Love & Other Natural Disasters audiobook

Love and Other Natural Disasters became one of my most anticipated releases of the year as soon as I heard that there was a messy sapphic love quadrangle – I live for messy sapphics and the angst of love triangles (nevermind quadrangles!) and I’m happy to report that it did not disappoint. I got all the messiness and complicated feelings and angst I could ever want, as well as an unexpectedly touching story of family, second chances and love.I love trope subversion. Authors taking a popular trope (in this case fake dating) and turning it on its head to create an entirely unexpected and refreshing take on it is one of my favourite things to read. And so, I absolutely adored what Sugiura did with Love and Other Natural Disasters. This subversion was the perfect vehicle for Nozomi’s character development and I loved the journey she went on as she realised she is perfectly worthy of love just as she is and that she shouldn’t feel the need to change herself. Our main character and the other three points to the love quadrangle are all women of colour which I adored, especially as Sugiura took the opportunity to explore the intersection of race with queerness. This is particularly clear through Nozomi’s grandmother and Nozomi’s hesitation over coming out to her, especially considering the difficult relationship between mother and gay son. This resulted in some really touching moments and discussions of coming out, as well as some heartbreaking realisations due to her grandmother’s dementia.I really liked all of our sapphics and especially enjoyed their messiness – it just made them feel all the more human. They each had distinct personalities and issues and I loved reading about them all clashing or coming together. In particular, I loved Nozomi’s relationship with Dela, from its awkward beginnings to developing into something real and touching. It was such a good slow burn and felt really natural, even as they were both in some pretty complicated situations. Love and Other Natural Disasters delivers the fun, light hearted rom com it promises; full of messy sapphics of colour as well as a touching story about love, acceptance and second chances. This is the perfect novel to be enjoyed on a hot summer day and I highly recommend it.I also talk about books here: youtube | instagram | twitter*Thank you Harper360 for an advanced copy. This has not affected my review.*

I loved this. I've really been craving a light YA rom-com book, and this fit the bill exactly. I flew through it in twenty-four hours and had a really good time doing so. Sugiura's writing style is really engaging, and I loved how the fake dating trope was subverted? I also loved the slow buildup of the relationship between Nozomi and her love interest, and became quite invested in the two of them. Sugiura also engages with cultural attitudes to queerness in a really interesting and thought-provoking way. Would definitely recommend if you're looking for a YA sapphic novel featuring the fake dating trope. > 4 stars Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review!

rep: Japanese American lesbian mc, Japanese American lesbian li, Taiwanese American lesbian li, Black bi side character, Japanese American gay side character, Filipino American gay side character, Japanese American side characterstw: homophobia, mention of parent's deathReview also on Reads Rainbow. ARC provided by the publisher.We always shout about how we want a fake-dating book, but actually the only one that will ever matter from now on is Love & Other Natural Disasters. Not only because it understands the trope, but importantly: turns it on its head.For the fake-dating trope to work you need two characters who are already into one another but assume it’s only unrequited feelings, so that the pining can make your heart hurt. But here, it becomes meta in a way. First of all, Nozomi is very aware that Willow doesn’t have a crush on her, but unlike a character in your favourite fic, she actively tries to change that. She treats her life like a rom-com which she is a script writer and director of, and she doesn’t stop until she will get the happy ever after that she envisioned. But Love & Other Natural Disasters is more than just a bunch of movie-perfect dates, every single one not ending the way anyone would have expected (least of all the girls on them). It spends a lot of time talking about coming out. About how it’s not a single event, but something you have to do over and over again. About how sometimes it’s hard to come out because you have to consider if you’re safe enough in any given situation to actually be true to yourself. About how sometimes you hide parts of yourself from a family member you love because you don’t want them to stop loving you. A lot of focus is also on familial relationships. Mainly on how complicated they tend to be. Sugiura is clear on the fact that there’s ever a black-and-white kind of situation when it comes to family; that most of the time you can be hurt but still care for someone, you can feel you’re in the right only because someone spared you the details to avoid hurting you more. It’s visible in the way Nozomi treats her mother, her father, her grandmother, in the way Nozomi’s uncle treats her grandmother, in the way Nozomi’s brother treats their mother. There’s always more than one side to look at things from, but it’s never an attempt to get you to forgive someone who hurts solely because they’re your family.Speaking of family, Nozomi and Max are probably the best siblings in all of young adult literature. I know I’m right.Love & Other Natural Disasters is a very smart book about second chances; learning to love people the right way that they need & deserve; recognising your own mistakes and prejudices. And it touches on all of that while masquerading as a cute and silly rom-com.

I went into Love & Other Natural Disasters with the expectation that I was in for a delightfully silly treat about sapphic fake dating. And while this novel was indeed a delight to read, it also cut a lot deeper than I expected.Now that I'm in my twenties, I rarely find myself thoroughly immersed and captivated by YA contemporary novels. For the most part, I've outgrown the genre. However, Love & Other Natural Disasters has easily made its way to my list of exceptions, alongside Sarah Kuhn's I Love You So Mochi . This book really got under my skin in the best possible way, and the author's note had me blubbering tears. Final impressions: • Messy teenagers being really messy. Sometimes in a vaguely amusing way, sometimes in a frustrating way.• Made me wonder how much mainstream media has rotted people's brains, including my own, especially in blurring the line between fantasy and reality.• I usually cannot stand annoying teenagers, but Nozomi eventually grew on me.• I was impressed by how this book takes on the narrative of "coming out" to family, especially in Asian households with "traditional" values. • The book offers a nuanced take on love, relationships, and communication that I think many teenagers would benefit from.• A great reminder that sometimes love doesn't conquer all, and that's okay.Highly recommended!

Love and Other Natural Disasters is disaster queers in its most chaotic and delightful and I had so much fun reading this. - Follows Nozomi, a Japanese-American teen who spends her summer in San Francisco with her gay uncles and gets into a fake-dating scheme with gorgeous Taiwanese-American teen, Willow, to win back her ex - and realises that she may actually be falling with Willow's ex's newest girlfriend, Dela.- Gosh, this book was just so much fun! Katharine Chin's narration for Nozomi was just pure delight and I had so much fun being inside Nozomi's head. - This book is messy and I loved that. I really connected to all of the characters and their imperfections. Nozomi for how she sees life and relationships like a big romance film in which she's the director and Willow for how she manipulates other people in the name of love. None of the characters are perfect in this, and I loved that.- I actually enjoyed how this story ultimately subverts the fake-dating trope; that fake-dating seems cute and all, but the story explores how fake-dating can also be inherently manipulative in which people's emotions are gambled. - I love how Misa writes with this... sharp self-awareness; how readers are let into the reality of the situation (in this story, it's via Nozomi's brother, Max) while the characters are completely oblivious. It's like watching a trainwreck and it's just so much... fun???- I also really liked how this story explores complicated family dynamics. Specifically, Nozomi's now broken family, how we're often in denial of how bad things are (and I liked how Nozomi's dad and Nozomi's responses to their failing relationships run parallel). I also enjoyed how the story explores Nozomi's bigoted yet loving, aging grandmother. - This story has the right balance of sugary sweet with 'oh no, this is all a huge mess'. I just had so much fun reading this.Content warnings: anti-gay sentiment, death of a parent

3.5/5 StarsA couple of years ago I listened to an audiobook of Misa Sugiura’s second novel, This Time Will Be Different, and absolutely loved it. In fact, it was the first audiobook I ever listened to, and I loved it so much that I now own a special edition signed hardcover of it! So, of course, I was dying to read Misa’s third novel which is also her second novel with sapphic main characters, especially since it features the fake dating trope which is one of my favourites. Plus, just look at that gorgeous cover! But sadly, it fell a little short of my expectations.I’ll start with the things I really enjoyed in this book – because I definitely don’t think it’s a bad book, more of a case of it’s me not you (you being the book in this scenario!). Misa Sugiura’s writing style is really funny throughout the book and I actually snorted with laughter at a few of the main character’s lines while reading. I absolutely loved reading from Nozomi’s point of view and seeing her hopelessly romantic daydreams about girls she has crushes on! Speaking of girls she has crushes on, I loved just how gay this book is! Both Nozomi and the love interest, Willow, are sapphic, and as you can probably tell from the cover, there are two more secondary characters who are also sapphic, one of whom is more masculine, which we don’t see all that often in YA! Nozomi’s uncle, who plays a big part in the book, is also gay and lives with his husband and they’re really sweet together! The discussions on sexuality and coming out to your family were also so important. As someone who is going through a similar situation to Nozomi and is terrified of even speaking about anything relating to being queer around grandparents, it was so so comforting to read about it (though I do wish we’d got a bit more closure on that storyline). Back to the diversity, another thing I loved about the book was that every single main character is a person of colour. Nozomi and her family are Japanese and Japanese-American, and so is one of the side characters, Willow is Taiwanese-American, there is a Black side character, and even Nozomi’s uncle’s husband is Filipino-American! I don’t think I’ve read a YA contemporary where there were no major white characters and it was so refreshing to see!Finally, and honestly once you hear about this one, you’re definitely gonna see why I’m dedicating a whole paragraph to it. This was definitely for the sapphics. I’m sure we’re all well aware of that photo of the two girls where they’re lying on a bed and one is putting make up on the other, right? I think you can see where I’m going with this one. There is pretty much this scene several times throughout the book and it is…wow!! Iconic!! Misa Sugiura didn’t have to do that but she really said sapphic rights, and in Pride Month no less!But sadly, now is time to move onto the things I didn’t love so much about the book. First up is the romance. I love the fake dating trope. I’m relatively new to it but I love seeing the characters slowly realise they have real feelings and then the tension that arises from that, but I just didn’t love it in this book. Now, I know for a fact this is going to be a me thing and that other readers are going to love the relationship dynamic in the book, and I do really love what Misa Sugiura was trying to say with it and how the book ended, but the whole time I was reading it I just felt so sorry for Nozomi who was getting her heart trampled all over! The characters in general I also found to be pretty flat – I couldn’t tell you one thing about Nozomi and her interests and the only thing I could say about Willow is that she likes makeup…that’s it. It was a wee bit disappointing. And finally, the ending was just a bit…I hate to say it…rubbish. There were so many loose ends that we never got answers to, particularly regarding the storylines with Nozomi’s family, and I felt so let down. But I do want to say, particularly regarding that last point, but really for them all, that I did read an ARC copy and so these things may have changed in the final copy!That being said, this was a super quick contemporary read with wonderful representation and witty prose that I am so glad I read, and I hope that my personal gripes with the book haven’t turned you off from reading it too!Want more sapphic books? You can find me here: Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram

All of this felt so incredibly real, while being a very entertaining read at the same time. I'd expected this to be more of a romance story, but the actual romance didn't really get developed - not in a bad way, it was just not really the main focus. The focus was more on this messy, complicated web of exes and crushes between these sapphic girls. Because of this, I would actually really like a sequel to this where the romance gets more developed and we see Nozomi's growth continue even further, I think there would be a lot of potential for that.

I really enjoyed this and after finishing it, I just kept wondering why it has such low rating on GR. But, oh well! 🤷🏻‍♀️The story is about Nozomi and her trying to rediscover/remake herself as she goes to her uncle's place for the summer after she had a horrible experience with a girl who kissed her out of pity and went to talk shit about her to her friends. There she meets this beautiful, magical girl Willow and Nozomi falls heads over heels for her. But she discovers that Willow is heartbroken over her ex-girlfriend Arden, who broke up with her and is seeing Della, this snarky girl who works at the museum Nozomi is helping out at. But Willow wants Arden back and they decide to fake date and make Arden jealous so that she comes back to Willow. Except, Nozomi wishes that by fake dating her, Willow will see how amazing they are together and fall for her instead. But when pretense and lies start to pile up, they start catching up with Nozomi, along with her own feelings towards these girls, her family and their drama, and eventually her own self. "Loving someone the way they need to be loved, is hard. People can be really bad at it.", he says. "All we can do is, keep trying." The thing I enjoyed the most about this book was how it did not try to sugar coat situations. Things in Nozomi's life were difficult and bad, and she was struggling through a lot in the same time, but the author showed her dealing with those things and eventually resolving some things while not resolving others. And I feel that's what made this book realistic. This book talks about (view spoiler)[cheating parents (hide spoiler)], divorce, homophobia - and still trying to be there for those people causing this hurt and loving them because just a single thing does not define them.This book also majorly talks about love and explores its different kinds, and I just thought that was really beautiful and unique.

i really really liked this book. it was a cute fluffy sapphic contemporary romance. it was diverse as it should and focused around lgbtq+ people, but not in like a ‘coming out’ way. it was just a sapphic romance. i really recommend it.

*4.25 Stars*I was provided an ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.Nozomi is spending the summer in San Francisco and that couldn't be more perfect because she really wants to get out of town after the last party she went to was less than ideal. But, anyway, she's almost in San Fran and she's ready to have the summer romance she's always dreamt of. And she stumbles onto the most gorgeous girl ever on the first evening. She starts a conversation but the other girl doesn't all that interested. Imagine her surprise when Nozomi rans into that same girl some time later. Yup, Willow is working at the exact same place Nozomi is and she's just broken up with her girlfriend. Nozomi knows she shouldn't be happy about that but she can't help it. The two start a friendship and after seeing Willow's ex girlfriend, Arden, with her new girlfriend, Dela, who also works with them, they end up starting a fake relationship... Willow is hoping Arden will realize that she misses her while Nozomi is hoping Willow will fall for her.Not exactly the perfect relationship Nozomi had dreamt of but it'll have to do! It doesn't hurt that it's distracting her from the problems back home between her parents or her grandmother's declining heath...I really liked this one. It was a different approach to fake dating but I loved it all the same. I had a good time with that story despite it touching sensitive subjects that are pretty close to me right now.Anyway, I liked some of the characters a lot, some others a little less. Nozomi was very infuriating at times but I still related to her a lot.I liked how the book talked about racism, homophobia and dementia. It wasn't just a fluffy romance. (not that there's anything wrong about fluffy romances, I love them too.) It was all really well written and well brought on.I found the pacing to be just right. I really dove into the book and could barely stop reading.The setting was perfect and immersive, I felt like I was right back in San Francisco, seeing it all over again.I guess I just found it a little predictable at times, and some parts of the book put me off a little bit (bad choices ya know) but this was still a great read. I loved it. I really need to read the rest of Misa Sugiura's books.

Well, this certainly wasn't the queer fake dating book I was expecting. I have to say, fake dating is one of my favorite tropes, but I never realized that it needs specific conditions or it can become toxic. I did enjoy the book, just maybe not as much as I had hoped.------------------------------------Fake dating but queer? Sign me up!!

This book ended up being super cute! I will say, I didn't really like the MC, Nozomi, for...a lot of the book. I thought she was making really stupid decisions and also that her "feelings" toward Willow were not real. It did turn around for me towards the end, though I wish her realizations had been a little more gradual. I liked the way this ended up!Content WarningsModerate: Homophobia and Infidelity

4/5 stars

4*

I was basically guaranteed to like this because fake dating and queer Asian girl rep are pretty much my two favorite things, but I liked this even more than expected. Apparently the only thing I like more than the fake relationship trope is the subversion of the fake relationship trope.