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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
I think my enjoyment of Hazelwood's books has run its course. She just writes the same thing in every single story. It was a little fun at first but it's getting boring and repetitive now. I didn't even fully finish this. I read the first two novellas but couldn't make it through the third. That said, I'll talk about the ones I finished.
Under One Roof
"And they were roommates" is a classic set-up. The issue here is that Liam immediately doesn't like Mara and tries to buy her out. When she refuses, he resorts to being passive aggressive. And there is never an explanation as to why. Speaking as someone who is currently searching for a place to live, it's not that easy to do even if you have the money for it. So why is Liam so against Mara staying until she can find a place of her own?
The two of them are almost impressively bad at communicating with each other. Mara apparently doesn't clean up after herself and Liam takes her creamer without asking. It doesn't get much better once the sex finally happens. First of all, it comes completely out of nowhere. Liam overhears Mara talking to her friends about wanting him to bend her over, and he decides to do it without even discussing the matter first. He then tells her he's not sure he likes sex, and she pretty much ignores that and rides his cock.
One thing I personally found amusing was that Mara loves Cheese-its and buys family-sized boxes, and I had just bought a family-sized box of Cheese-its before reading this. That was the sole point in the story's favor, and it was really more of a coincidence.
Stuck With You
"Stuck in an elevator" is another classic set-up. But I think this one was handled even worse than the roommate trope. Sadie and Erik hooked up once, and she broke it off because she thought he used her to poach clients. But did she ever confront him about this suspicion? Nope. Even weirder, she doesn't specify what he did--even though it's first-person narrative and there's no reason for her to hide it. When they finally do talk about it, he thinks it's because she didn't like the sex or it bordered on sexual assault or something. Which would have been fine if he didn't also reveal he'd been jacking off to her bra all this time. Real classy, guy.
As for poaching clients, Erik reveals he did share her pitch idea and some of her work with his team. He just was stupid enough to not realize his team would then use that pitch to poach the client. And Sadie just forgives him for that, because she could not live without his big dick I guess.
I'm just tired of Hazelwood using the same cliches in every single one of her stories. The female lead is always poor/in debt and small; the guy is always rich and gigantic. There's always some misunderstanding or some reason why the female hates the lead, and sometimes those reasons are incredibly contrived and easily fixed by a conversation. The sex is always the most amazing sex ever, and condoms aren't used for some reason. There's even discussion about it but in one of the stories the girl is like "no I'm on the pill, it's fine." As if you don't need condoms for other reasons, or that the pill is a 100% guarantee against pregnancy.
Not sure I'll ever read her books again, but Hazelwood was fun for a while.
Under One Roof
"And they were roommates" is a classic set-up. The issue here is that Liam immediately doesn't like Mara and tries to buy her out. When she refuses, he resorts to being passive aggressive. And there is never an explanation as to why. Speaking as someone who is currently searching for a place to live, it's not that easy to do even if you have the money for it. So why is Liam so against Mara staying until she can find a place of her own?
The two of them are almost impressively bad at communicating with each other. Mara apparently doesn't clean up after herself and Liam takes her creamer without asking. It doesn't get much better once the sex finally happens. First of all, it comes completely out of nowhere. Liam overhears Mara talking to her friends about wanting him to bend her over, and he decides to do it without even discussing the matter first. He then tells her he's not sure he likes sex, and she pretty much ignores that and rides his cock.
One thing I personally found amusing was that Mara loves Cheese-its and buys family-sized boxes, and I had just bought a family-sized box of Cheese-its before reading this. That was the sole point in the story's favor, and it was really more of a coincidence.
Stuck With You
"Stuck in an elevator" is another classic set-up. But I think this one was handled even worse than the roommate trope. Sadie and Erik hooked up once, and she broke it off because she thought he used her to poach clients. But did she ever confront him about this suspicion? Nope. Even weirder, she doesn't specify what he did--even though it's first-person narrative and there's no reason for her to hide it. When they finally do talk about it, he thinks it's because she didn't like the sex or it bordered on sexual assault or something. Which would have been fine if he didn't also reveal he'd been jacking off to her bra all this time. Real classy, guy.
As for poaching clients, Erik reveals he did share her pitch idea and some of her work with his team. He just was stupid enough to not realize his team would then use that pitch to poach the client. And Sadie just forgives him for that, because she could not live without his big dick I guess.
I'm just tired of Hazelwood using the same cliches in every single one of her stories. The female lead is always poor/in debt and small; the guy is always rich and gigantic. There's always some misunderstanding or some reason why the female hates the lead, and sometimes those reasons are incredibly contrived and easily fixed by a conversation. The sex is always the most amazing sex ever, and condoms aren't used for some reason. There's even discussion about it but in one of the stories the girl is like "no I'm on the pill, it's fine." As if you don't need condoms for other reasons, or that the pill is a 100% guarantee against pregnancy.
Not sure I'll ever read her books again, but Hazelwood was fun for a while.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ali Hazelwood can do NO WRONG — loved all three of these novellas. I was munching on them like the wonderful and addicting potato chips they are
My conclusion from the three novellas:
Not anyone can handle being with strong, confident and smart women, which makes them feel unlovable and undateable. They therefore start putting their studies/careers before their love lives, further feeding the narrative. To those people, who make smart successful women feel that way - fuck you.
Smart women don't settle, they don't diminish their achievements to make you feel better about yourself, they don't hide their intelligence to make you feel smart. Instead, smart women wait for men who have enough of their own intelligence and confidence to appreciate this about them, to love them for their strength. Thank you Ali for highlighting such stories. God's work.
Not anyone can handle being with strong, confident and smart women, which makes them feel unlovable and undateable. They therefore start putting their studies/careers before their love lives, further feeding the narrative. To those people, who make smart successful women feel that way - fuck you.
Smart women don't settle, they don't diminish their achievements to make you feel better about yourself, they don't hide their intelligence to make you feel smart. Instead, smart women wait for men who have enough of their own intelligence and confidence to appreciate this about them, to love them for their strength. Thank you Ali for highlighting such stories. God's work.
funny
medium-paced
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Chef kisses
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated