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ohsoyhappy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Misogyny
maya_reads_books's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual assault and Misogyny
Moderate: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury
noellelovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Don’t be fooled by the cartoon cover this book deals with a lot of heavy topics like the sexual assault and attempted rape of a minor, a minor that is shamed and blamed for the assault and labeled “unclean and loose” not only by their community but also by a parent. We also see the lifetime of grief someone faces when they blame the tragic death of a loved one on themselves.
Liya has been told, from a young age, that she’s dirty and shouldn’t expect any nice guys to want her. Focusing on her career, and enjoying life, Liya is determined to never fall prey to the whims of men again. Though her parents know she doesn’t want to marry they still go behind her back to invite a potential suitor to dinner. What other option than fleeing dinner does she have?
Jay doesn’t believe he deserves a happy ever after and is determined to never marry. Blaming himself for the tragic death of his father, when he was a child, Jay does whatever he can to help his brother and mother be happy. Even though he has no plans to marry…Jay can’t turn his mother down when she asks him to meet a potential bride. Why did said match flee their dinner like demons were chasing her? If she didn’t want to meet she could have said so instead of embarrassing his poor mother who now worries they somehow offended Liya before even meeting her.
We get instant enemies over a misunderstanding, then forced proximity when they find out Jay’s the lawyer that’s been hired to help Liya’s company, and then a slow burn as they realize maybe the other isn’t so bad after all. I adored this couple and was cheering for them from the start. If you love romance’s that deal with heavier topics but prefer FTB [fade to black, aka when sex takes place off-page rather than on-page] I highly recommend giving this debut romance a chance.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Sexism, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Grief
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent
Minor: Racism
thefatpaperback's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence
Minor: Sexual content
drishthings's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
the indian aspect was *chefs kiss*
i just got annoyed with the heroine a bit
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
brokenbodybitch's review against another edition
4.25
The romance in this book is pretty good, the chemistry between the characters is definitely well written and at times, they do questionable things but generally there is some reasoning (in this book the reason is very often a trauma response or something related to fears and trauma) that makes it so you can still root for the MC or LI. I really enjoy how you can tell their upbringing and what they went through up till now really motivated their actions and often times, you can see the bouncing ball of oh well this is because of this and stuff like that you aren’t left wondering what possessed them to do whatever they did.
I am not south Asian so I can’t speak on the accuracy or quality of the rep but I think the family dynamics in this book were really well done, yes don’t get me wrong a lot of the family was just straight up insufferable and I would gladly like to clock her dad in the face, however the dynamics and relationships between characters felt very real and they stayed true throught the book. I find when some authors try to write family dynamics with generational trauma and abuse and heavier more complicated things like that they will sometimes have these happy endings that while nice, ultimately don’t seem all that realistic, where as in this book her father is vile her entire childhood (for whatever reasons) and he didn’t have this seemingly instant magical turn around, his actions lined up with how his character had been set up from the beginning, and that was with all the characters I can think of.
I really enjoyed this book, yes it is a romance but it also deals with trauma from many many different angles as well as having South Asian representation. At times it reads a little more like a YA/NA romance but all in all, the characters have clear and developed backstories and it deals with trauma from so many sides that it felt like it had another purpose beyond the romance.
Extra CW/TW:
The biggest ones to be aware of are SA between an adult and minor, being told you are lying about it and other horrible things along those lines by many people but especially parental figures, and the trauma that goes along with SA, in particular childhood SA. It is handled fairly well by the end of the book and does have a positive ending but it can be very heavy at times; and I can’t speak on childhood SA but from a general SA trauma perspective it was pretty accurately portrayed. Again I’m not the authority on this, but I don’t think it is harmful rep by any means just very possibly triggering for someone with those potential triggers. It’s not a bad book I don’t think, just be very cautious going into it
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Alcohol and Domestic abuse
unwise_samwise's review against another edition
Graphic: Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
brittneyreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
These two had great chemistry, and the transition of their relationship from mutual disdain to tentative friends to liking each other was done very smoothly and naturally. I will say that because their chemistry was sooo off the charts, I was disappointed that we didn't get any steamy scenes between them. That would have been so good!
I'll also say that I found it really weird when they were, I believe, freshly official and Jay was making comments about getting her pregnant with his baby (they were brushed off as jokes, but they seemed like the type of jokes that were low key serious comments). This book spent a lot of time showing us how Liya is seen as a sex object by so many men in her life and how that's messed her up, and Jay kept insisting that he saw her as more than that, then the second he's able to slap the label "girlfriend" onto her he wants to start making babies? It didn't rub me the right way.
As I said earlier, I thought this book was going to be a rom-com, and although there were some funny moments, I wouldn't classify this as a romcom. If you see my content warnings, you will see that there are mentions of rape in this book, specifically, the rape of a minor. This is actually a big plot point, although the rape itself is not depicted on page nor talked about in any explicit manner. There are also a few big moments of victim blaming and attempted gas lighting that occurs in this book as well. I did like that this is a story about a survivor of sexual assault trying to deal with the residual trauma of what happened to her, and how she is able to still have her happy ending. But, I'm not sure if I'm in a position to decide whether or not these tough topics were dealt with well.
Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Child abuse and Rape
zoiebell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual assault
susanknights's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape