Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - My Killer Vacation

I love a ridiculous rom-com and this fit that. I think the sex was good and that's pretty much all I liked about it. Though I enjoyed Myles and Jude I found Taylor to be a bit like Karen from Mean Girls but not in a good way as I found her to be quite childish at times. I think how Myles and Taylor coming to spend time together could have been better written. I would have kept their meeting the same but instead of Taylor being into true crime podcasts and wanting to be courageous I would have had Myles interview her and finding ways for them to stay in contact that didn't have to do with her inserting herself into the investigation. The author also tried to make their age difference into a ~thing~ even though there was nothing wrong with it. Taylor is 26 and Myles is 34, which is 8 years difference. Both of these characters are consenting adults and if they want to have a romantic relationship that is within their right. At multiple times the author tried to make it seem like there was something taboo about this and there isn't.

Finally, this is a pet peeve of mine no matter the book - as someone who works in heritage I can't stand it when museum employees are written incorrectly! Taylor and Jude's parents are "archaeologists" who go to war torn countries to safe guard and move cultural property out of museum. This is NOT how that works! A museum in a war effected country does not have the funds to pay two Americans to come and move their collections. What would happen is museum employees would move the collections and then after the conflict other professional, possibly from other countries, would come a aid with assessing the collection and moving it back. As well, an archaeologist would not do this work as the items have already left the ground and it would be collections and conservation staff who would do this.

This is the first self published Tessa Bailey book I've read and I definitely prefer her traditionally published ones. I did see that My Killer Vacation was recently traditionally published and I would be interested to see if there are any differences between it and the self published version.

Content Warnings

toeffy's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It was ok: the smut was good, the plot decent, the characters acceptable, the drama / angst a bit overdone and the fluff (especially towards the end) way over the top.
I'm not a big fan of insta-love and found myself skipping through pages of repetitive internal monologues from both POVs. Overall a mediocre, slightly eye-roll inducing read.

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