In trying to review this book I now know why some of you wait to review these series in one fell swoop instead of individually. In praising this effort from Bowen I find myself tempted to just repeat myself from previous reviews. In the fourth book in the series, Sarina Bowen has found her sweet spot and is continuing to write feminist bent romance and in many ways appears to be gunning to be the Courtney Milan of the contemporary new adult genre (as much […]
Warning: Spoilers After this Title
I’m not trying to be cute here, but 15 minutes into reading The Fifteenth Minute, I became very uncomfortable. This is an accurate representation of my face – my smile morphed from anticipatory to a rictus grin of horror. I love Bowen’s previous installments in The Ivy Years series, though I’m less enchanted with her Gravity series. I pre-ordered The Fifteenth Minute and was very excited. But then I read about DJ’s drama and suddenly I was much less excited. I did my best to […]
How I didn’t quite learn to stop worrying and love collegiate sexual politics
Let me start off by saying that, with The Ivy Years series, Sarina Bowen became #1 with a bullet on my list of favorite contemporary authors. Her blend of humor, sensitivity, romantic instinct, steam, and generally good writing really came together in a fantastic series. The Fifteenth Minute is no exception in technical merit. But, to me, it had issues that weren’t so in its predecessors. A lot of them have to do with the underlying premise, which I’ll get to more in a minute. […]
I want to grow up to be like Rikker’s grandma.
I have been continuing with The Ivy Years books by Sarina Bowen and they continue to be delightful. Delightful feels like such a weird word to use about a series that focuses on such relatively heavy topics and subjects. As I’ve discussed previously The Year We Hid Away and The Year We Fell Down each tackle heavy topics with a deft hand, and The Understatement of the Year, the third full novel in the series, does the same, this time venturing into the dynamics of […]