Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

3 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review

emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

I loved this book so much! Introverts finding the one person that doesn't drain them is literally my dream! It was funny at times, heartbreaking at others. I liked that it didn't romanticize small towns and acknowledged small towns aren't a good fit for everyone. It also had some LGBTQIA+ representation, with a biromantic demisexual main character. The scene where Maggie tears into Aiden's biphobic relatives was one of the most satisfying things I've ever read, as was seeing Aiden stand up for himself. 

As someone on the ace spectrum, I appreciated that this book had a main character, especially an older character, discovering that they were demisexual. However, the book got some things wrong about asexuality. At one point, Maggie explains that "Ace is also called 'graysexual.'" A quick Google search would have confirmed that those two terms don't mean the same thing and that "graysexual" is actually just one of many different types of asexuality. It's clear from other terms used in explaining asexuality that the author did research various terminology. It just seems like she got confused at some point with a couple of terms, but I wish there had been a sensitivity reader or an editor that could have caught this before it made it into the final book. I also thought Aiden seemed pretty clearly demiromantic as well, but this was never brought up and his demiromantic traits were lumped in with his demisexual traits. Terminology issues aside, I thought the demisexuality was represented well, and Aiden felt authentically demi in how he experienced the world and in how he reacted to learning there was a word for how he was.

Overall, this was a cute romance, and I had a great time reading it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Biphobia, Outing, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Infidelity, Acephobia/Arophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Car accident, Drug abuse, and Grief

mighty_lizard_queen's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Biphobia

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Cursing

Minor: Drug use, Dementia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Car accident, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

wilybooklover's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Outing, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Biphobia

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Racism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail