Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Hard Sell

Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

ruthiedr89's review against another edition

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funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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nitya's review against another edition

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emotional relaxing tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

I am trash for age gap, don't @ me

This was a really sweet and 🔥🔥 read! The Canadian setting was wonderful too.

And totally checking out Ray's book! The tropes *chef's kiss*

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peachani's review

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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the_vegan_bookworm's review

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emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.0

The premise was cute, but it was hard to root for Danny or Tobin when they both seemed like kind of unlikable people. As well, the finance plot is a little boring if you aren't especially interested in that type of work.

The repeated mentions of Tobin as a kid and of Tobin "always trying to keep up with the big boys", even when Danny and Tobin are in an adult relationship, was deeply creepy for me.

Also, Ayan's criticisms of Danny's work are ABSOLUTELY correct (the guy blackmails people into selling their shares to investors - whether or not Cyrus is a bad person, that is not great). But it's addressed so lightly and then never circled back to.

As well, are we supposed to feel bad for Danny running over a cyclist? I honestly don't know why that section was included (to show how stressed Danny is? To let Tobin care for him? To show he's a nice guy who pays the cost of the lawsuit?). Either way, it did not make me feel positively about Danny at all.

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boomwormbrittany's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

Trigger Warning: Pedophilia and pedophilia used for black mail, homophobia, death of a parent, accident involving car and cyclist
Hard Sell follows Danny Ip who has worked hard to become the top of his firm. When he goes to try to acquire a company, he runs into his childhood best friend's younger brother, Tobin, who he had a one night stand with years ago.
I wanted to like this book so much and the fact that it fell so flat for me was such a disappointment. I do want to start this off with saying that I am not a part of the LGBTQ+ community and am an Ally so I cannot speak to the representation in this book.
This book was trying to do too much with so little. First off, the characters were ones I did not like what so ever. I found them both to be very annoying both with their choices and they way they handled their relationship. They're both grown men who are acting like teenagers. In particular, Tobin drove me insane. He was always going on about wanting to be independent which is fine but the amount of times he said he wanted to be independent was driving me crazy. I also couldn't get a feel for either of their characters. They felt very one dimensional to me and not like there was much there beyond Tobin being Danny's best friend's brother. I did like that they were two Asian men who were in a relationship as I liked that diversity aspect of it.
I also just didn't believe their relationship. Every time they spoke about each other it was about wanting to have sex with each other and the amount of times it was about each other qualities was really limited. It seemed they liked each other for sex but the love wasn't as strongly built out in this.
I didn't like how Tobin spoke about his lesbian best friend and her girlfriend which is a sentiment I've seen other reviewers give. It felt like he put them in the very stereotypical box of what lesbians are and just assumed things about them because of their sexuality which was just so strange. I found it uncomfortable how he spoke about them as if them being lesbian's was all the aspects of themselves instead of them being complex human beings who happen to be lesbian.
There was also a line about audiobooks not being real reading that rubbed me wrong as it felt very ablest to say but that was a one off thing.
The plot was just okay. It didn't really play much into the story except to bring out truths about a homophobic character and to bring Tobin and Danny together. I'm not saying I wanted to be inundated with work things but it didn't feel like as big of an aspect of the story as it should have been. I think this was meant to be more focused on Danny and Tobin which it did but still fell a bit flat in the fact that they didn't seem to grow much.
Let's talk about the elephant in this review. The pedophilia. That came so far out of left field and then was treat so poorly. I hated the fact that they used the fact that a character (not either of our main characters) was pretty much grooming minors to get leverage on this buyout. It made me feel ill to see them use that instead of going straight to the police with it. The buyout be damned, there was real children and young people at risk because of this guy and instead they use it for leverage? That's what really dropped my rating because I could not, in good conscious, rate it higher with that in it.
Overall, I wanted to like this book so much but I was so let down. I am going to pass this along to someone else because I don't want it on my shelves. There are plenty of good male/male romance books out there and this just wasn't one of them for me. I feel horrible giving a bad review but these are my feelings. If you feel you want to read this book, please do not let me discourage you.

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criticalgayze's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-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

3.5

Y'all, I am torn on this one.

I appreciate that, from the jump, this novel makes clear that it is more focused on bringing two characters together through emotional, rather than sexual resolution, and I appreciate the chemistry the characters have. I also appreciate that Lin has some clear experience in the world of which she writes. I think the steam is good, and I think the angst is believable.

However, I think in trying to paint the villainy and toxicity of capitalism and high finance that Lin goes a little overboard in a way that leaves me a little unsettled as a reader. I am specifically speaking on the introduction of a minor character who may be involved in sex trafficking, which the characters all decide to ignore for their own personal business interests for the vast majority of the novel. Even when it is finally "resolved," none of the characters have to deal with sitting on this information for months. In this way, the cartoonish skeeze that we associate with the über wealthy turns into something that I think sits wrong in my stomach trying to finish what Lin clearly ultimately means to be a redemptive romance.

I hope that future installments tone down the excess here, or I'm not sure I can continue with Lin as an author.

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