Member Reviews
Three women confront the compromises they've made to appease the men they love.
Women struggling in their late 20's/early 30's hits so close to home, but damn is it fun to read. (all the drama without being involved personally? yes please). Everyone in this book needs therapy (and probably so do I).
I enjoyed the multi-POV and the social commentary on modern dating. There is more character development than plot (which can be frustrating at times), but overall an entertaining read.
I loved following the lives of three contemporary women who come to value themselves as individuals after following a life of the female stereotype.
When Joy loses Annie as a roommate, she becomes enamored of her new flatmate, Theo, whom she falls madly in love with, while trying to hide her feelings.
Soon, she finds herself cooking for him, cleaning his room, doing his laundry, being in his presence all the time, in front of the TV in the evenings, eating takeout dinners. She even begins cleaning up after his new girlfriend, Celine, who often stays overnight in Theo's room.
Annie in the meantime has an unsatisfactory relationship with her boyfriend, Jason, even though they are now living together. However, She goes to bat for the women in her workplace who have had to put up sexual harassment from their boss Arly.
Theo's girlfriend, Celine, is beautiful but troubled about her life and what she wants from her relationship with Theo.
This is a study of sorts about three women who have problems with self image, self worth, and who finally wake up to the fact that they have been acting out stereotypes of the perfect girlfriends and female employees.
The three women are different yet the same in many respects. This is a sort of coming of age novel for thirty something women, who finally learn to deal with patriarchy and find their own self worth. .
This has truly been one of my favorite reads this year. I can’t believe how much it made me laugh out loud as well as cry. It is beautifully written.
Rating 3.75
Thank you to Random House for providing me with a copy through NetGalley. I’ve seen this book around and had a friend recommend this so it was great to finally come around and read it.
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The Characters - I struggled following Joy and Annie on many levels. While I had moments of resonating with their struggles, I found them to be unlikable women. But mostly, I was left concerned for when I turn 30 in a few years. Both Annie and Joy are 30 but acted like 24-25 year olds and that added to the dislike towards them.
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Annie - If I had to pick anyone to resonate with, it was probably Annie but that’s still a stretch. While I came to respect her near the end of the book, I found her to be quite horrible at the beginning and questioned her intentions with Joy.
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Joy - Not sure how to word this delicately but Joy was in serious need of professional help. Her obsession with Theo went beyond obsession to the point that I could call her a stalker if she didn’t live with Theo. I understand fixating on someone you crush on but to the point where you lie to others and say they’re your boyfriend…well you’re just the wrong kind of delusional. It was painful to read Joy’s chapters because she was a train wreck. Honestly, reminiscing even now about her actions has me cringing.
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Celine - So Celine is described as drop-dead gorgeous as so many people were fawning over her but I just need to know what does she look like - like who can we compare her looks to so I can understand better?
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The Men - All the men in this book were trash and what an unfortunate reminder of what is out here in reality.
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The Writing - It is clear Casale wrote Joy and Annie to be extremely annoying and I think we forget to applaud authors for doing that. There was some time where I was questioning where the book was going and what the overall point was but near the end, you come to discover that it’s about three women who undergo a realignment of focus - they pivot from the men in their lives to self-love and self-respect.
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Overall, I liked “How to Fall Madly Out of Love” and would recommend it to other women.
This was a quick read and I really enjoyed it. How to Fall Out of Love Madly follows the lives of three thirty-something women as they navigate their careers, love lives, and just being a woman in the world today. Annie, Joy, and Celine were all uniquely different women with distinct voices, but I found them to all be relatable in different ways.
Annie finds herself in a relationship with a man who doesn’t really seem to care much about her at all. She has a great career and excels in that field. Joy, Annie’s friend and roommate, struggles with her relationships and her family life. She wants to be loved and have a home she feels welcome and safe in. Celine is incredibly beautiful and seems to have it all, but even she feels insecure in the most perfect parts of herself. Also, the men here all suck.
I read part of this via audiobook and have to say it was really well done. I would definitely recommend consuming it that way. This book is not heavy on the plot, but if you’re looking for a more character driven novel with flawed and relatable female characters I’d recommend checking this out.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for a review copy.
Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
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Unfortunately I DNFed this, it just didn’t catch my attention and maybe I’ll get into it again when Imm in the perfect headspace to give this another try!
I found this very lack luster…. And just because it’s about three thirty-something women, does not warrant the comparisons to Fleabag or Rooney it’s been getting. I found the ‘feminism’ dated, the characters dull, and just generally this didn’t seem to have anything new or interesting to say. It’s a shame, because the reverse love story idea is a good one….
This book was relatable, emotional and compelling! I loved the characters, I loved the writing, I loved the plot. I enjoyed every page and would love to read more about them!
3.5 stars
I guess I was expecting a break up or a romance to get over in How to Fall Out of Love Madly, but that’s not what you get. But I will say I feel like I got so much more than what I was expecting.
This book is a little deeper and more profound than I expected. I could definitely feel Joy’s pain. She just wanted to be wanted and loved so she grasped on to the first person who showed her a little attention. And Annie wore rose covered glasses half the time masking the issues she was having in her relationship instead of confronting them. And then we have Celine, who on the outside is perfect, but her inside is a different t story.
I love how this book is told from 3 very different women and you get to see that no one is perfect and that everyone has issues although they may not be the same as yours. It really was a very enlightening read.
***Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an ARC copy in return for an honest review***
DNF. I kept hearing about how this book is so much like Sally Rooney or other millennial malaise novels, and it's nothing of the sort. As another reviewer mentioned, the three main characters are women and I'm not even sure it passes the Bechdel test. The unlikeable characters provided no new perspective and no intrigue to make me keep slogging through their bad behaviors from page to page. Like, it just wasn't interesting enough for me to want to know their thoughts. I'm so sorry. Huge disappointment.
Thank you Netgalley and Jana Casale for this advanced copy. This one really just wasn't for me. I think it was partially the pacing that threw me off. For the first 25% of the book I was more invested but I eventually lost interest the more that I read. I'm not the biggest romance fan, but I do enjoy it at times. I just think these characters and this story didn't work well for me.
I expected more romance then women fiction but still a stunning beautiful book. Thank you to Dial Press for the gifted ARC my honest review.
I love the cover of this so much! Can I get it on a tote bag?? The book was good too, I liked the nuanced portrayal of all the women and wouldn’t mind seeing them again in a new book!
I love roommate stories and career stories and this had both and done in such a realistic way.
This was a fun not so love story. I thought the birth control tie in aspect was a new twist, interesting and thought provoking.
First, I was drawn to “How to Fall Out of Love Madly” by the beautiful cover! However, I had a hard time connecting to the story and the characters. I didn’t like either of the main characters or their story lines. I feel that a younger millennial would enjoy this book but it wasn’t for me.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my digital arc in exchange for my honest review.
This train of thought was hard to follow in the beginning but once you got the hang of it, made sense. It was a very frustrating storyline but was happy with the end result!
Not my cup of tea but a quick read. I was drawn to it originally because of the title. It’s definitely very timely, and if you’re disillusioned about dating your might enjoy it. I found the writing to be higher quality than most other books in this genre which is refreshing.
There was so much relatable discomfort in this book and I really enjoyed it. A sweetheart of a milennial book, i think this book was a hit!
3.5 stars! Received this ARC from NetGalley. I think this book is perfect for mid 20s to read, as you’re figuring out your life, mid way to 30s. It took me a while to get into, but enjoyed it nonetheless! Definitely not a happy romance that I usually stray towards but it'll be a book I think about day to day. Love the book cover!
First of all, you have to love that cover on HOW TO FALL OUT OF LOVE MADLY by Jana Casale. It’s gorgeous, right? In some ways it’s a difficult book to describe, but it’s one I enjoyed as sort of a voyeuristic observer of a period of life that thankfully is far behind me. In it we meet three 30ish women all struggling in different ways to find their own power, their independence, their passions, and of course, love.
Annie has a job she thinks she should love, but doesn’t, and a boyfriend who never quite gives her what she needs. Her roommate Joy works in HR and is secretly in love with their third roommate, Theo. And Celine, Theo’s girlfriend, doesn’t really love him, but is comforted by his normalcy. Throughout the story we watch the three inch forward and backward in their individual quests to finally grow up and own their power. I found it sort of a treatise of the modern Millennial woman. For me the book started out a little slowly, but the further I got into it, the more I liked it. By the end, I was rooting hard for Annie, Joy and Celine. 3.75 stars
Thanks to @thedialpress for the beautiful finished copy of #HowToFallOutOfLoveMadly.