Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score

46 reviews

memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense 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

5.0

My most anticipated read/release of the year and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect ending to the series and my new favourite book. I loved the first two books but the tension and torrid-pasts of Lucian and Sloane had been building for 1100 pages or so and I couldn’t wait to delve into their characters. I loved that we got some chapters set in the past (which differs from the previous two books where the mcs didn’t have a past with each other) and as usual, I loved that the chapters flitted between both mcs so you get both of their perspectives. Lucy wrote their backstory perfectly, it was heart-wrenching and felt like a valid enough reason to make them true childhood friends-to enemies-to lovers, but it didn’t make the characters irredeemable. Their history, present, and character growth in this book were incredible to read, would recommend it to everyone. Perfection! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Police brutality, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Violence, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Minor: Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Blood

cmab's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My favourite of the three!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Murder, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Infertility, and Gun violence

sami_leigh's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5

It was strange, having a secret with the boy I’d once loved and now sharing it with the man I couldn’t stand.

I should be the one sitting across the table from her. I should be the one taking her home, waking up next to her. Reading what she was reading. Yelling at the evil cat. It should be me in her life.

And for the first time in my life, I felt like the hero instead of the villain.

“Loving you has been a touchstone for more than half my life.”

🌸 First person dual POV
🌸 Enemies to lovers
🌸 Second chance / childhood friends
🌸 Both have secrets & stories behind their mutual hatred
🌸 Representation of working through trauma and anxiety associated growing up in domestic abuse
🌸 Nickname 🥹
🌸 Found family
🌸 Banter 👌🏻
🌸 Tension & spice 🥵
🌸 Small town vibes
🌸 ‘Touch her and I’ll kill you’ vibes 
🌸 He. Falls. HARD.
🌸 Well established secondary characters; Knox & Daisy (Book 1), Waylay (Book 1), Nash & Lina (Book 2), Stef & Jeremiah, Emry, Maeve.
🌸 MC growth; overcoming past trauma, trust, risking a relationships & family, priorities, communication, self worth.
🌸 Epilogue 
🌸 Bonus epilogue 10 years later

Available in audiobook, ebook and paperback.

⚠️ Violence (moderate), gun violence (explicit), death of a parent (past), death, blood (minor), parental abandonment, medical trauma (moderate), cancer (past, not MC), domestic abuse (past).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Cancer and Blood

lizzie_b99's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I haven't read the second title in the Knockemout series, but I definitely preferred this one to the first novel. Given their extensive history together, Sloane and Lucian's relationship seemed much more believable to me than Naomi's and Knox's (not that I don't love them, I do, the ending just seemed a bit fast given the time frame). I love Sloane/Lucian's banter and chemistry, and damn is this book steamy! I would have liked the epilogues to be a little more drawn out

so that we could see a bit more of the life Sloane/Lucian build together. It felt a little rushed, like we got the precis of the main events in everyone's lives before the series was drawn to a close. Given the jump in time and the new characters who are introduced, the extended epilogue could have been a bit longer.

I do wish Score would expand upon Jeremiah and Stef's relationship and Maeve and

Kurt's

. I think these could potentially be turned into their own novels, which would add to the diversity of the series since as is it focuses on the relationships of straight white people. Maybe Score felt like those weren't her stories to tell, but I would've liked to see more from those characters.

My main critique is that the ending seemed a bit fast. I expected the final confrontations with Hugo to be a bit more drawn out. Some of the writing in this section leaned a little too heavily on tropes/stereotypical bad guy vs good guy dialogue than I'd like. Also, although the novel frames it in a cutesy, proof of love sort of way, Lucian's refusal to leave Sloane alone (despite her numerous objections) after the library fire made me uncomfortable. We're supposed to root for him because it's a romance novel, but if anyone acted like Lucian did in real life we'd call them a stalker and a danger to the person they "loved". I wish the other characters objected more to Lucian's behaviour at this point because refusing to give a person the space they ask for is not an expression of love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pregnancy and Alcoholism

clairee3's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent

biaaaa's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Minor: Cancer

graceev's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Cancer, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pregnancy and Police brutality

lunahale's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

yes, i know the smut scenes are fantastic, and we all know that line but i’m blushing giggling kicking my feet at “let me wash your hair.” lucian fucking rollins, the man that you are. the enemies to lovers was really doing its thing in this book, too. especially when

they were literally insulting each other on their wedding day as a way to calm down. icons.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer and Death of parent

linnea_tornblom's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Cursing, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

steen19's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Cancer