Erin Easter, one of three Erins in the small senior class of rural Blackwell High School who not only share a first name but also their birthday. Read my review of the Happenstance Novella Series.
Book Review: Happenstance Novella Series
Since this is a series of short novellas I’m going to review all of them at once. I always try and keep reviews spoiler free – only sharing details that you would find on the book jacket. But since this is three reviews in one, you might not want to read the sections for all three unless you don’t mind a little spoiler.
Book 1
In this book, we meet the three Erins – Erin Easter known as ‘Easter’, Erin Alderman known as ‘Alder’, and Erin Masterson known as ‘Sonny’.
These three high school seniors not only share a first name but also share a birthday. The three girls were friends at one time bit now Easter is shunned and bullied because of her upbringing.
Of course, there’s a boy and then there’s a tragedy. I won’t spoil the tragedy for you other than to see it’s one of those eye roll types of tragedies where it happens and then you totally know where the author is going.
The novella was well written and fast paced although a bit unbelievable. I always say that about books, clearly, I should stop complaining since I’m reading fiction.
Book 2
In this book, we’ve moved past the tragedy of book one and we are on to the how to cope phase of the story. Warning – spoiler here. I can’t review this book without spoiling some aspects of the first book so stop reading here if you haven’t read book one.
Weston and Erin are now a couple. The whole Erin Easter is now Erin Alderman because Erin Alderman died thing is weird. I felt like she could have kept her Easter name or something. She basically just said adios to Gina and everything about that life. I know that Gina was a crappy parent to her but the whole situation felt rushed.
About 90% of this book I just wanted to scream at the characters. I know bullying is a super real thing but it’s out of hand in this book. And maybe part of that is that its 4 years old. A lot has changed in our world in the last four years. Bullying is less accepted then it was back then. But I still wanted to scream the adults in this book for knowing it was happening and not saying anything.
Book 3
So this point be a totally unpopular opinion but this book made me like Weston way less then I had before reading into it. He borders on abusive in my mind. He yells at Erin, he throws things, he tries to force her into situations she’s clearly not ready for.
I really struggled to like Weston in this book. I get that he’s a teenager and life is changing but some of his behaviors can’t just be excused away. And Erin struggles with feeling like it’s her fault when it’s clearly him.
I don’t think this third book added to the story. It was just an on-again/off-again relationship part of the series. It lacked the excitement of the first two.
Overall, I liked the series. I love Jamie McGuire’s writing style and am definitely bumping some of her books up onto my reading list.
Book 1 – Add it On Goodreads | Buy Online
Book 2 – Add it On Goodreads | Buy Online
Book 3 – Add it On Goodreads | Buy Online
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