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454 reviews
F*ck Love by Tarryn Fisher
I finished reading Tarryn Fisher’s F*ck Love a while ago, but I’ve been putting off reviewing it for a very long time, because I honestly have no idea what to say about it… And the few things I can think to say are pretty mean, and I didn’t want to write a review of a book that did nothing more than insult someone’s hard work.
However, after taking a few weeks to gather my thoughts, I figured that the best way to approach this review was via a list. I mean, who doesn’t like lists, right?! (And it’s a better way for me to organise the things I have to say about this novel, without coming across as someone who wants nothing more than to rip it to shreds.)
Okay, let’s go.
Reasons Why F*ck Love Did Not Work For Me (In the Slightest)
- Turning your entire life around based on nothing more than a dream is insane. I mean, I’m all for challenging yourself, and for believing in yourself, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with changing your goals… But the way it happens in this story is nothing short of ludicrous.
- Finding it difficult to connect with characters makes a novel challenging for me, but just plain not liking any of them makes a novel almost unbearable to read. It was, unfortunately, the latter for this one… And, thinking about it now, I’m pretty impressed I made it to the end.
- I like cultural references in novels, but I think Tarryn came across as trying a little too hard with them in F*ck Love. They ended up really grating on me after a while.
- The plot???!!!! I just… I just can’t. The first chapter was very strange, the middle section of the book was pretty bland and barely held my interest, and the final few chapters… What do I even say about those?! Everything went totally and completely crazy. There was so much unnecessary angst and drama – and even a completely new character – all chucked in at random, and it made the latter part of this novel a complete and utter clusterf*ck.
I’d never read anything by Tarryn Fisher before reading this book, but I thought, based on what I’d heard from others, that I really would have enjoyed this book. Oh boy, was I so, so wrong.
This book seems to have worked for a lot of people, so it might work for you, but I honestly just didn’t get it. At all. I’m sorry to say that I probably won’t be venturing into another Tarryn Fisher novel after this. At least I tried…
1.0
“You shouldn’t have to convince anyone to choose you. There is no real choice in love.”
I finished reading Tarryn Fisher’s F*ck Love a while ago, but I’ve been putting off reviewing it for a very long time, because I honestly have no idea what to say about it… And the few things I can think to say are pretty mean, and I didn’t want to write a review of a book that did nothing more than insult someone’s hard work.
However, after taking a few weeks to gather my thoughts, I figured that the best way to approach this review was via a list. I mean, who doesn’t like lists, right?! (And it’s a better way for me to organise the things I have to say about this novel, without coming across as someone who wants nothing more than to rip it to shreds.)
Okay, let’s go.
Reasons Why F*ck Love Did Not Work For Me (In the Slightest)
- Turning your entire life around based on nothing more than a dream is insane. I mean, I’m all for challenging yourself, and for believing in yourself, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with changing your goals… But the way it happens in this story is nothing short of ludicrous.
- Finding it difficult to connect with characters makes a novel challenging for me, but just plain not liking any of them makes a novel almost unbearable to read. It was, unfortunately, the latter for this one… And, thinking about it now, I’m pretty impressed I made it to the end.
- I like cultural references in novels, but I think Tarryn came across as trying a little too hard with them in F*ck Love. They ended up really grating on me after a while.
- The plot???!!!! I just… I just can’t. The first chapter was very strange, the middle section of the book was pretty bland and barely held my interest, and the final few chapters… What do I even say about those?! Everything went totally and completely crazy. There was so much unnecessary angst and drama – and even a completely new character – all chucked in at random, and it made the latter part of this novel a complete and utter clusterf*ck.
I’d never read anything by Tarryn Fisher before reading this book, but I thought, based on what I’d heard from others, that I really would have enjoyed this book. Oh boy, was I so, so wrong.
This book seems to have worked for a lot of people, so it might work for you, but I honestly just didn’t get it. At all. I’m sorry to say that I probably won’t be venturing into another Tarryn Fisher novel after this. At least I tried…
“This is something I’ve learned. You can’t run away to find yourself. Yourself is there no matter where you go.”
Beyond What is Given by Rebecca Yarros
3.0
I can’t believe I’m giving a Rebecca Yarros book a mere three stars – and Grayson’s story, nonetheless! I adored the previous books in this series – in fact, Full Measures is probably in my top five favourite New Adult books of all time. Rebecca Yarros is an extremely gifted writer, capable of creating some of the most beautifully flawed and realistic characters that I’ve come across in this genre. That fact is still true – however, a few things really fell short of the high expectations that I had for Beyond What is Given, and I just can’t bring myself to rate it anything higher than three stars, as much as it pains me to do so.
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Let’ me begin on a positive note. Regardless of how much I did or did not enjoy the plot of Beyond What is Given, I can’t fault Rebecca Yarros’ talent as a writer. She is able to convey human emotions in the most beautiful way, and she really know how to pack an emotional punch with the words that she writes. I wasn’t as fully invested in this story or the characters I had been in previous novels in the story, but I still felt my heart swell on more than one occasion due to Yarros’ gift with words.
As well as a having distinct talent for writing completely heart-wrenching scenes, Rebecca Yarros is also incredible at creating some crazy sexual tension in her novels. Although I didn’t feel the emotional spark between Grayson and Sam as much as I would have liked to, the sparks between them were undeniable. In fact, the chemistry between these two characters was what kept me reading, even when things in the novel started to become problematic for me.
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I loved reading the build-up between Grayson and Sam, and I loved reading about their relationship. However, when I stopped focusing on the angst and the tension between the two of them, and really considered them as characters, I felt that they both fell short of the expectations I had for them. I’d met both Sam and Grayson in previous novels in this series, and so I’d already formed an opinions of them, and I already had predictions for what they’d be like as characters – predictions that, unfortunately, turned out to be a little off the mark.
I was really looking forward to Grayson being incredibly stoic and aloof, and really difficult to break down, but he was almost instantly a totally different person around Sam, and I found that really disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you have the emotionally unavailable alpha-male character, who is only soft and lovely around the woman he loves – but I would have preferred it if it had taken longer to break down his walls, especially since he was a total mystery in each of the previous books, only to become quite the open book fairly early on in this one.
Sam, I expected to be a lot more fiery. She’s constantly described as being so in this novel, but I just didn’t feel it. She fought for what she believed in, and for who she loved, and that was fantastic – but, a lot of the time, when it came to Grayson, she lost her fire and became somewhat of a pushover. I felt like she accepted being second place far too many times, before finally deciding that that wasn’t good enough.
Don’t get me wrong, though – I didn’t hate these characters. Like all of the characters Rebecca Yarros creates, Sam and Grayson were flawed and realistic and often relatable. Grayson, although not as aloof as I would have liked, still made me swoon with some of the things he said. Sam made me laugh on more than one occasion, with her sassy attitude. I just didn’t connect with them in the way that I hoped I would, and I think that was because they were rather different from what I’d expected them to be.
----------
I found my biggest issue with this novel in the plot.
I like angst in a love story. I enjoy a bit of drama in my romance novels. However, there was way to much of both in Beyond What is Given. I don’t want to spoil anything but, basically, I felt the plot became incredibly repetitive and, at one point, completely far-fetched. I’m aware that this novel is fiction, but it’s also contemporary romance, so it really should have been more realistic than it was.
A couple of completely unbearable characters added into this mixture of crazy drama made a lot of this novel almost unbearable for me. I was so frustrated with Grayson – with how he seemed to show loyalty to characters that treated him so badly, and never seemed to show the same loyalty to Sam, who was deserving of it. I actually considered giving up at one point because I was so fed up of the same problems arising over and over again – but my love of Rebecca Yarros’ writing kept me going.
----------
Thankfully, the last few chapters of Beyond What is Given moved away from all of the unnecessary drama. I felt that these final chapters – including the epilogue – really redeemed the novel. I would have given it a much lower rating otherwise.
So if, like me, you read this novel and find the middle part incredibly frustrating and over-the-top, I’d still recommend sticking with it until the end, because the ending to Grayson and Sam’s story is really sweet, and more fulfilling than many New Adult novels I’ve read in the past.
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Overall, as you can probably tell, Rebecca Yarros’ latest novel was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Although Yarros writing is still fantastic, and although she is still capable of crafting wonderful characters, I just didn’t fall in love with this novel in the same way that I did with Full Measures and Eyes Turned Skywards. I think that my expectations were so high, that there was just too high a chance of Beyond What is Given falling short of them. I’ve noticed this happening a few times recently – so I may need to get out of the habit of having high expectations for novels by my favourite writers…
I’ll still read future novels by Rebecca Yarros, as I really enjoyed the previous books in this series. This one just wasn’t what I hoped it would be.
----------
Let’ me begin on a positive note. Regardless of how much I did or did not enjoy the plot of Beyond What is Given, I can’t fault Rebecca Yarros’ talent as a writer. She is able to convey human emotions in the most beautiful way, and she really know how to pack an emotional punch with the words that she writes. I wasn’t as fully invested in this story or the characters I had been in previous novels in the story, but I still felt my heart swell on more than one occasion due to Yarros’ gift with words.
“I swallowed. Orbit. That was the word for it. She was the Earth, full of life, raging rivers, erupting volcanoes, mysterious oceans, and breathtaking views. I was a satellite in her orbit, witnessing from a distance while she bloomed.”
As well as a having distinct talent for writing completely heart-wrenching scenes, Rebecca Yarros is also incredible at creating some crazy sexual tension in her novels. Although I didn’t feel the emotional spark between Grayson and Sam as much as I would have liked to, the sparks between them were undeniable. In fact, the chemistry between these two characters was what kept me reading, even when things in the novel started to become problematic for me.
“Hands on my hips, he pulled me flush against him, and that fire we’d kept carefully banked raged to life. God, I was ready to burn.”
----------
I loved reading the build-up between Grayson and Sam, and I loved reading about their relationship. However, when I stopped focusing on the angst and the tension between the two of them, and really considered them as characters, I felt that they both fell short of the expectations I had for them. I’d met both Sam and Grayson in previous novels in this series, and so I’d already formed an opinions of them, and I already had predictions for what they’d be like as characters – predictions that, unfortunately, turned out to be a little off the mark.
“He stood to the side of me, dripping sweat, his massive bare arms crossed over his even bigger chest. Holy shit. What did this guy do? Bench cows before breakfast and then eat them?”
I was really looking forward to Grayson being incredibly stoic and aloof, and really difficult to break down, but he was almost instantly a totally different person around Sam, and I found that really disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you have the emotionally unavailable alpha-male character, who is only soft and lovely around the woman he loves – but I would have preferred it if it had taken longer to break down his walls, especially since he was a total mystery in each of the previous books, only to become quite the open book fairly early on in this one.
“And then there was me, coming along after Prince Charming was broken, trying to cram my foot into Cinderella’s slipper, willing to cut myself to the bone to make it fit.”
Sam, I expected to be a lot more fiery. She’s constantly described as being so in this novel, but I just didn’t feel it. She fought for what she believed in, and for who she loved, and that was fantastic – but, a lot of the time, when it came to Grayson, she lost her fire and became somewhat of a pushover. I felt like she accepted being second place far too many times, before finally deciding that that wasn’t good enough.
Don’t get me wrong, though – I didn’t hate these characters. Like all of the characters Rebecca Yarros creates, Sam and Grayson were flawed and realistic and often relatable. Grayson, although not as aloof as I would have liked, still made me swoon with some of the things he said. Sam made me laugh on more than one occasion, with her sassy attitude. I just didn’t connect with them in the way that I hoped I would, and I think that was because they were rather different from what I’d expected them to be.
----------
I found my biggest issue with this novel in the plot.
I like angst in a love story. I enjoy a bit of drama in my romance novels. However, there was way to much of both in Beyond What is Given. I don’t want to spoil anything but, basically, I felt the plot became incredibly repetitive and, at one point, completely far-fetched. I’m aware that this novel is fiction, but it’s also contemporary romance, so it really should have been more realistic than it was.
A couple of completely unbearable characters added into this mixture of crazy drama made a lot of this novel almost unbearable for me. I was so frustrated with Grayson – with how he seemed to show loyalty to characters that treated him so badly, and never seemed to show the same loyalty to Sam, who was deserving of it. I actually considered giving up at one point because I was so fed up of the same problems arising over and over again – but my love of Rebecca Yarros’ writing kept me going.
----------
Thankfully, the last few chapters of Beyond What is Given moved away from all of the unnecessary drama. I felt that these final chapters – including the epilogue – really redeemed the novel. I would have given it a much lower rating otherwise.
“I would wait forever for you.”
So if, like me, you read this novel and find the middle part incredibly frustrating and over-the-top, I’d still recommend sticking with it until the end, because the ending to Grayson and Sam’s story is really sweet, and more fulfilling than many New Adult novels I’ve read in the past.
----------
Overall, as you can probably tell, Rebecca Yarros’ latest novel was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Although Yarros writing is still fantastic, and although she is still capable of crafting wonderful characters, I just didn’t fall in love with this novel in the same way that I did with Full Measures and Eyes Turned Skywards. I think that my expectations were so high, that there was just too high a chance of Beyond What is Given falling short of them. I’ve noticed this happening a few times recently – so I may need to get out of the habit of having high expectations for novels by my favourite writers…
I’ll still read future novels by Rebecca Yarros, as I really enjoyed the previous books in this series. This one just wasn’t what I hoped it would be.
“He kissed me softly, his tongue tracing my lower lip. ‘So go ahead and fall. I’ve gotten really good at catching you.'”