Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Escala

The first half of the book I didn’t like much. It’s written like their sexual attraction was so strong they couldn’t resist, regardless of how it hurt them. They argued constantly and treated each other horribly.

Then Jameson flips a switch and decides to be with Emily, and suddenly they’re sweet to each other and it’s a nice romance. Until the 3rd act breakup, where Jameson is horrible again. I don’t know how, but they get their HEA and if you can believe it, it was pretty sweet.

Then next book is supposed to be about the nice brother, so I’ll give it a try.

TW/CW details about infidelity

Jameson had an agreement with his ex fiance. While long distance, they could sleep around but couldn’t get serious with anyone else, and they were going to get fully back together after five years of Claudia working her dream job in London. Emily didn’t know anything about that arrangement until they’d been together a few weeks. Jameson broke it off with Claudia and then told Emily. There is also a side character who found evidence his boyfriend was cheating (all off page) and struggled to end the relationship.

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boldphoenix's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.0

It's alright for what it was, but it wasn't all that.

I couldn't stand Jameson nor Emily, and the entire time I couldn't stop asking myself why they even like each other. We know basically nothing about their personalities, but they love each other so much?? Their relationship was exhausting and so many issues could have so easily been avoided by talking to each other.

I almost DNF'ed but finished the book because I was very invested in the B plot, which wasn't even satisfactorily concluded. There were plot holes for days!

Emily works for months to write fake stories that somebody at Miles Media is selling to their competitor (The Gazette) in order to discover who is selling the stories and to show how shady the owner of The Gazette is. A private investigator (Jake) is hired for find the culprit, but he is a sleazy man who doesn't do anything and in fact appears to be part of the conspiracy the whole time, but this is never confirmed. Finally, somebody is embezzling money from Miles Media and framing Jameson. The only issue that is resolved in all of this is that Emily manages to prove who was embezzling. We never get confirmation that the people responsible for the embezzlement are the same people selling the stories to the competitor, and Jake gets fired for framing Emily and him as having an affair behind Jameson's back, but we have no idea if Jake was actually working for the competitor. It's like they forgot that fake stories were also an issue, and once embezzlement occurred that was the only focus.
Also, Claudia (Jameson's ex fiancée) just comes and goes when convenient but was an irrelevant character added for drama.

Pros:
> Some laugh out loud moments
> Very easy to read

Cons:
> Toxic relationship
> Formatting was all over the place

Tropes:
> grumpy x sunshine (but more like alpha jerk x pushover)
> boss x employee
> miscommunication (ugh, my least favorite)

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_chrstnlvly's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

Wow. This book was bad! There was a plot, but it was so bad. It was a mess. Most of the things that happened didn't make sense (one example: Jameson sees Emily as a f**k buddy, but he woke up one morning and decided she was the one. Now I know this happens in real life, but for them, it was too convenient just to keep the plot going. They didn't even know each other that much and now you're telling me you are suddenly in love and you want to marry her?).

Jameson and Emily were stuck in an endless loop of sleeping together, then Emily finds something to get mad about, then sleeping together, then Emily finds something to be mad about, then repeat. I lost count how long this went on.

Emily was the most annoying FMC I ever read. She was in her 20s, but she kept acting like a high schooler. It was a pain knowing her thoughts, because it was to childish. As for Jameson, I don't know why someone would fall in love with him. During one of their conversations, Jameson found out Emily sometimes have her food delivered. He was flabbergasted because he thought she should not let other people touch her food. What if they put drugs in her food causing her to pass out and sleep without any idea to what's happening? What if the delivery person comes back to Emily's house and r**e her? Why was this Jameson's line of thinking, you ask? Because, and I quote, "If I were a rapist, that's what I would do." Yup, straight from Jameson's mouth.

Listen, every time I read romance books, I leave my morals out the door, lock myself inside the book's universe, and read. I'm used to reading books with loose morals and I'm not a prude when it comes to this (I read the Cat & Mouse duet and I didn't have a problem with Zade). But what Jameson said was a huge red flag. Why would you even write that?! Why would you let your character "fall in love" (in quotations because honestly, they weren't really in love - they were just in lust) with someone who thinks like that? At this point, I just pitied the characters who were left in the hands of this author.

They fight over the smallest things. They make a big deal out of everything, especially Emily. One frown from Jameson makes her think that he hates him. Are they really in their 20s and 30s? So childish and immature.

I'm not against the grumpy/sunshine and boss/employee tropes (I loved the Dreamland billionaire series), but it was overdone in this book. Also, why was it so long? It didn't need to be 500+ pages. The third act breakup was thrown to the readers just so there will be tension.

If you haven't guessed it already, this is a 1 star read. If I could give a 0 star rating, I would, but the lowest rating I give to any book as bad as this is 1 star since I still give credit to authors who write books (even if their works are so freaking bad).

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unusablebooklore's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Well this book hit me out of nowhere. I felt like some how I missed all the hubbub about it online. Going into it I had no expectations. To be honest I was thinking it would be another series where I would read book one and abandon the rest.

Boy was I wrong. I'm now deeply invested in (...almost) all of the Miles brothers lives.

Don't avoid this book. The MC are flawed, and at times will have you face palming, but in the end smokin' hot together and their story is wonderful. The novel does a fantastic job setting up the world surrounding Miles Media and drags you in.

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bookilydo's review against another edition

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2.0

This is sort of a textbook billionaire romance. It was not my cup of tea because the MMC is a huge asshole, and the FMC, against her better sense, returns to him over and over and over again. I can see why others would enjoy the book, but it just was not for me. I'm undecided if I'll keep up with the series.

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anoukmahieu's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kat1105's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-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

4.0

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