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roorooreads's review
- 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
Graphic: Blood and Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Kidnapping
kendoftheworld's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Things I liked: Serena, Sparkles, and Owen. That Owen’s final speech to their father is basically soft-coded for “I plan to not make America great again, I plan to make America comfortably insignificant again,” which, *finger snaps.* That none of the women in this book are in any sort of competition with each other. That platonic same-sex friendship is maybe the only major plot point. (I don’t consider sex a plot point, but that’s me.)
Things I didn’t: Basically, the main Romance (and specifically Omegaverse) Thing™️ where really good sex is a) the whole point of the book, b) fundamentally transformative, c) what every normal person is built for, and d) where all the meaning and belonging of life is stored up for folks to experience.
As I mentioned, I’m an aroace enby. I will never experience romance or sex the same way as an allosexual, and I have been raised like everyone else to see romance and sex as extremely meaningful—more meaningful than platonic friendship, because the book never climaxes or ends on platonic friendship even if the author considers it important. The book never ends with someone trying to figure out if life is going to ever be as meaningful for them as everyone else, simply because they’re not built to experience love the same way. And in a book where that *exact* question is raised repeatedly, as a result of biological difference, it’s even more heartbreaking for the conclusion to be “I’d totally still love you if you didn’t love me back or experience love the same way—but isn’t it awesome that we do, in the end, feel the same way for each other and were silly silly people for thinking we were biologically incompatible and *didn’t* experience sex in all its mind-blowing fullness in essentially the same way?”
It’d be nice if someone were biologically compelled to really really like me, sexually and/or romantically, because then I could know for sure that life was meaningful and worth continuing for no other reason than that such relationships apparently make us feel it is worth continuing. It’s not Ali Hazelwood’s fault for amplifying this narrative since literally no one else I’ve ever read has managed anything else, but it does feel particularly galling here, perhaps because she *knows* and she wants to *try* at an inclusive romance. And we quite literally pay for romance books to be the way they are.
I’m not saying I hate being me right now, but I do always hate myself at least a little bit for being such a … (I’m laughing at myself here a bit) … misery melon about the whole thing.
I do dream of a world where a misery melon like me can find a meaningful ending in a romance book that doesn’t involve being transformed by mind-blowing sex, though.
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Cursing and Abandonment
Minor: Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Dementia, Grief, Vomit, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, and Self harm
kyriannaj's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Death, and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Gore, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content and Cursing
Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Murder
filipa_maia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I love Misery, I connected with her instantly, I loved the way she, slowly but steadily, softened herself allowing others to get in. I love Lowe. He simply left everything behind to take care of others and put everything and everyone first. They definitely deserve each other.
The overall plot was really good, I love the development of all the different characters throughout the story.
Now, for the really bad things:
* Terrible cover. Ugly.
* The sex scenes: wtf? why? Ok, you can defend that she really needed to explain how things work. Sure. But one time was enough. We don't need to read (in full detail) every single time they have sex. We get it, they are hot and have a lot a sex. There are ways of describing sex scenes that are tasteful and well written. If I know this, Ali Hazelwood definitely knows this. She just choose to ignore them.
Graphic: Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gaslighting, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Confinement, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, Genocide, and Kidnapping
chi__'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Abandonment
Moderate: Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Confinement, Murder, War, Cancer, Car accident, and Medical content
saraavowlerr's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death
spellbindingtomes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Abandonment, Blood, and Grief
emmyjojoreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, Self harm, Torture, Murder, Death, Confinement, Grief, and Infertility
britwalsh16's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, and Confinement
Minor: Cursing and Death of parent