ARC Review by Jude: Wild Bells by Elna Holst
Mia Andersson is not a nice person. She is a sharp, aloof lawyer-to-be, smart, sensational-looking, and the busiest sapphic player in town. Mia Andersson takes no prisoners, tells no tales, and if you gave her your number, chances are she won’t call. But this holiday season, at age twenty-seven, wheels that are out of her control have been set in motion, and it looks like she might just get caught in the spin.
Goodreads| Nine Star Press | Amazon
Release Date: 12/19/19
*A copy of this book was provided by the author
DNF
I really, really had to DNF a book. I very rarely do, especially for review because I do believe my job as a reviewer is to help guide readers to books that may or may not work for them. I really hate to have my first real review coming back from a concussion (that left me unable to read for months) to be a DNF.
Unfortunately, I just could not get past how aggressively unlikable Mia is at the beginning of the book. Short stories are so difficult to pace, and ultimately I don’t believe that there was enough room in this story to redeem the main character. I was so put off by some of the language and some of the MC’s thoughts at the start of the story I just couldn’t “unhear” them long enough to get behind any change of heart and into the story.
This is not to say this book may not be for you. I didn’t finish the book so I cannot comment on the fact that this book includes disability rep. Perhaps other reviewers can comment on the way that this was handled. This is one of the aspects of the book that really made me want to read it. Well, that and the fact that we need more sapphic romance!
Genre: Contemporary Genre: Romance Orientation: Lesbian Pairing: F/F Publisher: Nine Star Press Review Series Short Story Tag: Disability Tag: Holidays A Tinsel and Spruce Needles Romance Series Elna Holst Wild Bells
Jude Sierra View All →
Jude Sierra is a Latinx poet, author, academic and mother who began her writing career at the age of eight when she immortalized her summer vacation with ten entries in a row that read “pool+tv”. Jude began writing long-form fiction by tackling her first National Novel Writing Month project in 2007.
Jude is currently working toward her PhD in Writing and Rhetoric, looking at the intersections of Queer, Feminist and Pop Culture Studies. She also works as an LGBTQAI+ book reviewer for Queer Books Unbound. Her novels include Hush, What it Takes, and Idlewild, a contemporary queer romance set in Detroit’s renaissance, which was named a Best Book of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews. Her most recent novel A Tiny Piece of Something Greater was released in May of 2018. Shadows you Left, a co-written novel with Taylor Brooke will arrive spring of 2019 from Entangled Press.
Twitter: @JudeSierra
Website: judesierra.com
Instagram: /judemsierra/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/de5FQT
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