Tropes & Themes

Small town
Billionaire romance
Childhood rivals to lovers
Friends with benefits
Second chance
Carpenter x interior designer
One bed
Witty banter
Mexican-American FMC & MMC
Infertility/genetic illness struggles
Mental health rep (anxiety & depression)
Dead dad trauma

Spice:
Medium (4+ explict scenes)

My Thoughts:
To absolutely no one's shock, I loved yet another Lauren Asher book.

I took me a second to warm up the Dahlia but I ended up loving her. I really liked seeing not only anxiety and depression representation that was realistic and non-stigmatizing, but also infertility/genetic illness talked about. That's not super common in contemporary romance. I really admired her strength in healing from what Oliver did to her, as well as accepting that she'll always struggle with mental illness. Sometimes it iz what it iz. Anxiety and major depression gang ✌🏻😘

I also loved Julian of course. I too, am a petty and spiteful asshole. I loved seeing his growth and journey learning to be emotionally vulnerable. I also really appreciated seeing a MMC that was adamant about adopting and that adoptive kids are no less part of their family (although conversations about the adoption industry are also very important).

That being said, I'm very excited for Rafe and Ellie's book. Fingers crossed book three will be Lorenzo and Lily 🤞🏻

Favourite Quote:

“Turns out I’d rather build a home with you than a thousand houses by myself.”

Content Warnings

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.0

Booktok and Booktube saying that this is the best Lauren Asher book so far is a lie. I only read this because it is the book pick of the month for one of my Fable book clubs.

The only positive I had was the cameo of the characters from the Dreamland Billionaire series, but other than that, it gave me nothing.

The pranks Julian and Dahlia pull on each other are very childish, considering they are both 30-year-olds. As for the dialogue, some parts were too cringey, but I can admit that Julian had his moments when he made me swoon. As for the spice, I mostly skimmed them since I thought there were too many for a Lauren Asher book. At one point, I just got exhausted from the spicy scenes and was rolling my eyes.

The pacing was so off, and I'm facing the same issue as with Final Offer: it was longer than necessary. It was so long for no reason. It could have been 200 pages shorter, and the plot would not suffer. I didn't mind the numerous banter between the main characters because I understand that authors need the tension to make readers root for the couple. However, the constant reminder of how they had a falling out 10 years ago started to get annoying (as if it wasn't mentioned enough). It made me dread picking up this book and reading it because of how repetitive it was.

“Romance books don't need to be this long,” that's what we keep on saying. Please, listen to us.

Content Warnings

kat7794's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted slow-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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...