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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I did not enjoy This book as much as I thought k would considering I love some of her work. It was a little too juvenile for me, but I think it has potential so will definitely read the rest of the series!
I absolutely love this book! Full of the angsty romance and conflict I wanted with characters I enjoyed reading about
I wanted to rate this book 2.5 stars, but it encouraged me to start writing again so I’ll give it an extra one for the inspiration. No spoilers, tyvm.
The plot - this one is weird. Forbidden romance, enemies to lovers, grumpy X sunshine, street fighters, it’s just a lot. Not really a HEA which annoyed me, there is a sequel out but I won’t be reading it. The overall word I’d describe this book as is juvenile. It was good in parts, but others I had to skip through because OH MY GOD SHUT UP ALREADY, ya know? Not the best book I’ve read recently.
The MC - Winter. What a fucking name. Very Wattpad-esque for the name origin, and her entire character was very Fanfiction era. She just irritated me, that was all. I also cannot tell you if this girl is white, or the skin colour of her family members because I refuse to believe the author created a token black family for ‘diversity’.
The male counterpart - Haze, another brilliant name suggestion. He was an asshole, but I liked him more than Winter. His whole backstory was a cliché, but tolerable I suppose.
The plot - this one is weird. Forbidden romance, enemies to lovers, grumpy X sunshine, street fighters, it’s just a lot. Not really a HEA which annoyed me, there is a sequel out but I won’t be reading it. The overall word I’d describe this book as is juvenile. It was good in parts, but others I had to skip through because OH MY GOD SHUT UP ALREADY, ya know? Not the best book I’ve read recently.
The MC - Winter. What a fucking name. Very Wattpad-esque for the name origin, and her entire character was very Fanfiction era. She just irritated me, that was all. I also cannot tell you if this girl is white, or the skin colour of her family members because I refuse to believe the author created a token black family for ‘diversity’.
The male counterpart - Haze, another brilliant name suggestion. He was an asshole, but I liked him more than Winter. His whole backstory was a cliché, but tolerable I suppose.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
What was this?
The two stars are because sometimes it was cute and it made me laugh... a lot. At a certain point, I was ready to give this book 3 stars, and then, I decided against, because the ending went to shit. Like literally, it couldn't have been more stupid, and more farfetched if it tried.
So, basically, the story is about this girl called Winter, who moves to Florida because her mum is away with her husband on a work trip, and for six months she lives with her aunt. There, she discovers that her cousin, Kendrick, is in a street fighting gang, this eighteen year old child, and he's the leader of the gang. And his rival is Haze, uber bad boy, everyone is scared of him, every girl wants to shag him, guy with significant golden dick energy. And he's the leader of the rival gang in Florida. Basically, out on a whim, and because this is a trend with Winter, she can't stay put, she decides to follow his cousin to one of his nightly excursions and gets caught in the middle of it all, and basically, she's the price for the fight. The level of idiocy is astounding.
The amount of times I screamed "You're a child!" or simply just thought that sentence is astounding. I just couldn't with this book. It made me laugh, but not because the author wanted to, just because the ridiculousness of some of the scenarios. "Bootylicious" is the "Big Titty Liddy" of 2018, prove me wrong. I'm pretty sure, around the end when Haze screamed Bootylicious at the top of his lungs, it was supposed to be for comedic value, but let's be honest, that is such grade school humor.
I could go over every idiotic moment in this book, but I don't actually think I can type that much. I don't even know how I got through this book without gouging my eyes out. Winter is a dislikeable character, Haze is even worse, Kendrick is so one-dimensional.
Also, Kendrick and his ex-girlfriend? What the hell was that? They started dating again in like 2 seconds, which was highly unbelievable. It isn't the most unbelievable thing in this book. Again, an eighteen year old is not going to be the leader of a gang, he's a child. STOP.
Haze and Winter were kind of cute, I guess that's why this got up to a 2 star rather than 1 godforsaken star. Trust me when I say, that if this book didn't make me laugh my ass off and have a cute-ish ship, I would have actually given this a worse rating.
Just no.
The ending was laughable and very stupid. The girl got kidnapped. KIDNAPPED. What the hell? And suddenly, Haze and East Side are wanting to find her, and Haze gets kidnapped too, and he escapes in like seconds, and then they escape in seconds... I'm just... whatever at this point. You're children. CHILDREN.
I was so done by the time I finished this book, and I'm kind of mad at the book too. But, I guess, I'll read on in the series, I don't mind the book, I just didn't really like it.
The two stars are because sometimes it was cute and it made me laugh... a lot. At a certain point, I was ready to give this book 3 stars, and then, I decided against, because the ending went to shit. Like literally, it couldn't have been more stupid, and more farfetched if it tried.
So, basically, the story is about this girl called Winter, who moves to Florida because her mum is away with her husband on a work trip, and for six months she lives with her aunt. There, she discovers that her cousin, Kendrick, is in a street fighting gang, this eighteen year old child, and he's the leader of the gang. And his rival is Haze, uber bad boy, everyone is scared of him, every girl wants to shag him, guy with significant golden dick energy. And he's the leader of the rival gang in Florida. Basically, out on a whim, and because this is a trend with Winter, she can't stay put, she decides to follow his cousin to one of his nightly excursions and gets caught in the middle of it all, and basically, she's the price for the fight. The level of idiocy is astounding.
The amount of times I screamed "You're a child!" or simply just thought that sentence is astounding. I just couldn't with this book. It made me laugh, but not because the author wanted to, just because the ridiculousness of some of the scenarios. "Bootylicious" is the "Big Titty Liddy" of 2018, prove me wrong. I'm pretty sure, around the end when Haze screamed Bootylicious at the top of his lungs, it was supposed to be for comedic value, but let's be honest, that is such grade school humor.
I could go over every idiotic moment in this book, but I don't actually think I can type that much. I don't even know how I got through this book without gouging my eyes out. Winter is a dislikeable character, Haze is even worse, Kendrick is so one-dimensional.
Also, Kendrick and his ex-girlfriend? What the hell was that? They started dating again in like 2 seconds, which was highly unbelievable. It isn't the most unbelievable thing in this book. Again, an eighteen year old is not going to be the leader of a gang, he's a child. STOP.
Haze and Winter were kind of cute, I guess that's why this got up to a 2 star rather than 1 godforsaken star. Trust me when I say, that if this book didn't make me laugh my ass off and have a cute-ish ship, I would have actually given this a worse rating.
Just no.
The ending was laughable and very stupid. The girl got kidnapped. KIDNAPPED. What the hell? And suddenly, Haze and East Side are wanting to find her, and Haze gets kidnapped too, and he escapes in like seconds, and then they escape in seconds... I'm just... whatever at this point. You're children. CHILDREN.
I was so done by the time I finished this book, and I'm kind of mad at the book too. But, I guess, I'll read on in the series, I don't mind the book, I just didn't really like it.
mixed feelings
Winter has just transferred to a new high school, in a new city, in a new country, for the last half of her senior year. She’s hoping to just fly under the radar but fails spectacularly on her first day when she unknowingly antagonises the most feared guy there.
Haze is mysterious, aloof, and dangerous. Winter finds out just how dangerous when she stumbles upon a meeting between rival gangs, to find out that he is the leader of the West Side. But the biggest shock? Her cousin, Kendrick, is the leader of the East Side.
There were a fair few negative points for me, the biggest one being that none of it was really believable, especially considering they’re all 18. Throw in some inconsistencies and a touch too much drama, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot.
Additionally, some of the terminology was a little off in my eyes, and sometimes things were unnecessarily repeated. For example, Tanner introduces himself and says Haze is his baby bro, and two sentences later Winter’s internal monologue states that Tanner seems older than Haze. I mean, he literally just told her that.
Having said that, I actually couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what was happening and how it was all going to end. And it’s a cliffhanger! I did not know this going in. But now I’m invested and I need to know. I’ve also just learned it’s a trilogy, gaahhhh.
I do have some questions though.
Why do Winter and her cousins have the same surname? Assuming their mums are sisters but her aunt was married, surely her cousins would’ve had their dad’s surname?
Why does Winter question so many things, but none of the glaringly obvious ones? Like I’m pretty sure that Will and Kess are a thing, and towards the end Blake was very obviously acting weird and he all but told her he could have been the unknown number texting her.
And where is girl code, family code, and bro code?? Kess tells Winter that she dated Blake and he dumped her a mere three weeks ago but Winter’s just tells him that she won’t date him because Kendrick wouldn’t like it? Ummmm how about you don’t date your cousin’s ex? And maybe back her the fuck up whilst you’re at it. Ugh.
Why does street fighting equal other gangs wanting to kill your loved ones? And why just Winter? Because surely it would have been unequivocally easy for these so-called rival gangs to find out about Kendrick’s mum and sister. I mean he’s hardly in hiding. He goes to school, and they apparently know where he lives…with said mum and sister. I just don’t get it.
I’m sure I have more but I’m actually just winding myself up thinking about it all.
And yet I need to read the next book. As infuriating and confusing and contradictory as this book was, I just have to know what happens!
Winter has just transferred to a new high school, in a new city, in a new country, for the last half of her senior year. She’s hoping to just fly under the radar but fails spectacularly on her first day when she unknowingly antagonises the most feared guy there.
Haze is mysterious, aloof, and dangerous. Winter finds out just how dangerous when she stumbles upon a meeting between rival gangs, to find out that he is the leader of the West Side. But the biggest shock? Her cousin, Kendrick, is the leader of the East Side.
There were a fair few negative points for me, the biggest one being that none of it was really believable, especially considering they’re all 18. Throw in some inconsistencies and a touch too much drama, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot.
Additionally, some of the terminology was a little off in my eyes, and sometimes things were unnecessarily repeated. For example, Tanner introduces himself and says Haze is his baby bro, and two sentences later Winter’s internal monologue states that Tanner seems older than Haze. I mean, he literally just told her that.
Having said that, I actually couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what was happening and how it was all going to end. And it’s a cliffhanger! I did not know this going in. But now I’m invested and I need to know. I’ve also just learned it’s a trilogy, gaahhhh.
I do have some questions though.
Why do Winter and her cousins have the same surname? Assuming their mums are sisters but her aunt was married, surely her cousins would’ve had their dad’s surname?
Why does Winter question so many things, but none of the glaringly obvious ones? Like I’m pretty sure that Will and Kess are a thing, and towards the end Blake was very obviously acting weird and he all but told her he could have been the unknown number texting her.
And where is girl code, family code, and bro code?? Kess tells Winter that she dated Blake and he dumped her a mere three weeks ago but Winter’s just tells him that she won’t date him because Kendrick wouldn’t like it? Ummmm how about you don’t date your cousin’s ex? And maybe back her the fuck up whilst you’re at it. Ugh.
Why does street fighting equal other gangs wanting to kill your loved ones? And why just Winter? Because surely it would have been unequivocally easy for these so-called rival gangs to find out about Kendrick’s mum and sister. I mean he’s hardly in hiding. He goes to school, and they apparently know where he lives…with said mum and sister. I just don’t get it.
I’m sure I have more but I’m actually just winding myself up thinking about it all.
And yet I need to read the next book. As infuriating and confusing and contradictory as this book was, I just have to know what happens!
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So yet again, I made the mistake of not checking if the series was a series of standalone with different couples or with just one couple. I prefer when it’s standalones, but this was with one couple. it’s my own fault. I don’t know if I want to continue this series.
The couple was relatively intriguing. It had the standard bad boy and good girl trope, which is one of my favourites. One thing though, is that Winter only seemed to be a good girl when it was convenient for the story. Otherwise, she was quite wild.
The writing was quite bad. It was very easy to read and it took me a day to finish. However, the writing felt very 2000-2010s, but not in a good way. It was a little bit cliche and there was a lot of comments I think there was more common during that time rather than in 2018. Such comments were, “ you’re not like other girls” and “ guys like him is why girls go gay”. It’s somewhat ruined the reading experience.
The thing that this book had going for it, and where the 2000-2010s vibes helped it, was that it was very enjoyable and fun to read. Sure, it was unrealistic at some times, especially the whole high school guys being a part of some underground gang culture. But it still had enjoyable feeling that I think is common with books that were written around 2010, especially when it comes to how the romance was written. Haze honestly had me smiling at the page because of how cute he was with Winter.
It's like this book is trying to go to the dark side of romance but it didn't quite make it there. You have "gangs", illegal fighting, kidnapping, guns, etc but they don't kill their enemies.
Also, I just couldn't see all the fuss about Haze. I think it's because we saw a different side of him before it fully sunk in that he's such a badass, scary fighter and we should be afraid of him.
Also, I just couldn't see all the fuss about Haze. I think it's because we saw a different side of him before it fully sunk in that he's such a badass, scary fighter and we should be afraid of him.
dark
emotional
tense
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
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No