A review by addieisreading
Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan

3.0

“Loving another person always means opening yourself up for hurt”

I've read this book a while ago and I loved it, became one of my favorites for life, gave it four stars without thinking twice, cried rivers. After rereading, I'm not quite sure my opinion stays the same (in spite of really being a lovely romance book).

.ೃ࿔*:･ plot ･:*.ೃ࿔⋆

The story itself is very intriguing. Bree has a lot to take in after a recent trauma—Her mother died, she lost her father to a drug addict, suffered a rape attempt and someone she thought to be her friend tried to take advantage of her sensitive state. Pretty heavy, if you stop to think.

In order to recover herself, Bree moves temporarily to a small tourist town where she used to spend time with her parents. There, she hears rumours about a silent brooding guy who's been sort of isolated from the rest of the city for some mysterious reason no one really likes to talk about (or doesn't know enough to discuss anyway). The thing is that Bree starts suspecting that maybe Archer doesn't speak because he can't—maybe a hearing disability? That's what she wants to discover to help the man who might have the same disability as her father.

.ೃ࿔*:･ writing･:*.ೃ࿔⋆

There were many repetitive terms like “whiskey-coloured eyes” and even the characters thinking something and saying this very same thing right after (Example: At some point, Bree thinks “Vitoria Hale has been too radio silence”. Someone asks her how does she feel, and she answers something like “I don't know, Victoria Hale has been too radio silence these days, is suspicious” with the very same words.) It gave me the impression of a lack of revision as if the author hadn't read her own book before publishing or at least didn't mind the lack of variation in the writing.

Another detail is the constant mention of “male” and “female” as characteristics (Example: “female scent”, “a male pride”, “male authority”). I felt like watching Animal Planet with a narrator describing how the lioness would mat with a lion, I don't know. Quite a cringe experience for me.

However, besides those things, it was pretty decent compared to other romance books. Very objective and straightforward.

.ೃ࿔*:･ characters ･:*.ೃ࿔⋆

They're well-planned but not well-executed, in my opinion.

The backstory for them is amazing and heavy, there is a lot of room to discuss mental health, trauma, violence, and misogyny (not that is an obligation, of course, but as I said: The author gave a really heavy background to some characters. It feels irresponsible or at least lazy not to develop them in their context). They change pretty roughly in a blink of an eye with no much development to be seen (Although the main characters get a little of it, other ones like Travis and Bree's friends from her city change their personalities pretty quick with not much explanation except "that's the right thing to do" or whatever).

open for spoilers ahead:

Spoiler

So... There were a few things I remembered as deep and romantic in this book and they were, in fact, needless and problematic. For example, Travis is a douche at the beginning—to the point that he deceives Archer to go to a strip club and cheat on Bree. The thing is that he also kind of ambushes Archer for a sexual assault (???). He didn't push alcohol down Archer's throat, but he encouraged him to drink it until he got so dizzy he could do nothing except follow him to the backrooms where he would be touched without his consent by a stripper paid to do much more than just give him a lap dance. When he's back, Bree is not only shocked for the almost-cheating (Since she didn't know it was an ambush yet), but with the fact that she wasn't his first (???) Excuse me? How does it make her any better than other toxic male characters in this book? To her credit, though, later on she kind of makes up for it but still for the wrong reasons because, guess what? Archer was still a virgin so she could still be his first! LOL.

Spoiler

After that, she sleeps with him (yeah, in that way) and her trauma related to her almost-rape and storms just... vanishes. Like, can someone hand over this guy's phone to therapists so they can study his magic shaft and how sleeping with traumatized people can help them overcome past PTSD? Because I didn't understand that part.

Spoiler

More than that, I think the author did it on purpose so other characters could diminish her past traumas in favour of saying that she should be the one helping/healing Archer since his pain "was not like hers" and make her feel guilty about it. EXCUSE ME?

Spoiler

Archer and Bree are a really cute couple, I still love their dynamic and interactions but after rereading I think I'll take out 1 star because—What the heck was that development? What the heck was this way of dealing with watching people dying, almost being assault and being healed by sleeping with someone else? And THE WAY HE LEFT HER TO HEAL HIMSELF ALONE??? Was so funny, honestly, made no sense at all. When he thought she'd left him, he almost died so he decided to leave her instead??? Without thinking on how would she feel or if she would be depressed just like him since he knew they both had this problem with watching people they love die/go out of their lives?? Sincerely, they deserved to be written by someone with more experience or that least know what they're writing about.

Spoiler

Maybe I'm being cruel, I don't know, but that's just how it feels to me.