Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - First Down

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

First Down by Grace Reilly

28 reviews

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

I think I read this at the most perfect moment. I mean, this book has a girl spending time with her football player boyfriend’s family in a stadium box while wearing his jersey. Who does that sound like? If you wanted Taylor x Travis vibes, that’s this book!

Taylor’s Team aside, James and Bex were really cute! I thought their progression from friends to fwb to official dating was both sweet and realistic. I loved how they were so supportive of each other. I also loved how the book demonstrated that giving a partner support doesn’t have to mean giving up something. I think James’ journey to realizing that is an important lesson for people to learn.

I wish there had been a little more fake dating and parts of the book felt a little rushed (mainly their progression from friends to lovers, which felt like it happened in a day when it was supposed to be months), but I’m kind of hoping since the rereleased copy is supposed to be longer that some of that is fixed.

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rosefine's review against another edition

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The writing was mediocre, the male narrator of the audiobook was terrible and it really should have had better trigger warnings. There were direct and indirect DV references and I really wish I’d known before starting to read it.

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katharina90's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

A fairly short, lighthearted, predictable romance. The writing isn't great and the characters are bland. There's not a lot of plot or chemistry. Medium spice.

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njh_books's review against another edition

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emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

Since I haven't been able to watch much of football season, this was a nice taste of it--minus all the mid game advertisements haha.

It's a fun book--3.5 stars cause it's fun but I'll probably never read it again.

Fake Dating to I Love You. Throwing the National Championship to prove a point.

Really enjoyed Beckett as a female character's name. Reminded me of being down South and the naming practices (wouldn't have expected it for a NY born and raised character).

The Callahan family is fun minus the dad Richard. Love Sandra the mom, she knows what's up.

Darryl was an ass. Hope he got expelled or suspended.

Interested to see how much more of Bex and James we'll see in the rest of the series.

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

This was a deeper new adult romance than I'm used to. There was more backstory to the main characters and they had more baggage than many new adult romances, which I liked. It tackled a lot of mental health and abusive ex-partner issues.
However, James wasn't completely likable and had anger issues. As well as a kind of obsessive attachment thing going on with his partners, where it was ALL about them and nothing else in his life. Making even the main relationship not completely healthy.
The male narrator wasn't great the female narrator was good. She did a great job with different tones for different characters.
Overall it was a good book with a lot of emotional depth. I do plan to continue the series.

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