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amateur_bookworm'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
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Cursing
Moderate: Mental illness, Cancer, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, and Infidelity
tiffanne11'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
3.25
The pair meet at an employee meeting and are immediately at odds and also attracted to each other.
The first 70% or so of this book was a 4 or 5 star. The plot outside of the romance was intriguing and kept you interested. The spice was well written but not too vulgar.
However, there were two things that really pulled me out of the story.
First, Rowan is concerningly possessive of Zahra. He "jokes" that she doesn't have a choice when it comes to various things in their relationship. Ironically, her outspokenness is one of the things he initially liked about her. I think it was supposed to be steamy in a dominant kind of way, but it didn't work for me.
Second, there is a third act break up. I expect it, especially with a romance this long, but *damn*. He quite literally didn't learn from his mistake WITH HER in the early part of the book. I was hoping for a weird twist relating to the will but instead we got the bane of my romance existence.
Overall, I would likely still recommend this book, with the above warnings to potential readers.
Spice: 3/5 🌶️ - acts on page with detail
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content
jelkebooks'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
3.0
Anyway, let's start with the positive. Dreamland is a very obvious Disney stand-in and the author makes no effort in hiding it, but honestly it's kind of fun. Especially because in this book we really focus on the theme park. I thought it was quite a fun workplace for these characters. It gave a reprieve from the typical, boring office job most billionaire romances are set around. I also quite liked Rowan. He definitely was a very typical character archetype for stories like this one, with a very predictable progression, but I do think it was very decently done. I really liked the depth given to the character, and I quite liked seeing him deal with the more difficult family dynamics he grew up in. He's also a likeable asshole. You know? I also quite liked the cast of side characters, and even though we got relatively little from Rowan's brothers I am really excited to read their romances.
My one big negative however is Zahra. Gods, I HATED her with such a burning passion. I just mainly thought she absolutely did not read like a real person. She was so quirky it hurt. She also didn't have a spine. The book portrays her as a badass who knows what she wants but she lets very small inconviences stand in the way of her dream life. It got so incredibly annoying to read. I also found that often her actions stood directely opposed to her inner monologue/motivations, which is just a sign of how incredibly badly written her character was as well. I also felt like she went through 0 developement throughout the novel, and had a bit of a hollier than thou attitude. I was a little annoyed by her at the start of the book, but by the end I hated her so incredibly much that it made my blood boil.
Therefore I also wasn't super invested in the romance. I do think it was decently enough developed, and there were some moments between them that I did quite liked. I don't hate their match completely. It's just that when you absolutely despise one character that makes up the relationship it's really hard too root for said relationship, especially as in the third act conflict I would argue that they both have equal fault, and yet only Rowan grovels and apologises. So yeah, this book wasn't necececarily my favourite, but considering there were enough elements in this that I really enjoyed and I've heard the books only get better, I'm quite excited to continue on with this series.
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Cancer and Alcoholism
zias's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Medical content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Grief
sierrabowers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death, and Gaslighting
spellbindingtomes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Grief, Classism, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
karly_ackley's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Alcoholism
eggfartz's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship
yellowbinge's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief, Alcoholism, and Cancer
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Pregnancy
hjb_128's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Child abuse
Minor: Pregnancy