A review by chrysfey
Girls Weekend by C.M. Nascosta

adventurous funny lighthearted

3.0

I had a fun time reading this story. I enjoyed the characters and pairings of Lurielle and Khash, and Silva and Tate. Lurielle is a curvy girl with insecurities and is super relatable. Khash is the sweetest heartthrob of an orc. Silva is struggling with what's expected of her and doing what she truly wants, be who she truly wants to be. Tate is a mysterious, "dangerous" (although I'm not convinced) part-orc character. I will read Book 2 because I really want to find out what happens with Silva and Tate.

With that said, there are some things that I did not enjoy as much:

1. My biggest critique is that Ris is an unnecessary character. Her main purpose was that she was the one who planned the trip to the resort with Lurielle (and they sort of tricked Silva into going). Now, I did not count, but her pages were far and few between. It feels like she had ten or less pages in her point-of-view throughout the entire story. She does not have any sort of storyline what-so-ever. This story would've held up just fine if Lurielle and Silva had been the two female characters who went to the resort together. Then Ris could've come along in Book 2 on their second trip, and the orc she passes on the sidewalk for a brief moment in one scene could've been saved for Book 2, as well. Because of this, I'm not interested in Ris at all. That may change while I read Book 2, because it seems her story actually begins there, but we will see. (One whole star removed.)

2. Then there was the fact that I never knew whose POV we were in. I started skimming to find the character's name before reading the next part. A reader shouldn't have to do that. If the character's name isn't used as a chapter title or scene break heading, then the character's name should be within the first sentence to prevent confusion. And apparently this is the case for Book 2, according to other reviews. (1/2 star removed)

2. (SPOILERS) The girls are super excited to go to this resort and have some fun times with orcs, and yet, none of them, not even Ris (who is far more adventurous than the other two), share their experiences with each other. They don't talk about what they did the night before or who they met. I didn't understand that at all. Why the secrecy? Why all of a sudden close-lipped? Why didn't any of them ASK each other what was going on when they saw the other dressed up and leaving to go somewhere else, or coming back to her room super late, or looking like something was very wrong with their friend? I expected them to get each other to spill on their drive home, but they don't even talk then. Nor do they share a word in the MONTHS following their vacation. None of that made sense to me. Even with Silva and the mysteriousness around what she had with Tate, she only hints at something in the last few pages, and it's not even her but Khash who reveals to Lurielle that the orc she was talking about was Tate. (1/2 star removed)

3. This leads off my previous point. There's no girls' time during this girls' weekend. I know they went with a specific goal...to get laid by orcs, but I was hoping for more fun amongst friends. The morning when they get drunk on champagne is the most we get of these three friends/coworkers together. The brief meals they share when they're all distracted don't really count. They could've spent more time together during the day before their nighttime fun in order to cement their friendships. (1/4 star removed, but because I did enjoy the story to a degree, I rounded the star rating back up to 3)