Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
This book wrecked me in a whole other way to Still Beating. The worlds of the two books crossover with Lotus centring around Oliver, who has spent 20 years trapped in the basement of his kidnapper, and Sydney has childhood neighbour.
Oliver is a complex and beautiful character. He was not subject to abuse and was kept well with access to books and drawing materials. He is an artist, an old soul and has a naive innocence to him. He doesn't have the complexities of language due to lack of social interaction, so he wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks his mind openly. He is a captivating character and my heart ached for him so many times in this book.
Sydney is Oliver's childhood best friend. She still lives in the same house next door to Oliver's younger brother. She is unable to form relationships or risk her heart as she has lived with the heartbreak of losing her best friend for two decades. When Oliver returns she hesitantly reaches out to help with his reintegration to living within society again.
There is such simplicity to this love story. Those first kisses gave me all the heart and stomach flutters. But at the same time, Lotus is a complex and cleverly layered story about family, about abuse, about emotional recovery and about finding the other half of your soul. Oliver and Sydney were destined to be together and this story will have you in tears as they work through their emotions to get their HEA.
Oliver is a complex and beautiful character. He was not subject to abuse and was kept well with access to books and drawing materials. He is an artist, an old soul and has a naive innocence to him. He doesn't have the complexities of language due to lack of social interaction, so he wears his heart on his sleeve and speaks his mind openly. He is a captivating character and my heart ached for him so many times in this book.
Sydney is Oliver's childhood best friend. She still lives in the same house next door to Oliver's younger brother. She is unable to form relationships or risk her heart as she has lived with the heartbreak of losing her best friend for two decades. When Oliver returns she hesitantly reaches out to help with his reintegration to living within society again.
There is such simplicity to this love story. Those first kisses gave me all the heart and stomach flutters. But at the same time, Lotus is a complex and cleverly layered story about family, about abuse, about emotional recovery and about finding the other half of your soul. Oliver and Sydney were destined to be together and this story will have you in tears as they work through their emotions to get their HEA.
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
fast-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
Original Read Date: 06/19/25 - 06/20/25
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ .5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Tropes: afraid to love, captive (prior to the book starting), childhood friends to lovers, dual timeline, kidnapped (prior to the book starting), neighbors, slow burn, “teach me”, trauma healing
POV: first person, dual pov
Plot: 2.75
Character Development: 3
Romance: 2.5
Ending: 2.5
My opinion: I read this book after reading Still Beating and those books couldn’t be more different from each other. I was hopeful this book would show us more of Oliver’s time in captivity but it turns out it wasn’t all that bad, just lonely so that wasn’t an exciting plot point. There are a few things throughout the book that were interesting like why was he taken, who is the masked man in the comics he drew as a child, plus a few other things but these are so spread out and take so long to answer that it was almost boring getting there. The relationship between Oliver and Sydney wasn’t something that drew me in. There was too much push and pull - which typically I don’t mind, but in this book it drove me crazy. On top of that I just didn’t enjoy how everyone interacted with Oliver. Most people acted as though captivity stunted his mental development when that wasn’t the case. It was just overall frustration in many different places.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ .5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Tropes: afraid to love, captive (prior to the book starting), childhood friends to lovers, dual timeline, kidnapped (prior to the book starting), neighbors, slow burn, “teach me”, trauma healing
POV: first person, dual pov
Plot: 2.75
Character Development: 3
Romance: 2.5
Ending: 2.5
My opinion: I read this book after reading Still Beating and those books couldn’t be more different from each other. I was hopeful this book would show us more of Oliver’s time in captivity but it turns out it wasn’t all that bad, just lonely so that wasn’t an exciting plot point. There are a few things throughout the book that were interesting like why was he taken, who is the masked man in the comics he drew as a child, plus a few other things but these are so spread out and take so long to answer that it was almost boring getting there. The relationship between Oliver and Sydney wasn’t something that drew me in. There was too much push and pull - which typically I don’t mind, but in this book it drove me crazy. On top of that I just didn’t enjoy how everyone interacted with Oliver. Most people acted as though captivity stunted his mental development when that wasn’t the case. It was just overall frustration in many different places.
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Oliver is such a sweetheart, he’s adorable! Overall I really enjoyed the story and I love Jennifer Hartmann’s writing, she hooks you and has you needing to know what will happen next. The big reveal at the end, ngl I wasn’t a huge fan of - felt unnecessarily triggering. I did love the story and the relationship between Oliver and Sidney though.
audiobook review: loved Sidney, didn’t particularly like Oliver’s narrator
audiobook review: loved Sidney, didn’t particularly like Oliver’s narrator