Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish

38 reviews

stacy837's review

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Dementia, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying and Toxic relationship

infectedarea's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

pitsikakku's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Dementia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia

bencaroline's review

lighthearted

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

(note: I wrote up a whole thing and then somehow deleted it without saving, so this is an extremely lackluster, months-later attempt at a review)

God, I wanted to love this book so bad! The Holiday but gay, and in novel form?? Sign me up! 

Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me in the pathos department. It’s as if the stakes were told, but not shown nearly enough. And the whole thing has an undercurrent of pro-default-capitalism that I hate. Aside from the romantic storylines, each of our two protagonists has sort of a B-plot wherein they help people... be entrepreneurs, I guess? I'm all for the creative endeavors but there’s something about it where they are trying to Make Profits and somehow those methods endear them to a community more than anything else they do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Alcohol

Moderate: Dementia

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, and Grief

ladythana's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Lesbophobia

imaginaryalchemist's review

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I felt like the characters' romances progressed too quickly, which is possibly due to not having as much time to focus on their respective romances. 

I also felt like a lot of the side characters were flat and didn't add much to the story. Greta's story in particular suffered from this. She's introduced to several of Carys' friends and they barely had any relevance to the plot. 

I wasn't really a fan of Carys as a love interest, her character kind of rubbed me the wrong way. She seemed needlessly harsh towards Greta. Her reactions seemed a bit overblown a few times. Carys was easily my least favorite of the characters and lessened my enjoyment of Greta's story, which I otherwise enjoyed. I liked seeing her learn to set boundaries with her overbearing family.

For example, Carys' reaction to Greta getting her ice cream and cleaning up after the party made no sense. It felt manipulative and petty.

I preferred Truman and Ash's romance overall. Truman was a little too pushy with his offers to help, but ultimately I felt their romance was really sweet. I felt like the plotline with Ash's mother was resolved a little too easily, as was the mystery with Truman's favorite author.

Minor nitpick, but I did notice some typos towards the end. There were also some sentences I thought were awkwardly worded. It felt like it could have used a bit more revision.

Overall, it was a quick, cute holiday read with plenty of queer representation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

The sex scenes do get pretty detailed and might make some people uncomfortable. There are brief mentions of the homophobia, lesbophobia, and transphobia the characters have faced throughout their lives. The beginning of Greta's story in particular deals with a lot of the lesbophobia she faces.

nickoliver's review against another edition

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Transphobia

unwise_samwise's review

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Dementia

Minor: Homophobia and Sexism

orinthebard's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• 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

This book is like if the dual-romance film The Holiday was gay and went to therapy for 10 years. I feel emotionally full, and therapized! A good balance of cute, sexy, and meaningful. My only gripe is that there were too many side characters for me to keep track of.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse

I also found it a bit unrealistic how many small businesses were started during the course of this book :P

cgbr's review

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Dementia, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism