Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Addicted to You

Addicted to You is the first book in the Addicted series. I have been waiting to read this series for so long, but I was putting it off. I am glad that I finally picked this book up. So let me just tell you a bit about the book first. The book follows the female protagonist, Lily Calloway who is a sex addict, and her fake boyfriend of three years, the male protagonist, Loren Hale who is an alcoholic. Lily and Loren are childhood friends. They have pretended to be in a real relationship, hiding their addictions from their families. They have mastered the art of concealing flasks and random guys that filter in and out of their apartment. Can they keep this secret from their family?
Now I know some people will think why don’t they just get help? But you see, we think getting rid of addiction is easy but it is not. `when people know they are addicted but do not ask/take the help they need is because they are not ready to stop using it. Another reason is they are scared to ask for help. So, I will say be kind to everyone.
Anyway, back to the review, both Lily and Loren are interesting characters, but I was irritated at the start and I was like why don’t they just get help [maybe because I do not understand addiction] but I get it now, it is not that easy. I love how the author wrote about addiction. The book was from Lily’s pov and we get to see various cycles of addiction – her need, her dependence on it, her self-loathing, and her disgust with herself. Also, I love that author did not romanticize their addiction, and shows their struggles. And their fake relationship felt real at some point because of their feelings for each other, although they did not say it out loud.
I loved all the side characters. The addition of Connor and Ryke in the next half-book was entertaining. I loved how Rose was always there to check up on her When Lily did not contact her family that much. I wish to see more of LILY AND LOREN’S character development in the next books.
I cannot wait to read Rose and Connors’s book, the academic rival.

Content Warnings

books_with_haley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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y0urmoms_h0e's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad 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

4.5

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things100's review

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dark emotional reflective fast-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 lo and lily’s relationship, there personal battles with their addictions and how their relationship and getting together didn’t go and fix all their problems how they still need to try and fight their addictions to get better, I rally enjoyed this book and can’t wait to continue the series

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-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

3.75

I'm sorry in advance for how long this is.😅

Okay I'm really surprised by this book. I've been putting it off since I've heard about it on the book side of social media for about a year now. It has alot of popularity, but all the tropes I heard people listing weren't favorites of mine. Plus the main thing that made me put this book off for so long was that I heard it depicts a toxic relationship. And I personally loathe reading about toxic relationships.

However, I've finally conformed. It's been on my reading list for a while so I finally decided to pick it up and I can say that I'm pretty surprised on how much I enjoyed it.

Don't get me wrong the relationship between the main characters Lily and Lo is nothing to emulate your relationship after. But in my opinion their relationship is more so "dysfunctional" rather than flat out toxic. Throughout the book both parties have displayed on numerous occasions how much they care, love, and appreciate one another. (the shower scene) They have the potential for an honest, heartfelt, and healthy relationship.

However like I stated previously, their current relationship is nothing to emulate your romantic relationships on. They enable each other's addictions with knowledge that it's not gonna help them out in the long run.

there's an scene in the book where Lily and Lo are at a Halloween party and Lo breaks into the owner's cabinet of expensive booze and she just let's him have at it. By the end of the night Lo almost gets into disastrous dibocal and then passes out leaving Lily to clean up his mess. And she's so desensitized to his problem that when Ryke and Connor (especially Ryke) are looking and Lo passed out in concern Lily sorts just brushes it off because "he's always like this". And she's always taking care of him when he goes over the limit.

And I also think Lily can be too occupied with her own addiction to really realize that Lo is down bad. I hope we get more insight into how these addictions started.

Lo also becomes desensitized to Lily's actions as well.

Up until he found her having sex with two guys at the same time and hooking up with random guys through random phone exchanges, and even considered Craigslist was when he decided to drop the ball on her. And urge her to dile it down. He was so desensitized that it was said that he'd often offer the men that come out if Lily's bed coffee.

Lo can be pretty nasty towards Lily especially when she tries to interfere with his drinking. And when they do start dating for real Lo literally expects Lily to cheat on him because Lily is constantly fighting her sexual compulsions in order to stay celibate/monogamous to Lo. Of course in a healthy relationship you shouldn' t have to constantly worry that your partner is being unfaithful. And the fact that Lo has a tendecy to be pretty hot and cold with Lily (one minute he's a sweetheart, the next a dickhead) is a big red flag. Also Lo's aggressive tendencies are not ideal either (he doesn't hit her at all; there is no physical abuse depicted in this book; he just always has a tendecies to pick up fights with other people). He's just very immature and lacks ambition. They both defintely have alot of growing and maturing to do before they can reach consummate and stability in their lives and relationship.

So dysfunctional and unhealthy. Like I said nothing to aspire to, but definitely not damaged beyond repair. Plus they do seem to be trying to fix themsleves towards the end of the book. And I think that maybe what the writers' objectives are. To showcase the ugly parts of their relationship so they can commence on the journey towards healing. At least that's what I hope the other books are about.😅

Also, I actually like how the authors depicted their addictions and them as characters. Lily being all shy and introverted with a sex addiciton and Loren battling his was really well depicted. And her inner dialogue that she has with herself where she talks about on herself for having her addiction, her social anxiety, and her friendship with Lo, and their background was very entertaining to read about. I was really it was dual POV.

Oh and we also got to meet the future characters of this book series which was cool. So here are my first impressions:

Connor - superficial privileged prick who says out of pocket and insensitive comments and thinks he's above everyone else due to his wealth and intelligence, but deep down has a decent, loving heart (he's okay but certainly my least favorite out of the bunch)

Rose - superficial mean judgmental privileged girl, but the way she scares about Lily and her family warms my heart (also I have to admire how unapologetically smart she is)

Ryke - nosy, but really means well; I liked him and I admired how much he stood up for girls (didn't appreciate him the comment he made about Lily's weight though) so far he's my favorite guy

I saw the twist of him being Loren's brother a mile away, but it sure it make the book more emotional

I'm more into plot driven books so it took me a while to get through this because a whole lot of nothing was happening. So this is definitely a character based book. I think when it was around the 70-80% mark was when I started to feel it just a little bit (it was still entertaining though) and because I read this as in e-book it did take me quite a while to get through this, but I surprisingly enjoyed the read and will be continuing on with the second book.

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saraohneh's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

it's so hard for me to sum up this book. i feel like you're physically tense throughout the whole book. you're not even able to enjoy the few good parts of the story bc the addiction is constantly looming over you. which is totally brilliant in terms of emotion portrayal but it's also exhausting bc you just want the best for these deeply flawed but loving characters and everyone they're hurting with their addictions.

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