Robin Forlonge Patterson reviewed Love Me, Love Me Not by Kirsty Capes
Review of 'Love Me, Love Me Not' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Good story.
Goodreads is out of date, technically lying, when it still says "There are no editions with format Paperback." What I have just read is a paperback (owned by Manawatu District Libraries). The story runs from page 1 to page 369. "First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Orion Books, ..." Printed and bound in Australia, which naturally makes it physically easier to handle.
As the back cover blurb indicates, the heroine, Lucy ("Loose" to her friends!), suffers from low self-esteem and tries to present herself as someone she's not. Fairly depressing reading in parts, but eventually her friends persuade her that she can be loved. Her brother was unkind to her as a child, but the reason comes out in the end.
Inconsistent punctuation; too few appearances of "whom" - e.g. on p358. No quotation marks - which can be confusing when the reader can't be sure …
Good story.
Goodreads is out of date, technically lying, when it still says "There are no editions with format Paperback." What I have just read is a paperback (owned by Manawatu District Libraries). The story runs from page 1 to page 369. "First published in Great Britain in 2022 by Orion Books, ..." Printed and bound in Australia, which naturally makes it physically easier to handle.
As the back cover blurb indicates, the heroine, Lucy ("Loose" to her friends!), suffers from low self-esteem and tries to present herself as someone she's not. Fairly depressing reading in parts, but eventually her friends persuade her that she can be loved. Her brother was unkind to her as a child, but the reason comes out in the end.
Inconsistent punctuation; too few appearances of "whom" - e.g. on p358. No quotation marks - which can be confusing when the reader can't be sure which parts of a paragraph are speech or narrative.
p18 move "whether" up to before "if" and follow it with a comma
p31 insert "so" before "translucent"
p66 "The closer they get ..." but no comparative follows in the main clause (except in a parenthetical phrase)
p78 - insert "Hannah" before "being the closest"
p103 - can she really see a man's teeth if her nose is squashed into his armpit?
Wrong word or typo:
p2 "homogenous" needs another "e"
p35 "that Lucy" should be"since Lucy"
p50 "everyone ... are" should be "everyone ... is"
p134 careening should be careering
p168 oblige should be obliges
pp 193,208 "hey" meaning "eh"
p209 "All together" should be "altogether"
p238 "betrayal to" should be "betrayal of"
p240 clearly unwanted comma after "load Winston"
p243 "How her and Danny" should be "How she and Danny"
p310 "sometime" (an adjective) should be "some time"
p338 "come Cam," should be "comes Cam,"
p361 Smoothes
North Americanisms:
p2 stoop
pp277,295 laying
p308 lay
pp 281, 288, 315 off of
Rare or new words that are probably OK:
pp4 and 345 matter-of-factly
p63 chored
p77 Kentish-Essaxon
p167 mandy (the drug)
p175 spasmically
p290 converse (to), meaning in contrast (to)
*p358 pinkens