Practice Makes Perfect

“I plan on asking to be transferred to a different client after the month is up. Not because I don’t like working for Amelia—I always have—but I won’t stay put in this town for a minute longer than necessary. Boredom does not suit me.”

Will’s false belief is that he loathes boredom because he craves adventure. What he doesn’t yet realize, or the truth he expertly avoids, is that “boredom” is synonymous with moments of introspection where he must consider the life he’s leading and face the areas of discontent that he shoves deep down.

“I absolutely can’t get involved with her. Not only because she’s Amelia’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, but because Annie represents everything I avoid. Commitment. Relationship. Longevity.”

The Impact of Childhood Experiences on Will’s life is significant. The childhood trauma he experienced with his parents’ toxic relationship has trained him to avoid commitment, relationships, and longevity at all costs. For him, these traits breed fighting, misery, and unhappiness because that’s all he’s ever known.

“But as I look at Annie’s flushed face and sparkling eyes, her words still don’t sit right. She shouldn’t have to change herself.”

Will subverts the popular rom-com trope of female transformation via makeover, fake dating, or coaching by believing in the potential of Annie’s innate personality. He adamantly refuses to be the person who changes Annie into an unrecognizable image of herself.

“I adore my sisters, but in addition to the way they often treat me like a child, they tend to be overly opinionated when it comes to my life—and this is one situation I’d like to navigate on my own without their input, suggestions, or teasing. I can see it now: Emily would create a long list of all the reasons this plan isn’t going to work, and Maddie would make crude jokes about the Bad Boy tutoring the Good Girl, and I just…ugh. I’m tired of it. I’m so tired of that narrative looping around me day in and day out. I’m tired of everyone so neatly placing me in a box and tying a silk ribbon around it and then telling me to sit and stay.”

This passage illustrates the immense impact siblings can have on each other’s perception of themselves. Even sibling teasing, like the good-natured kind Emily and Maddie display with Annie, can be harmful for Confidence and Individuality. This is especially pertinent when certain aspects of Annie’s character are repeatedly joked about and other aspects of her character are overlooked. This places Annie in a tiny box she can’t break out of, limiting her individuality significantly.

“I can hear Emily now—initiating twenty questions until she knows every detail of what I’m planning and suggesting a better way to go about it until I end up caving and doing things her way so that I don’t hurt her feelings. And Maddie will demand to take over as my tutor, and somehow I’ll fall right into the shadows as I always do when my siblings are around.”

Annie struggles to escape from the shadow her sisters cast over her life. Though they don’t mean harm, Emily’s assertive nature dominates the passivity of Annie and Maddie’s desire to give advice tramples Annie’s confidence in approaching things her own way.

“It seems to me, Annie, that you are just waiting for someone to give you permission to be yourself out loud.”

The Passivity of Excessive Kindness is exemplified in this passage. Will perfectly understands how Annie wishes to break free of her reputation and boldly display all aspects of herself yet is hindered by her people-pleasing nature. She’s kept from actively pursuing her desires because of the fear she has of disappointing or upsetting others.

“I watch silently as Amelia bounces around the empty field—joy bursting from her like sunlight as she describes her wedding. What’s it like to feel that unbridled excitement toward sharing your life with someone else? To be full of hope and anticipation rather than dread and cynicism. I envy her.”

Though Will adamantly claims he does not want a long-term relationship and is happy as he is, he invites Amelia’s relationship with Noah. Deep down, he wants to feel excited to share his life with someone else, but the learned cynicism through witnessing the horrible relationship between his parents has diminished his hope in achieving something like that for himself.

“I’m always praised for being so nice and kind and tender. I’m the girl next door with the sweet face. I’m never viewed as a woman, Will. Instead, I’m just the one men butter up so that I’ll introduce them to Emily and Madison.”

Annie is slowly building Confidence and Individuality, but there’s a long way to go in terms of her character arc. She still believes Emily and Madison overshadow her, rather than seeing them as equals. She doesn’t believe when Will shows her affection or views her as a woman rather than the “girl next door.”

“Annie sighs a moan and parts her lips and that’s when I drop my hands under her thighs and hoist her up. She wraps her legs around my waist and our kiss quickly turns from chaste to devouring.”

Annie’s transformation is not into something she’s not, but rather the acceptance of who she is. This gradual acceptance is exemplified in this passage when her “chaste” kiss with Will becomes “devouring.” The switch in word choice illustrates Annie’s increasing willingness to lean into her desire for exciting, adventurous passion like the heroines in her steamy pirate romance novels.

“Normally, I would need time to think about it. Weigh the pros and cons and get my siblings’ input first and then eventually get talked out of it, completely. But I’m now committed to this experiment of trying to find myself by following my impulses.”

Annie’s passivity decreases the more her relationship with Will deepens. She admits feeling overly concerned with the opinions of others, including her sisters, in the past but now follows her own desires on instinct without allowing the possibility of others persuading her otherwise.

“[S]omething about being with Annie makes me want to be cautious for once. I have the distinct feeling of holding something precious and not wanting to let it drop. I feel protective. Possessive even.”

The reason Will makes impulsive choices and never slows down to consider the consequences is because he’s hasn’t had anything of value in his life before now. With Annie becoming more and more important to him, Will’s forced to consider her stake in his actions and genuinely cares about the fallout.

“I imagine he touches and feels his way through life, whereas I usually keep my hands right where they are now—safely tucked behind me, alone in the corner of the room.”

The Passivity of Excessive Niceness is highlighted in the differences between Will’s and Annie’s characters. Though Will is charming and respectful to others, he is perceived as a bad boy because of his career and his fast-paced dating life. His confidence and active rather than passive behavior are illustrated in his tactile habits. He brushes his hands over everything he passes, and during his first trip to Annie’s room, he picks up and observes her belongings. In contrast, Annie keeps her hands to herself, a decision symbolic of the ways in which she remains passive to avoid accidentally crossing the boundaries of others.

“I’ve always been made to feel like my virginity was silly—not that my siblings have ever said that in so many words, but they’ve said it in the little jabs about how angelic I am. How I’m the only one of us who will likely make it through the pearly gates. Like somehow my need to wait was just me trying to prove I was sweeter and holier than everyone else because I don’t succumb to desires and needs like everyone else.”

The religious element to Emily and Madison’s purity jokes about Annie highlights the pressure Annie feels to remain inside their expectations. By relating her retained innocence to making her worthy of entering heaven, the teasing adds another layer to the guilt and shame Annie might feel upon defying these expectations.

“I learned it from an early age: flirtatious people are widely loved, and I’ve been in the business of getting love from anyone and everyone I can since the day I went to school and told Teressa Howard she looked pretty in her Lisa Frank shirt, and she hugged me. It had been weeks since I’d had a hug, and I still remember it feeling so damn good.”

Will didn’t get any affection from his own parents growing up and therefore greatly values the affection of others, whether it’s genuine or not. Mabel’s hug greatly impacts him at the end of the novel, and his casual flings with women give him temporary hits of the craving he’s sustained since childhood.

“Maddie and Emily share a look. One of the looks that always makes me feel so mad to be excluded from. The one that I can never understand the meaning of, but they seem to comprehend perfectly. How is it possible to share DNA with someone and still feel so ‘other’ from them—and yet still love them with my whole heart? It’s too messy.”

Through being a comforter but never a contributor to sibling discussions about deeper topics, Annie has isolated herself from her siblings. She feels closer to her sister-in-law, Amelia, than she does to any of her sisters because she’s been afraid of letting them see the real her, which conflicts with the image they’ve painted of her themselves. This isolation from her own family is detrimental to her happiness and a top contributor to the void Annie feels in her life.

“I can’t decide who makes me feel more upset right now. My sisters for once again telling me who I am and what I want—or me for smiling and nodding while they do. I love my sisters so much—which is why it hurts to not feel seen by them at all. I just want to be their friend and not their baby sister all the time. I want to be valued and taken seriously. But how do I do that without opening an entire can of slimy, messy worms? Or potentially hurting them when I tell them they’ve been inadvertently hurting me for years? I don’t want to seem whiny or fragile.”

Annie is becoming more exasperated with her own passivity, “smiling and nodding” while letting her sisters tell her exactly who she is and what she should do. Over the course of the novel, Annie’s reactions to their judgments and teasing comments grow more intense. With each instance, tension increases, and her rising indignation hints at a breaking point to come.

“After basically raising myself as well as my brother, when I left home and found some freedom, I decided I was done living for other people. I was going to be selfish for a while and enjoy the hell out of it. No relationships. No one to put huge expectations on me, and I can never be let down by someone if I never let them in in the first place. This job has given me the perfect excuse to stay busy and happy.”

At this point in the novel, Will has yet to achieve his moment of true understanding and is thus only half correct. While he hasn’t obtained lasting happiness, he has succeeded in living for himself rather than others, a lesson Annie must learn as well.

“But I would never in my wildest dreams want to try to change Will, and he doesn’t want to try to change me. Neither one of us wants to ask the other to sacrifice anything. So our only options are to move on.”

This foreshadows the conclusion to the novel. Will eventually proposes to Annie, which is denied, subverting the expectations of a romantic happily ever after. She does so because of the thought processes evoked in this passage. Just as Will doesn’t intend to change Annie through his date coaching, Annie doesn’t intend to change his opinions on marriage. These changes must be done by the free will of an individual, not because it’s what they believe others expect of them.

“One Month Ago Annie would be jumping for joy. Current Annie is deflating—especially as I realize I’m not sure what I really want anymore. Who I was and who I am becoming are meeting at an intersection and deciding who should proceed. All I know is, for Brandon getting so many check marks on my Perfect Soulmate List, I don’t feel any physical reactions while sitting beside him.”

This passage explicitly states the changes Annie is experiencing, both in personality and in terms of what she desires out of life. These changes are prompting her to face the false beliefs she’s held onto and recognize that they’re entirely wrong.

“I’m immediately angry. It’s not a gentle movement on the meter from green to yellow to red. It’s calm to livid in one second flat. At first, I try to swallow my feelings so I don’t upset anyone, but then I hear Mabel’s voice in my head: Tell your sisters the truth.”

This passage illustrates Annie’s character growth throughout the novel. The Passivity of Excessive Kindness has kept her silent around her sisters her entire life, but by embracing more about herself lately, Annie takes active control of her life and confronts them about the ways their teasing negatively impacts her.

“What I realized is that I have been boring. I’ve been hiding so much of myself all this time to fit into the mold I accidentally made as a kid. I never really thought I was affected by the deaths of Mom and Dad like you guys were, but it turns out that my perfectionism has been one big coping mechanism. I never wanted to rock the boat or add more hurt or stress to anyone’s lives, so I became this always-sunny version of myself, which…is killing me.”

Annie fully embraces her Confidence and Individuality in the novel’s closing chapters. Instead of blaming others for her inability to escape her good-girl mold, Annie takes responsibility for making it as a child and passively remaining inside it due to fear. Through embracing another fear by admitting her struggles to her siblings, Annie receives the support system she’s never allowed herself to have.

“The three of us continue to stare at the powder-pink, floor-length dress and marvel. I don’t think I’ve ever worn anything so fancy. I bought it when I was in the throes of proving that I could be Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, and I chose the dress because it was the same shade of pink as the overlay she wears during her big runway reveal. The reveal where she completely dazzles the crowd. But now I don’t feel like I have anything to prove to myself, so I consider putting on my overalls instead.”

Annie’s dress choice for Amelia’s wedding is symbolic of her internal transformation, which resembles the outward transformation Jo evidences in Funny Face. This callback to Annie’s favorite Audrey Hepburn film is central to the series, as each installment uses a different Audrey Hepburn movie to foreshadow what’s to come for the love interest.

“[I]f someone were to call me Sweet Annie tonight, I wouldn’t even be offended. Because it’s only an insult if I accept it as one. And thanks to Will, I will now forever and for always smile when I hear that particular adjective.”

Annie spends her whole adult life believing that it’s others’ perception of her that’s causing much of her unhappiness. In reality, it has always been Annie’s lack of confidence in and acceptance of herself that has hindered her happiness. Recognizing and believing in Will’s affection for Annie allows her to further see past her personal insecurities and feel empowered in her individuality.