Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

101 reviews

cirrenamarie's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I didn’t think I liked romance but this book proved me wrong. I loved the characters and laughed out loud while reading this but I was disappointed by the last chapter. *slight spoiler* the epilogue provided the ending i wanted but it felt rushed. 

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beeeverly's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense 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

3.5


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readtomea97's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5


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tacoboutmari's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Two writers writing to each other in the form of books over the course of years after their 7 brief days together, IS the single most romantic notion I’ve heard of. 

I found myself laughing, tearing up, raging, and holding my breath while speeding through the pages. This is not a surface level romance. This book has layers upon layers like an onion with the most profound yet also hilarious dialogue I’ve come across. The story is told in a non linear fashion, jumping from perspective to perspective and to different timelines disguised as flashbacks. Some perspectives I’m not 100% (like the random Principal lady?) sure were necessary or central to the message of the book, with the almost comical not so subtle foreshadowings following after. 

This is a second chance romance with raw portrait of life. The characters felt so real and tortured. I also love reading mature characters in romance. 7 days in June also is Kinda the perfect epitome of a writer romance. Williams even had the pretentiousness of the literary/fandom world in there and it didn’t fail the hype or expectations. Also what this book did very well was moments: Like when Shane and Eva meet again it REALLY felt like time slowed. That’s an insane effect to have as a reader. 

I’m soooo checking out what else this author has because her writing is addictive!!

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garrettcz's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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


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neverlandpages4's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

5.0


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jhabelita's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I liked the first half of it. I really thought this was a sad story, like Eva knew she had a brain tumor because of those frequent migraines, but she kept it only as a secret. Then she will met Shane again, they fell in love, got together but only for a limited time because she's sick yada yada yada. I REALLY THOUGHT THAT WAS THE PLOT! 😅

But it was only a blinded love of two problematic characters amplified by drugs, alcohol and a week-long sex. 🥴 Trauma bonding, whuuttt??

Miley Cyrus once said,

"They say misery loves company"


I didn't give a fck on the epilogue. I honestly skimmed through the 25% of it just to make a point on the plot that I expected.

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fcoleman95's review

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

5.0


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kaitrates's review

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challenging emotional informative tense slow-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
8 Feb 2024 Update
I decided to remove my rating for this b/c I don't think I can fairly rate it given my complicated feelings. 
 
While my updates for this book were positive, I was left with a sour feeling in my stomach after finishing. I've been trying to figure out why and, thankfully, a conversation with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/141644247-sarah">Sarah</a> helped clarify things. 🙏🏻 
 
First, the things I enjoyed. The supporting cast (Audre, Cece, Belinda) were amazing and I loved them so so much. I loved how NYC was as much a characters as any of hte people, and Williams' descriptions were SPOT ON and made me giggle so hard. I STG if you never lived there you probably think we make this shit up but its real. 🤣 I liked the individual character arcs for both Eva and Sean, especially seeing Eva step out of shame and into power as it relates to her disability and her desires. 
 
This book also felt to me like a love letter to Blackness, Black culture, and Black artistry. 
 
While I started out enjoying the high stakes, things got REALLY REAL very quickly and I was taken aback. I’ll own that I didn’t look up content warnings (list below) before reading—and they weren’t included in the book itself *sigh*—but honestly I might have chosen not to even read this if I had seen the full list. 
 
One of the big things Sarah helped me put words to is that IDK if I would qualify this as a romance. It has a romance for sure but it felt more literary to me. 
 
Similarly, this book was missing a certain swoon factor for me (oh god did I just type that?! 😅). I didn't find either the love story or the sex scenes compelling. It was all very insta-animal-magnetism and love and sex and that's not something I generally enjoy. 
 
I’ll also note that I couldn’t identify with the migraine rep, despite having both migraines and a chronic pain condition. Williams has written a lot about what it meant to her to write Eva an d I do recommend seeking out those articles for more context (thought, TBH I would’ve liked a bit more of it within the story). 
 
I also was not at all prepared for the heaviness and intensity of this book and it definitely and unfortunately impacted my enjoyment. I think if you go in knowing that and/or you don’t have any major triggers on this list, you’ll find something incredible. 
 
___ 
Initial Review - 4 Feb 2024 
This book was A LOT and while i throughly enjoyed it at times it also was way more intense than i was expecting. I’m gonna sit with it for a little longer…

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velorum's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I flew through this: the characters leap right off the page & scream “let me tell you about ME!”

There’s a ton of Internet jargon and pop culture references and slang, there’s generational trauma among a slew of trigger warnings and love and family and culture.  There was so MUCH (please heed the trigger warnings) and yet so much silliness and lightness that framed this story. Maybe that speaks to the author’s point of how life can be jarring and full and sad.

I prefer my epilogues to be ADDITIONAL to the story. Here, the epilogue was doing all the work to wrap up loose ends.

This story between Shane and Eva (Genevieve) is melancholy and a rapid, all-consuming love story. It burns and burns out.  Their second-chance encounter makes you want to know what the hell happed that week in June 15 years ago, and it all unravels as the story moves on. 

I think what made me really upset was Ty’s storyline and around the 78%(??) mark, I just wanted to DNF, and pushed through anyway. His death felt senseless and was a lazy way to develop Shane’s character.  

On second note, the last three chapters (epilogue included) were just a RUSH of plot and character development, and not in a good way…


TBC…  

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