Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Not All Himbos Wear Capes

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Not All Himbos Wear Capes by C. Rochelle

8 reviews

shinyfox's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

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lizacorn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

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

5.0

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galleytrot's review

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

3.0

READ: Jan 2024

FORMAT: Digital

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3 / 5⭐

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.25 / 5⭐

FINAL – OVERALL: 3 / 5⭐

So I have a number of ~°♡opinions♡°~ about this book and the journey that I went on while I read it, though I might not recall all of the thoughts I had because I didn’t take my usual notes. The reason that I didn’t take notes is because I was very confident this book would be a DNF, and the only reason it wasn’t a DNF is because I needed to understand why the reviews for this book skewed so positive. The average rating did not mesh with the content I was reading, and I had to persist to see it for myself.

The early vibe of this story felt like it was supposed to be Megamind PWP slash fanfiction, while leaning aggressively hard into an out-of-character insta-love/lust. Every other sentence appeared to be checking in with the characters’ states of arousal, constantly assuring us that they were obscenely well-endowed. Constant misunderstandings and a shocking lack of common sense prevents the characters (one of which supposedly has an above-average IQ) from ever connecting the dots over the other’s obvious identity. They’re both served all the context they need to make the logical leap, but every time and without fail, they react to it like, “Huh, that’s weird. That’s a superhuman trait. Well, moving on!”

Then something actually happens a third of the way into the book, long after I’d given up on it as worth my time: the author finally takes the book past a raunchy little sexfest and lets us get an actual look at the world the characters are living in. Arguably, the setting and the rules of the world are usually among the primary foci of compelling superhero media. It’s at this point that the book’s tone and direction finally shift into something cohesive, with events important to the story occurring. Characters are assigned motivations, seeds of plot are planted, and the (rather unreasonable) attraction between the main characters is granted some sort of legitimacy (Surprise! It’s a superhero-flavoured Fated Mates book!).

Now I will say that, having stuck the book out, I was surprised by a number of things (here’s looking at all of you matri/patricidal monsters and psycho/sociopaths with extremely worrisome turn-ons!), but ultimately, I remained unimpressed. The book thought it was being clever about its admittedly unique plot. It thought it was slowly weaving the threads of its tapestry, but the hints and the clues being dropped were all about as subtle as a bag of brick to the face. In the end, I resorted to speed-reading and skimming through most of the book, just to stubbornly finish it. Book two piques my interest only based on the circumstances of the character it features, but I haven’t decided quite yet if I'll ever read it.

This book has representation for gays, bisexuals, and lesbians. Several characters are portrayed as non-white.

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

This book contains:

sociopathic/psychopathic thoughts and behaviour; blood, gore, injuries, death, murder, and violence; cadavers, body parts; toxic families; off-page animal death; and potentially others I might have missed because I didn’t take notes on content warnings, either.

Content Warnings

so_many_books's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

So this was actually way better and different than I thought.
Although the spice level was a tad too high for me, I can't deny the originality of the storyline. It was unique and something I actually hadn't seen before.

Xander is a supervillain without actual powers. As part of a notorious villain clan, he tries to be useful by being an evil genius... but he's also adorably invested in saving marine wildlife.
His arch enemy is Captain Masculine, a generally sweet and clueless himbo. Butch is a golden retriever, actually.
When they meet outside of their super costumes, they fall for each other almost immediately. But of course, their secret identities make life a bit more interesting and difficult.

The villain/hero storyline and the world building were fascinating. I loved how morally grey everything was in this world. It was very much entertaining to see the politics of 'supes' and 'normies' work in the background of the romance.

The romance was kinky and spicy. It's definitely the maximum amount of flame and hot chilli emojis. It was a bit too much for my taste, but if you like it spicy, I highly recommend this book because the story was actually super fun.

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hailstorm3812's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

I had way too much fun with this. I liked the characters, the world, the plot, the SPICE. Even if not everything was exactly up my alley, it made sense and was enjoyable anyways. I just really liked it. I'm kicking my feet while reading this. (Do I feel a little icky about the female author writing almost exclusively MM, yes but the book is so fun that I can ignore that.)

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jennifox's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was ridiculous and over the top, but also sweet and smart and sexy. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting and looking forward to Wolfgang's book. My only complaint is there were some really odd tone shifts throughout the book.

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trayslays's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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briochebun's review

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

3.75 out of 5 ☆’s.

”It's you and me, and everyone else can go fuck themselves. Sound good?”

ੈ✩‧₊˚

”Not All Himbos Wear Capes” has been on my TBR for a little while now & I am so glad that I got around to reading it!

I adored Xander + Butch & their story — it was the perfect mix of sweet + sensual!

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I went into the novel expecting a fun + humorous love story between a hero & a villain — which ”Not All Himbos Wear Capes” certainly delivered on — but it also had some serious elements to it as well (discussions regarding politics + humanity + etc).

I did have some issues with the pacing of this novel — I wish that Xander + Butch would’ve discovered each other’s identities a bit earlier on & I also wanted less miscommunication trope-esque happenings at the end of the novel.

ੈ✩‧₊˚

I hope that I’m able to read “Gentlemen Prefer Villains” soon — Wolfy is such an interesting character! ♡

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