Reviews with content warning for Stalking - S láskou, Lukov

Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

S láskou, Lukov by Mariana Zapata

106 reviews

jlboro's review against another edition

emotional hopeful slow-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

3.75

This is a great slow-burn romance, filled with all the tropes I love: enemies to friends to lovers, forced proximity, nursing the other back to health, and a HEA. And even though a lot of reviews have issues with the MCs not acting their age, I feel like when you are hyper-competitive and live in this bubble world, you’re going to be pretty immature in certain ways, so I didn’t hate it. The emotional anguish that these two go through plot-wise is top tier. There is one spicy scene and it’s fantastic. The epilogue is one of the best and most satisfying I’ve read in a romance in memory.

However, the book could have more successfully been this long if about 100 pgs of them bickering and blinking would have been spent on them falling in love and Jasmine softening. One more epic spicy scene and it would have been perfection, actually. I also caught myself losing patience with Jasmine’s repetitive and lengthy internal dialog. Because it’s so long and the character development stalls in the middle, I don’t think I would read this again, and that means it’s not a 4.0+ for my personal rating scale.

If you love contemporary romance though, it will be hard to dislike this book. Heartstrings will be plucked. Tears might be shed. But I’m not sure if the hype is quite there like the ratings would lead you to believe,l.

Content Warnings

guardianofloyalty's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

a_neverending_tbr's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

There are so many things that I loved about this story. Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes, add in a slow burn and I’m usually really going to enjoy the book. This has both of those plus a “he falls first” and a reverse grumpy/sunshine trope. Ivan is just a dreamy character. His care and love for Jasmine was just straight up swoony. She’s a little harder to love but when you get into her story - you really understand why she is the way that she is. She has so much growth in this book and watching her journey to being okay with the outcome was really touching. I have always enjoyed ice skating and that aspect of the story was great. For a rather long contemporary, it never got slow or felt bogged down to me. I LOVED the epilogue because it hit everything I want in the happily ever after.

My complaint though is the language. There were SO many f-bombs that it really became distracting and overwhelmed a lot of the story for me. I wish I could recommend this to a larger audience but I know this would bother a lot of people and keep them from enjoying the book. The spice was well outside my comfort zone as well but fairly skippable since you see it coming and it’s really only one scene towards the end of book. There are other mentions to sexual things throughout the story but nothing terribly crazy.

Romantic Content: Very descriptive open door

Content Warnings

tessasreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

matilda_holroyd_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

Content Warnings

hannibanani29's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny slow-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

4.25

Content Warnings

fms2000's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

A fun read—Jasmine & Ivan were a enjoyable couple to go on a journey with.

That being said, I do feel like not all plot points were brought together (like all the little things hinted at throughout the story, and then the reveal was anticlimactic), and was disappointed that fatphobia was so casually brought up through the story. I feel like for focusing on the slow burn for so long, the author really didn’t get the the actual depth of Ivan and Jasmine’s relationship which was also a letdown. A novel with a good idea not fully actualized and sometimes flat characters who depended on empty plot points or cliches to further the story.

Content Warnings