Reviews with content warning for Cancer - First-Time Caller

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

410 reviews

stitchbooks22's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I can’t stop thinking about this book!

Content Warnings

marissagero's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

marissa_gardner's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

riona_y's review against another edition

3.75

funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rachel_taylor97's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

ringofkeyz's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful lighthearted medium-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: Yes

if I'm giving a straight romance 4 stars, you KNOW it's good.

cute as hell and a female MC that actually has depth! you love to see it!

Content Warnings

mimireadsme's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful 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

Content Warnings

abidavisf's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

I don’t have a lot of words to say about First Time Caller; I think I need to process. What I will say is that B.K. Borison, as usual, has created highly relatable characters that grip my heart in their hands with such ferocity that I know they’ll leave their mark for years to come. Aiden’s fear to love or get close to anyone and Lucie’s inability to feel enough, to feel worthy are feelings that I live with everyday. This book teaches you that there is hope yet. There is magic. It’s on its way.

I loved how, even through their fear, both Lucie and Aiden were, for the most part, very honest about their feelings, at least their physical feelings. Their communication was inspiring.

Each side character is filled with such charm and warmth. B.K. always excels at creating the cosiest communities in her writing. I have so many questions, especially about Maggie, and I can’t wait to continue this series and learn more about them.

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

3.75

funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not gonna lie, it's been a few days since I've read this book and I've already forgotten a good chunk of my thoughts on it. This book was fine, but just very forgettable to me. And because I can't recall too much for a lengthy review, I'm just gonna put what I liked and disliked about this book:

what I liked:

Although this book is long (420 pages); it didn't feel like that for me. I read the first 100 pages and then sped through the last 320 pages in a day. Something I haven't done in a bit so that was refreshing. I know some people felt like it was unnecessarily long, but I sped through, so I guess it was to each their own on that one.
Love that Lucy was a mechanic. I thought that was nice to see you.
Jackson is so funny. Glad the next book is about him.
I really liked their unofficial date. It was so cute!
There were cute moments and parts that I related to or shed a tear for.
Aiden did have moments where he was a sweetheart.
Loved that there was a healthy dynamic between Lucie and Grayson.

what I felt indifferent towards:

Aiden's emotional unavailability. I feel like the author did enough (for me) to run with it. I know people weren't a fan of his actions which is so valid, but I felt like it fit with what his narrative was supposed to be so it was fine.
Speaking of Aiden, I felt very indifferent towards him. Didn't love him, didn't hate him. He was meh. I feel like we really didn't get to know him as a person to set any foundation so I was just left with his "trauma" and radio alter ego.
Similarly with Lucie and the other side characters. Didn't really care for them. Come to think about it, we don't really get much on Lucie either. Like we barely get even a mention of her parents.
Also with all the main adults acting younger than they are. I thought she just did that as an attempt to be comedic.
Aiden's jealousy. It was very childish, but lots of romance books have this trope. But I get him being thirty and acting the way that he does can seem offputting.
I don't really care for kids in books so I'd say her kid was fine. Maya, I think her name was.

what I disliked:

To call this a dislike is a stretch, more like a qualm and a subjective stance. I personally wasn't feeling the connection between our two MCs. Funny how this book is so long, but I don't think the author took time to develop their connection with one another. Like Lucie points out towards the end, we know a lot about her and then we don't get much about him. They have moments, but nothing that makes me understand why they're enamored about one another. Like I wasn't obsessed with them or rooting for them too much and I couldn't put my finger on as to why, but I think that's the reason. There just wasn't much to them to root for.

To add to my first stance, I feel like they didn't utilize the radio show premise as well as I'd like. Like I mentioned first the characters had moments, but nothing to signify that they were building a connection with one another, just that they were attracted to each other. And because everything is so slowly placed in this book it creates the illusion that it's a "slow burn" when it's really not because the characters (especially Aiden) feel things for each other pretty quickly. The "slow burn" part is just being deliberately obtuse to each other's feelings.

This book tries very hard to be funny (obviously cuz it's a rom-com), but the com aspects of this book were severely lacking for me. I could see the author trying to add some bits and whips for giggles but I was left underwhelmed in that aspect. It just felt like a contemporary romance trying to be funny.

Now, we're gonna get into my REAL complaint. The SPICE! Oh my gosh, that spice scene. It was so off-putting because it was just overly smutty for a book that never set the tone of being smut-heavy. We went from not to 100 so fast and I was like icked out. Like Aiden was acting so completely different (giving major dom vibes; something that I have never been a fan of) and it was just so offputting and cringy. Also for the love of all things smutty, I am so SICK of reading about the guy making the girl cum by basically breathing. Riding his thigh in a broom closet. Seriously! Or the other thing where the FMC has had a good sexual experience until she meets the MMC. Oh my GOODNESS!

I feel like I was misled by this book. I was told this book is very romantic and I was just like "WHERE?!" This book kinda lacked it in my opinion. Aiden was all thoughts and no actions. I liked reading about Lucie through his POV, but he never really did anything besides one or two things that were "romantic" so that stance in my opinion is false.

I also didn't like how it felt that Lucie was settling for Aiden. All that time she was talking about how she wanted magic when it came to relationships and was willing to drop that for any scraps Aiden could give her. Like c'mon!

Overall, I didn't hate this book, I just had higher expectations. I've been in a 3-star slump since the year started where most of the books I've been reading have been between 3 to 3.75. I was hoping this would be the one to drag me out of that, but at least, I fear that's not the case, unfortunately. I'm not writing this author off. I'm curious to see what she does in the next one. I think I might like Jackson's story more.

Spice Rating:🌶️🌶️.5/5 (this is rating the actual smut scene itself, not those snippets we get in the book)

Content Warnings

maddie_moon's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

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