his poems out loud, so I don't have the tools to judge fully, however, I do have a Higher in English and learnt different forms of poems and I do like the style of poetry its meant to be but it doesn't feel like poetry, just random space lining which this book had a lot.

This isn't the novel's fault but the e-arc I received was badly formatted. Sometimes I could not read Evie's parts because the lines went off the page into the text into the next page. The Kindle version was fine, but that meant I had to keep switching formats from the preferred method of reading e-arcs. So in terms of fair reviewing, that probably lessen my enjoyment of this book but it didn't have much to take from.

Overall, I give this book 2/5 stars for Rotten Cherries. I know I obsessed over the Scottish stereotype thing but hey I'm Scottish and it was annoyingly distracting any time the character appeared. Nevermind, that Oskar was meant to be half Scottish, he was written very American. It's hard to get anything perfect if you don't belong to that culture, but they was literally no reason she was Scottish anyway. She could have just been English and it would have been the same thing. Druid is not a Scottish thing in our Culture, sure Paganish and witches but so is the rest of Great Britain.

Most importantly I didn't like the characters and they were the story.

On a serious note, I'm sort of joking about never reading again because of the Harley thing, Hawkins is a decent writer but this book does just a lot of things wrong for me. I would be interested to see more Own Voice reviews of this book about the elements that I can't speak on. This book just doesn't leave me excited to read anymore but never say never. This a debut.

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Wow, this book gave me all the feels! Going in, I didn’t expect it to be so deep and heartfelt, so thought provoking. Not to mention, having a hint of magic so cleverly woven into the plot points. That title makes so much sense now, but I don’t want to say more or else I’ll give it away!
Sixteen year old artist Evie is angry with her father for upending her life. By moving them to Iceland for the summer, she’s cut off from all her friends, thanks to shitty wifi, and her beloved grandmother who raised her and is now in an assisted living facility back in Miami. Evie finds comfort in a picturesque cherry orchard behind her guesthouse and after snacking on a few cherries from an old tree, starts painting a portrait of a handsome boy she’s never meet. Then something magical happens: she meets the boy she painted. Oskar isn’t happy to find Evie trespassing and snacking on the cherries from his tree. But his strong stutter stops from his voicing his thoughts, though he make his feelings clear. Evie assumes he cannot speak English and he lets her. But as they continue running into each other at the cherry orchard, Evie begins sharing her thoughts and feelings about her life, thinking he doesn’t understand, he feels trapped by his lie. And her paintings, they capture moments of a time and people he had long lost. How did she know about them?
I won’t lie, Evie did annoy me at the very start. She was bitter and angry towards her father, who she chose to live with over her mother. But as I read on, I began to understand where she was coming from: She was lonely. Her friends back home were moving on without her, her grandmother’s mental health was deteriorating, her mother had bailed on her, and her father was constantly busy with work to spend time with her. But as she formed relationships with Agnes and Oskar, we got to see her open up, be more daring and cheerful. Her freely flirting with Oskar thinking he didn’t understand her was as shocking and amusing to us, the readers, as it was to him. So much that I was okay with the lack of banter. I liked how being with Agnes reminded her of the home she left behind in Miami with her grandmother. I especially loved how deeply she loved and cared for her grandmother, despite the distance between them.
Oskar’s POV is written as a journal entries, in a verse format which I found so clever as the only time he’s able to speak without a stutter is when he’s singing. He’s tired of people looking at him in pity because of it and seeing Evie look at him differently, he was afraid to change that. A decision he comes to regret as their feelings for each other deepen over the summer. I really felt for him, not only does he struggles coming clean to Evie, he struggles coming to terms with what happened to his family five years ago and Evie’s painting don’t help. I loved seeing his mother/son bond with his aunt Agnes, the only surviving close family he has left. We can really see how much she cares and worries for him throughout the story, how she wants the best for him.
The main theme of this novel is forgiveness and moving on. The author, Jen Marie Hawkins portrayed that beautifully, surreally through Oskar and Evie with their respective storylines.
And their romance! It was a slowburn, enemies to lovers done extremely well. I did not want to put the book down, needing to know how it would all unfold. I was that hooked. And the story does satisfy! I felt their pain, their anger, and also their comfort and their deep understanding in one another. Their love was truly beautiful and I was rooting for their happy ever after.
Thank you so much Owl Hollow Press and Jen Marie Hawkins for giving me a chance to read this!

Please note: I received an advance digital copy of this book through NetGalley from Owl Hollow Press in exchange for a honest review. This does not influence my opinions in any way.

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I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley for my honest review.


“Translation was unnecessary when meaning was written in everything else.”

Synopsis:

When Evie Perez is cut off from everything she loves and forced to move to Iceland for the summer, she takes her canvas and paintbrushes into the picturesque cherry orchard behind her guesthouse. She stains her lips with stolen cherries in the midnight sun and paints a boy she’s never met.
Oskar is startled to discover Evie in his family’s orchard, and even more surprised to see himself on her canvas. Too ashamed to reveal his stutter, he remains silent as Evie returns day after day to paint, spilling confessions she wouldn’t even tell her priest.
As Evie’s life back home unravels, Oskar wants to comfort her with words, but he knows he’s waited too long, so he uses music instead. But when it all comes to the surface, he knows that if Evie can’t forgive him for lying, he may never forgive himself for surviving.


“The Language of Cherries” is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I had no clue I would love it this much. It is YA contemporary with a touch of magic.


This book touches on things like family, grief, love and the power of forgiveness. It was heartbreaking yet beautiful.
I loved all the characters, the writing style and the Icelandic setting. I flew through this in a couple of hours because I couldn’t put it down.

I look forward to more books by this author.

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I was surprised at how much I loved this book! The romance was a little slow for the first half but then it really picked up. The characters were well developed and the side characters were also super intriguing. The magic realism part for me was the most surprising! It wasn't very overwhelming, but it was well crafted. The writing was so lyrical and the poetry was too! My only criticism was that the poetry was in 1st person, but the other chapters were in 3rd person, which was a little jarring and kind of annoying. The rest of the book was amazing and I highly recommend!

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The Language of Cherries | Jen Marie Hawkins

This book really surprised me. Before starting it, I wasn't really convinced that it was my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it!

I had to get used to the writing style a bit as it wasn't my favorite, but after like 100 pages it really got more interesting and the characters developed.

Both MCs (it's written from two POVs) are a bit slow and naive sometimes, but overall solid characters. I really liked the personality of Oskars aunt.
And one thing I really looked forward to while reading was the fact that through the whole book there where little bits and bobs of scottish, icelandic and spanish, which was so fun.

It also got a little bit mystical, what I found really refreshing and interesting because I didn't expect it to play a role and it really became one of my favorite parts about the book.

I quite liked how the characters were (despite of having creative talents in which they were both really good) not perfect in every way, as it is often the case in YA books. This was a little bit different and I loved it.

Overall it was really cute sometimes maybe a bit slow, but I liked how the author dealt with topics like grief and anxiety as well as relationships in any way.

I enjoyed the book and would recommend to read it.😊

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐,5

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Final rating: 3.5/5
I’m a bit torn when it comes to the representation, here’s the thing, the Main character Evie is cuban-american. Her grandmother traveled to the States when she was a teen, alone, and was raised and started her family there. When Evie started talking in Spanish I got excited, but later on I felt a bit more disappointed. I had expected there to be more things that signified their culture. However, I had anticipated Evie asking for her father to cook traditional Cuban food, being that she wasn’t living with her grandma.

What the story mainly gave for being latina was Evie speaking Spanish, and sometimes talking about a pie that her grandma and her cooked every so often back home. So I’m happy that there was some type of latinx rep but at the same time I feel like the author didn’t do it justice.

The story line and setting was so interesting, this is the first time I read a story where it’s set in Iceland. We got sprinkled in how the language sounds to a foreigner, what the odd seasons look like, and what it’s like to spend the summer in Iceland. Something I didn’t expect was the little bit of magic sprinkled into the plot. I won’t say too much on it since it is a plot point, but I’ll just say it was handled very well.

The characters were likable. Evie and Oskar both show that they have struggles, where Evie is trying to take hold of her life and be with her grandma but choose what career choice she wants, Oskar is doing the same thing, however he holds a deep story of loss that has led him to hide behind his music.

The dynamic and relationship that ended up blossoming during that summer felt at first rushed and chaotic, but then when you take a step back and analyze the relationship, they’re both 17. In a way it justifies the quick attraction and pull they had to each other, it shows how not all pairings are built on a solid foundation, how they fall and then later on learn things from each other. Either way I think they were a pretty good pair, they both helped each other grow into who they became in the end and learn how to be comfortable with sharing their story.

The narration was interesting, there were 2 types of chapters, Oskar’s chapters were journal entries but written in versus, to signify how important music is to him and how it’s one of the only ways to express himself. Then Evie’s chapters were told from her perspective but the narration was told in third person. So you would be able to know somewhat what Evie was thinking, how Evie saw things, but it wasn’t necessarily told by her.

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Coming of Age with bonus slow burn romance and miscommunication problems

Evie doesn't want to spend the summer with her father in Iceland. She would rather be in Florida with her best friend, her almost-boyfriend, and her beloved abuela. Instead, she's up where the sun won't stop shining, her estranged mom won't stop calling, and the wi-fi keeps cutting out. Bored and alone, she finds painting inspiration in the cherry orchard over the hill. She also finds Oskar.

Oskar is too embarrassed by his stutter to talk to Evie, so he lets her believe he doesn't speak English. Still grieving the loss of his family and hiding from the world, he intially resents her intrusion into his family's legacy. Then, as Evie responds to his feigned ignorance by pouring out her heart, he begins to look forward to their one-sided interactions.

I can't say that I approved of Oskar's deception, but I could understand why it happened and how it grew into a larger problem as feelings got involved. What kept me reading was how the author captured the uncertainties of late teenagerhood, as Evie and Oskar had to make decisions on their futures, balancing past hurts with family obligations, and understanding the world isn't as black and white as childhood would have you believe.

I also liked how the narration switched from Evie to Oskar on a chapter by chapter basis, with very different writing styles used to differentiate their voices.

For an intricate, interesting, and sometimes painfully accurate look at growing up, four stars.

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What a wonderful and magical experience!!!! The Language of Cherries is a story that will make you feel everything in a very powerful way, a story that will make you feel alive and even wants to start paying attention more and more to those details we usually don't stop to look around.

The Language of Cherries is the story of Evie a teenage girl who was feeling very lost in her life. she felt alone, her parents were very consumed with life problems and egoisms that she really didn't understand making her feel even more like she didn't belong, she only felt safe with her Abuela the only person in this world who truly saw her from who she was.. until life happened and everything she ever knew started to change, making her finally see and feel for the first time.

Oskar lost so much when he was just a boy, he feels like nothing is going to be the same, and lives his life secluded from the world just keeping himself busy with house chores to forget. but everything happened for a reason and life is about to show him all the magic he has been missing.

Oskar and Evie's story allows us to live and grow with the characters as the story continues to evolve, the secondary characters are amazing as well giving so much depth to the main characters. I really love Agnes, she was always a beacon of light between Oskar and Evie..

I really don't have enough words how much I loved this book, it is hard to translate my feelings but is a story that gives you so much hope, that makes you believe in second chances, in magic and that there's still good people in this world.

Overall it was a magnificent story I'm looking forward to spreading the love of this book and read more books by Jen Marie, Thank you for the magic.

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A nice read very slow to start however, but once you get past that it’s an easy and enjoyable read. It’s beautifully written, almost lyrical in nature and that made it so much more enjoyable to me, it’s a lovely read and a good debut , I look forward to seeing and reading more in the future

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

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I immediately loved the premise of this book! It was an easy read and I finished it in a few hours. Evie and Oskar are likable and relatable, and I enjoyed reading the chapters from both points of view. However every time a new chapter from Evie started I had to switch my mind a little to realize it's written in third person, rather than first person like Oskar's.
The story develops quite slowly, but I didn't mind because the book is so beautifully written, especially the lyrical chapters. I could really taste the cherries, feel the hot springs, and see the pastures and lighthouse. I loved the Icelandic setting and cultural references in the book, and enjoyed reading Spanish, Icelandic and Scottish words mixed flawlessly in.
There are some parts that are a little cringe-y and predictable, but mostly it's just relatable and wholesome. Overall I think it's an absolutely adorable story and a solid debut novel.

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