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wilybooklover's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, and Ableism
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Death of parent, Classism, and Sexual assault
maeverose's review against another edition
2.5
I like the concept of this story much more than the execution. I liked the tension between Christina and Oliver, the deaf rep (more on that later) and the steamy scenes weren’t bad, but I didn’t care for… literally anything else.
I’m not deaf myself, and as far as I know neither is the author so I can’t say if the rep is good or not, however I didn’t notice anything harmful and felt like the author did her research. However, this book has both intentional ableism that you’re supposed to disagree with, and some probably unintended ableism towards autistic people. People often assume Oliver is ‘an imbecile’ (a slur for autistic or intellectually disabled people that would’ve been used at the time), and he’s offended by this in a way that frames being autistic as something to be ashamed of. Like, ‘he’s deaf not an ~imbecile~’. Christina actually says that exact quote replacing ‘imbecile’ with ‘deformed’, as well. I find it annoying that historical fiction often uses ableist language like that just because it was common at the time. It doesn’t need to be there, the story would be the same without it, just less offensive. Especially in a book that’s supposed to have positive disability rep, it irked me that there was still uncorrected ableist language.
Christina seemed very naive for her age, even if she did have a more isolated upbringing. I wished she stood up to her mother sooner, especially once she was safe no longer living with her. It almost made the book feel YA if it weren’t for the sex scenes.
As for Oliver, I liked him for the most part. I liked how his being deaf was explored, especially within that time period. There was at least one or two times where he got physically aggressive when mad (slamming his fist on a table), which irks me. But otherwise he was very sweet for most of the book, despite being a bit of a grump in the beginning.
This might just be personal preference but I didn’t like the conflict at the endwith Oliver going to the asylum . It felt too high stakes and traumatic for a steamy historical romance (granted, this is my first historical romance so idk if that’s a typical level of drama or not). I just wanted a fun time and instead I got angst I wasn’t prepared for. Christina’s mother annoyed me a lot for the same reason. For both of those things that was obviously the goal, I just don’t like that much conflict in my romances I guess. I didn’t feel like it focused enough on the romance, instead focusing more on the drama.
I’m not deaf myself, and as far as I know neither is the author so I can’t say if the rep is good or not, however I didn’t notice anything harmful and felt like the author did her research. However, this book has both intentional ableism that you’re supposed to disagree with, and some probably unintended ableism towards autistic people. People often assume Oliver is ‘an imbecile’ (a slur for autistic or intellectually disabled people that would’ve been used at the time), and he’s offended by this in a way that frames being autistic as something to be ashamed of. Like, ‘he’s deaf not an ~imbecile~’. Christina actually says that exact quote replacing ‘imbecile’ with ‘deformed’, as well. I find it annoying that historical fiction often uses ableist language like that just because it was common at the time. It doesn’t need to be there, the story would be the same without it, just less offensive. Especially in a book that’s supposed to have positive disability rep, it irked me that there was still uncorrected ableist language.
Christina seemed very naive for her age, even if she did have a more isolated upbringing. I wished she stood up to her mother sooner, especially once she was safe no longer living with her. It almost made the book feel YA if it weren’t for the sex scenes.
As for Oliver, I liked him for the most part. I liked how his being deaf was explored, especially within that time period. There was at least one or two times where he got physically aggressive when mad (slamming his fist on a table), which irks me. But otherwise he was very sweet for most of the book, despite being a bit of a grump in the beginning.
This might just be personal preference but I didn’t like the conflict at the end
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Ableism, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual assault
Minor: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape
On the rape and sexual assault: it’s only mentioned as a possibility of something that could happen, it doesn’t actually happen.shewritesinmargins's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse
Hawkes goes to an asylum.bee94's review
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Sexual assault
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