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decklededgess's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
content/trigger warnings: sex and nudity, alcohol use, death of parents, cancer, car accident mention, ghosting of a significant other, heart attack, difficult relationship with parents, fire related tragedy, grief
This book was decent despite my initial hesitation, although the "i like it" vibe wasn't consistent throughout. The first 10% was really bland and pissed me off. A lot of tell and no show. Predictably, once the smut picked up I was able to read faster. The pacing was a bit odd though and again once we hit like 70% the book went back to it's tell and no show writing and it felt like a lot of detail that would have made the story flow better was cut out.
I was also not a big fan of Trixie's "I need to deal with my own goals and not worry about Andre's concerns about neighbourhood gentrification because I'm a Bitchin Boss Babe." First of all ew to that group name we're well past the girlboss era of feminism. Please move past that. Second of all, she's a DMV transplant, has no connection to the neighbourhood and the history. So when she decides to opt for her own dreams with no regard for Andre's knowledge of the impact of gentrification and how actually partaking in renting gentrified buildings contributes to further gentrification well....she really went full throttle girlboss and I hated it. There were certainly better ways for her to achieve her goals without literally being part of the problem Andre was so concerned about.
I also wasn't to hot on how all of that responsibility of growth was thrown on Andre. Trixie's maturity and independence happened off page. We didn't get to see her grow into her confident (albeit annoyingly girlboss) self. Meanwhile Andre was flogged for being closed off and unable to communicate, which yeah sure he was a bit emotionally tight lipped. But when he raised concerns about the gentrification issue it's brushed aside as aggressive and unsupportive. He gets a POV in the book but it didn't feel much like the author was giving him an actual chance.
Anyways, the book ends with a nice little deus ex machina so it all worked out. Plus the smut was obscenely good so there's that.
This book was decent despite my initial hesitation, although the "i like it" vibe wasn't consistent throughout. The first 10% was really bland and pissed me off. A lot of tell and no show. Predictably, once the smut picked up I was able to read faster. The pacing was a bit odd though and again once we hit like 70% the book went back to it's tell and no show writing and it felt like a lot of detail that would have made the story flow better was cut out.
I was also not a big fan of Trixie's "I need to deal with my own goals and not worry about Andre's concerns about neighbourhood gentrification because I'm a Bitchin Boss Babe." First of all ew to that group name we're well past the girlboss era of feminism. Please move past that. Second of all, she's a DMV transplant, has no connection to the neighbourhood and the history. So when she decides to opt for her own dreams with no regard for Andre's knowledge of the impact of gentrification and how actually partaking in renting gentrified buildings contributes to further gentrification well....she really went full throttle girlboss and I hated it. There were certainly better ways for her to achieve her goals without literally being part of the problem Andre was so concerned about.
I also wasn't to hot on how all of that responsibility of growth was thrown on Andre. Trixie's maturity and independence happened off page. We didn't get to see her grow into her confident (albeit annoyingly girlboss) self. Meanwhile Andre was flogged for being closed off and unable to communicate, which yeah sure he was a bit emotionally tight lipped. But when he raised concerns about the gentrification issue it's brushed aside as aggressive and unsupportive. He gets a POV in the book but it didn't feel much like the author was giving him an actual chance.
Anyways, the book ends with a nice little deus ex machina so it all worked out. Plus the smut was obscenely good so there's that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Grief, and Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Car accident, Death, and Death of parent
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