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caitlyn_xx's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Stalking, and Death of parent
Minor: Blood and Alcohol
namelessbri's review against another edition
emotional
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
ashleys_endless_tbrlist's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
4.5
This book was SO unexpected and not at all what I thought it would be.
Was it a billionaire romance? Yes
Was it little sister and older brothers best friend trope? Yes
Was it enemies to lovers? Yes
Was it grumpy sunshine? Yes
Was there spice? Yes
Did it discuss trauma? Yes
Did it discuss panic attacks? Yes
Did it involve a family member unaliving? Yes
Did it involve people unaliving others? Yes
And the list goes onā¦ this book was more than just a romance with all of the tropes. This book was SO heavy and I urge you to check your trigger warnings.
I really am so glad I finally started this series. It was such a pleasant surprise. Is it true it is being made into a Netflix series? I certainly hope so! š„°
Was it a billionaire romance? Yes
Was it little sister and older brothers best friend trope? Yes
Was it enemies to lovers? Yes
Was it grumpy sunshine? Yes
Was there spice? Yes
Did it discuss trauma? Yes
Did it discuss panic attacks? Yes
Did it involve a family member unaliving? Yes
Did it involve people unaliving others? Yes
And the list goes onā¦ this book was more than just a romance with all of the tropes. This book was SO heavy and I urge you to check your trigger warnings.
I really am so glad I finally started this series. It was such a pleasant surprise. Is it true it is being made into a Netflix series? I certainly hope so! š„°
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting
kgatz's review against another edition
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
leigh_bee's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The love interest Alex has a lot of toxic/red flag traits that make him difficult to root for. If I had a friend or family member dating someone with these traits I would recommend a restraining order. Plot was intriguing, but somewhat overly connected.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
xbeccax's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Murder
bbaydoo's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
redstringraven's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
at about 73% of the way through the book, i WOULD have rated this 1.5 stars. but, oh my god? that last quarter dragged. it was so sincerely boring, that i couldn't justify keeping that half star. and that was this book's honest to god biggest crime to me: i was so bored.
i'm aware this falls into the category of "dark romance", ergo expecting certain characters to be ''''good'''' (morally) is a bit of a moot point, but they weren't even ''''good'''' from an engaging point. all of them were flat, shallow, predictable and dull; a big part of why the last quarter of the book was as boring as it was WAS due to the fact i had no investment in the characters as people. once the "plot" had concluded, i remember looking at the timestamp and thinking "how the hell are there three whole hours left?".
the prose being decent enough was the one thing that keeps this book from a lower rating, mostly due to the fact another book's prose i read last month was insufferable by comparison. there were flashback sequences, but--partially due to using an audio medium--i really struggled to keep track of if we were still in-flashback or in the present again; the author would swap past-tense and present-tense. i'm told that, in print, these flashbacks are at least in italics, so at least there's that. but there was a "major reveal" that happened during one of these flashbacks, and i had to listen to it twice to make sure i understood what it was trying to get across.
SPOILERS BELOW
things i liked:
i'm aware this falls into the category of "dark romance", ergo expecting certain characters to be ''''good'''' (morally) is a bit of a moot point, but they weren't even ''''good'''' from an engaging point. all of them were flat, shallow, predictable and dull; a big part of why the last quarter of the book was as boring as it was WAS due to the fact i had no investment in the characters as people. once the "plot" had concluded, i remember looking at the timestamp and thinking "how the hell are there three whole hours left?".
the prose being decent enough was the one thing that keeps this book from a lower rating, mostly due to the fact another book's prose i read last month was insufferable by comparison. there were flashback sequences, but--partially due to using an audio medium--i really struggled to keep track of if we were still in-flashback or in the present again; the author would swap past-tense and present-tense. i'm told that, in print, these flashbacks are at least in italics, so at least there's that. but there was a "major reveal" that happened during one of these flashbacks, and i had to listen to it twice to make sure i understood what it was trying to get across.
SPOILERS BELOW
things i liked:
i HIGHLY doubt that the father (michael) being revealed as not only the bad guy but also to have been gaslighting ava all her life was meant to be funny. but, oh my god, this was accidentally the most entertaining part of the entire book. i met him TWO chapters ago. my man tries to gaslight ava two more times, realizes he's lost, and then .5 seconds later he's a mustache twirling, stinky bastard man and we've triggered his monologue. it was so unserious, so funny, and just... delightfully bad. hearing the narrator say the word "epilogue"
thanks, i hate it:
all the characters. genuinely didn't like a single one of them. i hated alex most of all, though. he's every dark broody "wanna-be-batman-but-misses-the-point-of-batman", man-child of a character with infinite money, no personality, and thinks he has control over ava even before they're remotely a thing because she's The Specialā¢. i know SOME of that is a product of the "dark romance genre", but surely it can be more interesting than this. also, he straight up starts stalking her in the last quarter of the book, even threatens her, and like...? i genuinely DON'T understand how them getting back together is satisfying, rationalized, or ... idk. lmao, i hate him so much. the fact ava never learned how to swim before alex was kind of infuriating. i understand the experience was traumatic, but one would think the first step to overcoming that or avoiding being in that position again would be to learn how to swim. several times she argues she doesn't need protecting or whatever, but then she doesn't really take much action to ensure this is true. this is definitely a gripe that's more on me, seeing as the "dead dove" argument could be made, but my god, the sex scenes squicked me out. so unpleasant. grimace inducing. recoiling from my headphones. i'm in agony. i said this book was character driven (despite the characters themselves being puddle-shallow) because, like... the plot is not only barely there, it's inconsequential. it's revealed that ava's dad was the one who tried to kill her, and like a chapter and a half later he's in jail and we never really deal with him again. then another two chapters later, it's revealed that alex's uncle was the one who ordered the hit on his family, and two or three chapters later alex kills his uncle and that entire thing is wrapped up. this leads to the last quarter "i never really loved you" melodrama and me swapping between snoring out of boredom and gagging over how sick of these characters i am and wondering how this book can still be three more hours long.
this is all i can really be bothered to say, i guess. if the characters were REMOTELY interesting, maybe the last quarter of the book could have been bearable despite the dull and predictable melodrama. if there was more attention to the """"""plot"""""" that takes front-stage for maybe a total of 6 chapters, it would have felt ...like SOMETHING, instead of a contrived reason to break up the couple 3/4ths of the way through. boring book. irritating characters. at least that one reveal was kind of entertaining. briefly distracted me from watching paint dry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, and Murder
Minor: Child death, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
rayinthewildes's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I wanted a trashy romance book to read and this met my needs in that department. It's not a deep or emotional read, (didn't expect it to be), it's the book equivalent of high drama reality TV to me which is exactly what I wanted. I wish there had been slower/slightly more nuanced development of the MMCs feelings instead of an instant switch from dark, angry, and brooding, to being over the top in love and obsessed with FMC. BUT there's hardly any point in critiquing this book when it's point is to focus on tropes and smut. The book does explore two sets of childhood trauma but on a rather superficial level. I'll be happily reading book two which centers on a close friend of the FMC in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide
yourssincerelyemma's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol