A review by bladebailey
When You Know by Jessa Kane

lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ok this was quite silly. I've never read Jessa Kane before but come on besties... it was nearly unbearable at times. It felt like a spoof of romance novels. Painfully simple sentence structure, wayyyy foo fast into the relationship and not in an underwritten kind of way, the actual timeline puts them engaged two weeks after meeting for the first time ever. Billy's controlling, needy behavior didn't feel like the kind that I would want to read. It just felt overinflated and stupid and the FMC was literally 18 and a first year college student and claims to recognize the insanity but doesn't really do anything about it. Kane infantilized Mandy so badly it makes me rage. Also he writes his name on all of her underwear in sharpie... like that's not the sexy possessive, that's the "I'm twelve and you're a hotwheels" kind of idiocy. And the sex scene descriptions—STRAIGHT TO JAIL. Billy's package is described as the size of a restaurant pepper grinder. Like fucking spare me, please. I finished this because it was under 100 pages and it was just a smutty pallette cleanser but maybe this author just isn't for me.
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