annikaa 's review for:

Romance Languages by A.J. Truman

2.0

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 what I liked 

 

• plus-size representation
• the portrayal of someone with a former gambling addiction
• Greg and Ethan were funny
• the way Seamus was always boosting Julian’s confidence and how he stood up to Julian’s mom
• when Julian finally put his mother in place. God, this woman was an asshole. 

what I didn’t like
 

• how does an adult (that has a certificate to teach health in school) not know how to put a condom on correctly? Even if he‘s a virgin. That whole scene made me cringe so hard
• as a fat person myself, the fatphobia (internalized & from others) was very hard to read at times 
• how Seamus offered to sleep with Julian was kind of meh (why not be open about being bicurious?)
• the way being a virgin was portrayed as something bad and shameful. Who cares if you‘re a virgin? Definitely not your friends, or they shouldn’t be your friends in the first place. Really didn’t like that Julian felt the need to lie about this (though I'm on the ace spectrum so I may be a little too sensitive about this topic)
• found the MCs hard to like at times
• the no kissing rule felt very childish and cliché idk
• if you have to drink that much alcohol to go through with something maybe you shouldn’t do it in the first place? 
• the vomit talk immediately followed by a handjob nope 😭
• didn’t like the dirty-talk