Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Magnolia Parks

I have absolutely no idea whether I enjoyed this book or not 😂 I found it compelling and easy to read though somehow. It felt like an episode of Made In Chelsea, and I liked reading about the lavish lifestyle but the constant descriptions of what people were wearing got a bit old, though I understand it aided Magnolia’s characterisation.

The “will they won’t they” element did get old and I felt like there was too much to and fro,

though I liked the twist with Paili at the end, and to be fair, Magnolias obsession with details made that twist fit nicely. I do wish she’d ended up with Tom. I don’t like BJ at all and didn’t see what attracted them to each other. I do wish more showing, rather than telling was done when it came to the characters. We get told endlessly that Magnolia & BJ are magnetic and people are obsessed with them but no actual personality traits came through that would make me believe that other than them being conventionally good looking & rich. The rest was taking the author at their word

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angeliquescollection's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I really wish I wasn’t in a slump when reading this. This book didn’t put me in it, I was lowkey in one and didn’t realize until it took me weeks to even pick the book up again.
If I had read this out of a slump, I feel like I would’ve been able to get through it waaaay faster. And since it took me forever to get through it, it’s kind of messing with how I want to rate the book. I enjoyed the book but it felt so long only because I was in a slump.
I definitely was invested in the characters, more than I usually am with other books. I was feeling the emotions with magnolia and the ending definitely made me cry 🤦🏽‍♀️
But even with all of that said, I don’t know what star rating to give it. I’ve never had a five star read, so I’m assuming if it was a five star read I would have that feeling so I think I’m going to go with a 4 for now, I might sit on it for a couple days.
But loved it so much 🩶
🌶️🌶️.5/5

Content Warnings

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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