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katie_lacour's review
challenging
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I’m really mad because this book could’ve been a 5 star read. However, the execution just didn’t happen, leaving me frustrated and sad.
Things I would change:
1) The ending. It was absolutely unnecessary to the plot, and I feel like if the author didn’t want to make it a complete happily ever after she could’ve discussed their ongoing struggles with mental health (ptsd), learning to trust, etc. But instead I feel like she tried to go for the shock factor and break the reader’s heart. It did nothing to contribute to the plot in my opinion, and it felt rushed and not even fleshed out. The characters processing the ending doesn’t even occur.
2) There were some weird lines in this book that bordered on racist or problematic. “I knew he liked his coffee like he liked his women, Black and strong.” This just rubbed me the wrong way for multiple reasons. First, no characters in the book are diverse whatsoever, so this line just felt like the author was trying to check diversity off the list, almost with tokenization. It also felt weird to compare Black women to coffee. Like I know how he liked his women how he liked his bread, stale and white? Idk. It seemed a bit to me like objectification/when people see value in BIPOC because they’re “exotic.” Maybe the author meant for it to be empowering for strong Black women, but that’s not how it came across. The author also used the term “Indian summer” which has racist origins. Again, not the end of the world, but when there’s no diversity in the book it makes you wonder. Finally, the author has the FMC talk about abortion like it’s murder. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion on abortion and women certainly should make choices on their potential pregnancy and birth without pressure from others, this portrayal came across as slightly problematic to me, especially in today’s day and age. It’d be one thing for the FMC to say “Oh I didn’t want to have an abortion, that’s just not something I’d be interested in/I want to keep the fetuses.” But for her to call it murder is sus, and combined with the rest it just rubs me wrong. The glossing over of special ops too without acknowledging that they can cause harm was a bit off-putting to me. This book just felt like it was written ten years ago instead of recently and has me wondering who this author really is. It also has me questioning if I want to read Iron Flame if the author is going to include stuff like this in it too.
3) I think the whole not telling her who he was the whole entire book was dumb. I get it at first, but the fact he kept it from her for so long was so irritating to me and I would have written that storyline differently.
4) There were so many parts that weren’t believable. Her not getting child support?? Her ripping up the check for the kids?? Like say what you want about your pride but not taking half a million from a complete douche bag is the LEAST he can do for your kids. She’s a bad mom to refuse that money on their behalf instead of putting it towards things that benefit them like college savings. The school giving her crap about the child’s attendance is ILLEGAL. I was literally in Children’s Hospital of Colorado for two weeks and I had a social worker there going to bat for me with the school district to help me make up my schoolwork. Not only that but they 100% followed through with it. No school would be that stupid or insensitive. Also love how the daughter can’t be around the customers but she’s fine to go to school and run around with kids all day who pick their noses and don’t wash their hands. At the very least her and her family would likely be going around wearing masks/disinfecting since she’s immuno-compromised.
Overall, I liked the premise and the characters for the most part, but I’m really disappointed because it could have been so much better and the author really got in her own way with this. The more I think in this book, the less I like it. No book is perfect but I cannot see past these flaws.
Things I would change:
1) The ending. It was absolutely unnecessary to the plot, and I feel like if the author didn’t want to make it a complete happily ever after she could’ve discussed their ongoing struggles with mental health (ptsd), learning to trust, etc. But instead I feel like she tried to go for the shock factor and break the reader’s heart. It did nothing to contribute to the plot in my opinion, and it felt rushed and not even fleshed out. The characters processing the ending doesn’t even occur.
2) There were some weird lines in this book that bordered on racist or problematic. “I knew he liked his coffee like he liked his women, Black and strong.” This just rubbed me the wrong way for multiple reasons. First, no characters in the book are diverse whatsoever, so this line just felt like the author was trying to check diversity off the list, almost with tokenization. It also felt weird to compare Black women to coffee. Like I know how he liked his women how he liked his bread, stale and white? Idk. It seemed a bit to me like objectification/when people see value in BIPOC because they’re “exotic.” Maybe the author meant for it to be empowering for strong Black women, but that’s not how it came across. The author also used the term “Indian summer” which has racist origins. Again, not the end of the world, but when there’s no diversity in the book it makes you wonder. Finally, the author has the FMC talk about abortion like it’s murder. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion on abortion and women certainly should make choices on their potential pregnancy and birth without pressure from others, this portrayal came across as slightly problematic to me, especially in today’s day and age. It’d be one thing for the FMC to say “Oh I didn’t want to have an abortion, that’s just not something I’d be interested in/I want to keep the fetuses.” But for her to call it murder is sus, and combined with the rest it just rubs me wrong. The glossing over of special ops too without acknowledging that they can cause harm was a bit off-putting to me. This book just felt like it was written ten years ago instead of recently and has me wondering who this author really is. It also has me questioning if I want to read Iron Flame if the author is going to include stuff like this in it too.
3) I think the whole not telling her who he was the whole entire book was dumb. I get it at first, but the fact he kept it from her for so long was so irritating to me and I would have written that storyline differently.
4) There were so many parts that weren’t believable. Her not getting child support?? Her ripping up the check for the kids?? Like say what you want about your pride but not taking half a million from a complete douche bag is the LEAST he can do for your kids. She’s a bad mom to refuse that money on their behalf instead of putting it towards things that benefit them like college savings. The school giving her crap about the child’s attendance is ILLEGAL. I was literally in Children’s Hospital of Colorado for two weeks and I had a social worker there going to bat for me with the school district to help me make up my schoolwork. Not only that but they 100% followed through with it. No school would be that stupid or insensitive. Also love how the daughter can’t be around the customers but she’s fine to go to school and run around with kids all day who pick their noses and don’t wash their hands. At the very least her and her family would likely be going around wearing masks/disinfecting since she’s immuno-compromised.
Overall, I liked the premise and the characters for the most part, but I’m really disappointed because it could have been so much better and the author really got in her own way with this. The more I think in this book, the less I like it. No book is perfect but I cannot see past these flaws.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, War, and Child death
Minor: Medical content, Racism, Grief, Gun violence, and Religious bigotry
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