- [ ] Adelaide is an American living in London who is deeply loyal and gives everything she has to her loved ones including her aloof noncommittal boyfriend. When his ex unexpectedly dies, Adelaide dives in even deeper, sending home constant food and thoughtful gifts and spending all of her time caring for him while he worships the memory of his ex and neglects Adelaide completely. Rory is deeply unlikeable and Adelaide stays with him far too long, becoming increasingly desperate to be loved. The way this story mirrored my relationship with my college boyfriend left me breathless. I identify with Adelaide way too much and I love her journey and growth. This was a beautiful story of friendship and self love in the midst of grief and emotional turmoil. It was so beautifully written.

Absolutely fantastic debut novel. I really liked how mental health was written. Adelaide was Adelaide and didn't have red flags and stereotypical symptoms of bipolar. And after her diagnosis that didn't become her label, it didn't become who she was, it was just mentioned and we moved on. In a lot of books tons of red flags would have been signaled and then it would encompass their identity, but that isn't reality. Everything in this book was like that, it was just written with care. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future books by this author.

4.5/5

This book is not for everyone, please check TWs are there are a lot of them.

That being said, for those who grew up trying to be the manic pixie girl that they thought they should be, this might be it. This story of Adelaide and her struggles to be the perfect hip dream girl to make the man of her dreams love her instead of just use her, and the emotional cost it took was beautifully and thoughtfully written.

Copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

I will be thinking about this book for months! I loved the theme of friendship that ran throughout the book. The voice of the narrator kept Adelaide from feeling too whiny and really helped me empathize with her. Absolutely loved it, five stars!

This was a fabulous read! Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. I blew through this emotional
Roller coaster in less than 24 hours! All the feels!!

I’ve been in a brutal reading slump and this book has revived me! I loved it so much I’ll pre-order it to have a copy. I would highly recommend to readers of Ghosts, Sorrow and Bliss, and Sally Rooney (I hate to use her as a comparison because so many books do, but I feel her influence in the characters). A heavier read than I initially expected but such a special book and character.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an e-arc of this book.

I just reviewed Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler. #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published April 18, 2023.

I wanted to like this book but it just didn’t resonate with me. It’s definitely not a light-hearted rom-com or chick lit. Trigger warnings for rape, suicidal tendencies, miscarriages and mental illness.

I was equally annoyed with Adelaide and Rory. Adelaide is a giver by nature: she likes to please people. She convinces herself if she just tries hard enough, Rory will love her. (Major deduction for weak female character)

Rory is quite simply an ass. He takes and takes and never reciprocates. He won’t even sleep in the same bed with Adelaide. WTF. He disappears for days at a time, doesn’t respond to texts and is a jerk.

The only redeeming part was the friendships Adelaide has with her girlfriends, but that alone wasn’t enough to save the book.

Same review posted on GoodReads. .

I opened this book, thanks to an advance copy from NetGalley, in a doctor's office to pass the time. The writing is solid, the characters complex and three-dimensional. The protagonist, Adelaide Williams, appealed to me simply because her name was Adelaide.

She seemed to represent every woman who has ever sacrificed herself for the benefit of a man. She also experienced what I would consider sexual trauma and self-esteem issues. But "Adelaide" is actually both lighthearted and difficult to read. I don't want to say to much and reveal spoilers, but the novel is really about mental illness and the support, compassion and self-compassion needed to survive it.

While I did not always enjoy this book, this book has a powerful message and provides some viewpoints and messages that some people need to hear.

And it's also a great chronicle of a certain generation, and a fantastic collection of literary references.

my thoughts: if you’ve ever experienced that twin-flame type of love that breaks you, seemingly irreparably, only to put you back together in a beautiful way, then this is it. throughout the novel, adelaide gives so much of herself to lift those around her up, so it only makes sense that the book would have a similar lingering effect. this book gave me so much: the insight on grief & mental health & unrequited love are unmatched. adelaide is a love letter to the painfully messy yet beautiful act of living & loving.

Thought this book really allowed for a discussion on selfish love and narcissism. Unfortunately the protagonist did not gain the insight to set a healthy boundary for love until the end of the book. But let’s say tha she did achieve that therapeutic goal

I didn’t know what to expect with this book. The blurb I read when I received the arc didn’t match how the book started and it really made me wonder how I would get through it. The few chapters were tough, graphic, jolting. And then you get into the heart of the story, where your heart aches for Adelaide and wish for her to find that moment of real happiness and contentment. This is where the book shines. Where it pulls you in thinking with each chapter there is hope for Adelaide and then like a roller coaster, there is the fall after that hopeful rise. I saw myself in her at moments, the mirror a little too close for my liking. The lyrical writing softening the lessons. I found myself wishing the book lasted a little longer so we could revel in Adelaide 2.0.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I feel like this book is going to be a hit. It feels very topical--toxic relationships, imposter syndrome, male-female relationships? I felt like there was a fairly light hand so it didn't seem too extreme or depressing. I think it will generate a lot of book club discussion,

Oh wow, this debut novel! This book is a lot to break down. First, I will say, the end brought me to tears. It's a gorgeous book and one that I know many readers will love. It is, however, about a toxic and emotionally abusive relationship that is pretty hard to live through the main character, Adelaide. For those of us who have been in those bad relationships, this will be at once an interesting way to look back and see the red flags (and want to scream Adelaide! Stop what you're doing!) but it can also open some old wounds. Regardless, I'm very glad I read it and can tell this new author's voice is fresh, exciting, and very different.

I devoured the story of Adelaide over a weekend. An American expat in London, she is a mess. Dealing with mental health issues, an awful ex-boyfriend, and a sense that she is unloveable, she meets "the one" on a dating app and we follow the next 12 months of Adelaide desperately trying to make this guy, Rory Hughes, love her back. At first he ghosts her, and I was tempted to put it down and say "Dolly Alderton did it better" but I kept going and it morphed into something unexpected. Watching Adelaide try to win his affects, both from her point of view and occasionally from his, is both thrilling and cringe-worthy. Some may want to categorize this as romance novel, and it is NOT that. It's a tough book, filled with trigger warnings, but it is also sweet and cozy and I know lots of people will be talking about it next year.

I just finished this book today, and wow….. I’m not really sure exactly how to put my feelings on it into words. I really enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it, but it’s pretty raw and gritty at times. Reading the synopsis makes you think of this dreamy, romance-laced romp in London, and while it is that in some ways, it’s also very very real and also can be triggering. I adored Adelaide, as well as the rest of the characters, but Rory was a bitter pill. I think so much of him reminded me of an Ex that I just couldn’t like him.

I think if you go into reading Adelaide with the knowledge that this isn’t your average book, you’ll enjoy it. The writing is stellar. I felt like I was there in parts thanks to the beautiful imagery. The character development is outstanding. Adelaide and her friends are truly fun, bubbly, and likable and their friendship with each other made me envious. But this is why the sharp edges of the book can be so difficult. Because Adelaide is just so good. My heart felt like it was breaking for her at times.

It’s really hard to say all the things I want to say without spoiling anything. So I’ll just say that it’s been a long time since a book affected me this much, and I saw so much of my younger self in Adelaide. I did like the fact that this book was quite a surprise and made me really feel things, even if they weren’t always happy.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Genevieve Wheeler for gifting me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was an enjoyable read despite not being my type of book. I think it will definitely be a popular read when it comes out and anticipate lots of reader excitement.

Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler

Thanks to @stmartinspress for allowing us to read this book as an eARC through NetGalley

5/5

Adelaide is if ‘It Ends With Us’ was a Taylor Swift song

If you’re looking for a lighthearted romance or any kind of romance, this isn’t for you. This isn’t a romance, but it is a story about love, the danger, the wonder, and the power of it. This is a love story for life at its lowest, for family and friendships, self-love, and learning to accept yourself and life as is.

I didn’t know what to expect from a debut author, but this book blew me away. It was certainly very character driven and played with themes of love, loss, and the everyday struggles of many young adults in the transition years of their life, when it’s easy to feel like everyone around you is doing better and figuring out life a lot quicker. The portrayal of mental illness felt very authentic and compassionate.

Almost every character in this story felt like someone you could meet in real life. No one was perfect, they all had flaws. Flaws that come with living the life of the cards you’ve been dealt, whether it be being unable to compromise or being too lenient. Yet despite the fact readers may disagree with the actions of the characters we had such understanding and sympathy for them as what we knew would happen played out.

Admittedly I was a little unsure about the writing style of this book going into it. It had a mostly linear timeline, but readers were given hints to what the future pertained and some glimpses into the past. I felt it was an effective way to tell this story and managed to keep readers interested and guessing without spending too much time saying things that don’t need to be said. And despite the fact we knew where it would lead, the journey it took to get there was captivating and emotional and somehow still full of twists.

The one thing I don’t usually like about contemporary novels is when they mention real life pieces of media that could probably be anything, but for some reason are oddly specific, yet even that didn’t break the spell for me, although it did it a fair bit. Points for being the first book I’ve read that mentions covid even if not in great detail.

-Big Sis

Adelaide, by Genevieve Wheeler, is a novel about a young woman named Adelaide who falls in love with an Englishman she meets on a dating app. Adelaide is a 20-something American, living in dreamy London. With wonderful friends and fierce ambitions, Adelaide has little interest in finding “The One” right now, but when she meets Rory Hughes on a dating app –a charming and handsome Brit– she can’t help but be drawn in.

As their relationship develops, Adelaide quickly realizes that things are not as they seem with Rory. He is often distant and secretive, and her gut instinct tells her that he is not good for her. But despite her better judgement, she continues to pursue him, only to find herself in the midst of an emotionally abusive relationship.

Adelaide is a beautifully written novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever been in a bad relationship. Wheeler’s characters are realistic and flawed, and the story is heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful. This is an important book that deserves to be read and discussed by everyone.

This was a dark and heavy book to read with a lot of trigger warnings. I definitely fell for the main character Adelaide and wanted to shake her out of this toxic relationship with her man child. I was in a lot of pain while she was caring for him since it was evident how compassionate she was, and it was disheartening to watch the psychological torment she endured at his hands when all she wanted was love. The writing was beautiful and heartbreaking.

This story will stay with me for a long time.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻'𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟭𝟴𝘁𝗵, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯.

Honestly, this book was hard to get through because it felt a little too relatable.

If you've ever suffered imposter syndrome, felt like everyone else is doing life better than you, been in a horribly intoxicating and heartbreakingly one-sided relationship, or struggled with mental health, you'll probably relate to Adelaide.

I think this book did a great job at exploring the dichotomy of feelings in a toxic relationship.

Adelaide feels a need to be perfect in every aspect of her life, and faults herself for any issues in her relationship, and the book explores her journey through a tumultuous time of change and sadness in her life as she tries to figure out where she fits into the lives of everyone around her.

I did not expect this book to have such heavy topics, but I'm glad it did. Adelaide, who lives in London, tells the story of falling in love with Rory Hughes and how it changes her life. I have felt a lot of the same feelings Adelaide talked about and it was a lot for me to handle. I'm so lucky to have read this book and it's taught me a lot about myself. I can't wait to buy myself a copy when it's released.

I really enjoyed reading this book! Adelaide was so lovable and relatable. She's messy but in a way that we all are.. I think a lot of readers will see themselves in her. The female friendships were really well done and realistic. It was clear they each had a purpose in Adelaide's life vs. being flat characters. The setting was great - I felt like I was in London. It made me want to move there. The omniscient narrator was well done, too, and I thought it was a unique way of telling the story. The story was told through dual timelines and I think it added to my understanding vs. distracted from the story.

I didn't love Rory (obviously, that's the point) but my problem was I couldn't see what Adelaide saw in him. He was constantly giving her scraps and she acted like she was so lucky to have them. It would have been more realistic if he had flip flopped a little more between good boyfriend and bad boyfriend. I wish there had been more time on the aftermath, vs. most of the book focusing on their relationship.

FYI - there are some triggering topics covered in this book, including toxic relationships, mental health, sexual abuse, death of a young adult, and suicidal ideations.