Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Merry Inkmas by Talia Hibbert

17 reviews

autumnwitch14's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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witcheep's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Read this book if you seek sexual tension building while a troubled past is being used as an edgy backdrop for smut scenes. If you want to read about a balanced relationship forming, pick up some other book (I suggest Hibbert's The Brown Sisters series, I'm far more impressed with those books than this one).

It bothers me that the Merry Inkmas's main characters Cash and Bailey are represented as nearly perfectly goodhearted people that want to save each others from the ghosts of their dark and traumatic pasts: Both their parents have been in different kinds of abusive relationships. This has lead to the main characters to close up in order to shield themselves from similar harm, but they seem to easily warm up to each other because of their sexual chemistry.

However, Cash and Bailey's relationship has big imbalances of power all the time: they are a customer and a server, or a boss and and employee. There is also economical inequality in their relationship. These things are not addressed enough in my opinion, even though they clearly affect the characters' choises in the present and bring up similar situations from their past where things went very badly. This is a novella so I understand there isn't room for very in depth bonding on mental level if you want to write about the sexual tension building up and releasing in multiple smut scenes, as happens in this book. Maybe I picked up a wrong book for me, but I would have preferred to see more chemistry in the interpersonal relationship besides the bedroom.

I hoped these issues would be at least mentioned in the ending, but they are completely brushed under the rug. In the epiloque
Cash and Bailey are thrust into a happy ever after of one big family with seemingly no trauma or baggage remaining.
The premises of this book had potential to discuss the heavy topics and show how to deal with them, but the novella falls short in this regard, unlike the other books by Hibbert I've read. Hibbert's later books address representation and struggles in a more wholesome and considerate way. Perhaps Merry Inkmas could have accomplished that as well, if it had been a fully fleshed out novel instead of a shorter novella.

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readbykatherine's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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mayareadsxo's review

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lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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xandriaisreading's review

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lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A cute and quick Christmas read! Boss/employee and miscommunication are things I'm not particularly a fan of so it lost me for a bit.

The characters are stubborn. The love story is only 2 months with the majority of their interactions in the second month. Then a 5 year time jump? For a short read, it really tried to stuff as much as it could in to it.

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megsbookishadventures's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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notsobinaryart's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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itschelseaw's review

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emotional funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A cute, quick read. I just really like Talia Hibbert’s style of writing, so most of her books will be a win for me. Even though this was more of a novella than full on novel (the version I read was 132 pages long) we still got to know the characters well and saw the development of them. The big conversations were satisfying, as was the smut and seeing them fall in love.

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rickireadss's review against another edition

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emotional funny fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

i wanted to love this SO bad. i honestly think if i had read the ebook, i would have enjoyed it more since i didn't really like the narrator. i did like the grumpy/sunshine aspect, the plus size rep, and the fact that our mmc was TATTED *swoon* but overall, i just felt like it was choppy and didn't really flow. like some of the scenes felt just thrown in there or abruptly happened, and i was like "woah, wait what???" not my favorite of talia's for sure, but i know many have loved it.

⚠️: domestic abuse, emotional abuse, home invasion, death of parent, mental illness, bigotry towards unhoused people, stalking, cancer, grief, adult/minor relationship (past, fmc’s mother) 

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shaipanda's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Aww I really liked this! I did think things suddenly got really serious and intense between Cash and Bailey v quickly towards the end but otherwise thought this was p well done :) this was one of the only books of Talia Hibbert’s backlist I hadn’t read and while it’s not an absolute favorite by any means I did like it a lot more than I expected given that it’s a Christmas book 
Will say did nott love the Harry Potter references but it’s from 2017 so like I get it 

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