Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann

7 reviews

iridescentdreams's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0


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abookwormspov's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

I loved this with my whole heart. I love reading ace stories and I need more of them. 

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mmefish's review

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

2.75

I needed something to get me out of reading slump and this one did the trick. 
The romance was cute (?) I'm not a big contemporary romance person. I also don't like reading paragraphs describing outfits the MC picked up, or how many followers she has on Instagram, or how beautiful she thought she was. Honestly, I'd say this particular book fits into Chick lit category. 
The characters were fine but — being 30 years old — they couldn't communicate for shit. 
I appreciated the Ace representation. 

P.S. what's up with these names?! Joy, Summer, Fox... and Malcolm.

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shinypurplepants's review

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emotional lighthearted
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was a hard book to rate so I let it sit for a while to process. I did not enjoy this book as a whole but there were parts that were done well.

Pros
- the way asexuality was handled made me feel seen! i enjoyed the discussions had by the characters because i feel i have had the exact same ones, word for word.
- i love romance books that explore different types of romance! it was nice to see the QPP-style relationship between our leads

Cons
- i did not like any of the lead characters so... well it's hard to enjoy a character-driven story when Joy causes you anger!!!
- the author makes a lot of references that went over my head and it was more often annoying rather than endearing because of the frequency
- seriously despite my happiness to see a QPP out in the wild i was so upset by how TOXIC the relationship was! why? the only representation we have so far and it's borderline abusive?! gross!

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emilineopines's review

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25


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cheye13's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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churrosmom's review

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emotional funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from the publisher through Netgalley.

4.5 stars. It is pretty hard for me to write a review because this book is really different from anything else I've ever read. This is a beautiful and funny unconventional romance novel about Joy, a Black asexual woman who is hilariously weird. Joy is in love with her best friend since college, Malcolm, a Black asexual man whose exes all felt threatened by Joy and Malcolm's very queer platonic best-friendship. The plot centers around a weekend cabin trip Malcolm plans for Summer, his very very bubbly white friend who he hopes to launch a relationship with using the trip. Malcolm invites Joy along to accompany Summer's ex, Fox. This situation is definitely as emotionally fraught for Joy as it sounds. 

The author did a beautiful job of writing such complex characters who struggle and grow in their character arcs and their relationships through the course of this book. I am not ace but I really loved how the author portrayed the nuance and complexity of ace identity through Joy and Malcolm, who have very different relationships with romance and sex. I also absolutely loved Joy--she was witty and weird in the best way. Though she never identified as such, she definitely seems neurodiverse, and I loved how REAL she and her emotional responses felt. 

I would definitely suggest readers go into this book with an open mind--it doesn't really follow any of the heteronormative romance tropes or storylines, and I feel like it centers Joy as a character and her character growth above the plot of the romance/relationships. The book only covers the beginning of the actual "romance," but it is done so tenderly and beautifully. Of course, there is still a HFN/HEA.

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