Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Fine Print by Lauren Asher

102 reviews

bri__'s review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I loved Zahra and her personality and I loved the character development she caused Rowan to experience. This is the classic grumpy x sunshine trope and I really adored the side characters in this book as well. I was slightly underwhelmed within the middle of the book but I pushed through and I enjoyed the last 50 pages worth. I will be continuing the series because I'm interested in seeing Declan and Cal's stories. 

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emmieanna's review against another edition

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challenging emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

3.25✨

I don’t know how to feel about this one. I think I liked the story and wanted the characters to end up together but also he is the worst kind of person. I guess that is the point but she literally did not do one thing wrong to him the whole time and he was a liar and manipulator who couldn’t admit his feelings even to himself.

That being said, I will be continuing the series because I want to see Declan eat his words and be humbled by Iris because I know that they are supposed to end up together.

Also, I love the representation of differently ambled people in this book. Anni is the best character and you can’t tell me otherwise,
plus they incorporated a positive action scheme into the park
Love love love.

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amateur_bookworm's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.5

My summary: Rowan Kane is grieving his grandfather’s death. Shortly after the funeral, Rowan and his brothers receive letters that his grandfather had written before his accident that detail what each of them must do in order to receive their shares of their family’s Dreamland company. Rowan must tap into his buried childhood aspirations of creating and become the director of the Dreamland theme park and develop a renovation plan addressing the park’s shortcomings. This seems like an impossible task for Rowan; after losing his mom to cancer and surviving his childhood with an abusive and alcoholic father, Rowan’s dreams had died long before his grandfather did. Soon after Rowan arrives at Dreamland, Zahra stumbles right into Rowan’s lap. Just a lowly minimum wage Dreamland employee, the gorgeous and eccentric Zahra once worked on a project with Rowan’s grandfather and hoped to one day become a Dreamland Creator. After drunkenly submitting a critique of an expensive new ride being developed from which her cheating ex-boyfriend stole the idea from her, Zahra is expecting to be fired but instead receives a promotion. Zahra may be just what Rowan needs to nail his renovation plan, but she also may be just what he needs to heal his brokenness too. 
My thoughts: I found this to be an unexpectedly sweet love story for a grumpy/sunshine trope that delved into some deeper issues throughout the plot. And who doesn’t love a billionaire romance set in Disne—er, Dreamland?!? Lauren Asher did a great job portraying Rowan’s brokenness at the hands of childhood grief and verbal abuse and how that manifested in adulthood. I enjoyed Zahra’s positive disposition and selfless interest in helping people. The juxtaposition of the natures of each of their characters made for a good romance read. This is a great light-hearted, opposites attract love story that has enough substance to it that makes the story feel fuller than I had expected. This first book of this trilogy did not disappoint and I’ll be moving straight into the next one. 

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jelkebooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

3.0

I feel so conflicted on this book, because there were quite a lot of elements I really liked but there was also one big thing that I absolutely hated. So I want to say I quite enjoyed this book, but that would be a lie because I don't think I've this passionately hated a part of a book in a while. Life's hard.
Anyway, let's start with the positive. Dreamland is a very obvious Disney stand-in and the author makes no effort in hiding it, but honestly it's kind of fun. Especially because in this book we really focus on the theme park. I thought it was quite a fun workplace for these characters. It gave a reprieve from the typical, boring office job most billionaire romances are set around. I also quite liked Rowan. He definitely was a very typical character archetype for stories like this one, with a very predictable progression, but I do think it was very decently done. I really liked the depth given to the character, and I quite liked seeing him deal with the more difficult family dynamics he grew up in. He's also a likeable asshole. You know? I also quite liked the cast of side characters, and even though we got relatively little from Rowan's brothers I am really excited to read their romances.
My one big negative however is Zahra. Gods, I HATED her with such a burning passion. I just mainly thought she absolutely did not read like a real person. She was so quirky it hurt. She also didn't have a spine. The book portrays her as a badass who knows what she wants but she lets very small inconviences stand in the way of her dream life. It got so incredibly annoying to read. I also found that often her actions stood directely opposed to her inner monologue/motivations, which is just a sign of how incredibly badly written her character was as well. I also felt like she went through 0 developement throughout the novel, and had a bit of a hollier than thou attitude. I was a little annoyed by her at the start of the book, but by the end I hated her so incredibly much that it made my blood boil.
Therefore I also wasn't super invested in the romance. I do think it was decently enough developed, and there were some moments between them that I did quite liked. I don't hate their match completely. It's just that when you absolutely despise one character that makes up the relationship it's really hard too root for said relationship, especially as in the third act conflict I would argue that they both have equal fault, and yet only Rowan grovels and apologises. So yeah, this book wasn't necececarily my favourite, but considering there were enough elements in this that I really enjoyed and I've heard the books only get better, I'm quite excited to continue on with this series.

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zias's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

The only thing I hate about this book is loving the billionaire. In real life? Eat the rich. In fiction? I love Rowan. I thought I had figured out the twists but I still was shocked by a few developments. I loved the characters and the representation of Zahra’s sister having Down syndrome, and how her sister had almost as much of an impact on Rowan as Zahra did. The banter was funny and witty and I loved the journey this book took me on.

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sierrabedwell's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really liked this book! It is about two people who work at Dreamland aka a knock off of Disney. There is a family secret involving billions of dollars at stake. I really enjoyed the fact that her sister had a disability. I think that people with disabilities aren’t mentioned enough in popular books so it came as a nice surprise, especially at the end when he proposed that Dreamlands character costumes include prosthetics, wheelchairs, and other types of disabilities. 

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spellbindingtomes's review against another edition

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

2.5


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karly_ackley's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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eggfartz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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yellowbinge's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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