Reviews with content warning for Violence - Things We Never Got Over

I always enjoy a good enemies to lovers small town romance, I eat it up every time. Also, I didn’t expect this is to me a smutty adult romance, maybe because the flowery cover…. I was mislead. Also, that the MMC AND MFC were 36 and 43 years old?? It was really funny and silly with an interesting plot. I adore the side characters and small town life. Weirdly cringey in some parts and I kept thinking “how are they acting 20 years younger than they are.” Even though I enjoyed the romance and Naomi and Knox, they were really annoying and immature in MANY parts. I’ve seen a lot of criticism on the humor and descriptions but I enjoyed it for a majority of the time. I would say it’s a bit longer than it should have been but I also think it was well paced. Overall, I love Knox and Naomi but they aren’t my favorite book couple. If anything I thought Knox’s views on women were problematic and I wouldn’t date him but overall enjoyable. He was a cinnamon roll at his core though. I laughed a lot and will read the rest of the series with Nash & Lucian’s books. One of my favorite parts was the town and the whole community small town support.

“You can have anything you want. A big church wedding. A backyard barbecue. A five-figure wedding dress. But I have one demand.”
Of course it was a demand and not a request. “What’s that?”
“I want daisies in your hair.”

Content Warnings

leah08855's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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isabelleroyall's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

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lindsayvale's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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pau_line's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Sehr geehrte Leserschaft dieser Rezension,

ich bitte, zur Kenntnis zu nehmen, dass die Rezension versucht, sich möglichst spoilerfrei zu halten, jedoch keine 100% Garantie besteht. Zudem ist vom Lesen der Rezension abzuraten, wenn der nachfolgende Lesegenuss nicht beeinträchtigt werden soll.

Soo, wo fange ich bloß an...
Das Buch hat mich tatsächlich schon sehr enttäuscht, da es, meiner Meinung nach, einige Unstimmigkeiten und problematische/störende Aspekte gab.
Ganz grundlegend hatte ich etwas anderes erwartet. Ich bin davon ausgegangen, dass es sich um ein Yound Adult Buch handelt, allerdings sind die Charaktere schon mitte 30, die männlichen Figuren Anfang 40...das ging für mich nicht so klar, weil ich die ganze Zeit darüber nachdenken musste, dass der fast so alt ist wie mein Vater...und nein... das sollte man also auf jeden Fall beachten, wenn man vorhat, das Buch zu lesen

Dann zu den Hauptprobleme, die ich mit dem Buch hatte:
1. die Geschichte soll Kleinstadtvibe geben, ist damit meiner Meinung nach aber vollkommen gescheitert. Ich habs einfach nicht gefühlt und auch nicht verstanden. Man muss dem Buch aber zu gute halten, dass die Nebencharaktere zumeist gut eingebunden haben und durch die Gestaltung des Zusammenhalts noch ein wenig der Kleinstadtatmosphäre vorhanden war.
2. die Charaktere....die waren wohl das größte meiner Probleme:
- Nebenfiguren: sehr süß udn gut ausgearbeitet. Vor allem Waylay (Naomis Nichte) mochte ich so gerneeee.
- bei Waylay finde ich es aber tatsächlich eher unrealistisch, dass ein Kind, das in einem Umfeld udn mit einer solchen Mutter, wie es beschrieben wurde, keinerlei Narben oder Traumata hat bzw diese einfach völlig unter den Tisch gefallen sind
- mit Naomi bin ich einfach nicht warm geworden. Teilweise konnte ich sie nachempfinden, meistens hat sie mich aber einfach nicht wirklich interessiert (schwierig, weil sie die Hauptfigur ist). Das könnte evtl auch daran liegen, dass ihre Zwillingsschwester Tina und der "tolle" Knox so viel mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommen haben
- mein Main-Problem war aber Knox. Ich konnte ihn von Anfang an nicht leiden und hab im Laufe der Geschichte eine absolute Disempathie entwickelt, dass Lesegenuss nicht mehr wirklich möglich war.
In meinen Augen hat der Mann mehr als nur ein Bindungsproblem... ohne inhaltlich zu spoilern, aber in dem Buch wird (vor allem von Seiten Knox ausgehende) Gewalt völlig normalisiert. Ähnlich auch Alkoholkonsum
Dafür, dass der Mann über 40 ist, benimmt er sich wie ein 16 Jähriger
- seine Entscheidungen sind meistens unlogisch in meinen Augen
- dieses "harte Schale, weicher Kern"-Ding war für mich schlecht umgesetzt, weil er zu dem Zeitpunkt, als er mal netter wurde, einfach schon so sehr im Ansehen gesunken ist, dass das nichts mehr gebracht hat...
- daher hab ich ihm seine Beziehung mit Naomi, oder was auch immer das sein sollte, nicht gegönnt haha

Von der Handlung her konnte ich manche Aspekte nicht nachvollziehen, besonders gegen Endem es gab viel Drama um nichts, was die wenigen wholesome Momente überlagert hat.
- mehrere Male sind Handlungsstränge aufgetaucht, die so für 5 Seiten erzählt wurden, aber dann nie wieder Thema waren oder zur Folgehandlung beigetragen haben

Fazit: ich würde das Buch nicht empfehlen. Allerdings muss ich sagen, dass meine Bewertung zum Großteil auf meiner Ablehnung der männlichen Hauptfigur fußt, daher ist das eine individuelle Sache...

Content Warnings

lizzie_b99's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-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? Yes

3.75

There some really good laugh-out-loud moments in this novel. I loved Stef and Sloane and their relationship with Naomi. I really enjoyed the development of Waylay/Naomi/Knox's relationships and how they gradually become a family.

I think there was a lack of character description for Knox. It's pretty clear what Knox loves about Naomi, but I found the reverse rather lacking.

A lot of the focus was on what Knox does for Naomi and how he takes care of her, which is great, but I'm a little concerned that their relationship is based too much on what he can offer her. Given her relationship with her ex, it makes sense that having a partner who is giving and doesn't just take is important, but I would've liked more information on what Naomi likes about Knox as a person, not just what he can offer her (if that makes sense). I just would've liked his character to be a bit more developed beyond how he feels about Naomi and relationships in general.

I also wish that there was more information about Naomi's sister, Tina. The book basically labels her "a bad seed" who hasn't experienced any trauma but goes around destroying everything because it's "fun." I don't think I buy that. Maybe I'm just naive, but I don't think people like Tina just appear out of nowhere. I also would've liked more of an explanation of what exactly Tina had done to get such a bad rap in Knockemout. Why does Knox have such an extreme, negative reaction when he first meets Naomi and believes her to be Tina? what did Tina do to be refused service at the coffee shop? Most of her misdemeanours aren't really explained in as much length as I'd like - especially for such a long novel. I would've liked her to get a redemption arc, but she basically gets represented as a rebellious teen who never grew up.

There were a few sections that I think were unclear and required more editing. Given all the hype on Bookstagram, I'd hoped that I'd like this more, but it was still pretty decent. I had some issues with it (there are a lot of my spicy scene ick words), but it's still a cute novel.

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coffeekitaab's review

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

A book I would never have picked up if not for Bookstagram - consumed it within days, loved the characters and story. Such an easy read. Please check minor trigger warnings .

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katierosecrane's review

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adventurous funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Started off great and then went down hill the last 25% of the book. I was thinking before the bad part of a 4+ star rating. But the climax was disappointing. The characters were so cringey it broke the reality of the book. But I loved everything before the climax so I’m just disappointed.

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