DNF’d at 71% because I just can’t do it. (StoryGraph says 68% because that was my last progress update.)

I don't believe in rating DNFs unless they are actively bigoted, so this book is unrated on book review sites and only rated here on NetGalley because I can't send this review without assigning one.

Firstly, I received a copy of this book from Ylva Publishing through NetGalley, and I would like to thank the publishers for accepting my request. This is an honest review.

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge straight off the bat that I am a different person than I was when I requested this book. Back then I thought I was a cis lesbian and that Lesfic would be my jam - it turns out that I am not a cis lesbian and have little in common with them, despite a shared orientation. I also have never met a Lesfic book I’ve actually liked. I hoped that this would be The One, but it unfortunately wasn't.

I found it incredibly hard to believe that any of these women are retiring age, given that they all have the emotional maturity of a 15 year old boy stifled by toxic masculinity. Every single time a character didn’t tell another character something, the second character took it personally, like they weren’t trusted. Because clearly someone else’s actions regarding their own health or emotions means you aren’t worthy of trust and they don’t really like you and your entire friendship has been a lie.

Babe. Unstick yourself from the centre of the universe.

(Louise & Caro and Pat & Bella are excluded from this. They were believable as adults and had functional relationships. I liked them. Everyone else? No.)

This is not only the author’s first published work but the first book she’s ever written, and as such the writing is frequently unpolished and unsophisticated in ways that should have been combed out by her editor, but weren’t. In the beginning the only places any exposition happened was in conversation between two characters which was very cringe to read. The book was frequently overwritten. And see again: the characters acting like schoolchildren about their feelings instead of grown women, which seems to be a common occurrence in the Lesfic I’ve had the displeasure of reading. (Is it some kind of wish fulfilment for cis women to read about adult women who are not emotionally mature? Baffling.)

I have fanfic beta readers who wouldn’t let me get away with lesser writing sins than these. And yes, this is an eARC and not the published edition, but I doubt fundamental issues such as emotionally immature characters
would change drastically between an ARC and the final version.

Also please, authors, internalise the fact that no one at all says “damn” as much as you think your characters should. A kindle search revealed 44 uses of “damn” in this book. It seemed like 4400.

There’s potential for Jane Waterton to write really funny, engaging novels. I enjoy that she wants to write about older women, who seem sorely neglected in all kinds of fiction. However, I think that to reach that potential she needs a much sterner editor than the one she has, and much more practice.

Anyway. These are all me problems, purely subjective, but the conclusion is the same. I just didn’t like this book, and couldn’t be bothered to slog through the last 29% because once Pat and Bella sorted out their legitimate and very well dealt with issues, I didn’t care about anyone else’s silly emotional problems.

CW: character with cancer, character has heart attack/major heart surgery, non-communication up the wazoo.