Book Review By Jasmine Roeder

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthrone

          I have just finished reading The Scarlet Letter and enjoyed reading the book. I got the book as a class project, and I didn’t think I would like it at all, but I do. The book takes concentration though and you need to ensure that you understand what you are reading without moving on. If you need help understanding something, I would either look up some notes to help you online or just re-read them. Once you get through the chapters, the book becomes really good and shows a lot of different symbols and lessons throughout the book. The Scarlet Letter is about a woman who had an affair with a man known as a holy man who never does anything wrong. One day she ends up pregnant from the affair and has the child, and then months later, she is found guilty in front of everyone and is punished. Her former husband, Roger Chillingworth, then comes home from being away overseas, and she is in this big mess over her child named Pearl, the former husband, and her lover named Rev. Dimmesdale, and she doesn’t know what to do. She is told to keep secrets of her husband and lover, and then people try to take her child away from her. No one wants to go near her because, in this book, having a child before marriage and having it with another man is one of the most horrible things you can ever do as a sin. What is Pearl going to do when she isn’t going to have a normal childhood because of her mother’s sins and when she has a lot of questions for her mother that aren’t answered? She is so confused because everyone always talks wrong about her mother, looks at her like she did something, and is always so confused. If you seem interested in this review, check out The Scarlet Letter, and you will not be disappointed.

Put the book on hold here

You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

A Book Review by Mina Nguyen

            You Deserve Each Other is a hilarious, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers, second-chance contemporary romance. Naomi Westfield, the main character, has been dreading getting married to Nicholas Rose for the last couple of months now. What started off as a great relationship- full of butterflies and loving stares- has started to become sour, especially after Nicholas Rose seems to value his mom’s opinion over Naomi’s and especially when his mom gets flowers every week while Naomi gets nothing. Naomi thinks she’s doing great at pretending to be the perfect fiance, but apparently Nicholas has noticed her unenthusiastic nature for quite a while. Once Naomi becomes aware of this, Naomi devises a plan to get him to break off the marriage, so she isn’t stuck paying for the nonrefundable wedding bill, which starts a series of pranks and sabotage from both Naomi and Nicholas. As the wedding day looms closer, Naomi finds herself willing to give Nicholas a second chance since both have nothing to lose since they’re finally being themselves.

This and The People We Meet on Vacation are my favorite contemporary romances. Even though I would categorize this as a winter holiday read, I read it all year round. I think I’ve read this book five times, and I’ve loved it every single time. You Deserve Each Other had me laughing and giggling. The pranks were super funny and extremely entertaining to read. This was a funny book! The tension between the characters was also super good. I also enjoyed the pacing and the timeline of the book. Usually, I find that a lot of romances have characters say “I love you” way too soon, but this had enough of a relationship development that it felt natural; it didn’t feel rushed or out of nature for the characters since they had already been in a rocky relationship prior. I absolutely hate the miscommunication trope in books, but this did a great job of explaining the mindset where both characters were able to figure it out before it became a huge problem; they confronted each other before it got into a bigger issue than it needed to be. One of the best written miscommunication tropes because it was extremely realistic and not blown out of proportion. I loved how the characters recognized their own faults and were able to fix it without being passive aggressive.

I recommend this book to anyone because it’s that good of a read. I also think that non-romance readers would also enjoy it since it’s not too sappy and extremely funny. It’s definitely an easy read, and it does a great job of reforming the relationship between Naomi and Nicholas. You could tell there was a lot of character development for the both of them in order to relearn how to be themselves around their significant other. The ending was absolutely perfect; I will never stop raving about this book. This is definitely a great rom-com read if you’re in need of an extra boost of serotonin.

Read Alikes:

Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren / The Hating Game by Sally Thorne / The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang / The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas / People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry / Beach Read by Emily Henry

Put You Deserve Each Other on hold here