Sydney

Meta truly doesn't understand the Barbara Streisand effect when it comes to public relations because they got me to read this book - and my record shows I don't read that much nonfiction. I found this memoir a page-turner and appreciated Sarah showing both how Meta affected her as a person and how she saw them affecting the world. While others may not appreciate the pieces of her personal life woven into this story of corruption, I think they play an important part in framing the habitual misdeeds of this corporation.

After finishing this book, I removed Instagram and Facebook from my phone in an effort to reduce my time spent, data given, and attention wasted for the capital gains of a man I don't believe in.

This is definitely a book of its time - affairs around every corner, assault, some homophobia and racism - but the heart of the book was delightful. I enjoyed the overall story line of bidding on the franchise especially as an American who was unaware that this even happened! Taggie and Rupert were adorable, Freddie and Lizzie made me forget that I hated cheating in romances, Declan and Maud made me question their sanity, and Cameron and Patrick are......a repeat of Declan and Maud in a way. I would read another Jilly Cooper!

Matt Dinniman’s brain must be supersized or something because I could never think of any of this - not even to mention the plot twists. Great googly moogly.

I don’t even know how to rate this. The entire story was a fever dream - piecing together both the best weirdest things you’ve ever seen with horror bleeding out at the most inopportune moments. Surrealist absurdity. You reread passages thinking - surely my brain missed something…did I skip a key sentence? You flip back a page only to realize that no, you missed nothing. But you keep turning the pages forward because what happens next will either be manic creativity or a crushing reminder of humanity at its best and its worst.

Will I read book 2? Probably. But I need to recover from this one first.

Dodger was the highlight of this book for me. Despite my rating, its not a bad book. It unfortunately happened to be the 12th Lisa Kleypas book I read in a row and that does something to a person.