Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Abandonment
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A solid grumpy - grumpy pairing, I loved how mean and annoying they were to one another! Also appreciated a hate fuck, and Kris Ripper is keeping me on my toes with mixing explicit steam for some things (a blow job) and fade to black for others. No idea how to describe the steam. It's discussed, but not like, filthy. If that makes sense. Also refreshing having no emphasis on genitals or on penetrative sex! Loving this series :)
Also the anxiety and depression rep is insanely good. I am Oscar, his brain is eerily similar to mine. Also the medication side effects are so real. Very accurate.
Also the anxiety and depression rep is insanely good. I am Oscar, his brain is eerily similar to mine. Also the medication side effects are so real. Very accurate.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
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
DNF @ 58%
I promised myself I was going to get to chapter 20 before putting this book down. I did not.
I cannot begin to explain how utterly boring this book was. It showed promise in the beginning, but then it kept dragging on and on with no end in sight.
This was not a romance. There was no connection, no spark between Oscar and Jack, save for that hour or so that they spent together.
It just got extremely hard to read. And yes, there were parts where I was like, "Oh, that was so sweet!" or "Wow, that was really funny!", but in the end, I couldn't take it.
*****
Side note: Please do not think that I am hating on this because it was an LGBT romance. I've read plenty of phenomenal LGBT romances.
I promised myself I was going to get to chapter 20 before putting this book down. I did not.
I cannot begin to explain how utterly boring this book was. It showed promise in the beginning, but then it kept dragging on and on with no end in sight.
This was not a romance. There was no connection, no spark between Oscar and Jack, save for that hour or so that they spent together.
It just got extremely hard to read. And yes, there were parts where I was like, "Oh, that was so sweet!" or "Wow, that was really funny!", but in the end, I couldn't take it.
*****
Side note: Please do not think that I am hating on this because it was an LGBT romance. I've read plenty of phenomenal LGBT romances.
funny
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:
Complicated
To say this was a 5 star from me should be obvious due to the following points:
- Enemies to lovers trope
*check*
- A queer romcom
*check*
- A group of friends affectionately coined as "The Motherf*uckers"
*check*
- An eerily realistic depiction of life with anxiety thread throughout the ENTIRE book that made me feel hella seen?
*check check and check*
Y'all know how some authors write like how people talk? Like. Punctuation used in a modern way of periods just. LITERALLY. Cutting you off....? That's how this author writes and it really adds to immersing you into the life of the characters. Oh! By the way- the characters are so freaking diverse and loveable (especially Evelyn the sassy and meddling grandmother).
This book is like when your best friend says they are gonna hate a book because they have signed off on reading that genre anymore but you force them to read it anyway by bribing them and then you try and choke on "I told ya so" when they inevitably fall in love with the book that they hated to begin with.
- Enemies to lovers trope
*check*
- A queer romcom
*check*
- A group of friends affectionately coined as "The Motherf*uckers"
*check*
- An eerily realistic depiction of life with anxiety thread throughout the ENTIRE book that made me feel hella seen?
*check check and check*
Y'all know how some authors write like how people talk? Like. Punctuation used in a modern way of periods just. LITERALLY. Cutting you off....? That's how this author writes and it really adds to immersing you into the life of the characters. Oh! By the way- the characters are so freaking diverse and loveable (especially Evelyn the sassy and meddling grandmother).
This book is like when your best friend says they are gonna hate a book because they have signed off on reading that genre anymore but you force them to read it anyway by bribing them and then you try and choke on "I told ya so" when they inevitably fall in love with the book that they hated to begin with.
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't feel I really got to know Jack nor Oscar outside of flat stereotypes for each character. When the plot got interesting or the two of them has a fun dynamic, it seemed to get reduced to pointless fighting. It was hard to understand the chemistry between them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content
Moderate: Death
Minor: Transphobia
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars
Kris Ripper writes self-aware characters who are flawed and real and constantly making mistakes while still trying to be better at the whole life/human being thing in a way that just really works for me.
Zir found families work well for me, too. Usually this type of group would feel too quirky to seem real, but here they just feel like people who know each other really well, flaws and all, who don't ignore the flaws, and sometimes argue quite heatedly about said flaws, but continue to support each other anyway. Her first book in this series was one of my favorite reads last year, and I love how ze made this same group of friends feel very different when viewed from a different character's perspective.
I did *not* think Oscar the grouch was going to work for me, but I was so, so wrong! I was very quickly all in on everything this book was doing.
And holy shit, the realism of those sex scenes was a revelation!!! I loved everything about them. I read a lot of romance, and the repetitive, manufactured, too picture-perfect formula of them often pulls me out of the story at the worst times. I don't know how ze managed to make clunky, fumbling, bumbling, awkward sex hot as hell, but ze definitely did.
There's about 20% in the middle of this that got a little draggy. Oscar is in a bit of a spiral, and while the portrayal of the circular thought patterns and abject frustration of knowing what you *should* be doing to get yourself out of this spiral without actually being able to get yourself to DO IT was done so well, I didn't necessarily want to experience so very much of it with him.
I was so relieved when he pulled out of that tailspin because it was starting to pull me down a little, too. The end of the book lost some of the magic for me, but not in a way that I have any real complaints about. (Although that is where it lost that half star.)
I'm not sure how much of that was due to the incredibly realistic and therefore frustrating-to-experience funk Oscar was in leading up to it, and how much of it was because Jack has drawn back into his shell after the events that led to the spiral, so he's just beginning to creep back out and show us his real personality again when it ends. (This is written as a single POV, so we're only experiencing Jack from Oscar's perspective.)
The epilogue was awesome, so I think I just wish we'd gotten a little more of Jack being more open again before the end.
I still loved these two, and now I'm super excited for Book 3 next month. Mason and polyamorous romances aren't even things that I necessarily find appealing at the moment, but this reminded me why Kris Ripper is on my list of favorite authors. This series is really working for me right now, and I will go wherever ze wants to take it.
(Also, I don't think you'd need to read the first book of the series to enjoy this one. The prominent characters are all fully drawn as if this was a standalone, and it's the opposite set from the characters who were more prominent in Book 1. There were maybe a handful of sentences that I got more enjoyment out of from knowing Sidney and Declan's relationship story.)
**This book was provided for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley**
Kris Ripper writes self-aware characters who are flawed and real and constantly making mistakes while still trying to be better at the whole life/human being thing in a way that just really works for me.
Zir found families work well for me, too. Usually this type of group would feel too quirky to seem real, but here they just feel like people who know each other really well, flaws and all, who don't ignore the flaws, and sometimes argue quite heatedly about said flaws, but continue to support each other anyway. Her first book in this series was one of my favorite reads last year, and I love how ze made this same group of friends feel very different when viewed from a different character's perspective.
I did *not* think Oscar the grouch was going to work for me, but I was so, so wrong! I was very quickly all in on everything this book was doing.
And holy shit, the realism of those sex scenes was a revelation!!! I loved everything about them. I read a lot of romance, and the repetitive, manufactured, too picture-perfect formula of them often pulls me out of the story at the worst times. I don't know how ze managed to make clunky, fumbling, bumbling, awkward sex hot as hell, but ze definitely did.
There's about 20% in the middle of this that got a little draggy. Oscar is in a bit of a spiral, and while the portrayal of the circular thought patterns and abject frustration of knowing what you *should* be doing to get yourself out of this spiral without actually being able to get yourself to DO IT was done so well, I didn't necessarily want to experience so very much of it with him.
I was so relieved when he pulled out of that tailspin because it was starting to pull me down a little, too. The end of the book lost some of the magic for me, but not in a way that I have any real complaints about. (Although that is where it lost that half star.)
I'm not sure how much of that was due to the incredibly realistic and therefore frustrating-to-experience funk Oscar was in leading up to it, and how much of it was because Jack has drawn back into his shell after the events that led to the spiral, so he's just beginning to creep back out and show us his real personality again when it ends. (This is written as a single POV, so we're only experiencing Jack from Oscar's perspective.)
The epilogue was awesome, so I think I just wish we'd gotten a little more of Jack being more open again before the end.
I still loved these two, and now I'm super excited for Book 3 next month. Mason and polyamorous romances aren't even things that I necessarily find appealing at the moment, but this reminded me why Kris Ripper is on my list of favorite authors. This series is really working for me right now, and I will go wherever ze wants to take it.
(Also, I don't think you'd need to read the first book of the series to enjoy this one. The prominent characters are all fully drawn as if this was a standalone, and it's the opposite set from the characters who were more prominent in Book 1. There were maybe a handful of sentences that I got more enjoyment out of from knowing Sidney and Declan's relationship story.)
**This book was provided for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley**
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
I am so glad I read this. I loved the story, and the characters were so relatable at times that it hurt. In a good way. Five stars.