Can We Skip to the Good Part

By: Melissa Brayden

Narrated by: Quinn Riley

A hilarious, witty, and warm sapphic rom-com about a woman whose life implodes when she loses her job and fiancée in the same week, and decides to join a book club to change things up. But when she finds herself falling for one of the club members, and that person is her best friend’s ex, her troubles have only just begun.

Ella Baker is tired of being an afterthought in her own life. First, her fiancée dumps her six days before the wedding. Then her family jets off on a world tour—without her. And just when she thinks it can’t get worse, her longtime employer forgets to lay her off...That is, until now. It’s time for a reinvention, starting with something totally out of character: joining a book club. Thank God for her best friend, Rachel, who’s always there with popcorn and wine. But when a kiss from a smart, gorgeous, and maddeningly irresistible book club member leaves Ella breathless, she’s stunned to learn the woman who just turned her world upside down is the very ex who broke Rachel’s heart.

Max Wyler doesn’t believe in forever. As a divorce mediator, she’s built a career on helping people walk away amicably. The book club is just an escape—until new member Ella Baker arrives, all sunshine and sass, making Max question everything she thought she knew about love. There’s just one problem: Ella’s best friend is Max’s worst mistake. Which means those pretty blue eyes? Completely off-limits.

Or at least, they should be.

The passion and the romance

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was real, the tension and romance between the main characters was so intense. Everything beautifully came together in the end.

Lots of great interactions

This book came to life because of the narration of Quinn Riley.

I so enjoyed going along this journey of these two women who had this magnetic pole that couldn’t keep them apart, regardless of what girl code might dictate. Until they got caught, it was fun to sneak around with them.

Each main character had certain things that they needed to overcome to truly come together as an intact couple with less baggage.

The epilogue brought the whole book to a wonderful ending and wrapped it up nicely like a good package. Highly recommend it.

There are always two sides to a telling.

I really enjoyed this story. Although I don't nessacerly believe in Girl Code.

One should never take sides and dislike someone just because they've only heard one side of the story. I've always been the type when I'm told something derogatory about a person or just gossip, to always find out the truth.

As for mature content it is very rare that I give more than 3 chilies, but I give this book a 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🔥 The reason for this is because of the way it was written, it was more realistic. The narrator did a really good job of making it even more believable. Most books with mature content rushed through with hard, quick and not always realistic acts. This book IMO did a perfect job of love making and/or fucking. I found it Hot!

Love this book

There is no question, when you have a great book, with a well written story, and excellent MC and you add to it a wonderful narration the final product is a great wow. Loved the drama, the relationships, the book club.

Tell the story, not the details

I enjoyed this book, despite some outbursts that my wife had to deal with while I was listening. And what I’m about to say. But this “too much detail” thing is turning into a habit in this genre and we need these authors to pull back.

There is a ton of fluff, which some people are into and that’s cool, but it was too much for me. Side stories give characters depth but there was a little too much on the side. Again, some people like that but it’s not for me. The author even directly acknowledged that when she was getting too meta with the book club. Wayyyyy too meta and definitely pandering to romance lovers (and I guess Swifties because we can’t read a book in the 2020s that doesn’t pander to Swifties… I’m a Swiftie, but please get off it.)

Everything was over explained. Each action was followed by a detailed description of the feelings associated with that action. And vice versa. You don’t need both if you do it right. A lot of the subtext was said out loud, as if the author doesn’t trust the reading comprehension levels of her readers.

Tell the story, not the details. Too much detail turns into not enough detail because the consistency of the detail is off.

The callback to a previous book was forced and honestly didn’t even make sense. There is quite literally no one that one needs to know if they want to make it in the world of corporate retail because corporate retail is so vague it’s actually laughable. Again — too much detail turns into not enough detail when you’re talking about an industry that employs quite literally 1/4th of the working population of the US, probably half of whom are in “corporate” roles. And it’s distracting when it’s so grossly incorrect that it takes people like me out of the sorry entirely while we try to figure out what the author is trying to get at. And it turns out it’s just a forced callback. What a waste of my precious listening time.

Some of the forced pop culture phrases feel sooooo disingenuous coming from these characters. My goodness.

The book is good, it was just frustrating and a lot of the content felt forced. You can write a relatable book without being this extra about it.

I’d say the author must have spent time ad a Buyer in retail, that’s how extra she is, but the lack of understanding of “corporate retail” makes me think she’s just got the personality of a Buyer — pick me.