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uraveragelesbianreader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I actually enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed Delilah Green doesn't care. The plot felt well placed, the relationship felt more naturally evolving and felt like a more major focus of the novel. It could be because I am more of a veteran romance reader at the time of reading this than I was when I reads the first book, but the relationship felt like a larger focus and felt more built up to and worked for. The book however in my opinion does kind of crash and burn towards the end, this did not ruin the experience for me personally however I could see how it would for someone else. The ending felt a bit rushed and flip floppy and overall very unrewarding for what had been established by the main narrative, I think the last 50 pages could have easily been stretched into 100 and that would have benefited the book. That is not to say however that I thought the pacing of this book was bad, it wasn't. The pacing accurately reflected the events and up until the ending nothing felt rushed. The characters in this book were both more and less compelling than the ones in Delilah Green (This is ironic considering it is a mostly returning cast). On the positive side, I felt much more attached to Astrid and Jordan than I did Delilah and Claire, I felt their relationship was more of a satisfying build and pay off for me. This could be because they are closer to my personal preference, however I think the way their relationship is written also puts more focus into their individual characterizations than was done in the first novel. The novel did a wonderful job developing Astrids character overall however I do think her coming out storyline was slightly rushed. I did have some qualms with the overall queer rep in this novel but they weren't major enough to ruin the novel for me just make me raise an eyebrow every now and then so I will mention them at the end of my review. Jordan felt like much more of a dimensional and loveable love interest to me than Claire did and Astrid and Jordan feel much more compatible than Delilah and Claire. Where I think the novel suffered is that although I was very attached to Jordan and Astrid, the main characters, there was far less of a side/supporting cast presence. Where as in Delilah Green Doesn't Care, I felt the supporting cast played a major part and I felt far more attached to them, in this book their role is far more minor so if you really enjoyed that aspect of Delilah Green you will probably like this book less for me however this wasn't a major issue. Now for my gripes with the queer rep, having every single character in your novel (ESPECIALLY your novel focusing on WLW romance) be ambiguously queer is NOT as progressive as wlw romance authors seem to think it is. Firstly, just like how Delilah was very clearly lesbian coded, Jordan was also very clearly coded as a lesbian, in fact she was even referred to as being "butch" at multiple points, never once is she actually called the L word and it is only said once in the entire novel. On the note of Delilah, her sexuality was handled AWFULLY in this novel. Slight spoilers here but she makes an offhand comment when Astrid is asking her about sexuality that the only people she is not into is "cisgender men". This is a weird doubly layer transphobic and lesbophobic comment all stuffed into a fun (albeit unintentional) package. Lesbians are not into MEN wether they are trans or cis does not matter and a man is a man regardless of what sex organs they were born with. It would have conveyed the same message if Delilah had simply said that she was just not into men but instead it came off as very fake woke and even harmful. Overall I think Astrids sexuality was mishandled in this book. She is directly referred to as bisexual which I liked however in that same conversation with Delilah there is a comment about how sexuality is fluid and it is somewhat implied that she became bisexual over time. This is disproven as we see Astrid think back into her youth however the message itself is still very harmful, for some people sexuality can change overtime in the way they express it, but you don't just wake up one day and become attracted to the same gender or lose your attraction to the same gender. None of these issues are massive but they peeved me and are something I wish I could have anticipated going into the book. I do not think they were intentional (as these are very pervasive in the wlw romance genre anyways) but they were harmful and could have been easily avoided. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and if you're looking for a good hallmark romance but make it wlw this is for you! It has a very compelling main romance and generally steady pacing and writing and there is SEVERAL spicy scenes (in many locations to!) but the issues with pacing and representation kept me from giving it a full five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Cancer and Alcoholism
Minor: Mental illness
hellowildflower's review
emotional
funny
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship
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