vampires 's review for:

Asher Black by Parker S. Huntington

3.0

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realistically, this is probably a 2 star book, but i think it had a lot of potential and it never made me actually upset, so i'm being generous. the premise had potential, the characters had potential, but there were so many unnecessarily cringey parts and weak plot points that it just fell kind of flat. the development of the relationship between the main characters was unconvincing and not compelling. once they're in love, it's believable, but the journey there for most of the book doesn't actually feel like a journey anywhere. there's no development until suddenly near the end, they're in love. there was very little tension between them before that (aside from the occasional brief and forgettable moments) to suggest that they were developing as a couple. i really liked the love interest, and i think the main character had potential to be very likable (except for her little voluntourism in africa, lmfaooo) however, every other character was either very annoying (even if they were meant to be endearing, like the best friend) or totally forgettable. the plot was boring and at times nonsensical. the main character also had frequent moments of being very annoying/cringe/acting like a 12 year old. i understand that she is young, at 20, but since i am also 20 i feel qualified to say that the main character was ridiculously immature a lot of the time, and it was made ridiculous by the fact that she is not, overall, an immature person! if that was simply her characterization it would make sense at least, but it wasn't, so whenever she suddenly acts 12 it was weird and frustrating. i also don't want to act like 20 year olds aren't ever immature, because again, i am 20 and i'm plenty immature at times. that's just part of the territory. but there's a specific brand of immaturity that a lot of contemporary romance writers (of books and movies) will give their characters to make things funny or endearing for the reader, and that just does not work for me! i had to skim significant parts because they were just so .... cringe. i wish i could think of a different word to use in this review other than cringe/annoying, because most of the books i read are objectively of that variety and i still really enjoy them! just not this one, lol. i think the characters in this book are a product of the "author thinks the way to make a character endearingly quirky is to make them embarrass themselves or annoying" and i literally do not think that is the way to a reader's heart, lol. also

i think if a book is a romance book where the characters ALLEGEDLY have a ton of chemistry, and almost have sex the first time that they meet, then why on earth do they only have sex ONCE over the course of living together, in the same bed, for MONTHS, considering that neither of them have any particular hangups about sex or fwb situations? hello? Hello. what was that. it was such a brief scene that did nothing to further develop or cemet their relationship (not that sex necessarily needs to do either of those things, but the scene was clearly meant to, based on the timing of it and whatnot, but it did not deliver)