Or, wtf?! Did Hannah Bonam-Young write this book just for me?
Set the Record Straight
Written by Hannah Bonam-Young
Audiobook read by Lori Prince and Jenn Lee
Published in 2022
I unabashedly loved this book. Prepare yourself for gushing. As always, your mileage may vary.
A friend once accused me of loving stories with yearning in them. She was not wrong. I do, I love the ache, the pining, the loving from afar, the yearning, yes, and the payoff, when love blooms.
But there’s something I love more, and that’s the True Love story. And that’s what this book gave me, almost from the beginning. Halfway through, I texted another friend, telling her how much I loved the book, and though I was only halfway through, I already trusted the author and the readers to deliver what they were promising. And they did.
Let me break it down.
The writing is clever, fun, and easy to lose yourself in. Each character feels distinct, the way they think, the way they see the world, and each other. Clara is hilarious, dry, and sincere. Evan is loving, and hopeful, and cynical, but so ready to believe. Bonam-Young has created two adorable, sympathetic, heroic women. I caught myself smiling so many times while listening to the book, driving around town, or walking on the track, or staring into space at a coffee shop.
The story is unabashedly about love. So many of the romance books I read (and like!) follow the same formula: two women meet, work out that they like each other, have a lovely moment, and then something goes awry. Oh noes! This conflict provides the tension for the book, but they get together in the end! Phew!
Not this book. I was so gunshy from all those other books that I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Until I wasn’t. Until Bonam-Young drew me in, until I got so besotted with her story and her characters that I stopped worrying. And then I could just settle into it. This is comfort food.
Let me be clear, these are real people. They have insecurities, they have unhappiness in their pasts, they have had their share of stories before we meet them, they have setbacks as we travel with them through this story. I fell for them hard because of that. But their love is up to all of it. It really is a true love sort of story, but one that feels accessible, one that these characters, as given to us, legitimately deserve. You want to believe in romance? Leave your cynicism at the door.
All that said, the performance of the readers of the audiobook version is probably what sealed it for me. An IRL dead-paper version was not available to me from the library, so I borrowed the audiobook. Honestly, there’s no better way to experience this book. Each character is voiced by a different reader, Lori Prince for Clara, and Jenn Lee for Evan, and they do such a good job! Clara is snarky and funny and matter of fact and lovable. Evan is quiet and anxious and emotional and hopeful. Both readers inhabit their characters, really bring them to life not just with dialogue but with small noises and sighs and crying and whispers and shouts and it’s pretty glorious. I’ve now gone ahead and purchased the dead-tree book, but I also purchased the audiobook version, because that’s the one I fell in love with.
Oh, and yeah, there are sex scenes. Good sex scenes. Descriptive sex scenes. At least one “Good girl.” <shiver> Adults only.
It’s a shorter book (a novella, I guess) but all the sweeter for not dragging it out. And unlike many of the romances I read, where the mains get together in the end, and the book abruptly ends, here we get to see them in love, just about the whole book.
For someone like me who is here for the wlw relationships, I am grateful to Bonam-Young for giving me that relationship almost from the get-go.
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