Weekly Book Recommendation (June 21)

This week's reads:

Christa Comes out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman: This was just wonderful. 90% of the book from Christa's first person narration and Waxman admirably creates a protagonist who is a pleasure to be with even when she is making dumb decisions, because Waxman has spent the time letting you know where Christa is damaged and how she is healing. And the book spends equal time showing how her family - damaged by celebrity and the early death of a parent - are likewise healing. The romance plot is believable and the prospective partner likable. The tension of the plot follows logically from the edge case premise (Christa's dad was a Steve Irwin-like international celebrity nationalist who died in a plane crash 25 years ago who has reappeared alive). No one is stupid for reasons of plot or romance novel beat structure. I just enjoyed the heck out of this. 

Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup: This is delightfully meta. Bearup is a YouTuber who in 2022 did a run of YouTube Shorts about a fantasy author who held auditions for the ingenue of her new series and rather than a 20 year old waif of a princess she got a 36 year old widowed mother of two with a shocking propensity to hide knives on her person and no fucks left to give who looks exactly like the author. The short's humor came from the negotiation of the author, Caroline, trying to get the heroine, Rosamund, to follow the enemies-to-lovers romance fiction beat structure with Rosamund fighting the inanity of it. Bearup's fans demanded more, and then when the sequence came to a conclusion asked where the book was in enough numbers that Bearup, who has only ever written fanfic, decided to self publish the novel. So we have the layer of Caroline's work life, then Caroline as writer with her (hot) editor, then Caroline negotiating with Rosamund and the two male leads meant to be her love triangle (and her Hot Enemy has the face of Caroline's Hot Editor), and finally Rosamund story itself, as she doesn't remember the talking to Caroline when she's in the plot. It's... cute. It really is. But it's also clearly her first full novel so while it has a ton of energy it doesn't have as much polish. Still, vivacious and unkempt beats sterile perfection every day.