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A review by pastelwriter
Napkins and Other Distractions by M.A. Wardell
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I have complicated feelings about this book ☹️ I wanted to love it without question, but I just didn’t.
If I’m honest, what truly carried this book was the personalities of Vincent and Kent. I loved them both as individuals. I especially loved seeing Kent’s interactions with his family. They were lovely and sweet. I also enjoyed seeing Vincent interact with Kent’s family. When Kent took Vincent to Legoland? Be still my heart! That was really heartwarming 💖
The main thing that didn’t work for me was the smut in this. The particular kinks in this book just didn’t make sense to me—especially with Vincent’s OCD 😩 For example, Vincent’s OCD does very much present as a need for things to be really clean around him, and he has a whole crisis precisely because of this and the circumstances around their first sexual encounter. Then tell me how this same man is gonna indulge Kent’s foot fetish? 😭 It just didn’t add up to me.
I also feel like it was through the kinks that Kent’s character was slightly ruined. Kent is an older gentleman, but the way the author wrote him sometimes made him seem like he was a 70+ years old man. My guy didn’t even know what a harness was and where to get one. THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! I feel like still most people his age would know 1. what a sex (toy) shop is 2. that you can buy anything online. I don’t know. It was just bizarre to me how he was written when it came to stuff in the bedroom.
I don’t know 😩 I truly wanted to love this…but so far this author has only had one true hit with me and that’s Mistletoe and Mishigas. I see an alternate universe where this book was also a hit, but it was a partial miss primarily because the kinks and Vincent’s OCD didn’t quite line up in my mind.
If I’m honest, what truly carried this book was the personalities of Vincent and Kent. I loved them both as individuals. I especially loved seeing Kent’s interactions with his family. They were lovely and sweet. I also enjoyed seeing Vincent interact with Kent’s family. When Kent took Vincent to Legoland? Be still my heart! That was really heartwarming 💖
The main thing that didn’t work for me was the smut in this. The particular kinks in this book just didn’t make sense to me—especially with Vincent’s OCD 😩 For example, Vincent’s OCD does very much present as a need for things to be really clean around him, and he has a whole crisis precisely because of this and the circumstances around their first sexual encounter. Then tell me how this same man is gonna indulge Kent’s foot fetish? 😭 It just didn’t add up to me.
I also feel like it was through the kinks that Kent’s character was slightly ruined. Kent is an older gentleman, but the way the author wrote him sometimes made him seem like he was a 70+ years old man. My guy didn’t even know what a harness was and where to get one. THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE! I feel like still most people his age would know 1. what a sex (toy) shop is 2. that you can buy anything online. I don’t know. It was just bizarre to me how he was written when it came to stuff in the bedroom.
I don’t know 😩 I truly wanted to love this…but so far this author has only had one true hit with me and that’s Mistletoe and Mishigas. I see an alternate universe where this book was also a hit, but it was a partial miss primarily because the kinks and Vincent’s OCD didn’t quite line up in my mind.