Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Offside by Avery Keelan

13 reviews

abidavisf's review

funny hopeful slow-paced

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

3.75

An enjoyable and funny romance with characters you like straightaway. Chase is an angel, and I want to wrap Bailey in cotton wool and treat her like the queen she is.

The book is probably a little long for what it is. The plus of that is that you get a good amount of actual hockey time. This isn’t just a romance where one of the love interests happens to play hockey; you actually get the ins and outs of the games and what happens in each period which is what I live for.

There were elements of the story that I think we could have explored further, including Chase’s father and the way he processes

his death

. Because of the length of the book and the time between finding out about his dad and then determining the day of the party, it took me longer than it should have to realise why the party happened in the first place. Had the book been shorter or we been reminded more of his dad, the significance of that night would have made sense much sooner.

There were also several sub-plots that were fairly brief and therefore now feel unnecessary as they didn’t add a great deal to the plot or at least set us up for a sequel, e.g.

Derek’s relationship with Jill. It just ended and that was that. No repercussions? Did she break up with Eddie? Who knows?!

Another thing that, now that I’ve finished, feels like it was unnecessary if it wasn’t going to be explored more is

Sophie’s pregnancy

. We never heard about it again after that one scene so it feels like it didn’t need to happen. Either that or we should have gotten at least one other scene explaining what the outcome was. (In general, I’d actually very much like to hear the confirmed outcome for all of that group: Luke, Kristen, Amelia, Jill and Paul. I hope Eddie got out.)

I’d also like to know that

Nikki is okay. Luke blew up her life and potentially her relationship. We never got to hear about any of her involvement (if any) so, from the information we were given, it is clear that she was as much a victim as Luke.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Infidelity, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Car accident, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Vomit

dreezy's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Cursing, Medical content, Violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexism

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Classism, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Car accident, and Death of parent

underscoresyd's review

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.5

too much filler, could have been about 200 pages shorter & it gave me the ick whenever chase would touch bailey and instantly think of sex. like we get it. she’s hot. the spice wasn’t really well written either which is a disappointment since the book is so long & there’s so much of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy, Car accident, Drug use, Rape, and Abortion

wander_read_love's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Cursing, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence and Stalking

Minor: Drug use

wendybird13's review

funny inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Stalking and Injury/Injury detail

culzean's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Vomit, Gaslighting, Violence, Classism, Cursing, and Death of parent

lilyemmaaa's review against another edition

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

kassie1414's review against another edition

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting

laurenvoice's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts

lightlessxo's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy and Gaslighting