Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
Guys. It really started so strong. I made it all the way to page 159 and I couldn’t go any further.
The book starts by giving us this character I personally think is autistic coded, which I loved to see. She’s witty and shy and particular, and she’s also experienced a lot of very serious trauma that has influenced her worldview. As this was all set up, I was interested to see how her personality may shift over time. At page 35 or so I thought this book was headed for a 5 star rating. Sadly, all this beautiful characterization is almost immediately wrecked, completely and unrealistically with the onset of, of course, some guy.
Our main guy Esben is a guy we’ve all known, someone who thinks so highly of himself he’ll only ever give you the impression he’s massively secure and immeasurably good hearted, which as we know in my opinion is the wrong type of guy to chase, especially when you’re in a place of low personal self esteem. However of course our very lonely main character cannot resist his charms, which okay sure that happens.
She proceeds to over the next 100 or so book pages, completely crumble as a character. All of a sudden she’s a party animal, extremely social, ready for whatever. Unless she’s experiencing a psychic break/personality disorder manifest, it is a heavily unrealistic and unnatural result of just—meeting some dude. He gets all the credit for her personal development (if you could call losing yourself entirely that).
But HERES the reason I put the book down, immediately.
TW: R*pe
We are told his sister was SA’d at a party he was at. After Our main character is told about this, this is her response.
“It hits me that Esben is also a survivor of this r*pe. We generally think about the effects on those who survive trauma—which, of course, we should—but we don’t always think about the effects on the indirect victims. It’s clear to me now that we should.”
This. Made. Me. So. Upset.
As a survivor myself, I am positive many other survivors have also experienced other people claiming their trauma for what they went through. I am so so tired of the martyr character this Esben is anyways, but to credit him as a victim of his SISTERS SA? I couldn’t take it any further.
Not a worthwhile read, many better books in the genre. Could’ve been a great book if the author hadn’t gotten lazy and made the exposition two main characters martyring over a third party’s SA.
The book starts by giving us this character I personally think is autistic coded, which I loved to see. She’s witty and shy and particular, and she’s also experienced a lot of very serious trauma that has influenced her worldview. As this was all set up, I was interested to see how her personality may shift over time. At page 35 or so I thought this book was headed for a 5 star rating. Sadly, all this beautiful characterization is almost immediately wrecked, completely and unrealistically with the onset of, of course, some guy.
Our main guy Esben is a guy we’ve all known, someone who thinks so highly of himself he’ll only ever give you the impression he’s massively secure and immeasurably good hearted, which as we know in my opinion is the wrong type of guy to chase, especially when you’re in a place of low personal self esteem. However of course our very lonely main character cannot resist his charms, which okay sure that happens.
She proceeds to over the next 100 or so book pages, completely crumble as a character. All of a sudden she’s a party animal, extremely social, ready for whatever. Unless she’s experiencing a psychic break/personality disorder manifest, it is a heavily unrealistic and unnatural result of just—meeting some dude. He gets all the credit for her personal development (if you could call losing yourself entirely that).
But HERES the reason I put the book down, immediately.
TW: R*pe
We are told his sister was SA’d at a party he was at. After Our main character is told about this, this is her response.
“It hits me that Esben is also a survivor of this r*pe. We generally think about the effects on those who survive trauma—which, of course, we should—but we don’t always think about the effects on the indirect victims. It’s clear to me now that we should.”
This. Made. Me. So. Upset.
As a survivor myself, I am positive many other survivors have also experienced other people claiming their trauma for what they went through. I am so so tired of the martyr character this Esben is anyways, but to credit him as a victim of his SISTERS SA? I couldn’t take it any further.
Not a worthwhile read, many better books in the genre. Could’ve been a great book if the author hadn’t gotten lazy and made the exposition two main characters martyring over a third party’s SA.
I loved this book. I wish I could’ve given it 4.5 stars. I went into it thinking it was going to be a fun lighthearted romance, but it was so much more than that. I loved the relationship between Allison and Esben, and how there was a shift in tone over the course of the book. What I wasn’t expecting was for this book to make me have to take multiple breaks to catch my breath as I sobbed over my kindle. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard reading a book before. I highly recommend this book to anybody looking for a romance, or something where they’ll cry their eyes out.
“Hold on to your one. Remember? I have you, and you have me. And when you’re lucky enough to find one—just one—person in this unforgiving life who makes everything worth it, who you love and trust and would kill for, then you hold on damn tight, because that’s probably all you get. We got this,”
“It’s going to hurt until it doesn’t anymore.”
#thiskissthiskiss man was that scene my favorite!! I'm not giving it away! You need to read this book!
The laughs, the tears, the anger, the hurt. The list, the love, the emotion.
I loved Esben and Allison and all they emcompass! They live hard and love hard.
Get this book!
The laughs, the tears, the anger, the hurt. The list, the love, the emotion.
I loved Esben and Allison and all they emcompass! They live hard and love hard.
Get this book!
1.5 Stars. I didn’t “hate” it but I didn’t like it. This was one big giant eye roll. That’s the best I can describe it.
I only made to about half of this book. This was on Amazon Prime’s selection, so luckily I didn’t pay for this. I just finished reading a couple of heavy, sort of depressing books so I wanted to read something light and romantic for a break. Unfortunately, the ridiculous overly-cute and perfect story telling had me either gagging or laughing out loud. Summary of the first half is ‘gorgeous girl who doesn’t know she’s gorgeous and has a dark past falls for gorgeous famous perfect boy who instantly reciprocates her deep love and helps her find the light’. There’s about a million cheesy teen books with this premise, so no thanks.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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:
Complicated