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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
Vibes. All vibes. All Immaculate vibes.
Two of my favorite tropes; enemies/rivals-to-lovers and grumpy/sunshine. We got a great back story for Baja, but less so for Jackson. I would have liked to understand his relationship and fallout with Jonas a little better though. This did have another one of my favorite micro tropes too… fighting that flips from anger to passion. Best.
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
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:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
adventurous
funny
tense
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:
Complicated
Adventure, funny dialog, and hot shape shifting dinos…just amazing. I loved this grumpy/sunshine novella!
I wish this series was truly as bonkers as its premise would seem to promise.
It's actually pretty standard... with the minor exception of one character giving the offering of a shark to the person/pterodon they're trying to woo.
It's actually pretty standard... with the minor exception of one character giving the offering of a shark to the person/pterodon they're trying to woo.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-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
First and foremost: I enjoyed Sink or Swim. Quite a bit. But I’m not (originally wasn’t) going to rate it for several reasons that I’ll get to in a minute. First, I want to do this book justice without my personal niggles because those niggles come from my mood of late as well as things that are truly just ‘me’ things, so take a peek at Todd’s fantastic review.
I definitely want to reiterate that I really enjoyed Sink or Swim and I’m really into this world even if it is ridiculous and I have to wildly suspend my skepticism and disbelief. But as Todd mentions in his review, Baha is constantly pissed off and annoyed. He’s got a perpetually foul and gruff attitude; I find it hard to bond with characters with this kind of disposition. I don’t have positive experience with grumpy, cranky men that have a pent up desire to fight and dominate. I generally don’t like those men in books because, to me, they exude a kind of off-putting toxic masculinity. That said, in Sink or Swim, I understood it and even empathized with Baha for it. Both Baha and Jackson men were apex predators who had existed for millions of years as such. Their time as humans was such a minuscule fraction of their time on earth. That their dominant animal brain still played a very active role in their psyche made sense to me, particularly for Baha who specifically expresses Being a human was confusing. And most of the time I hated it. So while I found that element of their personalities and natures understandable, MY lizard brain rebelled against it, split between ‘I don’t like it, it feels toxic’ and ‘I totally get it! Poor Baha!’
All credit to Maz Maddox because she inspired me to feel compassion and empathy to a character type that typically and naturally repulses me! I love that Maddox manages to pull off giving us hypermasculine men with the desire to fight and dominate but somehow manages to thread a needle that for me avoided the toxicity that usually comes with those traits. Baha and Jackson are men that still have have baser animal brains; for them, the fighting and dominance is instinctual, it’s adaptive, it’s survival and it’s part of their mating dance and ritual. That last part, the mating dance part, Maddox played THAT element in a really sweet and beautiful scene at one point that really captured my heart… hmm…
You know what? When I started writing this review, I wasn’t planning to leave a star rating because of my niggles but as I sifted through my thoughts and feelings while writing this, I’ve changed my mind. I’m impressed at the way Maddox managed to pull it all off.
I do have one other niggle about the massive amount of force and violence used in the end but not enough to change my mind about my decision to star rate after all. I was uncomfortable about throwing an on-the-fly improvised incendiary device on a cruise ship with innocent passengers. Yes, yes, it’s nitpicking but I’m still in ‘a mass shooting/mass violence in the US is out of control
I definitely want to reiterate that I really enjoyed Sink or Swim and I’m really into this world even if it is ridiculous and I have to wildly suspend my skepticism and disbelief. But as Todd mentions in his review, Baha is constantly pissed off and annoyed. He’s got a perpetually foul and gruff attitude; I find it hard to bond with characters with this kind of disposition. I don’t have positive experience with grumpy, cranky men that have a pent up desire to fight and dominate. I generally don’t like those men in books because, to me, they exude a kind of off-putting toxic masculinity. That said, in Sink or Swim, I understood it and even empathized with Baha for it. Both Baha and Jackson men were apex predators who had existed for millions of years as such. Their time as humans was such a minuscule fraction of their time on earth. That their dominant animal brain still played a very active role in their psyche made sense to me, particularly for Baha who specifically expresses Being a human was confusing. And most of the time I hated it. So while I found that element of their personalities and natures understandable, MY lizard brain rebelled against it, split between ‘I don’t like it, it feels toxic’ and ‘I totally get it! Poor Baha!’
All credit to Maz Maddox because she inspired me to feel compassion and empathy to a character type that typically and naturally repulses me! I love that Maddox manages to pull off giving us hypermasculine men with the desire to fight and dominate but somehow manages to thread a needle that for me avoided the toxicity that usually comes with those traits. Baha and Jackson are men that still have have baser animal brains; for them, the fighting and dominance is instinctual, it’s adaptive, it’s survival and it’s part of their mating dance and ritual. That last part, the mating dance part, Maddox played THAT element in a really sweet and beautiful scene at one point that really captured my heart… hmm…
You know what? When I started writing this review, I wasn’t planning to leave a star rating because of my niggles but as I sifted through my thoughts and feelings while writing this, I’ve changed my mind. I’m impressed at the way Maddox managed to pull it all off.
I do have one other niggle about the massive amount of force and violence used in the end but not enough to change my mind about my decision to star rate after all. I was uncomfortable about throwing an on-the-fly improvised incendiary device on a cruise ship with innocent passengers. Yes, yes, it’s nitpicking but I’m still in ‘a mass shooting/mass violence in the US is out of control
3.5 stars. I put off reading this for a while because I knew I wasn't going to like it at much as the first. That said, this was still fun. It's an easy read with fun banter and a generic romantic plot line with a twist. (If at times, really boring...) I don't like fake dating but I don't think it was really present enough for it to be an issue for me. It was very much a throw in and wasn't that big of a deal in the story.
My main issue, same as the first book, is the lack of shifting. It defintley happened more this time around, which I was so happy for. But it's not like in typical shifter books where the human is one with the animal. There's a lot of restrictions due to the fact that they are, you know, dinosaurs. While cool, it is kind of annoying that you don't get to just see a Spinosaurus chilling in their backyard. (The beach scene was amazing and perfect. I wish stuff like that happened more throughout the book!!)
So if you're looking for something unserious and a little different, this is for you.
My main issue, same as the first book, is the lack of shifting. It defintley happened more this time around, which I was so happy for. But it's not like in typical shifter books where the human is one with the animal. There's a lot of restrictions due to the fact that they are, you know, dinosaurs. While cool, it is kind of annoying that you don't get to just see a Spinosaurus chilling in their backyard. (The beach scene was amazing and perfect. I wish stuff like that happened more throughout the book!!)
So if you're looking for something unserious and a little different, this is for you.