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palmsygal's reviews
101 reviews
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
3.0
If you know me, you will know i am a sucker for Ali Hazelwood’s books… this one though? Nope🙂↔️
I can’t decide between a 2.75 and a 3, which pains me to say, considering I have really enjoyed the previous ones of hers that I have read! But this one just fell flat.
I understand that she wrote it as an erotic romance, in comparison to her usual romcoms but if you removed the smut, the main characters would basically have no connection and no development throughout the whole book, what’s up with that? Gimme all the smut, sure, but no chemistry is a no-go.
The plot, fair enough, it was alright, kinda followed her previous ones as well, especially with the “grand plot twist” (spoiler alert, it’s the same in all her books anyway), but the technicalities and jargon just seemed very overdone, and half the time I had no idea what was going on - it was very much “law stuff, science stuff… here’s something you’ll vaguely understand… more law stuff, less science stuff and more finance stuff… small detail you might be able to guess…” - I wanted to understand the whole thing as it was unfolding, but I feel I only fully understood about 3/4 of the way through (maybe that’s me having a small brain but🤷♀️)
Rue, you broken woman, I liked you. And then I really didn’t. Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, learn to communicate.
What you went through, really shitty, but the fact that it was a tiny paragraph here and a tiny paragraph there lessened the trauma/sadness, and I felt I wasn’t as empathetic as I should be… yikes.
Eli, you cutie, I liked you!!! Then I just kinda didn’t. You’re dom and bossy, or you’re not. Ali, bestie, don’t tease me with it and then give me minimal and underwhelming scenes!
And the whole “I wasn’t in love with Rue, I was just in love with her body”… ew, please no, I did not like that.
Overall, probably a 2.75 and that was because of side characters (shout out to you Tisha, and those tiny parts you got too Jay), some good smut scenes, and the generic background plot that Ali usually goes for…
This hurt my heart to have to write, Ali Hazelwood, I hope you know that.
I can’t decide between a 2.75 and a 3, which pains me to say, considering I have really enjoyed the previous ones of hers that I have read! But this one just fell flat.
I understand that she wrote it as an erotic romance, in comparison to her usual romcoms but if you removed the smut, the main characters would basically have no connection and no development throughout the whole book, what’s up with that? Gimme all the smut, sure, but no chemistry is a no-go.
The plot, fair enough, it was alright, kinda followed her previous ones as well, especially with the “grand plot twist” (spoiler alert, it’s the same in all her books anyway), but the technicalities and jargon just seemed very overdone, and half the time I had no idea what was going on - it was very much “law stuff, science stuff… here’s something you’ll vaguely understand… more law stuff, less science stuff and more finance stuff… small detail you might be able to guess…” - I wanted to understand the whole thing as it was unfolding, but I feel I only fully understood about 3/4 of the way through (maybe that’s me having a small brain but🤷♀️)
Rue, you broken woman, I liked you. And then I really didn’t. Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, learn to communicate.
What you went through, really shitty, but the fact that it was a tiny paragraph here and a tiny paragraph there lessened the trauma/sadness, and I felt I wasn’t as empathetic as I should be… yikes.
Eli, you cutie, I liked you!!! Then I just kinda didn’t. You’re dom and bossy, or you’re not. Ali, bestie, don’t tease me with it and then give me minimal and underwhelming scenes!
And the whole “I wasn’t in love with Rue, I was just in love with her body”… ew, please no, I did not like that.
Overall, probably a 2.75 and that was because of side characters (shout out to you Tisha, and those tiny parts you got too Jay), some good smut scenes, and the generic background plot that Ali usually goes for…
This hurt my heart to have to write, Ali Hazelwood, I hope you know that.
Woom by Duncan Ralston
3.0
“What on earth was this?”
This was the first sentence that came out of my mouth when I finished this book. To say I enjoyed it would be an ever weirder sentence, frankly.
I’ll be honest though, the symbolism and the background story to this? Actually pretty darn good. The way it was done, not my favourite but that’s what you get for reading an extreme horror that you’re warned about. Rather than a book simply filled with graphic sex and gore, you’re actually presented with a tragedy that is built up to through deep stories and sad (though explicit) tales.
One thing I feel I have to bring up is the random use of the N word, used only to make a character appear more “gangster”… was this necessary? I think not.
Overall, I did weirdly enjoy this. I got through it very quickly, was enthralled by the writing, and actually felt very sympathetic towards the “villain” of the story (you’ll have to wead the book, I mean read…). The tragedy all came together at the climax of the book, accompanied by a lot of gasps and “no, surely not… but that won’t work???” that came out of my mouth.
Honorary mention though, I get this was an extreme horror novel, but yikes, that ending caught me off guard. I feel like I need to be reborn after reading this.
This was the first sentence that came out of my mouth when I finished this book. To say I enjoyed it would be an ever weirder sentence, frankly.
I’ll be honest though, the symbolism and the background story to this? Actually pretty darn good. The way it was done, not my favourite but that’s what you get for reading an extreme horror that you’re warned about. Rather than a book simply filled with graphic sex and gore, you’re actually presented with a tragedy that is built up to through deep stories and sad (though explicit) tales.
One thing I feel I have to bring up is the random use of the N word, used only to make a character appear more “gangster”… was this necessary? I think not.
Overall, I did weirdly enjoy this. I got through it very quickly, was enthralled by the writing, and actually felt very sympathetic towards the “villain” of the story (you’ll have to wead the book, I mean read…). The tragedy all came together at the climax of the book, accompanied by a lot of gasps and “no, surely not… but that won’t work???” that came out of my mouth.
Honorary mention though, I get this was an extreme horror novel, but yikes, that ending caught me off guard. I feel like I need to be reborn after reading this.