ktbc 's review for:

No Judgments by Meg Cabot

3.0

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If there was a "cozy hurricane" genre, I'd read little else. I grew up on the Atlantic coast and went through a lot of tropical storms, and there can be a lot of excitement in the little bubble a storm can create. There is so much I love about this book, including the details of island life and Bree's devotion to animals and community. I loved the vivid descriptions of the sunsets, the debris, the rooms, and the well-researched details of the Keys and hurricanes. I appreciated that Cabot repeatedly explains the wisdom of leaving and deals with serious threats before, during, and after major storms. The focus on Bree's relationship with her mother felt quintessentially Meg Cabot in the best way. A few things did bother me, including Drew's repeated mansplaining (which is directly addressed but not meaningfully resolved) and the many times he manipulated Bree into being in his company (in particular, **SPOILERS** a time when she told him to let go of her bike so she could leave and he refused, and a time when he encouraged her to stay for a beer and got her stuck there overnight with him, and that's the first time they have sex! **END SPOILERS**). I also disliked his tendency toward physical violence in dealing with other male characters who threatened animals or Bree. None of these things got substantially better over the course of the book, so they weren't areas in which Drew grew. Also, near the end the book plays into stereotypes about pitbulls, as Drew uses them to intimidate someone. The resolution also leaves me unsettled because of the threat of violence, and the type of violence, used. The feelings behind it, however, did feel realistic. But without that threat of violence, Bree wouldn't have gotten her resolution and wouldn't have been taken seriously, and that felt kind of weird.

I enjoyed the story overall, but I'm not sure if I'll read the next one.