Have you ever wondered what would happen when you force together a grumpy historian and an optimistic paleontologist? Yeah, me either, but that’s exactly what you can expect when you read Curated by Nellie Wilson.
Anxiety-ridden historian Emmy Bonaire always expects the worst possible outcome to happen and works hard to avoid it at all costs. She makes plans upon plans, but her plans go up in flames when her history museum has to merge with the science museum across campus. Now she has to work alongside charming paleontologist Ryan Andersson as they find a happy medium between their two disciplines.
I never knew I needed a museum love story, but this museum love story wormed its way into my heart. Both of our main characters are incredible nerds when it comes to their areas of study. Emmy’s fierce passion for her work is the perfect foil to Ryan’s ability to go with the flow wherever that may take him. I love a good grumpy-sunshine romance and this one was probably the grumpiest and most sunshine-y one I’ve read.
The depiction of Emmy’s anxiety cut deep into my soul. While I have never been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (like Emmy), I do still live with a lot of anxiety in my life and it was incredibly refreshing to be able to see it portrayed so accurately on the page. Nellie does not shy away from showing any of the things that come alongside having a mental disorder like anxiety and I think we need to see more of that in the media we consume so that we can be more empathetic to the people around us. I think it was also really important to show how Ryan cared for Emmy through it all as well. What a sweet baby angel!
While I did fall in love with both these characters by the end of the book, Emmy is a little hard to like at the beginning because she is just SO GRUMPY for what felt (to me) like no reason at all (even though it's clear that she did have her reasons and they made sense to her). But as Ryan starts to wear her down, we still see grumpy Emmy, but through his eyes and that helps to dull the edge.
And, just like with my last review, this book had special cameos and Easter eggs from Nellie’s previous book, Need S’More Time, and you know I love me some cameos and Easter eggs!
Curated is available to read for free now with Kindle Unlimited and officially releases into the world January 31, 2023. You can get a copy of your very own here.
Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from the author for free and have voluntarily written this review. If you purchase a copy using my Amazon affiliate link above, I will receive a small commission which will fuel my coffee and tea addiction and help to keep me up all night reading more books to recommend to you.
