Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Restore Me

Taylor Swift songs: “false god” (still) and “don’t blame me” is Warner’s song about Juliet and no one can tell me otherwise. And “dancing with our hands tied”. I feel like Warner and Juliet own reputation album tbh

We finally get Juliet/Warner dual POVs!!!!!! And woahhhhh the plot has thickened!!!! Ok so this dystopian plot has really had some shocking twists and revelations in this book!! Everything went from zero to a hundred really quickly. There is a much heavier focus on the plot rather than the drama from the love triangle. However there is still so much ROMANCE and drama, just no love triangle. I am still Team Warner, 1000%, he’s so hot, I can’t stay mad at him at all. We get to know a lot more about both Warner and Juliet’s pasts in this and it adds so much more complexity to the story that makes it really interesting and gripping. I tore through this book so fast. I finished the 8.5 hour audiobook in 1.5 days. Yeah, needless to say I am addicted. I am so sad that my library hold for the next book isn’t coming for around 2 weeks, because I NEED the next book so badly it’s almost tangible. I am becoming obsessed with the writing style, of the internal monologue with rambling style thoughts. And again, Juliet is the original girlboss, what can I say, she is a QUEEN. Or should I say supreme leader? Anyways, loved it, need the next one NOW.
And the romance again!!!! This one is slightly spicier than the last one, I’d only rate it like 1/5🌶️ though. It’s still mainly emotional or feelings and not graphic, but it’s definitely implied. But again, this romance is literally one of the hottest without being graphic I’ve ever read like 🔥🔥🔥🔥 and I can’t with Warner, I literally love him sm.
Age rating: 14+

Content Warnings

jen1804's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The beginning of this book was great, it did sort of slump toward the middle but only slightly and the ending was outrageously good.
There was lots in this book that confused me though, like so much that it made me kind of mad. I’m also beginning to heavily dislike Juliette and I don’t know whether that’s intentional on Mafi’s part yet or not.
Juliette definitely overreacts to Aaron informing her of everything he’s learned about her past life. Let’s get this straight girl, the moment he learned about everything, he told you, and he left nothing out. The one piece of information he had known for a long time was not that big of a deal tbh and I understand his reasoning for withholding it. The moment he found out more he told you. I was worried that Mafi was going to do the classic miscommunication thing of getting one character (Aaron) to explain to the other character (Juliette) is such a poor way that they don’t understand. But that’s not what happened, Mafi wrote Aaron’s explanation so clearly and I was left thinking Juliette girl calm the fuck down.
Kenji is still amazing. Love his character. Love love Nazeera, and Kenji’s (attempted) flirtation with her haha.
I liked the fact that we got some Aaron/Adam content, that was a healthy conversation. And I also liked that after this Adam’s character takes a back seat for the rest of the book.
I also really loved the Aaron POVs in this book, yes yes yes. His thought processes and his anguish and heartbreak over Juliette, and him having a panic attack was all so beautifully written.
I loved how Juliette tried to force a friendship between Kenji and Warner but they’re both like nahhhh. The bad hair cut was so funny. But then they kind of bond over caring for Juliette when she’s drunk too much scotch and Aaron has to fill Kenji in.
At first I was like ugh why are we getting Juliette’s journal entries again, just repetition of extracts I’ve read before, but then I actually really appreciated the rereads of the journal entries parallel to the present. Because the more the book went on the more I came to the conclusion that Juliette is in fact insane and seeing the chapters play out alongside her journal entries helped cement this.
In a lot of ways this book kinda felt a bit disjointed from the first three, i.e. like Mafi hadn’t planned this far ahead when she wrote the original trilogy which I think is true and it shows. Like why is Castle suddenly this font of all knowledge when it comes to the Reestablishment, some of the stuff he was coming out with was crazy and I have no idea where he learned it all when even Aaron didn’t know?????? But actually as a book on its own it holds up really well.
And that ending was insane, in a good way. I audibly exclaims “W.T.F”! Loved loved loved, and it bumps the rating up despite some of my earlier confusions during the book.
Satisfactory ending? Absolutely.

Content Warnings

agnes_reads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

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