Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home

After really enjoying Daisy Haites I was really excited to read this book. However, I completely forgot just how exhausting BJ and Magnolia can be, ugh. They just keep going in circles, and this book feels incredibly repetetive because of that. It definitely need to be this long. It is especially frustrating because if they actually communicated for once without running away, or overdramatising everything, this whole book could have been reduced to like 50 pages. It's just incredibly frustrating.
I'm going to be completely fair here though, I feel like BJ in particular really goes through a lot of developement in this book. I like that he's in therapy, and actively working to be a better human. He's still a piece of shit, but at least he's learned to take accountability for his actions. BJ's progression also makes it able for the relationship to start to feel less exhausting. It just feels nice to see someone recognize the issues in their relationship, and try to make them better or even fix them completely. It was an extreme contrast to Magnolia, who did not change at all throughout the book. In fact, she might have even gotten worse. The constant ass kissing by side characters, and their inability to see any flaws in Magnolia are still incredibly exhausting. That's maybe why I love Daisy so much because as little as she appears in this book she does not put up with Magnolia's bullshit, and I ADORE it.
Anyway, besides all those issues I did still enjoy this book fine enough. There's just something about this trainwreck that I absolutely cannot look away from. It is so incredibly drama filled, and entertaining. I also like that in this book we get to see more of the friend group, and their drama as well. It just felt refreshing dealing with other people's shit than Magnolia and BJ even if it's done through their perspective. The ending was incredibly wild though. Maybe a bit too much, but also at the same time it had my heart racing, and I can't wait to continue with this series.

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kayinae's review

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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

First the baby and the tree absolutely sent me, then the fact that Julian was actually falling in love with her but knew she’d never not love BJ, then the car accident (which I KNOW was not an accident and it was definitely a hit to hurt magnolia), then HER SISTER are you kidding me, I’m wrecked Bridget was one of my favorites and I think she might have got poisoned and the worst part about it is I guarantee it was supposed to be magnolia that died and not Bridget.

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elizabeth_helmer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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miahredfern's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I actually can’t cope. My heart is broken and I keep crying about it

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hailiscomet's review

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emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Magnolia and BJ piss me off but I love them at the same time. It’s complicated LOL. The ending of this book had my stomach in knots. I can’t wait to read the next one.

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chloestansifer's review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-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

4.0

This one did really drag on.

I definitely prefer Daisy's books and those POVs, so it does suck a bit that they go over the same timelines, because there are some sneaky spoilers in this book to what ends up happening. I really wonder if you switched the reading order to daisy before magnolia what would be lost or gained, as obviously the books were written and/or published in a certain order, but just interesting. Daisy and Magnolia obviously are NOT besties and so for them to exist in the same series "equally" with their loosely intertwined stories is very interesting. Excited to hop back into Daisy's POV soon :)

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bee_isreading's review

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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meg_'s review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-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

3.0

I have complicated feelings about this book. I'm going to start with my positives. Similarly to the first book in this series, I still am absolutely obsessed with Magnolia Parks as a character. I think she is vibrant and loveable and even when she is being annoying or has her head up her ass I still love her. I also absolutely loved the relationship within this story between Magnolia and

Julian Haites. I LOVE JULIAN HAITES and I truly feel like he and Magnolia are way better suited for one another.

As I established within my review of book one, I am not a huge fan of BJ so this was a bit of a struggle to get through for me. I do think that this book provided so much more context for their relationship and the reasons they feel so intricately tied to one another. I also think there was a clear reason established for why BJ did what he did that lead to the end of their relationship that didn't just feel like a flimsy excuse.

On the negative side, I do think that BJ continued to do things to Magnolia that were objectively toxic. That made it really hard for me to feel happy about the overall arc of this book. Especially with the fact that I freaking love Julian.

I think the reason Julian and Magnolia's relationship ended was really dumb and a cop out. It was done in a way that could have been super damaaging to Magnolia considering her history of being cheated on and never feeling like shse's enough for others

Lastly, this book was way too fucking long. It rambled on for five million years and I feel like so much could have been left out without it impacting the plot too intensely.

The ending was devastating (as is required with the end of all Magnolia Parks Universe books) and as per usual, I can't wait to read the next one!

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