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A review by bookshelflawyer
At First Spite by Olivia Dade
3.0
This book was something of a let down compared to how excited I had been for its release. I’ve read other books by this author and this just didn’t feel like those stories.
Starting with the MMC, I just didn’t have the pull with Matthew that I had been hoping for. Reading the plot beforehand, I already figured I would be apprehensive about him (I mean honestly you tell your brother to dump someone then roll up on them??). Sadly, the feeling of apprehension never really went away. While he had some cute moments and I did appreciate how there he was for Athena during mental illness episodes, he just wasn’t memorable.
The FMC wasn’t much better. Matthew’s concerns about her maturity (or lack there of) seemed entirely reasonable the more we saw her. She just got snap engaged and them decided to drop everything to move to a small town where she intended to simply be taken care of? What about that says having it together? I did appreciate how the mental health aspect of Athena’s story went. It felt realistic and not romanticized for the sake of a romance story. Beyond that, Athena didn’t hold much appeal to me.
The relationship felt strained from the beginning (like the flirting at her engagement party) and the grand gesture towards the end was more cringe than cute. The author’s constant inclusion of pop culture (including some book community things) just felt over the top and made me cringe. The monster romances being so over the top also made me cringe and honestly, there would be no job or neighborhood where you could loudly play monster romance audiobooks out loud, smut and all, and it not be an issue.
Not what I’m used to from Olivia Dade and just overall not what I had been looking forward to.
Starting with the MMC, I just didn’t have the pull with Matthew that I had been hoping for. Reading the plot beforehand, I already figured I would be apprehensive about him (I mean honestly you tell your brother to dump someone then roll up on them??). Sadly, the feeling of apprehension never really went away. While he had some cute moments and I did appreciate how there he was for Athena during mental illness episodes, he just wasn’t memorable.
The FMC wasn’t much better. Matthew’s concerns about her maturity (or lack there of) seemed entirely reasonable the more we saw her. She just got snap engaged and them decided to drop everything to move to a small town where she intended to simply be taken care of? What about that says having it together? I did appreciate how the mental health aspect of Athena’s story went. It felt realistic and not romanticized for the sake of a romance story. Beyond that, Athena didn’t hold much appeal to me.
The relationship felt strained from the beginning (like the flirting at her engagement party) and the grand gesture towards the end was more cringe than cute. The author’s constant inclusion of pop culture (including some book community things) just felt over the top and made me cringe. The monster romances being so over the top also made me cringe and honestly, there would be no job or neighborhood where you could loudly play monster romance audiobooks out loud, smut and all, and it not be an issue.
Not what I’m used to from Olivia Dade and just overall not what I had been looking forward to.