Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Trust with a Chaser

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Trust with a Chaser by Annabeth Albert

2 reviews

piperclover's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.0

I'm sure I'm sound like a broken record by now but it's Annabeth Albert so I was gonna love it. I love these sort of secret forbidden relationships anyway but then on top of it, it's also age gap and I really like this particular dynamic. I also appreciate the high emotional tension toward the end because it wasn't enough for me until then.

I don't think this is anything ground breaking but it was just a well told story of overcoming your own personal obstacles.

Content Warnings

galleytrot's review against another edition

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

2.75

READ: Jan 2023
FORMAT: Audio

BRIEF SUMMARY:

In this contemporary romance set in fictional Rainbow Cove, Oregon, Mason has returned to his hometown and taken over an old tavern aiming to make it an LGBTQ tourist destination. Officer Nash just wants his usual burger break, and doesn’t care for change and upheaval in his day-to-day routine. Nash is comfortable in his stasis, but Mason’s return threatens to impact his way of life in ways he’s not sure he’ll ever be ready for.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2 / 5⭐

So I’m writing this review the morning after I finished listening to this book, and I’ve already forgotten most of what happens in the first three quarters of it. I do remember it was packed with a lot of Albert’s typical tropes – older closeted gay man doesn’t want to be out because he doesn’t want the world to perceive him; younger man is stubborn and headstrong and bossy and won’t take no for an answer; their relationship can never happen and would be completely doomed from the start, because revealing it to the world around them would... cause about a week’s worth of inconvenience and gossip and then just be old news??

I always get so annoyed with the “I like you, you clearly like me too, so we’re going to do this” characters in Albert’s works. I don’t have anything against fighting for the thing you want, but I have massive problems with aggressively tearing away at someone’s walls and boundaries against their wishes until they relent to you. I often relate extremely well to Albert’s “I’ve done the whole relationship thing and now I am sad and broken and living on my own terms” characters, which is why I have such a hard time accepting their love interests’ pursuits. I’m so completely turned off by the way they approach “fixing” their guy. Their methods would have me running for the hills and never looking back. I just can’t sanction it.

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.5 / 5⭐

I’m not entirely sure why I continue to hope for better from Albert. At the end of this book I said to myself, “Maybe this is my sign to stop giving them chances,” but my library still has more to choose from, and I’m sure I’ll continue to visit them every now and then.

Performance-wise, I feel like Iggy wasn’t very into this one. It wasn’t the best I’ve heard from him. I have less to compare to for Marc, but he’s not a narrator I actively seek out. When it comes to spicy scenes, there are three kinds of narrators – those who don’t put any soul into it, those who do, and those who go too hard, making it overdone and awkward. For me, Marc is one of the latter types and it takes me right out of it. If I pursue the other books in the series, I’ll likely go for the ebooks instead of the audiobooks.

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 2.75 / 5⭐

If you’re a fan of Albert’s works, this one fits the mold. For me, I’ll just remember it as “the one where they go fishing in it” because that’s about the only unique thing to happen that I haven’t come across in other books before.

This book has representation for gay and lesbian sexualities. Additional nationalities and skin colours are not portrayed or described.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains: strained family relations; homophobia; hate crimes (acts of vandalism targeting women and gays); abandonment, domestic abuse, and child endangerment (all off-page); Child Protective Services; chronic illness (might be diabetes-related, I don’t actually remember); and, a character getting outed through accusations and the rumor mill.

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