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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
medium-paced
My new favorite contemporary romance!
Ah! I struggle to find a good book that can suck me in deep enough to keep reading and usually it's a thriller that does so but The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons sucked me right in. It's such a clean romance but with realistic 3d characters that had goals, flaws, and real personalities that made me want to know them. Even the side characters in this story came alive. It had a few good twists and handled a bit of a love triangle well. I was on the right team but I loved that she wrote it in a way where you could understand both sides. It did have a few twists I didn't see coming especially one but it made the story exciting. I looooved the story from start to finish. Oddly it reminded me of The Little Mermaid and Pearl Harbor.
As a side note I watch Abbie Emmons' YouTube channel since I'm an author too and she gives such good advice but it shows in her writing. She is such a good author and writer and master storyteller!
The story is also clean which I looove. It's hard to find a good romance with all the drama and realism and grit but without any sexual content so I really appreciated that. I also really enjoyed both Jack and Adam and their relationship as brothers. I love stories about brothers and their relationships and this one gave me my new favorites.
Literally my new favorite contemporary romance. But I need more or another book just like this. What am I supposed to do with my life ?!
Ah! I struggle to find a good book that can suck me in deep enough to keep reading and usually it's a thriller that does so but The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons sucked me right in. It's such a clean romance but with realistic 3d characters that had goals, flaws, and real personalities that made me want to know them. Even the side characters in this story came alive. It had a few good twists and handled a bit of a love triangle well. I was on the right team but I loved that she wrote it in a way where you could understand both sides. It did have a few twists I didn't see coming especially one but it made the story exciting. I looooved the story from start to finish. Oddly it reminded me of The Little Mermaid and Pearl Harbor.
As a side note I watch Abbie Emmons' YouTube channel since I'm an author too and she gives such good advice but it shows in her writing. She is such a good author and writer and master storyteller!
The story is also clean which I looove. It's hard to find a good romance with all the drama and realism and grit but without any sexual content so I really appreciated that. I also really enjoyed both Jack and Adam and their relationship as brothers. I love stories about brothers and their relationships and this one gave me my new favorites.
Literally my new favorite contemporary romance. But I need more or another book just like this. What am I supposed to do with my life ?!
Starting off with a thank you to NetGalley and Abbie Emmons for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I can say with full confidence that I still think that Emmons is a talented writer and I would give this book a 2.25 stars out of 5. It's not a 1-star book for me which comes from the actual prose that is present in the story. There were several moments toward the beginning of the book when I was able to just enjoy the language that she used to tell the story and how Orca sees the world and expresses it in a way that is completely unique to her.
That said... It's not a 5-star book either.
I will do everything I can to avoid spoilers and only pull specific details that appear in the summary here on Goodreads.
As I said, the start of the book was really well written, and I had thought that I would be able to anticipate where the story would go because of the kind of writing that Emmons has done in the 100DOS series so I didn't allow myself to be bothered by some of the plot points until they became very solidly the direction the story was going at about 40% of the way through the book.
I feel like Orca had a lot of personality in the beginning of the story, and then when the two brothers were introduced to her world, her character fell flat. Orca becomes this "pure and untainted thing" to the men in the story in a way that makes all of the interactions feel dirty. That combined with the fact that Jack seems to be the male equivalent of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Adam has barely any personality besides being plagued-by-philosophy and thinking too much. All of the characters slowly devolve into these tropes that are easy to predict and also a bit (if not a lot) problematic.
Putting a young (barely legal - 18-year-old) girl into a position where she has to choose between someone age-appropriate and someone who is, on multiple occasions and affectionately, described as a father figure to someone her age is not something that I would have ever expected from Emmons. But who am I to say, this is only her second world that has been published.
I found it very difficult to enjoy the story after the romance between her and Adam is introduced, especially with the way that Adam's internal monologue was telling him all of the reasons that it would be inappropriate. With his internal monologue reflecting my own personal views, it became more of a problem when there seemed to be a lot of justifications coming from other adult characters (I say "other" because Adam is in some ways on a similar level to the parental figures in this story) that were inappropriate and unsettling.
Outside of the romantic part of Orca's story, I thought all of her ~side quests~ were pretty interesting and gave way to the potential to make her a much more engaging character, but there wasn't as much effort put into those as I would have enjoyed.
There are several small details that I think could have made this story more digestible in the grand scheme of things.
For one - 10 year age gaps are not exciting. Especially in a YA story. They're predatory. Even if you make your character out to feel bad about doing something predatory, and "they don't mean to be bad" they are being predatory. I think a simple change that would have made this way more manageable and still give the same kind of drama is to make Jack 19/20 and keep Adam 28, but age up Orca to be in between at 24/25.
Her character would not have changed just because she wasn't "barely an adult" she would have just had to spend a few more years begging her dad to go to the mainland. And although that would move this story out of the YA category, it would be monumentally less detrimental to the young adults who could read this and think that if a man 10 years older than them thinks they're special, it's true love. It's been proven that the brain's decision-making processes aren't fully developed until age 25, so that would at least give her more autonomy over not diving headfirst into something she can't fully comprehend.
Another small detail would have to do with Orca's parent's relationship which ties back to the justifications I mentioned before. To avoid spoilers - I don't think that it needs to be as closely tied to Orca's story as it is.
I continue to be proud of Abbie for all the work that she puts into creating content, supporting other writers, and developing her own stories. I look forward to her next book still...but this one is not it for me. I don't think she'll read my review, and that's totally fine, but I hope that there are some other readers out there who take a peak at this and think slightly more critically about the work that's in front of them rather than the person that created it.
I can say with full confidence that I still think that Emmons is a talented writer and I would give this book a 2.25 stars out of 5. It's not a 1-star book for me which comes from the actual prose that is present in the story. There were several moments toward the beginning of the book when I was able to just enjoy the language that she used to tell the story and how Orca sees the world and expresses it in a way that is completely unique to her.
That said... It's not a 5-star book either.
I will do everything I can to avoid spoilers and only pull specific details that appear in the summary here on Goodreads.
As I said, the start of the book was really well written, and I had thought that I would be able to anticipate where the story would go because of the kind of writing that Emmons has done in the 100DOS series so I didn't allow myself to be bothered by some of the plot points until they became very solidly the direction the story was going at about 40% of the way through the book.
I feel like Orca had a lot of personality in the beginning of the story, and then when the two brothers were introduced to her world, her character fell flat. Orca becomes this "pure and untainted thing" to the men in the story in a way that makes all of the interactions feel dirty. That combined with the fact that Jack seems to be the male equivalent of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Adam has barely any personality besides being plagued-by-philosophy and thinking too much. All of the characters slowly devolve into these tropes that are easy to predict and also a bit (if not a lot) problematic.
Putting a young (barely legal - 18-year-old) girl into a position where she has to choose between someone age-appropriate and someone who is, on multiple occasions and affectionately, described as a father figure to someone her age is not something that I would have ever expected from Emmons. But who am I to say, this is only her second world that has been published.
I found it very difficult to enjoy the story after the romance between her and Adam is introduced, especially with the way that Adam's internal monologue was telling him all of the reasons that it would be inappropriate. With his internal monologue reflecting my own personal views, it became more of a problem when there seemed to be a lot of justifications coming from other adult characters (I say "other" because Adam is in some ways on a similar level to the parental figures in this story) that were inappropriate and unsettling.
Outside of the romantic part of Orca's story, I thought all of her ~side quests~ were pretty interesting and gave way to the potential to make her a much more engaging character, but there wasn't as much effort put into those as I would have enjoyed.
There are several small details that I think could have made this story more digestible in the grand scheme of things.
For one - 10 year age gaps are not exciting. Especially in a YA story. They're predatory. Even if you make your character out to feel bad about doing something predatory, and "they don't mean to be bad" they are being predatory. I think a simple change that would have made this way more manageable and still give the same kind of drama is to make Jack 19/20 and keep Adam 28, but age up Orca to be in between at 24/25.
Her character would not have changed just because she wasn't "barely an adult" she would have just had to spend a few more years begging her dad to go to the mainland. And although that would move this story out of the YA category, it would be monumentally less detrimental to the young adults who could read this and think that if a man 10 years older than them thinks they're special, it's true love. It's been proven that the brain's decision-making processes aren't fully developed until age 25, so that would at least give her more autonomy over not diving headfirst into something she can't fully comprehend.
Another small detail would have to do with Orca's parent's relationship which ties back to the justifications I mentioned before. To avoid spoilers - I don't think that it needs to be as closely tied to Orca's story as it is.
I continue to be proud of Abbie for all the work that she puts into creating content, supporting other writers, and developing her own stories. I look forward to her next book still...but this one is not it for me. I don't think she'll read my review, and that's totally fine, but I hope that there are some other readers out there who take a peak at this and think slightly more critically about the work that's in front of them rather than the person that created it.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I reviewed this as an ARC reader and will provide my honest feedback.
3.5 stars.
As a fan of Abbie's YoutTube Channel, and a teenager of the 90s, I was excited to read this one.
Although the book started slow for me and its premise reminded me of The Little Mermaid rather than Rapunzel, as noted by many reviewers, it did pick up and the second half was a quick, exciting read. The back-half action, romantic moments, and twists were well-plotted.
The characters of Adam and Jack were likable (although Adam seemed almost too perfect) and Jack's voice came through strong during his POV chapters. I had trouble believing Orca's character the most. Given her sheltered upbringing and having only one person for company throughout her 18 years, she would have felt much more overwhelmed by the people, noises, and new experiences of civilization.
Overall, as a sweet YA romance, this book delivers and will leave you with a feel-good vibe.
PS - I'm loving the Spotify playlist that was made for the book!
3.5 stars.
As a fan of Abbie's YoutTube Channel, and a teenager of the 90s, I was excited to read this one.
Although the book started slow for me and its premise reminded me of The Little Mermaid rather than Rapunzel, as noted by many reviewers, it did pick up and the second half was a quick, exciting read. The back-half action, romantic moments, and twists were well-plotted.
The characters of Adam and Jack were likable (although Adam seemed almost too perfect) and Jack's voice came through strong during his POV chapters. I had trouble believing Orca's character the most. Given her sheltered upbringing and having only one person for company throughout her 18 years, she would have felt much more overwhelmed by the people, noises, and new experiences of civilization.
Overall, as a sweet YA romance, this book delivers and will leave you with a feel-good vibe.
PS - I'm loving the Spotify playlist that was made for the book!
As a fan of Abbie's YoutTube Channel, and a teenager of the 90s, I was excited to read this one. And as a sweet, YA romance, this book delivers and will leave you with a feel-good vibe.
Although the book started slow for me and its premise reminded me of The Little Mermaid rather than Rapunzel, as noted by many reviewers, it did pick up and the second half was a quick, exciting read. The back-half action, romantic moments, and twists were well-plotted.
The characters of Adam and Jack were likable (although Adam seemed almost too perfect) and Jack's voice came through strong during his POV chapters. I had trouble believing Orca's character the most. Given her sheltered upbringing and having only one person for company throughout her 18 years, she would have felt much more overwhelmed by the people, noises, and new experiences of civilization.
Although the book started slow for me and its premise reminded me of The Little Mermaid rather than Rapunzel, as noted by many reviewers, it did pick up and the second half was a quick, exciting read. The back-half action, romantic moments, and twists were well-plotted.
The characters of Adam and Jack were likable (although Adam seemed almost too perfect) and Jack's voice came through strong during his POV chapters. I had trouble believing Orca's character the most. Given her sheltered upbringing and having only one person for company throughout her 18 years, she would have felt much more overwhelmed by the people, noises, and new experiences of civilization.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Maybe I’m just a hater, but this book has really made me reevaluate my stands on age gap romances, and realize that… I still absolutely do not like them. Lawrence Monroe, come outside because I got a present for you 👊. Like, did he actually get her mom pregnant without her consent???? Did they all just gloss over that??? “Yes let’s return to the island and live with my insanely controlling father and reevaluate nothing about my life.” Her mom was right when she said that “Lawrence doesn’t know how to love. Only possess.” Listen, abandoning your toddler is pretty effed up and her attitude toward 18 year old Orca was Bad TM but like do we really need to FULL pedal to the medal vilify the woman for not wanting to live on a deserted island with a husband way older than her who wanted her to be a trad wife and have a bunch of kids that she didn’t want?? And then Orca is like “oh baby sign up me up for a seat at the diner of My Mother’s Bad Decisions and literally just do the same thing as her”.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Medical content