Passion Project by London Sperry
If your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, Bennet Taylor is failing miserably . . . with a big emphasis on the miserable. Where’s that zest she keeps hearing about? She’s a temp worker in New York City with no direction, no future, and no social life. And at the painful center of this listlessness is grief over the death of her first love.
When Bennet runs into Henry Adams just hours after standing him up for a first date, she makes an alcohol-fueled confession: She’s not ready to date. In fact, it’s been years since she felt passion for something. Not even pottery, or organized sports—not anything. Rather than leaving her to ruminate, Henry jumps at the opportunity for adventure: Bennet needs to find a passion for life, and Henry will help her find it. Every Saturday, they’ll try something new in New York City. As friends, of course.
As their “passion project” continues, the pair tackle everything from carpentry to tattooing to rappelling off skyscrapers, and Bennet feels her guarded exterior ebbing away. But as secrets surface, Bennet has to decide what she wants, and if she’s truly ready to move on. With emotional resonance and sparkling banter, Passion Project is a fun, flirty, thoughtful story of finding a spark—and igniting happiness.
Review: This story follows Bennett, who is grieving the loss of her first love and feeling adrift in New York City. When she can't follow through with plans friends made to set her up on a date, her intended date, Henry Adams, surprises her by offering to hang out as friends and try to help her find her passion in life. Every Saturday, they try something new in the city, just as friends.
This was a fun friends-to-lovers concept. But the crux of the story was also its bane to me - Bennett is grieving so deeply that she stands in the way of her own happiness. Everyone grieves differently and imperfectly so who am I to judge!! Yet I deeply disliked how this played out in the relationship between Bennett and Henry. It was unclear to me why he was so unfailingly kind to her despite how she treats him.
Ultimately, I just did not care for Bennett. She is unrelentingly negative and sad. She is allowed to feel her feelings! But these are mine. I also found Henry deeply unrealistic. I just didn't buy that this single guy would sacrifice all his Saturdays to platonically hang out with this shattered, wounded girl and really intend to be just friends. I don't know! Just felt hard to believe. The whole 'passion project' fell flat for me and I just did not find it particularly engaging, despite giving the two main characters lots of time to bond.
While the love story did not work especially well for me, I do like a lot of the side plots in this book. Bennett has an extremely complicated relationship and feelings towards her last boyfriend's family. This is complicated by the fact that she was good friends with his sister before they started dating. This all felt so realistic and real to me as we watch Bennett try to navigate a new relationship in the wake of a big loss. I also really like that her roommate is a childhood best friend. But unlike in most books where they've happily been best friends forever, these two drifted apart during college. There was no big falling out, just time and distance came between them, and now they are awkwardly renegotiating after agreeing to live together out of convenience.
I listened to the audiobook of this one and it was beautifully done! The narrator put so much heart and emotion into her narration.
Stars: 3
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