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reminiscences's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Body shaming
Minor: Stalking, Sexual harassment, Racism, and Panic attacks/disorders
peachani's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content and Gun violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Sexual harassment, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Medical content, Racism, and Fatphobia
lesbegays's review
weirdly enough, this has made me more confident calling talia hibbert a favorite author, since i can trust that i’ll still enjoy even her worst works.
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Racism, Stalking, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Dementia
Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy
aglclark's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Stalking
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Death
leahkarge's review against another edition
making sexual advances on your employee when trying to convince her to report sexual harassment she faced at the hands of another employee is deranged behavior. as is threatening to put her over your knee and spank her for “bad behavior” when you’ve barely known her 48 hours.
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder
zabeishumanish's review
- 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
4.5
The book is absolutely stellar.
These characters are remarkable well developed. At some points in the story the plot was weak for me, but the sheer vibrancy of every character on the page makes me want to entirely ignore that. Plot drawbacks that stand out are; not knowing why Theo felt comfortable pursuing Jen despite being so worried about her experience with workplace sexual harassment, Jen never meeting the sister Theo talks about constantly, information about Jen history with a panic disorder, and more backstory for everything surrounding the stalker situation. These are mostly small concerns and entirely overshadowed by the amazing cast.
This is primarily a duel POV romance, with POV from the love interests. There are also three partial chapters from the perspectives of different side characters. I think I would normally find a break from story flow like that off putting, but I loved them. The first is Jen’s best friend Aria in over protective friend mode. When I read the section in her POV it felt like both a glimpse into Jen’s life that she would rather keep hidden and a potential way to introduce the POV of the next character in the series. When I got to the next side character POV though I got that these sections were designed to bring depth to the story and show the differences in human experience. The second side characters POV was Jen’s grandmother, who is suffering dementia like memory problems. The writing in the section made me cry as the familial love shown through earnest confusion and doubts. The third side characters POV was a lesser villain in the book. While hinted at earlier in the book, her internal monologue reveals her to be incredibly racist, which was jarring given the diversity of the book’s cast. The writing was artful, in all three cases, but especially with the racists perspective. The section made her both more distasteful and villainous while simultaneously a human with human worries, concerns, and feelings. There was so much marvelously more depth to the book that I was expecting from a romance. I’ve loved Talia’s more current romcom-y romance, but I adored how this book hit me in all the feels.
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Drug use, Fatphobia, Bullying, Sexism, and Racism
Minor: Pregnancy
jzthecatlady's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Stalking
Minor: Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit
kimalah's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Violence, Dementia, Animal death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Stalking
bookedinsideout's review against another edition
I was aware of the content warning for the prologue (home invasion), and reading more into the additional content warnings when I was at 16% cemented my decision that the book isn’t for me.
Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, and Murder
CW: Murder of parents in home invasion (prologue), and since I didn't get much further, Xan West's review has a comprehensive list of content warningsseequinn's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Gun violence