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A review by dithkusu
The Parable of the Mustard Seed by Lisa Henry
2.0
Got this months ago when this came out, and only just read it. The writing and depiction of characters and what their internal thought process was, is very good and there's no issue there in connecting with John and Caleb here. If I wasn't so frustrated with the events happening here and just the whole premise of the romance happening under this dynamic to begin with, this would be more than a three star. But at the core of it, I just can't ignore my thoughts on the very basis of romance happening here being very wrong and squicky, no matter if it's not *technically* violating anything.
John is a police officer with child protective services who was on a case early in his career, where Caleb was the child victim, subject of horrific abuse under his years of having grown up in an abusive cult. Eight years later, Caleb is a twenty two year old doing better but still struggling daily with his mental health, and he and John end up in a relationship despite John resisting at first? No. Just no- and when later on the evil cult adults who were in jail get released on probation and predictably ACTION SUSPENSE happens culminating in what you think would happen reading this, John is STILL ON THE CASE, and from the reader perspective we're supposed to think that their romance and love is okay? Just extremely compromising in terms of professionalism and serving the best he can to bring justice to everyone involved on the case.
Not to mention the police work came across as shoddy to me, with the girl Naomi also just being there to be murdered and act as a sad catalyst point, which if they'd done better work, thought of taking precautions, even checking up on her, wouldn't have happened as a plot point. TBH, I don't typically gravitate towards heavier subject matter in romance books, especially in this romanticizing cop/detective procedural style (Whew, reading this in the current time, I was also raising eyebrows at "school-focused policework", moments detailing John's job- policing system in Australia wouldn't be as bad though, right....?). I don't like military romance, security romance, police cop detective, action thriller romance, and so compounding the more angsty heavy aspects of surviving trauma and abuse with the "action" moments, this overall was frustrating even though it wasn't badly written.
At the core of this, basically I just was not on board for any of the romantic unfolding of events, and even if I could get past the squickiness of their dynamic and how they first were involved in the other's lives, I just didn't buy the romance. Their strong feelings was more already baked in and implied from the years of history with each other rather than shown in the story, and even that was more of a caring type of bond than anything, could've very easily just been platonic and IMO should've stayed that way. The romantic chemistry was not there for me, and the sex scenes (while I appreciated John being considerate of Caleb's traumas when approaching them sleeping together) were not convincing either.
Not only that, they met when Caleb was an abused traumatized vulnerable child, and John was a figure of authority and safe comfort to him over the years, he was very involved in his life. Then when he turned legal over the years their romantic feelings bloomed and became mutual? This is the same amount of gross outside of the police-subject of case dynamic, and into the met-you-while-you-were-underage gross. The Sidecar book with Amy Lane was kind of also squick in this manner too, but I felt that had more to stand on and it wasn't as bad/apparent as this for me.
What I did appreciate from this story was that Caleb and how he deals with mental health struggles is very fleshed out and poignant, and he's not instantly cured from the miracle of love but here it's shown how strong he is, and it's touching that he has his very good father Darren and (ugh fine) John as support systems who love him (wish the love wouldn't have taken the other direction for John but whatever). It's even understandable and realistic how sometimes John had moments of being weary from Caleb's episodes, but he always sticks by him and won't leave. Also the heartbreaking moments of Caleb feeling he's a liability in his father's life, his up and down good then switching on a dime bad moments.
The backdrop of Gold Coast Australia, the details of their environment around the beach and the names of all these places around them, the slang and mannerisms, were another good aspect. I did appreciate John's Samoan background and the strength of his cultural roots, and how they inform his character but don't define him, and his devotion to his family and how well-drawn they are (the teen sister Jess is extremely terrible though, just ugh especially given the much worse happenings around John and Caleb here).
Well, at least I started again in reading and clearing my catalog of still unread books. This didn't give me a fun cathartic romance vibe, but it didn't totally drag me down in the heaviness either, so I still don't regret having read it, might as well since I already own it. I just would not start books with this type of premise again in the future, at least not in the romance genre where it just doesn't go along together with the suspense to make for a good time.
John is a police officer with child protective services who was on a case early in his career, where Caleb was the child victim, subject of horrific abuse under his years of having grown up in an abusive cult. Eight years later, Caleb is a twenty two year old doing better but still struggling daily with his mental health, and he and John end up in a relationship despite John resisting at first? No. Just no- and when later on the evil cult adults who were in jail get released on probation and predictably ACTION SUSPENSE happens culminating in what you think would happen reading this, John is STILL ON THE CASE, and from the reader perspective we're supposed to think that their romance and love is okay? Just extremely compromising in terms of professionalism and serving the best he can to bring justice to everyone involved on the case.
Not to mention the police work came across as shoddy to me, with the girl Naomi also just being there to be murdered and act as a sad catalyst point, which if they'd done better work, thought of taking precautions, even checking up on her, wouldn't have happened as a plot point. TBH, I don't typically gravitate towards heavier subject matter in romance books, especially in this romanticizing cop/detective procedural style (Whew, reading this in the current time, I was also raising eyebrows at "school-focused policework", moments detailing John's job- policing system in Australia wouldn't be as bad though, right....?). I don't like military romance, security romance, police cop detective, action thriller romance, and so compounding the more angsty heavy aspects of surviving trauma and abuse with the "action" moments, this overall was frustrating even though it wasn't badly written.
At the core of this, basically I just was not on board for any of the romantic unfolding of events, and even if I could get past the squickiness of their dynamic and how they first were involved in the other's lives, I just didn't buy the romance. Their strong feelings was more already baked in and implied from the years of history with each other rather than shown in the story, and even that was more of a caring type of bond than anything, could've very easily just been platonic and IMO should've stayed that way. The romantic chemistry was not there for me, and the sex scenes (while I appreciated John being considerate of Caleb's traumas when approaching them sleeping together) were not convincing either.
Not only that, they met when Caleb was an abused traumatized vulnerable child, and John was a figure of authority and safe comfort to him over the years, he was very involved in his life. Then when he turned legal over the years their romantic feelings bloomed and became mutual? This is the same amount of gross outside of the police-subject of case dynamic, and into the met-you-while-you-were-underage gross. The Sidecar book with Amy Lane was kind of also squick in this manner too, but I felt that had more to stand on and it wasn't as bad/apparent as this for me.
What I did appreciate from this story was that Caleb and how he deals with mental health struggles is very fleshed out and poignant, and he's not instantly cured from the miracle of love but here it's shown how strong he is, and it's touching that he has his very good father Darren and (ugh fine) John as support systems who love him (wish the love wouldn't have taken the other direction for John but whatever). It's even understandable and realistic how sometimes John had moments of being weary from Caleb's episodes, but he always sticks by him and won't leave. Also the heartbreaking moments of Caleb feeling he's a liability in his father's life, his up and down good then switching on a dime bad moments.
The backdrop of Gold Coast Australia, the details of their environment around the beach and the names of all these places around them, the slang and mannerisms, were another good aspect. I did appreciate John's Samoan background and the strength of his cultural roots, and how they inform his character but don't define him, and his devotion to his family and how well-drawn they are (the teen sister Jess is extremely terrible though, just ugh especially given the much worse happenings around John and Caleb here).
Well, at least I started again in reading and clearing my catalog of still unread books. This didn't give me a fun cathartic romance vibe, but it didn't totally drag me down in the heaviness either, so I still don't regret having read it, might as well since I already own it. I just would not start books with this type of premise again in the future, at least not in the romance genre where it just doesn't go along together with the suspense to make for a good time.