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ihateprozac 's review for:
He Hates Me
by Rina Kent, Isabella Starling
This was such a disappoinment! It has so many things I typically in a dark romance: a psychopath
hero, stalker hero, CNC/dubcon, and mafia.
Unfortunately it was just so poorly written and characterised that it constantly left me cringing.
You'd be forgiven for not making it more than a few chapters into this book (I had a couple false starts, too), because the opening is just so bad. You're forced to wade through a chapter of the most clunky, cringey, telling-not-showing writing where Jasper is ramming down your throat how ~*badass*~ he is. I got so much secondhand embarrassment reading it.
From there the writing gets better - in that the sentence structure flows easier and isn't trying too hard. But unfortunately the characterisation is all over the place, and both the hero and heroine are just....chaotic. They have so many strange and volatile interactions in every single scene that it gave me whiplash!
The introduction of the dubcon/CNC was one such example. The writing could've used more work here, like even the tiniest bit of foreshadowing that the heroine was into it, before it's randomly plonked into the story. The steamy scenes were A+, but it's as if the book changes genre midsentence and it's super jarring.
And don't even get me started on the repressed memories and backstory that these characters have.......it employed one of my least favourite tropes, wrapped in convenience, and written about as well as a 14 year old fanfic writer on Ao3.
I don't know if I'll read the second book in this duet. This book was so poorly written, but the chaos of the poor writing and erratic character choices was also lowkey entertaining? Maybe I'll get drunk and read the second one, because it surely can't be done while sober.
hero, stalker hero, CNC/dubcon, and mafia.
Unfortunately it was just so poorly written and characterised that it constantly left me cringing.
You'd be forgiven for not making it more than a few chapters into this book (I had a couple false starts, too), because the opening is just so bad. You're forced to wade through a chapter of the most clunky, cringey, telling-not-showing writing where Jasper is ramming down your throat how ~*badass*~ he is. I got so much secondhand embarrassment reading it.
From there the writing gets better - in that the sentence structure flows easier and isn't trying too hard. But unfortunately the characterisation is all over the place, and both the hero and heroine are just....chaotic. They have so many strange and volatile interactions in every single scene that it gave me whiplash!
The introduction of the dubcon/CNC was one such example. The writing could've used more work here, like even the tiniest bit of foreshadowing that the heroine was into it, before it's randomly plonked into the story. The steamy scenes were A+, but it's as if the book changes genre midsentence and it's super jarring.
And don't even get me started on the repressed memories and backstory that these characters have.......it employed one of my least favourite tropes, wrapped in convenience, and written about as well as a 14 year old fanfic writer on Ao3.
I don't know if I'll read the second book in this duet. This book was so poorly written, but the chaos of the poor writing and erratic character choices was also lowkey entertaining? Maybe I'll get drunk and read the second one, because it surely can't be done while sober.