Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Offside by Avery Keelan

1 review

laurenvoice's review against another edition

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

3.0

For a book 600 pages long, Offside was surprisingly quick and easy to read; it only took a couple of days.

Offside was a fun and engrossing read that touched upon some dark topics. The slow build from friends to romance was sweet to read; Chase Carter was something else. I enjoyed watching Chase and Bailey's relationship grow, and their love spreads the message of how a green-flag relationship looks. Plus, it highlighted what red-flag relationships look like and why they are not acceptable, Luke belongs in the bin.

Avery Keelan did amazing at writing the romance side and fun side of the book. However, the darker topics that happened within this story felt poorly executed. For example, I found that the "sex tape" scandal and "stalking" were just brushed over and rushed. And there were no real consequences for these criminal acts; that tape was practically sexual assault. This storyline would have been the perfect opportunity to open a discussion about male victims of sexual assault and revenge porn.

As much as I loved watching Chase and Bailey's relationship grow, I found the book overly long; near the end, I got a bit fatigued reading it. The ending felt rushed and underwhelming, especially the resulting answer to the massive build-up of Bailey's guilt for her parent's financial troubles.

Also, there were a lot of unanswered questions, like what happened to Bailey's dad in the bonus chapters? It would have also been great to read some chapters talking more about Chase's and Bailey's family; I want to know more about Bailey's two other older brothers; do they have names for a start?

All that said, Offside was the lighthearted read I needed. I enjoyed reading about the ice hockey games and look forward to reading the next book in this series. 
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