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raemae 's review for:
Eyes on Me
by Sara Cate
emotional
hopeful
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Really enjoyed the way the MCs were written and developed. I really liked how the spicy scenes were written. It felt much less mechanical than a lot of those scenes tend to be. I think the author found a good balance that really fleshed the scenes out and felt like meaningful parts of the story.
I also liked that the FMCs pleasure being important to the MMC didn’t feel forced. Like i sometimes feel in romance novels the author will try too hard to show how enthusiastic the MMC is to pleasure the FMC that it feels over the top. This novel felt more grounded in that regard. It was also nice to have the MMC who was not obsessed with how the FMC tastes lol.
I was also skeptical of the step siblings trope (I mean not that skeptical bc I was looking for a taboo trope) because I saw stuff about the age gap and the FMC being young when their parents marry. Both of which are true for this book (13 years age gap and FMC was 8 at the time of becoming step siblings). But I think the main reason this didn’t trigger any ick for me was that the MMC was never really described as having lived with the FMC growing up and it was made clear that he did not see her in a sexual or romantic way until the instigating event of this book (where FMC is 23 fyi).
FMC is said to have had a crush on MMC since she reached the age of having crushes, but there are never any examples shown of her adolescent feelings towards him. I think that was a good choice by the author, as I think showing examples of her budding feelings towards him from a young age would’ve set the FMC up for seeming unreliable about her feelings now and more easily put into a category of someone to be taken advantage of by the MMC. They way it’s written makes the mcs feel more like equals.
I also liked that the FMCs pleasure being important to the MMC didn’t feel forced. Like i sometimes feel in romance novels the author will try too hard to show how enthusiastic the MMC is to pleasure the FMC that it feels over the top. This novel felt more grounded in that regard. It was also nice to have the MMC who was not obsessed with how the FMC tastes lol.
I was also skeptical of the step siblings trope (I mean not that skeptical bc I was looking for a taboo trope) because I saw stuff about the age gap and the FMC being young when their parents marry. Both of which are true for this book (13 years age gap and FMC was 8 at the time of becoming step siblings). But I think the main reason this didn’t trigger any ick for me was that the MMC was never really described as having lived with the FMC growing up and it was made clear that he did not see her in a sexual or romantic way until the instigating event of this book (where FMC is 23 fyi).
FMC is said to have had a crush on MMC since she reached the age of having crushes, but there are never any examples shown of her adolescent feelings towards him. I think that was a good choice by the author, as I think showing examples of her budding feelings towards him from a young age would’ve set the FMC up for seeming unreliable about her feelings now and more easily put into a category of someone to be taken advantage of by the MMC. They way it’s written makes the mcs feel more like equals.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content
Moderate: Cancer, Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide attempt, Death of parent