Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book sounded so cute and I really wanted to like it: a book about a literary nerd living in France is as good as it gets for me. However it felt really forced for me. I felt myself constantly thinking about the authors decisions and incapable of actually getting lost in the story. I am a fan of injecting feminist ideas into media, but some of the scenarios of female empowerment and allowing men to have emotion felt completely forced and unnatural to the progression of the story. I keep trying to pick it up and force myself to read the rest for that one point where it gets good but it just doesn't. Also, the stupidity of the characters is mind numbing. Most novels have self unaware characters to some degree and you can see their flaws before they can, that's part of the fun when they discover and work on their flaws. But to have obsessed over a woman for 20 years, kept a room that reminded him of her sealed up during all that time, never even asking her why she disappeared, still unable to cope at the thought of her as a grown ass man in his 50s left me scratching my head. That is a level of unrealistic I just can't really get on board with. He's so stupid about it and about the obvious love interest he's "meant to be" with that it's just annoying, as opposed to charming. Really cute idea but poorly executed.