My Oxford Year: A Novel

Big fan of Whelan as a narrator, so was pleasantly surprised to see that she wrote too!! I expected this book to follow the traditional story arc of most romance novels (enemies to lovers that spend most of their time in a sexually tense quarrel that eventually leads them together for the first time, with everything going well until it isnt (typically around the 1-2 hours out from end mark) only to come back together again with some tearful declarations of “I love you”) so I wasn’t expecting when the plot and pace took other turns! One thing I liked about this book was the expansion of characters outside of our two romantic leads. Maggie, Tom, and Charlie reminded me a bit of Bridget Jones’ friends in BJD. But unfortunately, like most romance novels, the friends feel more like caricatures than real people. Particularly Charlie, who has the somewhat dreadful typecast as the upperclass gay who’s sole main plot line outside of support to the MC is chasing down a presumably straight boy in hopes of turning him gay (belgh!)

As for the plot, I’m still unsure of how I feel about the whole cancer plot line. I feel like the book morphed into something totally different than it started with. Though there was repeated emphasis that Jamie did not expect or want Ella to stay simply because of his diagnosis, cancer plotlines themselves can feel emotionally manipulative! Like I feel like there could be other reasons to have kept Ella in Oxford with Jamie outside of her having fallen in love with someone who was bound with an explicit timer on their existence. Like I almost wish it went the “miracle cure” route so we could see Ella choosing her new life in the UK out of true, unemotionally guilt-trippy want.

Also, not that MC’s have to be perfect, but Ella was sometimes really rude and annoying. Thankfully it wasn’t to a point where I couldn’t finish the book, but it’s shocking how the way she treated people had little consequence. In particularly Connor who was introduced and then disappeared for a great chunk of the book until Ella and him reunite over horrible Thanksgiving outing. Like it’s genuinely shocking when he texts her at the end even if its just a congratulations, if I were him I would have blocked her number immediately after the return from London LOL. Also, I just felt like it could have literally been anyone else other than Connor to have texted her the congratulations like why bring his name up again.

Also Ella’s mom?? Why bother including her. I don’t think Ella needed to reconcile anything with her mother as we know parental relationships can be #tricky buuut why include those texts and calls if they weren’t going to build to some other sort of breakthrough. I think it would have been enough to have simply mentioned the relationship between mother and daughter wasn’t great and left it at that.

Originally I rated this 4 stars but as I’ve continued to think critically I think this is a 3. BUT also if you stop thinking critically and just enjoy it, it’s still an enjoyable book!!! So i would recommend

Great easy read