A review by hanreads__
Havenwood by Katherine Belle

adventurous lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

 "Havenwood might hold my past but you are my future and I promise to prioritize you, like I should have from the beginning, until forever."

When I saw the cover of this book and read the blurb, I was desperate to read it, I thought it was going to be a book that I was going to love from the get go - unfortunately, it wasn't.

Don't get me wrong, Katherine Belle is an incredible writer and certainly has a talent, but this book did nothing for me, and as much as I hate to admit it, I  went to DNF it just because I was struggling to get through it, but I powered through because I wanted to know more about Martha's story.

You meet Courtney when she's in a situationship with a complete idiot who should've treated her better. She goes through the motions of not feeling good enough and comes across an email that showcases a cheap place to rent in Havenwood, obviously her breakup partly pays homage to why she makes the move.

As soon as Courtney and Finn meet, an insta love trope is presented, but I struggled to find the chemistry between them, I couldn't understand where any of the attraction to one another spanned from, and if anything, it felt forced. I can honestly say that I feel as though Courtney and Elsie had more chemistry with their friendship than Finn and Courtney with their relationship. 

More often than not, I felt as though Courtney threw herself a  pity party that actually did my head'in. I understand she's upset over some idiot (I've been there, I know it hurts), and I understand that he said some things that really sucked, but girl... STOP WITH THE PITY PARTY! She spoke about how she had moved on, gained strong feelings for Finn, but then would constantly have Carter in the back of her mind, almost as if she were comparing Finn to Carter at times?

Also, can we just talk about the fact that Finn isn't even a green flag? Within the first chapter, you see Finn talking about how he wants to break his situationship off with Starr, BUT THEN, he goes and sleeps with her KNOWING she's drunk? Like I'm sorry, BUT WOULDN'T A GOOD GUY BE RESPECTFUL ENOUGH TO SAY NO AND JUST WALK HER HOME? That was just gross to me, why are you taking advantage of someone when they're drunk and you've even said to yourself that they're drunk?

THEN you have the whole process of how while Finn and Courtney are getting to know one another (I honestly can't even remember anything Finn told her about himself), but he's failing to come clean about how her being in Havenwood isn't a coincidence which means their relationship is just going to continue to struggle. I don't understand how the mayor could continue to lie / put off telling the truth when he had so many chances to come clean; and even when the truth, came to light... he couldn't even man up! There's just not one single green flag about him. Courtney deserved better when she found out, and when she forgave him. I don't think she got a decent enough apology or amount of grovelling for her to warrant forgiveness and a clean slate.

The smut also put me off to a degree because Finn wasn't respectful in those situations, and while Courtney claimed it "turned her on", it just gave me the ick. I really just wanted to skip past the smutty parts. While some may enjoy this, I don't want to read about a man who pushes himself in without any warning and doesn't care about whether the other person is okay in that moment or not. YUCK.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I even bothered to give this story two stars if all I've done so far is complain... Despite the above complaints, I did enjoy the little story about Martha and the element that she was burned at the stake. I liked the way she was involved within the story and how Courtney's findings allowed Martha's story to come to light and in some ways, receive closure. I think Martha was reincarnated into the bat that was known as Olive. Those little moments had my heart, and I feel like Martha got to have peace in the end.

All in all, this book did not live up to my expectations. I think plenty of people will enjoy it, but I personally think the characters lacked chemistry, and that too much was repeated consistently via the main character and her issues. We never got to see Courtney improve as a person, we never got to see the town truly hit rock bottom before things improved, and we never truly got to know Finn behind his mayor persona.

Thank you to Katherine Belle for allowing me this ARC, I'm truly sorry for my negative review, you're a lovely person, and I wish you nothing but the best for the future.
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