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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
sad
tense
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
Brady finally gets his own story. He played quite a large part of book 2. The most unbelievable part of this is Gunner just accepting he has a niece. Is Rhett really not going to apologise? Face punishment? That's.. Not cool.
I didn't read the first and second book. I jumped to third book straightaway (cause I don't know about the 1st & 2nd). This book is so emotional. It's so goooood!
So it's safe to say that I had no intention of starting this at 8pm tonight and staying up to finish it till almost 12am! Once again the author didn't disappoint! I loved getting to know Brady better and to finally get the whole truth surrounding Riley!!
1.5.
Ugh. This is the kind of book that gives a bad rap to both a) romance books and b) YA books about people with difficult lives. It's the kind of book that only refers to women and girls as "females," where a girl was raped and the dedication is for girls who "made mistakes," and where the romance just… has no build. There are problematic moments and there are moments that seem to just heap on the "issues" but never really addresses them, just using them for drama, basically. In terms of positives, I really like how supportive Riley, the protagonist's, family is, and I was able to fly through the book fairly quickly. Still. I don't recommend it.
Riley was raped at fifteen and then essentially kicked out of her small town when she spoke up about it. Now, with a 15-month-old child, she and her family has to return to that town to take care of Riley's ailing grandmother. Brady, the star quarterback of the high school football team, feels like he has to be a "good guy" and drive Riley and her daughter home in a storm. He has to decide what to believe.
Spoilers Discussion
The reason I picked this particular Abbi Glines book up, though I know that she can tend to write stories that are a little… much for me, is because of the child aspect. I thought that might age and mature the story, leading to characters who had to be more decent because there was a child involved. So, that kind of happened, I guess, but there were still lots of other issues.
The whole post-rape circumstances are totally glossed over. Obviously, Riley accused Rhett in some kind of public forum, but then… what happened. Did she talk to police? What was the thought process that happened there? I just feel like if one of the main background pieces of information for the story is that Riley is shunned because she spoke up, I'm going to need some more explanation there. Because speaking up after a rape is a very difficult and also important thing to do. I want that act to be given a little more time and dignity.
And even people beginning to believe her. It was just glossed over, like all of a sudden people trust her because they saw that Rhett could be a bad person, but there's no… substance there, I guess. I just kind of thought it was minimizing the issue.
Also, I was irked by the time that Brady implied that Riley was an especially good person because she didn't give the baby up for adoption or, almost UNTHINKABLY, having an abortion. Yes, Riley made a very strong, noble choice. It also would have been strong and noble to understand that she didn't feel like she could care for a child, and to provide alternate care options, or taking care of herself and having a baby. She didn't need to take either of those other options, but it doesn't make her somehow a much better person that she was in a circumstance where she could sacrifice and take care of the baby. (And she did sacrifice and I'm not trying to minimize that at all, she's doing something almost impossible very well, it's just I got annoyed.)
I just didn't buy the romance at all. And I thought that I would AT LEAST like, or be compelled by, that part. But turns out. Nope. There's no intriguing moments where they start to get attracted to each other, there's no angst as they fight that attraction. One minute they're just buds, the only inclination that Brady felt for Riley at all being that he wanted her to wear his shirt, and then the next he's kissing her and… what? It just wasn't exciting or interesting to me in the way that I need a romance to be in an otherwise crappy book.
I am glad that both Riley and Brady had some kind of positive parental figure. That's too often missing in books of this kind of genre and I loved seeing that they both had support systems. I also think that, from what we saw, Riley was a good mother. But Brady didn't really have anything to do with Bryony, he offered to take her out for dinner once or twice, I guess. But he never really got to know her, and that's the phase that I love in romance books where children are involved. I love watching the potential partner develop their own relationship with the child. It's special and was totally ignored and glossed over in this book.
I just kind of generally really disliked this book. That's my honest opinion. I don't think it made the world a better place, I didn't enjoy it, and I don't think I'll be checking out anymore of Glines's work. (Though of course, I wish her, as everyone, all the best.)
Fin!
Argh: 60%
Ugh. This is the kind of book that gives a bad rap to both a) romance books and b) YA books about people with difficult lives. It's the kind of book that only refers to women and girls as "females," where a girl was raped and the dedication is for girls who "made mistakes," and where the romance just… has no build. There are problematic moments and there are moments that seem to just heap on the "issues" but never really addresses them, just using them for drama, basically. In terms of positives, I really like how supportive Riley, the protagonist's, family is, and I was able to fly through the book fairly quickly. Still. I don't recommend it.
Riley was raped at fifteen and then essentially kicked out of her small town when she spoke up about it. Now, with a 15-month-old child, she and her family has to return to that town to take care of Riley's ailing grandmother. Brady, the star quarterback of the high school football team, feels like he has to be a "good guy" and drive Riley and her daughter home in a storm. He has to decide what to believe.
Spoilers Discussion
The reason I picked this particular Abbi Glines book up, though I know that she can tend to write stories that are a little… much for me, is because of the child aspect. I thought that might age and mature the story, leading to characters who had to be more decent because there was a child involved. So, that kind of happened, I guess, but there were still lots of other issues.
The whole post-rape circumstances are totally glossed over. Obviously, Riley accused Rhett in some kind of public forum, but then… what happened. Did she talk to police? What was the thought process that happened there? I just feel like if one of the main background pieces of information for the story is that Riley is shunned because she spoke up, I'm going to need some more explanation there. Because speaking up after a rape is a very difficult and also important thing to do. I want that act to be given a little more time and dignity.
And even people beginning to believe her. It was just glossed over, like all of a sudden people trust her because they saw that Rhett could be a bad person, but there's no… substance there, I guess. I just kind of thought it was minimizing the issue.
Also, I was irked by the time that Brady implied that Riley was an especially good person because she didn't give the baby up for adoption or, almost UNTHINKABLY, having an abortion. Yes, Riley made a very strong, noble choice. It also would have been strong and noble to understand that she didn't feel like she could care for a child, and to provide alternate care options, or taking care of herself and having a baby. She didn't need to take either of those other options, but it doesn't make her somehow a much better person that she was in a circumstance where she could sacrifice and take care of the baby. (And she did sacrifice and I'm not trying to minimize that at all, she's doing something almost impossible very well, it's just I got annoyed.)
I just didn't buy the romance at all. And I thought that I would AT LEAST like, or be compelled by, that part. But turns out. Nope. There's no intriguing moments where they start to get attracted to each other, there's no angst as they fight that attraction. One minute they're just buds, the only inclination that Brady felt for Riley at all being that he wanted her to wear his shirt, and then the next he's kissing her and… what? It just wasn't exciting or interesting to me in the way that I need a romance to be in an otherwise crappy book.
I am glad that both Riley and Brady had some kind of positive parental figure. That's too often missing in books of this kind of genre and I loved seeing that they both had support systems. I also think that, from what we saw, Riley was a good mother. But Brady didn't really have anything to do with Bryony, he offered to take her out for dinner once or twice, I guess. But he never really got to know her, and that's the phase that I love in romance books where children are involved. I love watching the potential partner develop their own relationship with the child. It's special and was totally ignored and glossed over in this book.
I just kind of generally really disliked this book. That's my honest opinion. I don't think it made the world a better place, I didn't enjoy it, and I don't think I'll be checking out anymore of Glines's work. (Though of course, I wish her, as everyone, all the best.)
Fin!
Argh: 60%
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was the best book yet; Brady wasn’t disrespectful towards woman the only annoying thing was how every five minutes they mentioned him being “the nice guy” 😭
emotional
lighthearted
medium-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