Reviews with content warning for Blood - In the Likely Event

Title: In the Likely Event
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Romance
Rating: 4.75
Pub Date: August 1, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Swoony • Addictive • Steamy

📖 S Y N O P S I S

When Izzy Astor gets on a plane to go home, she isn’t expecting much. It’s the usual holiday travel experience: busy, crowded, stressful. Then she spots her seatmate, who is anything but ordinary. Nate Phelan sports dark hair, blue eyes, and a deliciously rugged charm that Izzy can’t resist. Their connection is undeniable. Izzy never believed in destiny before, but she does now.

Just ninety seconds after takeoff, their plane goes down in the Missouri River.

Their lives change. They change. Nate goes on to a career in the military while Izzy finds her way into politics. Despite a few chance encounters over the years, the timing never feels right. Then comes a high-stakes reunion in Afghanistan, where Nate is tasked with protecting Izzy’s life. He’ll do anything to keep her safe. And everything to win her heart.

💭 T H O U G H T S

In the Likely Event was my Amazon First Reads selection for the month of July. I grativated towards the plane crash aspect, and when I selected it, I didn't realize it was written by the 'it' author of the moment, Rebecca Yarros (you may have heard of Fourth Wing!?). This is a contemporary romance - so there are no dragons here! If that's what you're looking for, you're likely going to be disappointed. Because fantasy is not my jam, I was looking forward to being able to read this author's work nonetheless.

This book got me from the very start! Learning how Izzy and Nate meet on the plane and their instant connection was one of my favourite parts of the whole book. What really hooked me was the structure. Told in alternating perspectives and timelines, and spanning ten years, Izzy and Nate's love story unfolds at the perfect pace.

I know there have been numerous comments on the problems of Nate's character arc, but I actually liked his character. To me, he felt very authentic with a dark and secretive past. The inclusion of the MCs annotating books for one another was such a sweet addition. Yes, this novel requires some suspension of belief, yet for some reason I was here for it. I'd have also been okay with an alternative ending, but was left satisfied anyways.

One of my favourite contemporary romance reads so far this year, I appreciated that there was some depth and flaws to the characters, as well as a relationship that faces many challenges along the way. Although I have no plans to read the Fourth Wing series, I'd definitely be interested in reading more of Rebecca's contemporary romance in the future.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of alternating POV romance
• readers looking for military romance
• chance meeting trope lovers

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The weight of the ring of my finger felt like an anchor, tying me to the one person I was starting to realize had never deserved me."

"It was impossible to give away a heart I'd never gotten back in the first place."

"That's what Nate was to me. As far wat as a lifetime and as close as yesterday, as near as twelve inches."

Content Warnings

100_pages_hr's review against another edition

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4.0

Content Warnings

cheesecake's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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

Content Warnings

headinthepages's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

zias's review

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emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

kb33's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

Oh holy shit. What a ride.

I sped through that book and kind of feel like I need to read it again to catch stuff I missed, but I also don’t know if I have the emotional bandwidth. That’s about as angsty as I ever enjoy in a book. It does have an HEA, in case you, too, start to wonder. That isn’t really a spoiler when this is categorized as a romance, but if you need reassurance, there it is. I think for me to give it a full 5 stars it would need another 25-50 pages in the last chapter or epilogue. Or more time with them together and happy at any point in the book. I don’t mind long books.

CW/TW details: no infidelity between main characters. No on page death. Detailed, on page plane crash.

Content Warnings

_alyssar_'s review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

Content Warnings

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