You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
rachelreadsravenously 's review for:
Thick Love
by Eden Butler
4 stars!
Thin Love was one of my top ten favorite reads from last year. Full of angst it had a storyline that ripped your heart out and fed it to you, and Eden Butler followed it up in exactly the same way.
Thick Love is the story of Ransom, Keira and Kona's son, and Aly, a dancer at the studio of a family friend. When Aly left her home at the age of seventeen to escape what I consider and abusive situation, her father comes after her and a teenage Ransom was there to save Aly from him. It's something Aly has never forgotten. Flash forward a couple years and the two are practically strangers. Aly leading dance classes and working long hours at a diner to make ends meet, and Ransom in his freshman year of college and playing football.
In the time since their encounter, Ransom has suffered the loss of his high school sweetheart, a girl he loved very much. Ransom is internalizing his pain, keeping everything locked up so tight that it's driving him mad. The guilt consumed him and tore him apart, he was a silent mess for a long time and those around him worried about him.
This book started out slow for me. With the previous book and novella by Eden Butler I was absorbed in the book right away so I was surprised when I was pushing myself to read a little but near the beginning. It picked up a lot more near the middle (once Ransom stopped frustrating me) and took off from there, so overall I really enjoyed reading this.
Aly was the best part of this book for me. I liked Keira in book one, but she was very shouty and emotional whereas Aly was the opposite. Yes she felt the same emotions but was used to maintaining a mask to survive her home situation so she had a more stoic presence. She also didn't take Ransom's shit, which was so amazing to read. I love strong female characters, and Aly had the perfect combination of strength yet vulnerability that made her perfect for Ransom.
One thing that was mentioned out there in the ether is that Ransom was with other girls before he was with Aly and it was presented as a problem. Well, that doesn't really bother me because he's a teenager and teenage boys have a lot of sexual energy and it has to go somewhere. BUT, it's also a double standard to try and call him out on that because Aly said in the book that she was with other men too, and didn't want Ransom to judge her for it. So why would we judge him if we're not going to judge her? I don't find that fair. Plus, neither one of them were together so it shouldn't matter anyway. But that's just my personal opinion.
I'd also like to commend Eden Butler for giving the new adult genre a much needed mixed race couple. While I love the romance genre, it is so incredibly white washed which isn't at all a great depiction of love as a whole. Our culture is a part of what makes us who we are, and I loved the different cultures Eden added into the book. I don't think I've ever read a romance with native Hawaiian's or Creole's and she had both.
Finally, the epilogue. Well, based on the note Eden included at the beginning of the book I was fairly prepared for the ending. So I wasn't too shocked by the ending but more like frustrated. I felt that epilogue didn't follow the same path as the rest of the book and it didn't fit the characters. Epilogue or no epilogue, I'll read anything Eden writes so I personally think it didn't need to be included, it'll just make a lot of people mad. But it didn't make me mad, just kind of disappointed.
So in a strangly logical rating from me, .5 stars taken away for slow beginning and .5 stars for the ending. Overall this was a great story, and Eden told it so beautifully. More people need to start reading her books asap.
ARC kindly provided by author in exchange for review
Thin Love was one of my top ten favorite reads from last year. Full of angst it had a storyline that ripped your heart out and fed it to you, and Eden Butler followed it up in exactly the same way.
Thick Love is the story of Ransom, Keira and Kona's son, and Aly, a dancer at the studio of a family friend. When Aly left her home at the age of seventeen to escape what I consider and abusive situation, her father comes after her and a teenage Ransom was there to save Aly from him. It's something Aly has never forgotten. Flash forward a couple years and the two are practically strangers. Aly leading dance classes and working long hours at a diner to make ends meet, and Ransom in his freshman year of college and playing football.
In the time since their encounter, Ransom has suffered the loss of his high school sweetheart, a girl he loved very much. Ransom is internalizing his pain, keeping everything locked up so tight that it's driving him mad. The guilt consumed him and tore him apart, he was a silent mess for a long time and those around him worried about him.
This book started out slow for me. With the previous book and novella by Eden Butler I was absorbed in the book right away so I was surprised when I was pushing myself to read a little but near the beginning. It picked up a lot more near the middle (once Ransom stopped frustrating me) and took off from there, so overall I really enjoyed reading this.
Aly was the best part of this book for me. I liked Keira in book one, but she was very shouty and emotional whereas Aly was the opposite. Yes she felt the same emotions but was used to maintaining a mask to survive her home situation so she had a more stoic presence. She also didn't take Ransom's shit, which was so amazing to read. I love strong female characters, and Aly had the perfect combination of strength yet vulnerability that made her perfect for Ransom.
One thing that was mentioned out there in the ether is that Ransom was with other girls before he was with Aly and it was presented as a problem. Well, that doesn't really bother me because he's a teenager and teenage boys have a lot of sexual energy and it has to go somewhere. BUT, it's also a double standard to try and call him out on that because Aly said in the book that she was with other men too, and didn't want Ransom to judge her for it. So why would we judge him if we're not going to judge her? I don't find that fair. Plus, neither one of them were together so it shouldn't matter anyway. But that's just my personal opinion.
I'd also like to commend Eden Butler for giving the new adult genre a much needed mixed race couple. While I love the romance genre, it is so incredibly white washed which isn't at all a great depiction of love as a whole. Our culture is a part of what makes us who we are, and I loved the different cultures Eden added into the book. I don't think I've ever read a romance with native Hawaiian's or Creole's and she had both.
Finally, the epilogue. Well, based on the note Eden included at the beginning of the book I was fairly prepared for the ending. So I wasn't too shocked by the ending but more like frustrated. I felt that epilogue didn't follow the same path as the rest of the book and it didn't fit the characters. Epilogue or no epilogue, I'll read anything Eden writes so I personally think it didn't need to be included, it'll just make a lot of people mad. But it didn't make me mad, just kind of disappointed.
So in a strangly logical rating from me, .5 stars taken away for slow beginning and .5 stars for the ending. Overall this was a great story, and Eden told it so beautifully. More people need to start reading her books asap.
ARC kindly provided by author in exchange for review