Ruft die Lokalzeitungen an, tragt es in den Kalender ein - es ist endlich passiert: Ich habe ein Buch abgebrochen. (An dieser Stelle könnt ihr euch jetzt vorstellen, wie ich mir feierlich eine Medaille umhänge.) Die Idee war wirklich gut: Tressa Fay (ja, sie heißt wirklich so) erhält eine Nachricht von einer unbekannten Nummer. Zwischen den beiden ist direkt eine Anziehung und Tressa Fay (ommmmm, atmen) eilt los, um Meryl persönlich zu treffen – die Frau, die in einer Bar versetzt wurde, eine falsche Nummer bekommen hat und daraufhin zufällig in Tressa Fays (nervt beim dritten Mal noch mehr, oder?) Nachrichten gelandet ist. Beide befinden sich in derselben Bar, könne sich aber nicht finden. Denn während es für Meryl der erste Mai ist, ist es für Tressa Fay (na, zuckt euer Auge auch schon?) schon Oktober – und Meryl ist seit September spurlos verschwunden. Davon abgesehen, dass mir die Personen völlig unsympathisch und egal waren - was ist das bitte für ein Name? Sorry an dieser Stelle an alle Tressa Fays auf der Welt. Sie bekommt keine Spitznamen, keine Kurzform, nein … jeder nennt sie Tressa Fay. Beide Namen. Jedes verdammte Mal. Ich hab es wirklich versucht, aber nachdem der Name acht (!!!) mal allein auf einer Seite vorkam, war ich raus. Das Buch hätte man besser mal aus der Ich-Perspektive geschrieben. Der einzige positive Punkt: Das Cover ist so wunderschön, schade, dass es nicht in meinem Bücherregal stehen wird.

The premise of “Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon” is quite interesting: after meeting because of a misdirected text message, Meryl and Tressa Fay fall in love. The problem: they live in different timelines; they are five months apart. While Meryl is living in May, for Tressa Fay it’s already October. Also, Meryl will disappear in September. So, with the help of friends and family the two women try to figure out how they are connected and how to save Meryl. Sounds intriguing, right?! Unfortunately, “Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon” and me didn’t hit it off completely. At the beginning I was totally invested, even when the friends group discussed the possibility and workings of multiverses and my brain stopped braining at some point. I decided to just accept it and went with it 😉 But after that the story began to drag. Meryl and Tressa Fay are meeting up in May (so, Meryl’s timeline) and start dating. That way they try to change the future and prevent Meryl from disappearing. So, at this point the story became a mere love story with some side mentions/discussions about multiverses. Which would have been more enjoyable if I would have liked the couple. But somehow, I didn’t click with Meryl and Tressa Fay or their romance. It was too insta-lovey, too corny. I just didn’t feel it. Yes, there were a few quite cute scenes but I didn’t care about them, to be honest. Another problem I had with “Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon” was the writing style. It felt quite repetitive and I got so annoyed by the use of the name “Tressa Fay”. Firstly, every time the whole name was used, no nicknames, no short version, always “Tressa Fay”; and secondly, the name was repeated waaay too often, there was no variety, it was always “Tressa Fay”. It got tiring. Also, there were a few chapters from the POV of friends and families of the two protagonists and they did nothing for the story. I think, they were supposed to give these other characters more depth but the chapters were only a few pages long, so they didn’t really work for me. What I have to highlight is the diversity of the book. All of Tressa Fay’s friends are queer, they have different genders, sexualities and there is even poly representation. So, big thumbs up for that. Also, I was quite surprised by the use of toys during the last spicy scene. I haven’t read this in a book before, so another bonus point for that – but I am not a very experienced spice reader yet so I can’t say if it’s really that innovative. So, yeah, I didn’t really enjoy “Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon”. After an intriguing start, I lost interest quite quickly. I think if I wouldn’t have read it for a book club, I would have dnf’ed it somewhere around the 50% mark.