Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Would You Rather

Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Would You Rather by Allison Ashley

25 reviews

rrubin97's review

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The premise that Mia and Noah had to commit insurance fraud was a bit silly (for one if she is a full time student the university should have it or she should be qualified for Medicare) plus not sure it even was fraud but the proximity to realizing feelings trope was strong and the characters were lovable so I enjoyed the read once it got started (slow to get into)

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krisalexcole's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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dianaschmidty's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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onlyonebookshelf's review

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emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

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? Yes

2.5

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rakizaka's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

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snugglesandpages's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

4.0

𝙒𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙯𝙤𝙣𝙚, 𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙠 𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚?

I really enjoyed this swoony besties to lovers romance. The lifelong connection between Noah and Mia and their cute, playful antics lighten the emotional heaviness surrounding Mia's chronic illness and Noah's longterm guilt & grief after losing his brother.

The story is well paced and flows beautifully. I could relate to Mia and her desire to keep people at arms length, not wanting to burden them with the weight of her illness but still wanted to shake her at times and tell her its not her decision to make. I became so invested in not only their blooming romance, but their individual journeys toward acceptance & healing, that I ended up reading the entire book in a day! I

What I liked most was the fact the MC's actually communicate with each other! Real conversations and great banter. Also, I love the unwaving support they both have for each other to follow their dreams 🤩

Just be warned, you will really want fried chicken 🍗 after reading this book 🤣

Read if you like;
⚜Friends to Lovers
⚜Modern Marriage of Convenience
⚜Slow Burn
⚜Workplace Pranks
⚜Chronic Illness representation.

Thank you to @harpercollinsau & @harlequin for kindly #gifting me a copy of Would You Rather, I now plan to read all of Allison's books

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piperclover's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted reflective 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

3.5

I'm very very torn on this. I love all of the characters for the most part. I think Mia is a very cool female character, she's very funny, she's very cute, and she's very strong. And I think Noah is exactly what women want in a best guy friend so in that way there's nothing wrong with him. What I have a problem with is how incredibly selfish Mia is when it comes to her chronic kidney illness. She refuses to let people stay close to her and help her when she's ill. And I understand that like really common issue that chronically ill people have but she takes it so far as to not letting people stay in her hospital room when she has surgeries?? These people are out of their minds with concern and terrified that she's not going to live and she refuses to let them sleep in the corner of the hospital room.

I also don't think she had nearly enough tact and compassion when it came to the way that she treated Noah's trauma. She just started lecturing him and forcing him into situations he didn't want to be in instead of helping him gradually overcome his trauma and anxieties. And as someone with severe anxiety that is NOT how you go about it.

Also the big climactic fight that happens in the 3rd act, it doesn't really make sense because Mia starts arguing for one thing and then halfway through she flips and starts arguing a different thing that's related but not what she started with. So I found myself being a little confused at what she was going for because suddenly it sounded like she realized how awful she sounded and needed to fix the argument. Basically most of my issues boil down to Mia is incredibly selfish and refuses to let people care about her and so she shoves them away in the most cruel manner and has literally no common sense about how thats hurtful. That part of her felt like she was a young child or teenager and not a 30 year old woman. On top of that she's just honestly cruel to her parents for no good reason. It makes sense that she would be hurt about the situation they're in but it does not call for her reaction to it and I just find it so incredibly frustrating. She needs an actual therapist.

There's an older character who is treated as purely a therapist for free and actually that's how all of the side characters that aren't in the main group are treated. They're either therapists or they serve the sole purpose of being there to tell Mia how much Noah is into her.

I did actually really enjoy this though despite how much I have to complain about some things because I really loved this setup way more than I thought I would and I also really like the personalities of Noah and Mia and I think they're really cute together. 77% of this book was amazing but once I hit that point I just really fell hard because of everything I mentioned above. So most of the book I had a great time and then the ending just did not work for me.

Edit: originally I gave this 4 stars but considering all of my lasting feelings about this book are negatove, I've changed it to 3.5.

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