Changes

If you regularly view my blog on a computer browser, you may have noticed that my blog graphics look a little bit different. For starters, I made a new logo for my month in reviews (and a matching one for discussion posts), as well as made clickable images to my social media sites on my sidebar. I wanted to remove the original clunkiness of the sidebar, so I took out some filler gadgets that I didn't think were necessary. I am here to make a post of explanation of the changes, as there is a reasoning/some reflection behind the changes! So, let's talk about change: 

As some of you may know, I am embarking on some academic adventures in September. A large focus of my program in university will be on English studies and young adult fiction, which is a key focus of my blog. As such, I wanted to make my blog a bit more of a hub where colleagues, students, and friends could look for content that may at times overlap with the work I'm doing in school. I will sometimes cite my blog or put it on my resume, but I haven't really centered it fully in my academic studies before. However, after having some discussions with academics who work on young adult fiction content, I figured I could find a way to integrate my passion for blogging with my schoolwork. And thus, I had some cleaning up to do. 

My old graphics and logo were created by yours truly in Grade 10 photoshop class. They were cute at the time and served their purpose. I have mentioned before how I don't focus on graphic design a whole lot in my blog as I'm not good at it. That part of me hasn't changed. However, I did want to make my graphics appear a bit more mature to reflect my content a bit better. I don't just blog about YA anymore and I thought my blog looked a bit childish. So with the help of Canva and my cousin who created a header for me a while ago, I was able to tweak around with some new logos. It was a process, as I needed to get the sizing and blur just right. But I am proud of myself that I stuck with it even though graphics scare the hell out of me. 

I thought graphics in my social media sidebar may look cleaner than just having links, so I entered the world of coding to get that looking right. With the help of my dad and a lot of trial and error we were able to figure it out, but again, that was a whole lot of techy stuff that I had never tried before. You really do learn something new everyday! I can now say that I have a few graphics that I think look pretty and a bit more polished, and I'm very proud of that. 

Last but not least, a word about content. This will never be a blog about university life. I merely wanted to tweak a few things that would make me feel comfortable and proud to show my blog to ppl within my university life. Even my Twitter took on a bit of a makeover, as I know more people do use Twitter for networking and I wanted to make sure I had a clean slate on social media so that I wouldn't run into any trouble in the future. 

All of this is to say, I'm still here, this blog is still Paperback Princess, and I will continue writing about books, life stuff, and discussion posts along the way. I don't intend to leave my blog friends behind in search of another image, I just took my new life changes as an opportunity to spruce things up around here a little bit. It was a struggle, but I do hope these graphics look good to a secondary viewer. And as always, if you have any graphic design words of wisdom, they are always so welcome! Blogging is always a learning curve, and I'm grateful to be learning every day. 

Have you ever put your blog/social media through an upgrade? Do you suck at graphic design like me?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

The Love Hypothesis by: Ali Hazelwood

Genre: Romance 

Published: September 14, 2021 by: Penguin 

Pages: 383 

Rating: 3/5 stars 

CW: workplace sexual harassment, graphic sexual content, perhaps negative asexual rep (read more in review) 

Olive Smith is a PhD candidate in her third year at Stanford University. Her best friend Anh believes in long-lasting, romantic love, but Olive isn't sure that happily ever after can exist. Olive decides to get Anh off her back by kissing the first man she sees in an effort to prove to Anh that she can be in a relationship. However, this man turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a young, grumpy professor who is caught off guard by Olive's forwardness. Still, Adam agrees to go along with Olive's plan if it means they can try to put this awkwardness behind them. But fake dating proves to be complicated once the two start catching feelings. 

This book really blew up on Booktok, and it took me a while to find it at the library and see if it was worth the hype. I knew it was an adaptation of a fanfic of Reylo (romantic ship between Kylo Ren and Rey from Star Wars). That made me curious. I love Kylo Ren, but I'm not the biggest fan of that ship. Still, a love interest at least inspired by Kylo intrigued me. Fanfiction once again makes the world go round! I would say this book was middle of the road for me, with some high moments but also some issues to work through. 

First off, I really did like how the book handled the grumpy x sunshine trope. That is one of my favourite tropes in romance novels and I think Hazelwood did a good job at characterizing Olive's confidence and charm mixed with Adam's sarcasm and cynicism. But, despite Adam being the grumpy character, he was never disrespectful or abusive, which I think is super important when handling this trope. I also liked how the book portrayed the fake dating trope, especially given that there were power dynamics involved between a professor and a PhD candidate. Both Adam and Olive clear their relationship with the Dean, and I appreciated this touch to avoid toxicity within their relationship. 

I thought the romance was well-paced and didn't to me feel like insta-love or anything that could be totally unrealistic. I did sometimes find that Olive made impulsive decisions, and seeing that she was a PhD student, I wondered why she acted that way. I guess I just figured she'd be a bit more cautious of things, so this personality shift did surprise me a bit. But I didn't find her or Adam to be particularly unlikable characters. 

The sex scenes were graphic, but nothing that I'm not used to in a lot of adult romance books. I do think Hazelwood portrayed such scenes in a healthy way, though for me, nothing can beat the representation in Helen Hoang's "Kiss Quotient" series. That series still has some of the healthiest and non-toxic sexuality representation that I've ever seen. I will constantly compare every romance to it. 

On to the not so great bits. I did notice a few OwnVoices Goodreads reviewers talking about how they found Hazelwood misrepresented or awkwardly incorporated asexual representation when it came to Olive. The first time that Olive and Adam have sex, Olive admits to Adam that she has a difficult time forming the want to have sex, and forming attraction for people. But she frames this in a way by saying that there is something "weird" about her brain, and then the whole thing is kinda dismissed and not picked up again. This was something that struck me as odd when I was reading the book, but I didn't quite understand why until I read the reviews, and then I found some reviewers put my thoughts into words quite well. I am not asexual so I'm not gonna be the spokesperson on this, and I know some asexual people may have no issue with this plot point. But, I will say that I think for me personally, I would've liked this side of Olive explored a bit more if it was something that impacted how she forms sexual relationships. We never really see it developed into something more, and I think positive asexual representation is super important. You can see these reviews in the one star section of Goodreads if you'd like to read them. 

I don't think the characters necessarily struck me as all that interesting. I thought Olive and Adam were an okay couple, but I didn't find myself going out of my way to root for them the way I do other romance couples. They were just okay, nothing truly remarkable though nothing terribly annoying. I do chalk a lot of this up to the book perhaps being more plot driven than character driven. I didn't feel like I knew a whole lot about these characters, so I found it difficult to connect to them. 

Overall, this book was fine. It wasn't a standout for me, but I'm usually pretty forgiving of romance novels if there are some redeeming qualities. I don't necessarily think this book was worth the hype, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. 

Have you read The Love Hypothesis? What did you think? 

Month in Review: May

 

May just flew by! I feel like I blinked and missed it. While I had a lot of fun last month, this month is full of even more excitement. But before we get to June, here's what happened in May. (Also, peep the new graphics! Thanks Canva). 

What I Read: 

The Story of Us by: Catherine Hernandez: 4/5 stars 

Watchmen by: Alan Moore: 3/5 stars 

I Am I Am I Am by: Maggie O'Farrell: 4/5 stars 

Loathe to Love You by: Ali Hazelwood: 3.5/5 stars 

Icebreaker by: Hannah Grace: 1/5 stars 

Favourite book: I really enjoyed The Story of Us. It was my second Hernandez book after Scarborough and I found the premise to be super unique and the character building was quite strong. Review to come! 

What I Blogged: 

There were weeks in May where I just...forgot to blog? But, I still stayed fairly consistent and I'm really glad I finally wrote my review for When The Reckoning Comes by: LaTanya McQueen. It was such a good read. 

Favourite Blog Posts: 

Cee asks: Is This a Book Blog, Though? 

Nyx shares What Influences Her to Read A Book (As a Non-Book Blogger) 

Nicole recommends MG Books for Young Horror Fans 

Life Stuff: 

As previously mentioned, May was fun! I started off the month with a vacation to San Francisco, which was an awesome bucket list experience as I had never been to California previously. So many of the sites were really cool and I got to see seals and sea lions in the bay. As an animal lover that was a major highlight. 

I ended the month with an academic conference in Toronto where I met so many cool people both in and outside of my field, and I learned a lot. I also presented the previously mentioned paper that I was initially struggling with writing but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I got some good feedback on it overall so I'm considering the hard work as worth it. I considered the advice I got in the comments about taking my time with the editing to be the most helpful. Thank you all. 

This month is bringing weddings, graduation parties, and a lot of milestones for friends and family. I am looking forward to it all. Summer is the best season for celebrations in my opinion. 

That was my May! How was yours? 

Emily @ Paperback Princess