Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Blindsided

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Blindsided by Amy Daws

2 reviews

peam's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

1.5

I got this one as part of the Stuff your kindle event and I have to say I’m sad I wasted my time on it. And I’m glad I didn’t pay anything for it. I thought the book has a interesting premise and it started out quite well, only to have an ending that undermines everything that it preaches in the beginning.

This was a fat phobic book pretending to be “evolved” and on board with all the body positivity movement only to end with a praise to breastfeeding for its dieting properties. Truly disappointing.

Content Warnings

kingrosereads's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.75

Contemporary sports romance between a plus-sized woman and professional footballer/soccer player.

Freya is a 29-year-old plus-sized woman who has never had sex. She works as a seamstress and it’s at her job where she meets the hunky 34-year-old Scottish footballer, Mac. In a year, they’ve developed a friendship. In fact, they’re best friends. They have a shared friend group where all of her friends are married or dating all of his friends. They go to a party with their friends where they play Never Have I Ever. Though Freya lies throughout the game, Max eventually discovers that she’s a virgin and offers to help her by using him as practice. Of course, after sleeping together on a regular basis, they start developing feelings for one another. But Mac is solely focused on his career and against having a relationship distract him, even one with Freya.

Alright, I had a lot of high hopes for this book. I really did. So many BookTokers recommended it and it was advertised as a plus-sized heroine friends to lovers where they fake date for one of them to learn how to date (love coach trope). I thought it would be cute. I was sooooo wrong.

Let’s just get the dialogue out of the way, because that’s the least of my worries. The story takes place in London. Mac is Scottish and Freya is Cornish. They also have a couple of friends from America and one from South Africa. The friggin “slang” is everywhere. Listen, I’m American and far from an expert in English and Scottish slang, but in my 3 years of living in the UK, I’ve never heard a single person say “cocker” or “bledding” and about a dozen other terms. Plus, the author uses too many American terms like “bangs” instead of fringe. And phasing, of course, is off. Just one British beta reader would’ve solved this.

There’s 0 body positivity in this book. Freya thinks she’s fat therefore undateable and unloveable. And she isn’t happy until the very end where she loses a couple pounds from her BEING DEPRESSED. Seriously? And I’m a plus sized girl, I’ve always been between a mid to plus sized person, so I definitely know what it was like not dating anyone until I was in my 20s and having a boy in high school mistreat me and being bullied and never being asked out. Yeah, it does a lot to your self-esteem, but to read this book and see her NEVER come out of her body image issues and ONLY be happy when she was losing weight was incredibly disappointing.

Also, the plus-sized woman, nearly 30 years old, is a virgin and it’s explained the reason she’s a virgin is because she’s fat. What. The. Hell?? And not only that, but she’s a friggin idiot when it comes to ANYTHING involving sex. She doesn’t know “head” or “reverse cowgirl” or “69” and she doesn’t masturbate and has never had an orgasm. Not only does she not know what reverse cowgirl is, but she thinks it’s when a woman is role playing as a cowboy and the guy as a cowgirl. Like what?! I’ve learned all of these things (and more) by the 7th grade (Year 8)! Like Christ, I’m a demisexual plus sized woman, and trust me, the virgins in high school and college know WAY more about sex than the people having sex.

I’ve seen some reviews address this, but I don’t care if she calls sex “The Sex”. Though the way she said it made it seem like she was an idiot child instead of just being an adult that’s uncomfortable or immature talking about sex (think the show “Miranda” and how she is), it’s the least of Freya’s problems. Just the idea that this man wh*re is the one that’s going to teach her all about pleasure (because a woman couldn’t possibly learn about pleasure without a man) boils my blood. A lot of the sex scenes are super cringe as well because of this. He says he cares about her enjoying her first time and all that, but it’s just clear he doesn’t.

The book tries to be the whole “he’s a caveman and this is his primal instinct to possess” thing that some readers like in their books and not in reality, which is fine and I can enjoy, but the way it’s done in this book infuriated me. Mac is too jealous and possessive and embarrassing and immature for me to like him as a love interest. And this friend group is more like some white heteronormative cult where all the women take this toxic ass nonsense, marry them, be their little wives (take his last name cause he needs a win sometimes/train your husband…), and bear their children. But it’s okay because 2 of them are brilliant doctors and the others are business owners. Yeah feminism. *insert eye roll* Give me a break. Also, the author was doing too much trying to connect all the characters. There’s entirely too many couples and I couldn’t tell you who was with whom and which had kids.

Mac also abuses and gaslights the hell out of Freya in the end and SHE LETS HIM AND FORGIVES HIM. Maybe I’m at the point in my life or reading journey or whatever, where in my romances, I cannot do the forgiveness thing, not when one of them shatters the other’s feelings and uses their insecurities against them. Mac kisses Freya in front of their friends, effectively making their “just sex” thing more than just sex. And then he tells her he wants to try to MAYBE date, not to try dating, but maybe date. What the hell? Then turns around and says “this is when we were gonna stop sleeping together anyway” and moves to the other end of the country. Freya also tells Mac that she would move to Glasgow to be with him and help him through his crisis, but then she blames herself for not doing more or offering more for a guy that toyed with her emotions. Then he throws her insecurities in her face and basically validates every shitty thing she’s thought about herself. Absolutely not. He used his knowledge of her weakness to blame Freya for being alone and says she’s childish for expecting more when he initiated the idea that they could be more. Then his grand gesture is a PROPOSAL?! NO!

This book made me want to chuck my phone at the wall. It’s not a lower score only cause it has some funny bits and like one genuinely hot scene.

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