Paper Love by JaeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I received an ARC of this book from Ylva Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
While not a favorite book by one of my favorite authors, the book is still quite enjoyable – for many reasons. Possibly largely due to just what it sets out to do: tell a female-female romance set in Germany involving only Germans. It was quite fun to bump into the unknown (to me).
While I did, for the most part, like both of the main characters, neither really ‘clicked’ for me. Unfortunate, but that happens.
The main characters being: Susanne Wolff and Anja Lamm. Susanne is an aging, currently out of work (by her own choice) business consultant. Wolff also has a non-identical twin sister. Lamm is a long time employee of a stationary store, the same store owned by Wolff’s uncle. Both women, if I recall correctly, are somewhere in their thirties (Anja is somewhere around 36 or 38 and Susanne might be slightly older . . . or not, I forget now).
The book opens with Susanne dreading a question her mother always asks this time of year: New Year’s resolutions. Because she knows she’ll have to admit to quitting her job (with her resolution being finding a new job). I’m not sure why that is/was a ‘must’ thing for Susanne to admit, but it did push things along. Since that got a completely unexpected response from the mother – who said that it’s great (or something like that) because her Uncle (no not that one, the other one, the one on your father’s side of the family (being the father’s brother)) needs help trying to save his business. Serious and immediate help – as in, the place will probably close within three months without some help, any help (and so it’s great that a highly skilled, clever, etc. etc. business consultant is there available to try to help . . . for free).
Certain problems, though, to how this isn’t really ‘great’ – Susanne has a seriously bad attitude about the whole thing before anything even was learned about the situation (Susanne really didn’t want to have to be forced to go to some middle of nowhere German city to try to help; plus a) Susanne is not at all knowledge about the industry her Uncle’s shop is in (pens/stationary/etc.) and b) does nothing to learn about the industry before arriving in the city).
Right, but let’s move on, mostly because I just shook myself awake to continue typing – not a good position to be in – obviously I’m going to have to wait for night three before I fully polish an actual review (ETA: I said this jokingly, but I fell asleep two paragraphs after this one and then there’s a really long string of ‘2’s that I’m not sure how to interrupt; in other words, we are now in night 3).
Other point of view character is the quite short (it’s important¬) Anja Lamm (Wolf & Lamb, get it get it? (it is, like, one of the first comments that pop up . . . uh, somewhere in the book)). Lamm has spent the last, oh, . . . darn, I can’t remember. Spent the last ‘really long time’ being an employee at Uncle Nobby’s store (I do not recall if that’s actually the guy’s name, but that’s what I read every time his name came up, so that’s the name I stuck on him (which, for all I recall, might actually be his name in the book)). Lamm’s late thirties and really, and I mean really into pens, and stationary, and all that (seriously, she is, to the point she’s super giddy and bouncing around like a ferret on sugar when she learns she gets to go to the Paper . . . um, convention).
As expected, there are other minor characters, though the ‘most important’ other characters are Miri (sp?), Anja’s lesbian friend (which I mention because I forgot to mention that Anja is bisexual); ……… (ETA: and here’s where I fell asleep. Um, let’s try to reconstruct this now?).
I’m not sure why I said it was expected. Mmphs. Stupid need to sleep.
Right, so, there are some good minor/side characters in this book – characters that help push the story along. Including Miri, Lamm’s best friend, and Frenzi (seriously I cannot recall the non-identical sister’s name, but it . . . wasn’t that, I think I started with an F though). Oh, and I suppose I should include Uncle Nobby (may or may not be his name) since that’s the person who owns the store to which Wolff went to try to save, and Lamm works at.
Also important is a small cat. Lovely cat. Lovely interaction with cat. Though there were times I was sad when Wolff kept tossing the cat outside and/or not letting the cat inside (it’s not her cat, but a neighbor’s cat – said neighbor just gave birth and the cat and the child are not getting along).
*looks at notes* Right right, there’s a ton of kissing in this book – either a tease or a warning, depending on if you like or care to not involve yourself with graphic depictions of wet germ filled mouths interacting with each other (‘Scientists at Harvard School of Dental Medicine have discovered more than 615 different types of bacteria that can live in the mouth, tongue and throat making it the dirtiest place in the human body.’ – what, the sister is a dentist, I figured I could pull up a quote from dentists)
*goes back to looking at notes, realizes other tab is still locked in on germs, flees screaming; goes back to notes* In addition to the many sloppy graphic kissing scenes, there are also many scenes of a graphically sexual nature.
Right. So. I enjoyed the book, but I find that it is the second favorite of the new Ylva books I’ve read. I’ve read two new Ylva books.
Rating: 4.37
August 8 2018
Behind the spoiler tag are my notes I wrote three nights ago after I finished the book. (view spoiler)
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