Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Spoiler Alert

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

203 reviews

bribreez's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

4.0

We’ve all been known to either read or write fanfics of our favorite movies and shows, and April and Marcus were those types of people. With the well known and popular show, “Gods of the Gate”, Marcus was the main lead in the show, and had been for the past seven years. When he wasn’t on set filming, Marcus spent his time online reading and writing his own fanfics of his favorite characters from the show. April was also a “Gods of the Gate” fan and from reading and writing her own stories as well she even cosplayed occasionally. Through the online servers, April and Marcus became friends and offered insights/help on each other’s fanfics. Except, April and Marcus didn’t know each other’s real life identities, only known as their usernames online. This story covered celebrity romance, plus sized rep, fangirl galore, romance, and more.

Marcus and April were opposites in different ways from their jobs, where they lived, but the thing that they shared in common was their admiration for their favorites book series, and writing fanfics about them. I liked seeing the online dialogue that April (Unapologetic Lavinia Stan) and Marcus (Book!AeneasWouldNever) had together. It seemed like when they were online, both April and Marcus had a support system in that they could freely express themselves and their own take on the characters from the series. In real life, April and Marcus were focused on their jobs, and often felt like they couldn’t relate to anyone liking the same things as they did so it was nice they had each other to talk to online, and what not.

I’ll admit, it took me a bit to get into the flow of reading, but little by little with each chapter, I started to enjoy the story more. I really liked April and how she was. The way April got excited talking about her job as a geologist was interesting as well as how she spoke about the different types of rocks, etc. I know nothing about rocks, but thanks to April I was educated on some aspects to it. April was an intelligent and kind hearted person so it wasn’t hard to see why Marcus was crushing on her. Marcus was also pretty great with the way he was so sweet and at times shy around April. Marcus may have been a famous well known actor, but with April he was just the man, who unbeknownst to her, was her online friend who she deeply cared about. With April not knowing that Marcus was BAWN (Book!AeneasWouldNever) it was a secret that Marcus wanted to tell April numerous times, but due to the nature of his career, he couldn’t risk others finding out about his fanfic account, where he was known to be openly against many of the changes, writing done on, “Gods of the Gate”.

Both April and Marcus each had their own struggles throughout the story. With Marcus, dealing with his dyslexia, he always felt like he wasn’t “smart enough” or felt less then in the eyes of his parents. With that in mind, Marcus felt the need to put on an act in front of others, pretending to be a dim witted, golden retriever type of guy as opposed to the smart, capable man he was. April had her own struggles as well which usually had to do with her body type. April often felt like people would judge her on her body and while she tried to ignore those whose negative opinions didn’t matter, to her sometimes it did. While April and Marcus’s inner insecurities were different, they each shared the same struggle of trying to move forward from them, and learning to truly accept themselves for who they were.

I really liked seeing how Marcus started to take into account the things he said or did towards April and making changes to that. To Marcus, he didn’t think much by inviting April to work out with him and have breakfast, but to April it seemed like another person judging her body, and trying to make her someone healthier, lose weight, etc. Marcus loved April the way she was, body, mind, and all, but he genuinely didn’t think how some things he said could be taken as offensive or hurtful. Marcus started to make a conscious effort to show April that he liked her just as she was, and reassured her in small ways that he supported in anyways possible. The dialogue of body image was significant and one that continues to be of importance to highlight both in media and in real life. There isn’t such thing as the “perfect” body type. Everyone is beautiful no matter their shape size, skin tone, or anything. So with that in mind, I really loved how Olivia wrote April and shined a light on an important topic, as well as showing the plus sized representation with April. I’m not trying to sound cliché, but just felt like that needed to be said in case you’re reading this.

This book was a mixture of lighthearted, highlighting important topics, but also… the romance and spice was pretty good too! Haha what can I say? I do love me some good old spice in my romance books. This book wasn’t overtly explicit, but just enough that you got to enjoy reading about the passion that emanated between Marcus and April. The intimacy between Marcus and April was loving and romantic. I especially loved seeing how caring and loving Marcus was with April both when they were casually spending time together or being intimate with one another. Marcus was wholly devoted and in love with April, and seeing the way he made her feel was great because, he didn’t feel like she needed to change anything about herself. April and Marcus’s chemistry was lovely and I absolutely seeing their dynamic together both as their online personas and in real life.

Overall, this was such a lovely story. I really enjoyed reading about April and Marcus and how their online friendship translated to real life unknown to April in the beginning when she met Marcus. Marcus was head over heels for April and seeing them spend time together, giving each other commentary on the fanfics they wrote was fun to read. I found the way that Olivia wrote this book highlighted both the negative and positive views on body image, and it made me take into account that some things that might come off as “helpful” could actually be hurtful to others. This covered a multitude of topics that covered both April and Marcus’s insecurities, but it also showed that even in the end they were making strides to moving past those fears they initially had. I also loved reading about Alex and of course I’m looking forward to reading his own story next! The ending and epilogue were oh so sweet and uh duh ROMANTIC! To all my online readers of Wattpad or AO3, this is the story that makes us wish we could have something happen to us like what happened with April and Marcus! This was my first book to read by Olivia and safe to say, I’m going to be reading more of her books in the near future (*immediately goes online to order more books by Olivia!).

Content Warnings

jenkoch88's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. Some of the sex scenes and word choices were a bit graphic. So if that's something you don't like be aware.

Content Warnings

storytimejess2's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.0

Perfectly adorable modern romance

Content Warnings

jewellelizabeth's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted relaxing 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

2.75

Deducting almost an entire point just for the weird Little Red Riding Hood bit in the epilogue because it completely took me out of the story. Other than that, this was a cute read.

Content Warnings