Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings

10 reviews

emelisa_19's review against another edition

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

1.0

The mental health crisis of the 21st century is clearly diplayed in the amount of people that like this book and root for the main characters.

I am so happy they broke up in the end. In my mind, they will stay that way because I have no plan nor the desire to read the other two books. 

The writting is beautiful. The timeline and flow of the story is messed up tho. One chapter they were resolute on never getting back together, then the next chapter they are made up again, swearing to the stars this is it. I had this feeling that I missed like 4 chapters, which made me think that what was happening was not happening at all. Absolutely hated that. 

Absolutely hate BJ Ballentine, biggest asshole I've ever read about. Parks was kinda nice in the beginning, annoyed me to pieces by the end. They both need therapy. The white walls, straight-jacket kind.

That star I put in the review is for Tom England and BJ's mom only. They were the only thing that kept me pushing through. 

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kcmg710's review against another edition

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emotional medium-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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raegandrust's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

wow…
this book was surprisingly really good. i actually quite enjoyed it. the pop culture references didn’t seem too forced and i really enjoyed the storyline, as it was very different from what i’ve ever read before. and that ending…was a fucking stab in the heart! but i think i’ll have to read the rest of the series before i keep a definitive rating for the book.

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emmareidy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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lorzosaur's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-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

5.0

A big PHAT 5 ⭐️

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sadiaa's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

A couple who would not survive after the ending of the book
BJ is insufferable, very 'woe is me', unlikeable 

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crinkledmochi's review against another edition

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i just don’t understand the hype or how this can even be second chance romance under any of the circumstances presented, i also hated the writing style and how the author would describe every single outfit and brand the characters wore 

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readingwithmeredith's review against another edition

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

3.0


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midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Magnolia Parks is the first book in the Magnolia Parks Universe series by Jessa Hastings. It revolves around Magnolia Parks and BJ Ballantine and their group of friends who live in London. They are all fabulously wealthy high society socialites. 

This was a beautiful and heartbreaking story about two people navigating a complicated relationship. There’s gorgeously written passages about how Magnolia and BJ feel about each other. It’s definitely a book where you’ll feel a lot of different emotions. There’s also a nice side setup for the next book with Daisy, Christian, and Julian. I can’t wait to continue this series! 

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Update: bumping this one up to 5 stars because I haven't stopped thinking about it and it's been a week. ALL I WANNA DO IS READ THE REST OF THE BOOKS AND NOTHING ELSE BUT I don't have money so I have to leave them on my wishlist for now rip

There are a lot of things to like about this romp of a book. The world of high society London complete with a cast of filthy rich 20 somethings and 30 somethings was engaging and compulsively readable. Jessa Hastings has a unique but digestable writing style that makes our main characters feel like they're writing confessionals directly to the audience, so in a way, it felt like my favorite parts of reality TV. I don't mean that in a bad way by any means, I just mean that I liked having a front row seat to all of the drama even though the drama toward the end made me feel exhausted. I do think that this book could've been cut in half and it would've been even better. Still, I annotated and tabbed the hell out of this. There were a lot of quotable moments and moments worth reading and re-reading.

On to Magnolia and BJ themselves - I know they shouldn't be together, you know they shouldn't be together, Jessa Hastings probably knows they shouldn't be together, and yet...you want them to be together. There is no logical reason for me to want them to be happy. Firstly, they both have major growing up to do, and secondly, neither of them are very good people. A bad person doesn't mean a bad character, though. I still enjoyed reading their antics and sometimes BJ, even at his worst, was able to squeeze my heart in just the right way, damn him, stupid goblin boy.

I have some slight issues here and there that I can't get into without spoilers, but I overall loved this one and can't wait to read the rest of them.

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