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annahamburger's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Biphobia, Mental illness, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Homophobia
Moderate: Outing, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Xenophobia
Minor: Violence, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Medical content, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Car accident, Dementia, Pregnancy, and Racism
sdupont's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, and Outing
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Body shaming, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Car accident and Racism
bibliomania_express's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I absolutely loved Maggie and Aiden and their slow-burn romance. Maggie deals with social anxiety and introversion, but she's also fierce and unafraid to be herself. She tells off so many people in this book and I absolutely loved it. Especially the scene at the wedding. And Aiden - he's so kind and thoughtful, but had been shit on by his family for so long. He tries to do well by his horrid, homophobic mother, and I was cheering for him as he learned to be more assertive.
This book also shows how much knowledge can help people struggling with their identities. Aiden is on the ace spectrum, but he has frequently felt like something is wrong with him since he didn't have the label. Yardley does a fantastic job showing how much having the language to speak about himself means to Aiden, even in his early fifties.
This book has been on my radar for a while now, so I'm glad I finally picked it up.
Some content warnings for homophobia/biphobia/acephobia (all challenged by the text), misogyny (also challenged), discussions of hospice care and elder care.
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia and Biphobia
Moderate: Dementia
Minor: Car accident, Cancer, and Death of parent
amy_in_the_city's review
- 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
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!
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
thenextbookdilemma's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Biphobia
Minor: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Car accident
mighty_lizard_queen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
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
callidoralblack's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Biphobia, and Outing
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, War, and Violence
ajalexanderreadsromance's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, and Outing
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent
Minor: Car accident, Racism, Cancer, Grief, and Acephobia/Arophobia
beepbeep101's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Outing, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment, Cursing, Homophobia, and Body shaming
Minor: Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
rickireadss's review against another edition
5.0
⚠️: biphobia, homophobia, outing, emotional abuse, death of parent (cancer), acephoba/arophobia, racism, cancer, grief, misogyny, gaslighting, bullying, death of parents (car accident), religious bigotry
Graphic: Death of parent, Biphobia, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Outing
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Misogyny, Cancer, Grief, and Gaslighting
Minor: Bullying, Religious bigotry, and Car accident