Scan barcode
A review by emilyrainsford
Coming Home by Melissa Grace
emotional
reflective
3.5
I've enjoyed reading all of the books in this series. Luca's story was always going to be iffy for me because I thought he would be a hard character to redeem, after his behaviour in the first four books.
I thought a pretty decent job was done on that front. There is a big focus on trauma and mental health in this book, with on-page therapy. It was good to see a book highlighting working through your issues like this.
I liked how respectful Luca was of Mackenzie, but we know from the rest of the series that he hasn't always treated women particularly well, so I really would have liked to see him confront the way he treated Brandi and apologise to her directly. She's even mentioned in the book but that situation never quite gets the resolution I'd have liked to see, especially seeing as we, the reader, saw the incident play out ourselves in a previous book. Having mental health problems doesn't absolve us of the harm we can cause and impact we can have on others, and I'd like to have seen him (especially as a man with money and social power) take a little more accountability for that. At times it feels like he plays the victim a little bit too much for my liking.
I didn't love the third act break up situation and it didn't help my already rocky opinion of Luca.
I have to be honest that this wasn't my favourite of the series, but I can appreciate the way it handled some heavy topics.
I thought a pretty decent job was done on that front. There is a big focus on trauma and mental health in this book, with on-page therapy. It was good to see a book highlighting working through your issues like this.
I liked how respectful Luca was of Mackenzie, but we know from the rest of the series that he hasn't always treated women particularly well, so I really would have liked to see him confront the way he treated Brandi and apologise to her directly. She's even mentioned in the book but that situation never quite gets the resolution I'd have liked to see, especially seeing as we, the reader, saw the incident play out ourselves in a previous book. Having mental health problems doesn't absolve us of the harm we can cause and impact we can have on others, and I'd like to have seen him (especially as a man with money and social power) take a little more accountability for that. At times it feels like he plays the victim a little bit too much for my liking.
I didn't love the third act break up situation and it didn't help my already rocky opinion of Luca.
I have to be honest that this wasn't my favourite of the series, but I can appreciate the way it handled some heavy topics.