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A review by allenfarm
Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Only Love Can Hurt Like This touches on some really heavy topics without any TWs:
Depression
Alcoholism
Possibility of Suicide
Parental rejection
Cheating
Blended Families
Parental alienation
Morally Grey Choices
Wren is preoccupied with getting over her breakup with Scott by immediately latching on to Anders, the next unavailable male she meets. Anders gives her very little in the way of encouragement, and with few words spoken she is all in. When the twist happens, my first though was that the author had run out of reasons to keep them apart and needed to throw in this very specific type of unnecessary drama, which was not handled well at all. This actually took a personal turn because I have witnessed Anders "loss" in real life within my own family, and I saw first hand how a spouse should be treated in this situation. The rules of the marriage change, but that doesn't mean the love or obligation does. Kelly, in her pain, was a real piece of work- putting unreasonable expectations on Anders, and by default Wren. Still, Anders and Wren each respectively handled their part very poorly. Until the end when everything is wrapped in a neat bow.
This is the kind of book that will play out better in the Hallmark/Lifetime movie. In book form, none of the characters are likeable much. I won't go over all my reasoning for the entire cast of characters, but I think Scott was the only truly decent person in the book.
Depression
Alcoholism
Possibility of Suicide
Parental rejection
Cheating
Blended Families
Parental alienation
Morally Grey Choices
Wren is preoccupied with getting over her breakup with Scott by immediately latching on to Anders, the next unavailable male she meets. Anders gives her very little in the way of encouragement, and with few words spoken she is all in. When the twist happens, my first though was that the author had run out of reasons to keep them apart and needed to throw in this very specific type of unnecessary drama, which was not handled well at all. This actually took a personal turn because I have witnessed Anders "loss" in real life within my own family, and I saw first hand how a spouse should be treated in this situation. The rules of the marriage change, but that doesn't mean the love or obligation does. Kelly, in her pain, was a real piece of work- putting unreasonable expectations on Anders, and by default Wren. Still, Anders and Wren each respectively handled their part very poorly. Until the end when everything is wrapped in a neat bow.
This is the kind of book that will play out better in the Hallmark/Lifetime movie. In book form, none of the characters are likeable much. I won't go over all my reasoning for the entire cast of characters, but I think Scott was the only truly decent person in the book.