Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Offside by Avery Keelan

12 reviews

dreezy's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Cursing, Medical content, Violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexism

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Classism, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Car accident, and Death of parent

underscoresyd's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.5

too much filler, could have been about 200 pages shorter & it gave me the ick whenever chase would touch bailey and instantly think of sex. like we get it. she’s hot. the spice wasn’t really well written either which is a disappointment since the book is so long & there’s so much of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy, Car accident, Drug use, Rape, and Abortion

wander_read_love's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Cursing, Death of parent, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence and Stalking

Minor: Drug use

beckyremillard's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Car accident, and Pregnancy

daniellesharp's review

4.0

Chase is amazing. Some of the plot points felt out in just to make them in, but didn’t actually matter much. Like, if it was a movie, they’d cut several plot points to shorten it. 

3rd act break up

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual harassment, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

culzean's review

emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Vomit, Gaslighting, Violence, Classism, Cursing, and Death of parent

lilyemmaaa's review

funny lighthearted relaxing 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Car accident, Alcohol, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

laurenvoice's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

For a book 600 pages long, Offside was surprisingly quick and easy to read; it only took a couple of days.

Offside was a fun and engrossing read that touched upon some dark topics. The slow build from friends to romance was sweet to read; Chase Carter was something else. I enjoyed watching Chase and Bailey's relationship grow, and their love spreads the message of how a green-flag relationship looks. Plus, it highlighted what red-flag relationships look like and why they are not acceptable, Luke belongs in the bin.

Avery Keelan did amazing at writing the romance side and fun side of the book. However, the darker topics that happened within this story felt poorly executed. For example, I found that the "sex tape" scandal and "stalking" were just brushed over and rushed. And there were no real consequences for these criminal acts; that tape was practically sexual assault. This storyline would have been the perfect opportunity to open a discussion about male victims of sexual assault and revenge porn.

As much as I loved watching Chase and Bailey's relationship grow, I found the book overly long; near the end, I got a bit fatigued reading it. The ending felt rushed and underwhelming, especially the resulting answer to the massive build-up of Bailey's guilt for her parent's financial troubles.

Also, there were a lot of unanswered questions, like what happened to Bailey's dad in the bonus chapters? It would have also been great to read some chapters talking more about Chase's and Bailey's family; I want to know more about Bailey's two other older brothers; do they have names for a start?

All that said, Offside was the lighthearted read I needed. I enjoyed reading about the ice hockey games and look forward to reading the next book in this series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts

livchids's review against another edition

lighthearted 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

2.0

<I am really not a fan of the miscommunication trope and, although it didn’t feature too heavily, it always annoys me. Bailey and Chase are a cute couple and he definitely helps her work through her issues from Luke, but I wish we saw more of her friend relationships. I feel like we don’t see much of what either character does in their day, it only really focuses on their time together. I would love to see their interactions with the house a bit more - I often found myself comparing to Off Campus.>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

reading_diaries's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

If I could rate this a 6, I would. I read this in a day and it was the most fun I had reading a book. It was so fast paced, the characters were so enjoyable to read, the story was just amazing. Don't get me wrong, this book is by no means a phenomenal book with this deep story and touching characters, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it and thought it was the perfect book to get me out of a reading slump. Especially loved the playlist for this book, listened to every song while listening.

I really loved how Chase took things slow with Bailey and really allowed her to explore her range of intimacy. I think the way he helped her navigate her toxic friendships really hit home for me. I wish there was someone that would have done the same for me when I was going through a toxic friendship. 

The ending plot twist had me screaming. I think the way Avery Keelan wrote it with such sensitivity and care especially since it showed a different side to sexual assault that's not often talked about in mainstream media. 

Overall this book was such a fun read and I enjoyed it so much. Can't wait for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Bullying, and Sexual content

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Violence