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A review by pinkmalady
My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
cute romance with some pretty great smut at times, i just wish it was more fleshed out. it reminded me a lot of a typical romance fanfic in terms of tone and writing style: plot-light, mostly lighthearted, and sexy. i kinda wish there was even less plot, especially considering how barely present it was, and more time spent getting to unpack the main couple's problems. i kept almost forgetting the stakes with how little focus is put on the mystery besides the potential danger it could cause to the mfc.
the romance and smut scenes were pretty good. i keep seeing other reviewers complaining about the 'large' amount of smut, but that was part of i why i was interested in this book in the first place, so i didn't mind.in particular, i really liked the scene in the parking lot. like, yeah it's kinda silly how anyone could've just walked out and seen them, but public sex is hot. plus, i thought they were setting up that the man was gonna be jealous of a sex toy but he wound up being not just fine with it but super into it. when she says, 'pretend it's you,' i lost my mind. definitely the highlight scene in terms of smut for me. the intimacy of the church scene was also hot. i liked this book at its most when it was striking up a good balance between the emotion vulnerability and sexual tension between the two main characters.
as a matter of preference, a nitpick i have with this book is the mmc's age. i picked up this book as a rec for age-gap romances and was a little let down with how small the age-gap was (he's early-mid thirties and she's mid-late twenties). that's more of a false advertising problem in the reviews i had read, i guess, but he talks and acts so much older than 30-something that it threw me off a little. the way he talks about being a jaded divorcee and ex-PD makes it sound like it's been a long time, but it's actually only been three years. i mean, it's not unbelievable or anything that a 30-something year old had been through so much, but i was just expecting him to be older based on how he was described in the text.
the romance and smut scenes were pretty good. i keep seeing other reviewers complaining about the 'large' amount of smut, but that was part of i why i was interested in this book in the first place, so i didn't mind.
as a matter of preference, a nitpick i have with this book is the mmc's age. i picked up this book as a rec for age-gap romances and was a little let down with how small the age-gap was (he's early-mid thirties and she's mid-late twenties). that's more of a false advertising problem in the reviews i had read, i guess, but he talks and acts so much older than 30-something that it threw me off a little. the way he talks about being a jaded divorcee and ex-PD makes it sound like it's been a long time, but it's actually only been three years. i mean, it's not unbelievable or anything that a 30-something year old had been through so much, but i was just expecting him to be older based on how he was described in the text.