Hello and happy Thursday. My morning has been super hectic, and I think the entire month of July will be like that. I’ll still have more time to read than I would if I were working, and I’ve rediscovered the magic of audiobooks, which are great companions for when I’m tending to chores or other tasks that don’t allow me to read with my eyes.

A couple of nights ago, I read If the Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell via audiobook, and if that title looks familiar, it’s because I told you about it in a post I made a few months ago, in which I was challenging myself to read books from authors I’d loved years ago and test whether they held up. This one is a short story, and I’ll tell you plain and simple, it doesn’t hold up. I think Rainbow Rowell’s style has stayed consistent from when I read Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, to name a couple of her titles, but my taste in literature has changed and I’ve also realized that I don’t like how she writes.

If The Fates Allow is a book set during the pandemic, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. It’s not that I avoid reading books set at that time because I can think of at least two that I’ve read and enjoyed, but making it a romance story set in Christmas…well, maybe I would’ve liked it had I read it then.