grawrold 's review for:

Garron Park by Nordika Night

3.75

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This was a book that, which I am not necessarily giving it a 5-star review, I look forward to reading the follow up to see what happens to the main characters. I liked the dynamic between the two throughout, but I did feel like the two men were a little too old to be behaving in this manner, but maybe that's just me and my upbringing. They behave more like late teen/just barely 20s BUUUUUUT this of course is just through my own lens and experiences. I did like the escalation of outside forces that threatened the relationship, but I did feel like the conflict between the two main characters seemed a little one note. I enjoyed how they were genuine enemies and the success of one would hurt the other, and that due to their situation, they have been hurting each other for quite some time. Even after love begins to grow, I still buy into that they still inflict physical harm and verbal assaults towards one another. We listen, and we don't judge. At the risk of sounding butch, I wish there was more motocross content as well as more general references to racing figuratively and literally.

The two main characters still have an issue of expressing vulnerability, so a part of me hopes that the next book further explores that and gives them a resolution for it because I think that would make the relationship more fleshed out and complete for me. WITH THAT THOUGH, I also still hope they maintain the love/hate interaction because I'd love to read about a toxic relationship that just somehow still works.