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slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Child abuse, Mental illness
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not for me! This was recommended to me as an outdoorsy hiking romance, but I did not find that to be true. The narrator is terrified of outdoor activities, so the descriptions when the narrator went hiking focused on her struggle rather than the landscape or the experience. Overall, the plot was too slow-paced for me.
Also, the author did not handle mental illness appropriately. The MMC repeatedly references the idea that the FMC’s mother, who lived with depression, could not have chosen self-harm because the FMC was somehow “too good to leave”. This implies that people who die by suicide are making a conscious decision about the quality of their loved ones. It demonstrates the author’s lack of understanding of depression and suicide, despite the fact that she chose to include these themes in the book.
Also, the author did not handle mental illness appropriately. The MMC repeatedly references the idea that the FMC’s mother, who lived with depression, could not have chosen self-harm because the FMC was somehow “too good to leave”. This implies that people who die by suicide are making a conscious decision about the quality of their loved ones. It demonstrates the author’s lack of understanding of depression and suicide, despite the fact that she chose to include these themes in the book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Love me a grumpy zaddy 🥰
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Grief
Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent
Minor: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I absolutely enjoyed it. These are the kind of romance books I'm craving now. I need romance and a HEA, but I want more tougher subjects. I also loooove the slow burn. I love smut, but having a romance book with the slow burn and just surrounded by everything else is perfect too.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Mental illness
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This felt more like women's fiction than romance? There was a lot about the fmc's journey and the romance felt kind of secondary
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content
Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Pregnancy
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book had me literally annoyed when I had to put it down. The only reason that it is not 5⭐️ is because of the third act conflict, as it felt like a mildly stupid argument which did get resolved in a cute way. Very good main characters with strong backstories and motives, and side characters were very lovable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Mariana Zapata is really the Queen of Slowburn Romance, and I've missed reading her books.
I loved the characters that we got to follow in this book. Both Aurora and Rhodes felt like real people. And because of that, I still really enjoyed it even though the romance didn't feel as prevalent as I would have liked it. I did like that it felt realistic and you could see their feelings grow.
However, this felt more like a plain contemporary story or a character study for at least two-thirds of the book.
I did really like the exploration of grief and unconventional families.
But I think I just wish that I liked the conclusion more. It felt like it wrapped up too quickly.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the characters that we got to follow in this book. Both Aurora and Rhodes felt like real people. And because of that, I still really enjoyed it even though the romance didn't feel as prevalent as I would have liked it. I did like that it felt realistic and you could see their feelings grow.
However, this felt more like a plain contemporary story or a character study for at least two-thirds of the book.
I did really like the exploration of grief and unconventional families.
But I think I just wish that I liked the conclusion more. It felt like it wrapped up too quickly.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Mental illness, Pregnancy
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unfortunately I didn't realize going into this that it's a 600 page romance, or I would probably not have read it. No romance needs to be that long imo. MZ writes slow burn, but there's slow burn and then there's... whatever this is. The two main characters barely interacted or talked for like the first 30% of this book (which is like 200 pages). The first HALF of this book could have been severely edited down in terms of content because I was just reading too many mundane details that my brain was shutting down.
Which honestly sucks because the last 20% of this book is really good! Once you *actually* start to see the tiniest spark (aka they have conversations) between the main characters I enjoyed it. I really liked the development of the relationship between Aurora and Tobias' son Amos (tbh she has more interactions in the first half of the book with Amos than Tobias). There's a hard hitting part at the end regarding Aurora's grief over her mom that got me a bit misty.I'm not sure that I needed her ex to come back begging for her, I felt that was extraneous.
Overall I'm not sure I really vibed with Aurora as a main character and she made some really dumb ass decisions in this book that irked me (hello hiking on your own when you are clearly not an experienced hiker and your mom disappeared while hiking??? please make it make sense). Also this is a self published book moving to traditional publication and the arc I read had some super repetitive parts and several typos that I hope are fixed before it's published...
I have some other books by this author on my list that I will read, but I'll be checking the page count before I do.
🌶️3/5
Which honestly sucks because the last 20% of this book is really good! Once you *actually* start to see the tiniest spark (aka they have conversations) between the main characters I enjoyed it. I really liked the development of the relationship between Aurora and Tobias' son Amos (tbh she has more interactions in the first half of the book with Amos than Tobias). There's a hard hitting part at the end regarding Aurora's grief over her mom that got me a bit misty.
Overall I'm not sure I really vibed with Aurora as a main character and she made some really dumb ass decisions in this book that irked me (hello hiking on your own when you are clearly not an experienced hiker and your mom disappeared while hiking??? please make it make sense). Also this is a self published book moving to traditional publication and the arc I read had some super repetitive parts and several typos that I hope are fixed before it's published...
I have some other books by this author on my list that I will read, but I'll be checking the page count before I do.
🌶️3/5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy
Aurora's ex and his mother are vile and the horrible things they did to her are brought up several times.
Tobias' mother struggled with mental illness and as a result he had a rough childhood.
There is one explicit spicy scene.
Pregnancy happens as part of the HEA (not a surprise).
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide
Minor: Medical content, Pregnancy