I thought I'd step out of my usual reads and try this different read. Unfortunately, I'm reminded by these books aren't really my jam.

First, I found Joan insufferable. She's a staunch republican only in that it felt like she regurgitated opinions that had been said around her. She's completely supported by family and "works" as an unpaid intern. She has the comfort of money and being white and pretty to insulate her from her awful drug addiction to Adderall and alcohol and all her political ideals that actually go against her own wellbeing. I don't find anything funny about addiction, being selfish and self-centered and insulated by a terrible family with money.

I kept thinking, with each chapter, that we'd see Joan get a harsh reality or wake-up call and she'd do some introspective work and become a marginally better person. Instead, I got all the way to the end still disappointed that she still found her life and her opinions so amazing that she deserved to be a published author - deserved it more than anyone else in her life or orbit. Ugh.

This is definitely a personal experience. If you typically read satire and terrible characters making equally terrible decisions, you might find this funny like others did. This was just not it for me.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Such a messy book for those that like to read their lit fic with some unhinged themes and messy vibes. This book was charged with political intrigue in my opinion, so be wary of that! But it was a fun time.

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker; not for me. I was expecting different vibes from the cover and blurb and unfortunately wasn't into it.

For stereotypical Texas conservative Joan , she was a character lacking conviction- she always seemed like she knew who she was but was still kind of lost. Described as a “hot mess”, our main character,Joan, starts mostly like an observer of her own life, without her own thoughts in her head. But Joan was still figuring out her own conservative ideals, balancing between her hypocritical and selfish behavior.

A talented writer that tries to write a main character with horrible belief system and terrible behavior behind it, which doesn’t quite land. So the overall novel feels confused on what it wants to do- are we writing this through the perspective of a conservative lens or that through a progressive lens to capture the hypocrisies of some modern conservative women? Being a character novel without a strong main character left the story a little flat; she needed to show a little growth or development for it to work. There were definitely hard to read moments, like the dismissiveness toward mental health.

Her family interactions were the most engrossing parts of the story; mostly when she ventures into interacting with her conspiracy theorist father a 1/3 of the way in. Based on the description, these moments should have been more integrated throughout the story. I haven’t seen Fleabag but I didn’t get any Royal Tenenbaums vibes though. It’s probably pretty hard to write a story when pretty much every character is horrid. The author definitely has a talent in writing, I would be interested to see what they do next. This just wasn’t the right story for me.

Well written, but tough to like or empathize with.

I think there was a point in time where a book like this could have been written and understood the way the author intended, but the politics of America as they currently stand make a story like this tough to swallow for many readers.

The protagonist, a non-religious Mitt Romney conservative, would not have been truly inherently problematic at the moment the story takes place, but in hindsight it’s tough to swallow and difficult to relate to given what this kind of thing has precipitated.

It’s hard to empathize with a protagonist who proudly stands on a value system that inherently lacks empathy, so the best you can do as a reader is pity her situation, which generally doesn’t feel like a successful reaction to elicit about a central character.

The fact that our protagonist (along with almost everyone in the book) is a severe addict really didn’t help. I’m not a fan of addiction narratives and if you are you’ll likely not mind this as much as I did, but I think either way it’s difficult to go along with the idea that EVERYONE present has serious substance abuse issues.

What the author got right and what saves the book is the relationship between the protagonist and her cousin Wyatt, and the fact that the problematic value system this family employs ultimately leads to tragedy because the characters won’t recognize that what Wyatt is struggling with is serious mental illness. As sad as the situation is, it’s also what redeems our otherwise deeply unlikable protagonist, as she’s the only person in Wyatt’s life who cares more about him than “how things might look” and is thus somewhat more able to accurately assess what is happening to him and what he needs.

It’s certainly a well-written book and the message is mostly on point, and the humor that is there is good. I think this needed to be funnier to be both more enjoyable to read and easier to empathize with. It’s a story that had great potential and maybe one we need to be aware of, but the true message of this (which for the record, is a good one) got muddled in the execution.

This is a case of it’s not you (the book), it’s me - but this just didn’t work for me. I appreciate satire but just found myself so annoyed by the main character that I couldn’t relax into the book at all and ultimately decided to dnf. Thank you to the publisher for the free book to review.

I thought this would be a fun, quirky book, but this was not what I expected. The main character isn't that likable (no matter your political affiliation). The premise doesn't describe the book's relationships, which is disappointing. I would have preferred if the book was more like the premise.

i loved this book at the beginning. the setting, joan's voice, and her world are so well captured and feel so consuming and real — but as the book progressed, i felt claustrophobic not only in the intended ways but in the lack of movement. the ending didn't change that, sadly. i will look out for future books from this author!

Interesting at points, but drags a lot and felt a bit disjointed overall. I love the author’s writing style and am excited to see more from them, but I just couldn’t get into this one.

Unfortunately this was very much not for me. I was drawn in by the “royal tenenbaums meets fleabag” but I just didn’t get that. The FMC and her entire belief system was so unlikeable that I had a hard time finishing this book. The author’s writing style was great and I will definitely check out her next read - this one just wasn’t it.

Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 31%

In theory, this should have been a home run and one I was so looking forward to. I get that it's satire, I get that it's all vibes little plot, but it just didn't work for me this time. Perhaps something changes later on that would turn things around, but I jumped ship during the Young Republicans convention where an exciting, he's-going-places newbie named Ted Cruz was introduced.

The premise seemed so unique, and I didn’t know quite what to expect with the story and where it would go, but I was intrigued till the very end. This is more of a character study following a 20-something writer named Joan as she struggles with finishing her novel. She is seemingly self-assured and confident in her political convictions, and as we watch her draw inspiration for her stories from her toxic relationships and dysfunctional family, we find that she is quite the opposite. She is a messy, unlikeable character, full of contradictions, but despite this, I found myself feeling empathy for her because the story is much more than the bad decisions that she constantly makes. It is a story of addiction, mental health, grief, and forgiveness, and the struggle to find identity, acceptance, and love. This was a solid read from a debut author!

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the eARC.

When I saw this compared to fleabag, I could not hit the request button fast enough. I am someone who loves lit fic with my entire being, but this was just not it. Joan and I could not get along, which is typically something I enjoy when reading these types of books; a character who is complex and fleshed out in the most human way possible, but I just found her unlikable to the point of unenjoyment. I truly believe if I had picked up this novel during a different point in my life, I would have enjoyed it, but alas, here I am. Whiteaker is an incredible writer, and I look forward to seeing her future releases that perhaps contain some different views.

Ashley Whitaker's writing is witty, well-paced and engaging. I would read other novels by this author; however, Bitter Texas Honey was not for me. Whitaker does a great job drawing the reader into Joan's mind, but her mind felt like a very unpleasant and uncomfortable place to be for an entire book. Joan is somehow self-centered and at the same time insecure. She's looking to express herself artistically as a writer, but seems to only be a vessel for other people's ideas and ideologies. She's an unlikeable character surroounded by a cast of unlikeable characters and even though I can intellectually understand the satire, I also found that delving into Joan's mind was more exhausting than enlightening.

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker was an entertaining and funny debut.
The humor is fun Ana her writing is engaging.
I really enjoyed how raw and honest this story is.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.

Bitter Texas Honey is going to be a polarizing book but I think that Ashley Whitaker does a pretty great job with this story, which left me thinking about it for days after I finished reading it.

Our MC, Joan, is about as unlikable as a protagonist can be. She's lazy, entitled, egotistical, and has some pretty disturbing political beliefs to boot. That complexity will probably turn off a lot of readers but Whitaker really put me inside Joan's head and her world.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this to be published debut. Unfortunately I had to call this one as a DNF at about 50%. Something about its description and the actual execution of it was just off. The main character was a mess in a way that was just too much. Halfway through the book, I couldn’t figure out what direction we were going to take to get to the end. It was just a very meandering story. I think there were definitely some good parts to this book, and I think the story has potential, but needed cleaned up a bit. I would give this author a second chance, but Bitter Texas Honey was not for me.

Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker

A fantastically written, character-driven story with an extremely unlikable main character. This one left me with all kinds of thoughts and feelings.

🍯I both loved and hated the main character. She was so fantastically written, but I didn’t enjoy a single thing about her. I didn’t relate to her in any way. She thought she was more interesting and perceptive than she actually was. A complete and honest portrayal of a flawed character.
🍯 The relationship between the two cousins was a highlight. I loved reading their observations about the family and their own hot mess lives.
🍯 There wasn’t much of a plot, not much growth by the end. It felt very ironically highbrow, which I both enjoyed and rolled my eyes at. I’ve never in my life used the word “meta” but that is the word that kept coming to me as I was reading. (And maybe that’s not even the right way to use the word 😂🤷‍♀️).

Fans of unlikable characters with limited self-reflection, character-driven novels, and provocative debuts may enjoy this one.

DNF at 25% I just did not want to spend any more time with these characters. The writing is good, but I had no sense of the story a quarter of the way in.

Points to Whitaker for creating a drifting 20 something female protagonist who is....conservative? This is set in 2011, before this character became commonplace. Joan is not a likable person and everyone else is so dysfunctional that it was impossible to find someone to root for. That said, she's also an intriguing bundle of contradictions but oh so self important. I did like Whitaker's writing style and think she's got a bright future. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. While this wasn't for me, I'm sue there are others who will enjoy it.