I read another one of TJR's books within the Evelyn Hugo "universe" and it also has a queer character. I may be wrong, but I don't think the author is queer. Perhaps that's why the romances feel inauthentic to me. I'm a cishet woman btw, so by no means do I feel like I'm an expert on queer relationships. Nor do I feel like only queer authors can write stories with an LGBTQ character. I think I just feel like the best relationships in stories are drawn from real experience and the author didn't have that experience to draw on.

Same, I thought it was an enjoyable read, just not what it was hyped up to be. And agreed on your point on their romance.

My friend loves audiobooks so I decided to give them a try. Evelyn Hugo was my first one and I texted her like "are they all like this?!" She said no, that one's just bad. So I'm not alone in disliking the narration I guess!

Also was underwhelmed by it and I always feel in the minority. However, I listened to the audio book and hated the narration so I do feel like that tarnished the experience for me. Even so, I just didn't feel like the characters made that much of an impact on me.