Review: Good Vibes

Good Vibes by Cara Malone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

Finished on March 9, 2021

Favorite Scene/Quote: SexyCon I and II




I love this book. It’s sweet and feel-good with relatable characters and an interesting storyline.
    
Theo is agoraphobic and suffers from extreme anxiety, especially when she’s out of her comfort zone. Libby is the owner of an adult shop and is very free-spirited and open. The two meet when Theo is dragged to Libby’s store to check out bachelorette items for her sister’s bachelorette party. There is an instant attraction of sorts between the two, but Theo insists that she doesn’t date. However, that idea changes when the two continue to grow closer and get to know each other more and more.

I really like both characters. Theo is closer in reality to who I am while Libby tends to be who I’d like to be on my good days. I don’t know much about agoraphobia so I won’t claim that the author accurately represented it, but I will say that I enjoyed how she explained and demonstrated Theo having agoraphobia. Probably my only issue with this book is around Theo’s agoraphobia. More specifically that after going to Las Vegas and Libby telling her to pretend to be Libby that she thinks she’s cured. It honestly didn’t bother me too much and I was willing to overlook it because it seemed a bit more like Theo hoping she was cured rather than the author making her be cured.

Both characters’ have their flaws, and those flaws are acknowledged throughout the book. I read some reviews that said the characters didn’t make sense for being in the mid-30s and made more sense in their 20s and I don’t see that. Sure, Libby doesn’t really understand how to completely run her store by herself. Her mom helped her by bailing her out and covering some of her expenses, but she’s also only had the store for, I believe, two or three years. It makes sense that she wouldn’t know everything about the business side of things, especially since she had her mother helping her along. 

Another review talked about Theo’s agoraphobia and game collecting. Why doesn’t that make sense for someone in their 30s? Is there an age limit on collecting or an age limit on anxiety disorders? 

Another reviewer mentioned hypersexuality being normalized. While I do think there are issues in the current world with that situation and that there may have been a couple of problematic times in the books, I can’t think of anyone, but I’ll acknowledge that they might exist, the review just didn’t make sense. At no point did the author make fun of ace or demi people, the review claims that the author just ignored them. One of the characters owns an adult toy shop, it’s reasonable to assume that there is going to be a few things surrounding sex being mentioned and that there might not be mention of ace and demi people. They aren't likely to make up the majority of the people shopping at her store nor are they likely to appear at SexyCon or one of the workshops mentioned. This book does have normalized sexuality, but I wouldn't call it hypersexualized per say. Both characters are sexually active with each other and they both enjoy trying things with each other.

I also really like that there was no outside causes of angst. Any angst was caused by problems and insecurities that the characters had, not other people on the outside pulling their strings. That’s the drama I prefer, and it was handled quite well in this book. It was also nice to see Theo grow because of some of these situations and eventually confront herself about the problems she had been causing in her own life.

This is a cute HEA story if you just want a nice book to read with compelling characters.