Reviews with content warning for Cancer - First-Time Caller

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison

410 reviews

anniesbookpicks'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: No

Content Warnings

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

4.25

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Lucie Stone works as a mechanic and a somewhat single mom of a 12 year old daughter Maya. One night Lucie hears her daughter talking to someone on the phone and realizes that she is on air, talking to a radio host about her mom’s lack of a love life. When Lucie goes on air and the episode goes viral, the failing radio show wants Lucie to find the love of her life on the radio.

I thought the romance was cute and I enjoyed it. It gets pretty spicy in a few scenes (which I skipped, so I don’t know how spicy it got).

The audio was fantastic with two narrators (male and female) and some radio sounds. Thank you libro.fm for providing audio copies to librarians!

Kind of reminded me of Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon.

“I don’t want to try. All I do is try. All day long, I’m trying and I’m so tired. Why can’t this be the one thing I don’t have to try at? Why can’t it be a thing that just…happens? I don’t want—I don’t want to think about what I should say or how I should act or…or have talking points in the notes app of my phone for a dinner date at a restaurant that I don’t really like.” Ch 3

“I wish there was a guidebook for this. An instruction manual that could tell me how to take myself apart and put everything back together so l'm good as new. I wish I knew how to make sense of my pieces.” Ch 4

“Well, this is embarrassing.
"It's really not. It's lovely, actually. It's honest in a way most things aren't." Ch 20

“Isn't that how it goes? The most precious, delicate things wedge themselves between the plans you've made for yourself.” Ch 29

Content Warnings

bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

2.0

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

“I want to feel something when I connect with someone. I want sparks. The good kind, you know? I want to laugh and mean it. I want goose bumps. I want to wonder what my date is thinking about and hope it might be me. I want…I want the magic.”

➽ I really enjoyed Lovelight Farms, but the author's new series sadly turned out to be a disappointment. I was so excited for First-Time Caller and didn't expect it to be such a miss for me. I still love B.K. Borison's writing style, but the story wasn't nearly as good as Lovelight Farms. First-Time Caller follows Lucy, whose daughter calls into the local radio station because she's afraid her mom is lonely. Radio host Aiden Valentine jumps at the opportunity, as his views have been dropping and Lucy's love life might be the thing to get his show popular again. She agrees to join his show and seek out love, but quickly sparks between them fly on and off the air.

➽ I liked the segments of the radio show and Lucy, but that was about it. The general idea for the story was good and Lucy was a solid protagonist. I emphasized with her, as she became a mom very early in her life and has dedicated her life to her daughter ever since. She lives close to the father, Grayson and his husband, so it was nice to see their non-traditional family. There's no bad blood between them and Lucy and Grayson know they're better off as friends. I was rooting for Lucy, though I didn't like how her not dating was being equated to her needing to date someone. I think she deserved much better than her lacklustre Romance with Aiden.

➽ I was also mad at how Grayson acted overprotective and possessive when it came to Lucy. The first thing he does is berate and guilt-trip her for talking to Aiden during the first show (even though it wasn't her idea). I hated how he acted entitled to know everything about her and was mad she didn't 'open up to him'. The narrative was trying to frame it as him being concerned, but it felt so icky to me. He also crosses boundaries by showing up at Lucy's house uninvited. Just because they live next door doesn't give him the right to do as he pleases. Lucy was clearly embarrassed by him at times.

➽ The romance was the main flop of this book. Aiden and Lucy had zero compatibility, but the story tries to make it seem like they'll work out in the end. Aiden's emotionally unavailable the entire book and clearly not the stable, dedicated partner Lucy deserves. His background story felt shallow and was used as an excuse for his behavior. I love a flawed character, but Aiden wasn't well-developed. That's why him avoiding his mother, who had Cancer a lot when he was growing up, came across as a cowardly, selfish move. I also hated how jealous he got when Lucy had other dates. I think making Lucy seek dates on the radio station wasn't a good plot, as it brought out the worst in Aiden. He acts SO unprofessional on air, e.g. constantly cutting off callers, calling them by wrong names and generally sabotaging Lucy's attempts to find someone. The longer this went on, the more I started to dislike Aiden.

➽ In the end, I didn't believe Aiden and Lucy were a good couple. The book didn't show Aiden changing throughout the story, but made him suddenly have an epiphany in the very end, just so he'd look like he'd grown. Even their third-act confrontation showed that Lucy's the emotionally mature one, who's actually interested in talking it out. Aiden acts like a giant, jealous manchild and didn't grovel nearly enough in the end. It was also disappointing that he never once tried to have a relationship with Lucy's daughter.

Content Warnings

gaby's review against another edition

4.0

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

Really enjoyed this one, but felt like it went on a bit longer than it needed to. Plus there were one or two b-plot points I wish had been developed a bit more in lieu of dragging on the main romance.

Content Warnings

3readingcircus's review against another edition

4.5

funny hopeful lighthearted

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So many little touches of Baltimore. Loved it. Imma sucker for "everyone sees it but them".

Content Warnings

shawniejo's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Content Warnings

faithharmony's review against another edition

3.25

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book was good. Not amazing but not boring either. The premises was cute aswell: single mother goes on dates organised by a love, radio talk show which he daughter called in on for her. Slowly she falls for aiden (the host). However, this one didn't really hit for me the way I hoped and I believe around the 70 % mark it began to drag a little.

Positives: healthy family dynamics with the fmc which also showed last characters. She was a mechanic aswell which was cool as I've never seen that in a book before. Their banter at the start was also really fun.

Cons: I felt as if the book was about 50 pages too long. I also did enjoy the space but it soemtimes felt a little dragged out and lost its momentum. The end was fine and followed the typical third act break up but was also quite anticlimactic and predictable.

So overall a book that was good but I wouldn't read again.

Note: extra points for the cutest cover

Content Warnings