Book Review: Field Notes on Love

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: Romance

So cute, so cute, so absolutely cute! I honestly just chose this one at random and had no idea what I was going into but this one was such a gem!

Continue reading for more details.

Synopsis:

Having just been dumped by his girlfriend, British-born Hugo is still determined to take his last-hurrah-before-college train trip across the United States. One snag: the companion ticket is already booked under the name of his ex, Margaret Campbell. Nontransferable, no exceptions.

Enter the new Margaret C. (Mae for short), an aspiring filmmaker with big dreams. After finding Hugo's spare ticket offer online, she's convinced it's the perfect opportunity to expand her horizons.

When the two meet, the attraction is undeniable, and both find more than they bargained for. As Mae pushes Hugo to explore his dreams for his future, he'll encourage her to channel a new, vulnerable side of her art. But when life off the train threatens the bubble they've created for themselves, will they manage to keep their love on track?

Review:

Mae’s passion for filming is so admirable. She knows what she loves, and she wants to do what she loves and she’s so determined, that nothing can stop her. She does doubt herself when her film (basically) gets rejected, because of course, rejection feels awful. Though she bounces and I love that about her. She may be sensitive regarding her film, but her circumstances cause her to grow and do the thing she wasn’t able to do in the beginning of her story.

Hugo (who has a British accent!) is not just an ordinary person with five other siblings. He’s a sextuplet! Hugo and his siblings have been doing everything together since they were born, they’re also going to go to the same college where all six of them need to attend for the scholarship. He really doesn’t know what he wants and doesn’t feel like he has much of a choice, but this train ride and meeting Mae allows Hugo to realize what he wants and do what his heart says.

Mae and Hugo were everything! I loved them so much! Sure, finding another person actually named Margaret Campbell who was supposedly the same age and agreed to come on a train ride with a stranger is very unrealistic, but they felt so right for each other. Their moments together were simple, but meaningful. And there’s just something about how they were strangers and watching the process of them slowly getting to know each other and slowly falling for each other through their conversations and time together was so beautiful. The simplicity of it all just really made it feel so real, so charming.

“Love is... I don't know. Something bigger than that. It's like the sun."

"In that you can get burnt by it?"

"No," she says wearily, but already her eyes have that starry quality they get whenever she's thinking of Alex. "In that it makes everything brighter and happier. And it warms you from the inside out.”

The plot is carried by the characters, their interactions, their struggles, their successes, etc. So if you don't really care about the characters then you may find this a bit of a struggle to get through but these characters are very easy to like (especially if you listen to the audiobook version)

“Most things are easier than you think,” she says. “It’s deciding to do them that’s hard.”

Overall,

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