Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Something Fabulous

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall

25 reviews

thepictureofromance's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

The story and the writing were fantastic and I would encourage people to give this book a go. Unfortunately, the characters just didn't click for me and I found the sex really disappointing and unfortunately cringey. It was a good book, just not to my taste.

Also, the 'third act' break-up happened 95% of the way through the book. The ending felt incredibly rushed and really let down the whole book.

Extra also, I felt really frustrated with the way that Valentine was treated throughout this book. He was repeatedly trying to make amends (even though he was making mistakes as he tried to rectify his previous ones) but he absolutely did not deserve the treatment inflicted on him throughout this book. Especially being tied to a chair and then forced to sleep in a cellar. This whole situation just felt really unnecessary.

Final also, if I ever have to read a book that describes an arsehole as a 'hungry flower' again I will give up reading forever. I almost DNF'ed on the spot.

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kangaroo1990's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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? Yes

1.0

The twins are simply horrible people and the author laughs off their abuse, violence, assault as ‘quirky’ making the only reasonable character as the one who has to change. Gun violence with no consequence is not quirky

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beepbeep101's review

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emotional funny 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

3.0

Valentine is adorable, and I spent most of this book just wanting him to be happy and stop yelling at people. I love that this explored gender roles and expectations, independence and autonomy, and figuring yourself out rather than miserably going along with what you think are the expectations placed on you. A fun “pomp, romp, and circumstance” indeed, with some poignant insights along the way.

No dragons but plenty of fun ~spicyness~

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hobbithopeful's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

A ridiculously joyous queer read, with the most dramatic characters ever to exist in literature history. A grumpy Duke who would rather be in bed or lounging about and a sunshine personified twin who is set on rescuing his twin sister makes for a hilarious read. The twins were so silly I couldn't help but love them, I don't even know where to begin with this book, other then at nowhere in the story did I predict what would happen next.
Favorite Moments: Jealous Valentine, Valentine being tied to a chair, Bonny
Least Favorite: Belle doesn't learn

Don't go into this expecting a serious book, I think the most apt word I would use is campy. It is clear this book was a delight for Alexis Hall to write, for it is just as whimsical as it is warm.

I recommend this book, though the characters might not be for everyone.

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jjjreads's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-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

5.0

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galleytrot's review against another edition

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

3.75

READ: Mar 2023

FORMAT: Digital

BRIEF SUMMARY:

In this historical fiction/romance set in 1800s England, Valentine (the Duke of Malvern) feels he’s upholding his father’s wishes by asking Arabella for her hand in marriage. When it turns out she’s not as thrilled by the idea as he’d anticipated, her twin brother Bonny drags Valentine along on a chase from Surrey to Dover in an attempt to intercept the runaway fiancée on her flight to the Americas. The twins are both far more of a handful than Valentine ever could have imagined, and Bonny opens Valentine's eyes to a world he had no idea was even possible.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4 / 5⭐

Boy, what an adventure. This book’s got everything: carriage chases; daring escapes; duels; kidnappings; torrid affairs; battles of wit; bees galore; a pair of devoted fanfiction authors; and, a rather surprising amount of peach feasting.

I’ve got to hand it to Valentine. For all that he is quick to lose his temper and is doing his best to live a quiet, comfortable life out of the eye of scrutiny and controversy, he sure does stick to it when I would have turned away and washed my hands of the entire situation. Before Bonny could even get him out of the house, the twins had completely exhausted my social meter and left me thinking, “Nope, time to go home.” I lost count of how many events in their grand adventure I though would be the straw to break the camel’s back. But they just kept on going.

This book is an absolute cartoon of a historical fiction. Nearly every character is a caricature, all of them over-the-top. Most are theatrical and thriving on the adventure. A small handful are just along for the ride. Peggy might be the only sane character. I like Peggy.

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.5 / 5⭐
I’ll be honest, I’m more inclined to categorize this ‘historical fiction’ as a fantasy instead. Hall notes at the beginning of the book that linguistic liberties are taken, and just about everyone in the book is queer. This is not an exaggeration. Valentine leaves his comfortable world that operates precisely as one would expect a gray-and-drab-1800’s-England to operate, and he stumbles into this explosive, colorful, high-octane alternate reality that shakes the foundation of everything he thought he knew to be true.

This book was both exhausting and frustrating to my poor little comfortable, introverted mind. I didn’t dislike it, but I did need to take a lot of breathers. My own patience was tested too many times. A DNF was never on the table (this book is still fun, for all the characters were tedious) but there were points where I wished it was. Repetition was used a number of times for comical purposes, and it mostly hit, but there was one scene in particular where I had to skip dialogue more times than I ought to have because of the repetitive content.

I’ve read a fair number of Hall’s books now and I have adored just about all of them. This one might be the one I liked the least, and it’s still not even close to terrible; at least, not compared to some of the other authors I’ve been reading recently. Something unusual I did encounter here was the occasional typo or grammatical error, and a number of clunky dialogue choices unrelated to the inclusion of modern phrasings. From what I can recall, most of Hall’s works I’ve encountered have been extremely well-put-together, so it was a bit of a surprise – enough for me to take note.

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3.75 / 5⭐

Read this book. It’s an experience, and it’s got a lot going for it. It’s far from perfect but it’s still a good time.

This book has representation for gays, lesbians, genderqueer or -fluid individuals, and demisexuals/demiromantics. Multiple badass women do badass things. There is at least one dark-skinned character described.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains: theatrical, insensitive, and dismissive comments about suicide; many references to passed-away parents; homophobic rationalizations; alcohol use; potential creepy crawlies (bees, mentions of spiders, an upsetting number of tadpoles); restraint/confinement (character tied to chair, locked in a cellar); infidelity (kind of a gray area on this one but also not really); and, gun violence resulting in a shooting.

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readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted

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

3.5

I'm a big fan of Alexis Hall books and while there were parts of this that I really enjoyed, there were also parts that just didn't work for me. I enjoyed the burgeoning romance between Bonny and Valentine and the witty humour, but some scenes felt too drawn out (the chair scene and all the chasing) and there wasn't a lot of depth to the plot. I also wasn't a huge fan of Arabella until the end (and even then, I didn't really warm to her). I can see what the author was trying to do with her character but I think it means people will either find her funny or really dislike her. This was still an enjoyable romance, but I think it could have worked better with faster pacing and more moving parts in the plot.

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ohheyitskaitlin's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

4.0

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shelvesofivy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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maregred's review

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adventurous challenging funny sad medium-paced

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

2.0

The Tarleton twins are insufferable and humorless and Catherine Moreland would NEVER.

Also I just felt bad for Valentine the whole time. He was victim blamed for getting shot, and for breaking a chair he was tied up in… that poor dude deserved so much better.

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