Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home

You had me in the first half I can’t lie

I thought I might actually LIKE BJ Ballentine in this book but alas I still despise that man! He’s the definition of gaslight gatekeep and I wasn’t rooting for them for one second which is Impressive in itself for a self proclaimed romance novel!! I missed Christian this book and surprisingly Daisy too but getting more Julian was a perk!

This book just didn’t hit as well as the first two and I’m sad!

Also I’ve watched too much greys anatomy to not see the ending from a mile off (rip bridge)

The trigger warnings for this book are heavy so please look them up as I haven’t suffered from a lot of the themes presented but I struggled to read some of them! (TW: Baby Loss, Family member death, allusions to eating disorders)

Content Warnings

midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Magnolia Parks: The Long Way Home is the third book in the Magnolia Parks Universe. It picks up a year after the events of the first book. Magnolia is living in New York after the dramatic events of the end of the first book. She comes home for her father’s wedding. BJ has been in therapy to work on his issues and hopefully to win Magnolia back. While she’s in London for the wedding she gets a job offer from Tatler to be their new style editor. She accepts and she and BJ try to navigate their way back to each other.

This was another emotional installment in this series. Big secrets and revelations about Magnolia and BJ’s past get brought to light making you look at the first book very differently. There are once again beautiful passages about their love for one another and how they view their relationship. However, I believe this book is a bit too long. I think it would have been much tighter paced had it had 100 pages or so shaved off. As it was, some things felt very repetitive, such a scenarios and/or phrases. Other than that, it’s another solid edition to the series.

Content Warnings

toofondofbooks_'s review

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emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Another roller coaster of a book from the Magnolia Parks Universe and while I am extremely emotionally compromised (Jessa, I'll be sending you my therapy bills <3) I cannot say that I am disappointed. When I say I'm emotionally compromised, I mean it, like, I'm not going to sleep tonight, in all likelihood, and if I didn't care about spacing these books out so that they last me longer, I would be picking up Jessa's latest immediately. HOWEVER I'm going to exercise self control and just continue crying and singing the praises of these dumbass characters that I love way too much for my own good. I don't know if this is so much a review as it is just me having a mental breakdown....but I'm going to try and write something actually constructive.

I love how much more in depth BJ and Magnolia were explored as characters, particularly the focus on the shared trauma they've been through as well as individual traumas. I feel like prior to this book neither of them really looked their problems in the eye and saw shit for what it was but they started to make some headway in that department here and I was thrilled to see it. Sure, it was messy as well, but doesn't that make it more delicious?

bj ballentine you are my beloved and you are so important btw *blows a kiss for him*

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