A review by karessa_proctor
Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


- I finished this book in one sitting. It left me stunned, in silence, and I had trouble finding the words. 
- This books is extremely heavy and I appreciated the content warning message the author started off her pages with. 
- While I don’t always find graphic or descriptive scenes of SA and abuse to be necessary, I feel that the author was truly trying to convey a message and it landed for me. She showed a woman who (to me) seemed to be a bit judgmental of other women because of her childhood which bled into her sort of “I’m not one of those girls” attitudes. She much like more women than we think, learned in a terrible way that things are just not that simple. The way the author showed just how trapped our FMC was, you can tell she did her homework. She was essentially his prisoner. It goes to show that you never know what people go through. 
- something that really stuck out to me was that Gus, our hero in the story asked to attend therapy at the center so that he could be a good partner to her. That was so so powerful. 
- The writing style was just so engaging. I could not put it down. While the subject matter made me take a break or two, I needed to know how this story ended. The tension, yearning, and anticipation were *chefs kiss* 
- This is small, but something I didn’t love was just a few lines about “some women stay too long or mistake abuse for love but that wasn’t me”. It felt harmful to those who might still be working through that. It also felt not on part with where we were heading in her growth journey. I also think she didn’t do more to listen and understand when her darker cousin spoke about her struggles growing up around lighter women. As a lightskin Black Biracial woman myself, we need to do better here. 
- All in all I loved this book so much I raced to buy the second and third. 
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