I just finished listening to the cutest book on Audible.
Lovebug, by Erin Mallon, is a contemporary romance / RomCom that features a sheltered entomologist and a gruff groundskeeper who, over the course of a summer camp at a local arboretum, are brought together through overzealous optimism and a shared love of nature.
This book looked absolutely cute when I read the description. I just finished and ended up really really enjoying it, but the first 10 or so chapters were excruciatingly painful to listen to. The main character, Mabel, was an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt kind of character who was annoyingly optimistic without being very wise to the ways of the world. I only made it through the pilot episode of Kimmy Schmidt.) She also came across as incredibly ditzy. Talking about bugs - loved it. I learned things in this book, so for me, that part was interesting, but listening to her interact with others during the first 10-11-12 chapters... ugh.
Her night out with her girlfriends when she described her sex life with her fiancé, especially painful. Just...ugh. I'll never think of Law & Order SVU the same way again. Oh. Yes, I will. It's a great show.
My recommendation? Like with making it through book 10 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series (you know the one, the book that is nothing but everyone's reaction to what happened the last chapter of book 9 with nothing new until literally 3 pages from the end? Yeah. That one.), I highly recommend you stick with this. Seriously - the main character becomes real and far more relatable starting about the end of chapter 12. And - there are 29 chapters + an epilogue. (Plus an interesting summary of the writing process from the author afterwards, so you need to listen to / read that as well)
After that point, I felt that 24-year old Mabel finally started coming into her own and becoming her own person who allowed herself to actually feel something other than pressure to make everyone else happy. There were some tough issues that were faced afterwards that an insanely sheltered person had difficulty dealing with, but that were a joy to listen to.
Wally? He was awesome, of course. Nothing like a good guy who can see beyond the surface, beyond the façade put up by Mabel. He was also pleasantly patient as well and let her do things at her own pace.
Stick with the story - it's a good one and I already have Flirtasaurus (Natural History #1) to listen to by Erin Mallon as well. As an experienced book narrator, she does a fabulous job of reading her own book and look forward to more in this series.
Learn more about Erin Mallon at her website. Find Lovebug at Goodreads - Barnes & Noble - Amazon
My Goodreads review.
- Heather
Goodreads - H.M.S. Brown - Find this and other book reviews here
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