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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
A little darker than I normally read and a bit slow moving but overall definitely enjoyed and appreciated the complicated love story. Emma was tough to understand but I was glad to have the opportunity to, while Reid was just the most patient man to have existed. Felt a bit rushed at the end but all in all would suggest for people who don’t mind the triggers.
I really disliked this book. There is so much trauma without a solid explanation for most of the book.
There is so much back and forth/repetition between the main characters.
If I had to read the name Lala or "my Reed" or "that one" one more time, I might have chucked my Kindle out the window.
The instalove is nauseating.
I was absolutely bored. The last 20% is the only good stuff but not even that good because all the action and plot progression is crammed into that 20% of this absolutely unnecessarily long book.
The only reason I didn't DNF is because by the time I gave up on it getting better, I was at 65% and had come too far to quit.
There is so much back and forth/repetition between the main characters.
If I had to read the name Lala or "my Reed" or "that one" one more time, I might have chucked my Kindle out the window.
The instalove is nauseating.
I was absolutely bored. The last 20% is the only good stuff but not even that good because all the action and plot progression is crammed into that 20% of this absolutely unnecessarily long book.
The only reason I didn't DNF is because by the time I gave up on it getting better, I was at 65% and had come too far to quit.
Dnf @ 8%, the portion of the book that I got through was hard to read. The fmc, Emma, was really hard to connect with and how awful she treated people. Obviously she went through some trauma that was alluded to, but I feel like the reader needs to know what that is quicker than it’s explained because her opinions are so extreme. I also though the grandmother was awful to her. I get tough love but tough love to a granddaughter she thought was dead is insane.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
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
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rating this one is a hard task, because I have so many conflicting feelings about it, that I don’t really know which weigh heavier than others. First of all, with this book, my Kindle Unlimited Journey comes to its’ end for now and I really wanted to finish it, before my membership runs out tomorrow – success!
But truth be told, the book was such an easy read, that it was not a hard task to finish it even though it has 500+ pages – which is, I’m sorry, too long for any regular romance. It is just too long. I’ll be getting back to this.
We follow Emma on a journey where her past mingles with her future and with a female character who has been through a variety of traumatic experiences, this is a slow journey – as it should be. If any of these developments had been rushed, I would have found it inauthentic and thus it is theoretically okay with how seriously this book took the slow in slow burn. If you decide to go at this pace though, there should still be some revelation or some more growing at any point in the book and for 500 pages of slow-fucking-burn I still don’t know jackshit about our MMC other than bits and pieces of his past, family and jobs. I have a hard time bonding with characters if their only fascination is with other characters because to me that is lacking depth in character building. What does he like? (yeah, running, wow) That is one thing that hindered me falling for him. The way he helped Emma overcome some of her fears and kept asking for consent though was well done. Nothing to critique here.
The sidekicks – well, I fell for Rowe instead of Reed, so that’s enough said, right? I loved the found family thing they had going on and the fierce protectiveness for them and their immediate close ones (family does not mean blood after all and this is an instalment where I actually believed them). There were a lot of surrounding characters and it was a bit overwhelming at times, but still, I enjoyed the glimpses of them and the way they supported each other.
Also another thing I absolutely adore is when authors take one thing that is a very big deal for specific people, a family for example, and make it a recurring theme: the pancakes here? The breakfast? The food? All of that. It connected characters where a connection otherwise would have been less believable and any time I read something about pancakes or breakfast, I immediately felt my heart settle down a bit because it’s such a comfort thing in this book. I love it. Especially spanning the chasm between all of those characters all over again. Well done.
The one thing I really didn’t like was the overall pacing: the first 80% were slow and while, up to 50% that was the absolute right decision as I’ve previously said overcoming trauma doesn’t happen believably in a span of 2 pages, halfway through it should have picked up a bit to match the speedy pacing of the final fifth of the book because this way we just got launched into a looping rollercoaster at the 4/5 mark after riding a carousel for a very long time. For me, personally, there was a bit too much going on in that final part to truly suffer with the characters and after having a big chunk of the book even feel a bit repetitive it was too much, too soon, too fast.
Overall, I did read this book in two days and I had a good time doing it. I didn’t particularly like our main characters, if I’m being honest, but the sidekicks made it worth it. So, if you enjoy found family, big big big families, small towns and don’t mind a bit of pace-switching, this might be a really good book for you.
3.75/5.00
