1. The writing is terrible. Just so bad. It is all telling. Every single sentence is telling us how tI mean...this book was just porn, right?
[image]
1. The writing is terrible. Just so bad. It is all telling. Every single sentence is telling us how these characters are feeling and acting. There is no subtly.
2. Had to check if this author is British because I highly doubted they were and alas...Australian. I am not saying all authors need to be from where they are setting their stories, however, there is a certain cadence that British people carry/speak and it was missing here and very distracting. The setting is London and the characters are supposed to be British but none of them sounded like it. Just because you throw in a mate here and there and call their mom 'mum' doesn't make the reader automatically think England. This is a writing issue.
3. I have never known a cat that shits on the floor multiple times that didn't have some kind of medical/behavioral issue. That plot point was both unnecessary and concerning - like take your cat to the vet??
4. I skimmed half of this because the plot was so paper thin. If plot happens with the main two character, the next two chapters were them relaying what happened to their friends. It was very repetitive.
5. There were hardly any stakes in this. The two main characters fall in love in two weeks after hardly knowing each other.
6. There are like 20 sex scenes. Seriously, how did these characters even get to know each other at all? They were fucking the whole time.
That's all I have nice to say about this messy slog of a book.
Allie is so infuriatingly meeDNF @ 48%.
The beginning chapters of this were promising.
That's all I have nice to say about this messy slog of a book.
Allie is so infuriatingly meek. Girl, SPEAK UP. She lets her mother walk all over her. She lets her sisters walk all over her. She lets Caroline (ugh) stamp all over her. She lets Hudson speak FOR her. SNAP OUT OF IT AND USE YOUR WORDS. The only scene where we see a glimpse of any personality is when she is scolding Juniper about her ballet form and going behind their backs. The rest of the time she just stands there with the personality of a garden gnome.
Hudson was...fine. But he and Allie have zero chemistry. I get we didn't get what they were like as teens because of the ~big reveal~ of what happened to make him go ghost on her (never made it to that but I guess it has something to do with Caroline, Juniper and/or Allie's mom), but MAN we need some backstory. We need to be SHOWN what they were like as teens to be fully on board with them still pining after each other after 11 years. The way it is written now, their whole relationship falls extremely flat. And some of Hudson's internal dialogue is cringy.
Caroline sucks. Allie's sisters ALL suck. Seriously, they are all terrible. Allie's mom sucks. All of these characters are awful and I cannot read about them anymore. The plot is paper thin, resting on the ever so loved plot trope: miscommunication. SIGH. I also feel like it is just messily written? Like a first or second draft that needs refining....more
We get it. June has been crushing on this dude for years. We don't need this bashed over our heads every other sentence.
Beau might be theDNF.
[image]
We get it. June has been crushing on this dude for years. We don't need this bashed over our heads every other sentence.
Beau might be the dumbest mmc I have read this year. How would you not know that he is chatting with June? I just...that whole premise was so stupid/was written really, really badly. Also, they were chatting for like a DAY when he is admitting to being turned on by this mystery person of whom he claims to have NO IDEA who it could be. Sir-for all you knew, it could have been your ex bf who stole your ex fiance. Like, what? And the questions he asks her to try and figure it out were so dumb. Supposedly you have spent a lot of time around June for the last 10 years and you can't figure it out at all? Again, that whole plot was so poorly written.
AVERY. This character is rage inducing. You're telling me that this 23 year old grown person gets away with not showing up/barely showing up to work and when she does, she doesn't even work and everyone is just like 'oh that Avery! what a goof!!' and she just gets a pass for acting like an immature, self absorbed, spoiled rich nepo baby? Like June literally says she has a heart of gold but the next scene is Avery throwing her bag on the ground for the staff to pick up like a spoiled asshole. WHAT. And her partying every single night. And her being dumb as a box of rocks. What even is this character. Why would you write a character like this and expect the reader to just go along with the 'heart of gold' narrative. Why is June friends with her? Why does her family let her be like this when none of them are remotely like this? Ugh.
Besides all that, the characters are all immature. The writing is juvenile. Beau falls for June in like 2 seconds. The premise of this is basic and poorly executed. Pass....more
The one star reviews on here for this book are making my day so thank you for that, fellow haters! lol!
DNF @25%.
I cannot. Nope. NO to the terrible wThe one star reviews on here for this book are making my day so thank you for that, fellow haters! lol!
DNF @25%.
I cannot. Nope. NO to the terrible writing. NO to the Mary Sue character who wears skirts down to her knees, has an aversion to anything fun, and *gasp* doesn't swear. NO to the insta love that is happening between a CAT and a human (yes, I realize he is actually a man but still it gave me the ick). NO to the cat being jealous of a human guy and getting possessive literally a day after meeting her (god forbid another male talk to her). NO to the cat being horny over her blushing. Just....no. I am bowing out of this before the 'spice' scenes that others have so kindly given a summary of on here and I am so happy about that because wtf. ...more
I cannot take this MFC anymore. The slang. The naivety. The cringy dialogue. The poor writing. I was trying SO hard to like this too - I almost convinI cannot take this MFC anymore. The slang. The naivety. The cringy dialogue. The poor writing. I was trying SO hard to like this too - I almost convinced myself to keep giving it a chance but then Selene has to go and say 'cool beans'. Aaaand I'm out. TikTok lied to me several times about this series. ...more
I started skimming half way through and now Jessa shows up with his kid and I just can't do it anymore.
HOW are the readers supposed to be rootinDNF.
I started skimming half way through and now Jessa shows up with his kid and I just can't do it anymore.
HOW are the readers supposed to be rooting for Maliki and Sierra when we hardly get anything other than petty jealously and random ex's popping up every two seconds? On top of that, we are told that Maliki and Sierra are falling in love but...again, HOW? He spent half the book calling her jailbait to her face (b/c she's more than 10 years younger than him so barf at that) and the other half is her being jealous at every single girl he had sex with in the past or you know, glances at. It's ridiculous. Sierra is written as VERY immature and Maliki is written as a possessive asshat. I am not sure where the story is here. The plot is VERY thin. The characters are cliche messes. I don't believe they are in anything other than lust, but even that has the fun sucked out with possessive jealousy.
-No plot. If you want to read your porn instead of watch, more power to you! -The characters ar[image]
I'm at 40% and this is how it is going so far:
-No plot. If you want to read your porn instead of watch, more power to you! -The characters are all the most cliche you could possibly write a character to be. -The dialogue is SO cringy, my god. -MFC is annoying.
I am going to force myself to continued reading because I am in a book club and no other reason but that, however, at 17% I can [image]
[image]
[image]
I am going to force myself to continued reading because I am in a book club and no other reason but that, however, at 17% I can already tell you I hate everything about this. The main characters have ZERO personalities other than meek and a pushover (h) who lets everyone from her parents to her supposed 'love of her life' walk all over her and a possessive, domineering, jealous asshat (H). There is no story here. All of the story bits are glossed over and sped up to a point where I literally thought I missed a book because there is no backstory with these two. Why should I care about them if we are plopped into their story midway through unceremoniously? We didn't get any of the falling in love bit-we are told they love each other and that we should care. And when we are flashed forward two chapters in, we don't get any of her day to day life as a pop star or whatever. This book is going to be all about them having sex and no story. I can see it now. I will eat my words and come back here to edit if this is not the case.
Update at 50%: Yup-the above still rings very, VERY true. There is NO plot. It is all jealous jealous jealous *vigin*SEX, sex sex sex. Very cringy sex at that. I am convinced this author got her source material for this book from porn websites. ICK. ...more
I don't have anything nice to say about this book.
The writing is so, so, bad and juvenile. I cannot get past it. I am reading this for book club andI don't have anything nice to say about this book.
The writing is so, so, bad and juvenile. I cannot get past it. I am reading this for book club and I just...don't know if finishing this is even an option because every sentence makes me want to internally scream.
A basic writing class would teach you how to 'Show, not Tell'. I don't understand how books get published like this. In one chapter alone, there were no less than 70 telling sentences. Some examples from just a single chapter of this book: I smile, I don't know, I've heard, I was the one, I lie behind, I'm too wired, I take her, I listen, I take in, I've long since, I glace down, I smirk, I want to, I move my fingers, I think, I find, I whisper, I caress, I read, I know, I stopped, I watch, I started, I go off, I let my, I kiss, I shoot a glare, I am going, I press, I'm hard, I stay silent, I barely withhold, I lean in, I tilt my head, I quickly, I can see, I jump back....and so on. This is all punctuated by [cringy] dialogue, so I have no doubt that there would be more than that if not. There is not one lick of showing what these characters are doing. There is hardly a descriptive sentence to be found. I am constantly being told what they are doing, what they are thinking. An author should have some faith in the reader to figure out what a character is feeling by showing them. I do not need a run down of every step a character does/thinks from the moment he/she enters a room.
I know this review comes off as super mean, but honestly, this writing is 5th grade level writing and had no business being published as is.
Was this book necessary? No. This is reads like a Christmas interlude/special to the normally scheduled programing. I did not like it.
1. The ending ofWas this book necessary? No. This is reads like a Christmas interlude/special to the normally scheduled programing. I did not like it.
1. The ending of the third book was PERFECT. If we must continue, please give me another character's story.
2. I am tired of this 'Mate' business. WE GET IT-YOU'RE HAPPY. Give me POVs of literally any other character other than Feyre.
3. WHY are the other POV'S in 3rd person????? Whyyyyyyy. It took me completely out of the story and honestly I almost just put this down and walked away from it entirely.
4. This book feels like a fan catered writing project. Not needed. At all....more
-Why is the main character almost 30 and still OBSESSED with something that happened in HS? WHY. Literally everyone is tellThis book is terrible. DNF.
-Why is the main character almost 30 and still OBSESSED with something that happened in HS? WHY. Literally everyone is telling her to get over it but she literally cannot.
-The two main characters have negative chemistry.
-The writing is terrible and repetitive. I skimmed almost half of what I did read. All the non-swearing swearing. JUST SAY SHIT. YOU ARE ALMOST 30.
-CHOCOLATE RED. I HATE when authors try to reinvent the wheel with some off the wall description of something. IT'S AUBURN. JUST SAY AUBURN. FFS.
-If you want any spice whatsoever, steer clear of this. There is none.
Words cannot adequately express how much I loathed this book. What the flying fuck did I just read? Never have I ever skipped whole sex scenes in a roWords cannot adequately express how much I loathed this book. What the flying fuck did I just read? Never have I ever skipped whole sex scenes in a romance book before. Alas...
To keep it short:
X-I hated the main characters X-I hated the storyline X-I skipped every single sex scene after like the second time Enzo basically raped Sawyer. It happens ALOT. X-The faux feminism and all around problematic *gestures to whole book* - I cannot. Nope. Nope nopenopenope
What I got out of this: >I will be skipping every and all other books by the author. Especially now that I know she wrote Haunting Adeline that is currently being reviewed by the hot guy (I think his name is Zack) on TikTok - apparently it is traumatizing. I will take all y'alls word on it and PASS. ...more
Oof. This book was...not as good as the first book I read of this authors. I am hoping that because this is one of this authors past works, she just gOof. This book was...not as good as the first book I read of this authors. I am hoping that because this is one of this authors past works, she just got better which is why I liked Weak Side SO much better than this. I almost DNF'd this so many times and skimmed a LOT.
The writing of this was very, very juvenile to me. The voices of the characters were juvenile throughout, even in their 20s. The lack of communication trope (while in their 20's) was annoying. Using the word Azure to describe eye color is stupid and takes me out every time (just use BLUE). The whole plot point of Dawson choosing to date a girl who actively hated and caused emotional distress to his supposed best friend and object of desire was also dumb and makes no sense. The seemingly last minute conflict in the last 10% was dumb. I am honestly shocked I got through this. I will try another book of this author's just because I did like her most recent work, but MAN I hope this was just a low point. ...more
The main character of this is SO dumb. Like I would have been okay with her being killed off by the end, dumb. [image]
~Spoilers~
1. The writing: juvenThe main character of this is SO dumb. Like I would have been okay with her being killed off by the end, dumb. [image]
~Spoilers~
1. The writing: juvenile. It just wasn't very good.
2. The plot: Oh boy. I can't. The first 40% of this had me gripped but the whodoneit aspect of this got old fast and just was not appealing at all-mostly I was just annoyed with it. It was Shane! No it was Tim! No it was the prison guard! FFS. It didn't help that Brooke was dumb as a pile of rocks. I swear to god she would walk into a burning building if someone told her it wasn't burning. She trusted everyone and no one at once. She had NO backbone. She barely had any personality. Also, getting someone out of prison after 10 years is not as easy as just taking back your testimony! What?! What was that. That is not a thing. And Shane's mother helping with all of the murders and her reasoning is just flimsy at best. The friendship between Tim and Brooke was not fleshed out at all and therefore, I felt nothing between them- friendship or otherwise. There were no stakes. By the end I was rooting for everyone to kill each other and be done with it. ...more
Well, the first half of this went alright for me. Nothing too obnoxious. Other than the kid who is all of 6 swearing every two seconds and generally aWell, the first half of this went alright for me. Nothing too obnoxious. Other than the kid who is all of 6 swearing every two seconds and generally acting much older than a kid that age normally acts? Idk, I don't have kids, so if anyone would like to refute that I will hear you out.
This all falls apart for me once the two main characters get 'married'. Noah becomes a entirely different character to me - he is portrayed as shy and moody all through the first half, then all of a sudden he is domineering and possessive. Their sex scenes were SO CRINGY MY GOD. I skimmed A LOT. And then he calls her WIFE like 20 million times -basically every time he interacts with her. It was SO annoying (I did do a search of the word-he says 'wife' 84 times from the point they get married). I get he really did love her and he wanted the marriage to be real so he was saying it as much as he could, but my DUDE-it was too much!
LMAO. The rollercoaster I just went on reading some of these reviews! I came here because of the absolutely ridiculous sex scenes that happen 20% into LMAO. The rollercoaster I just went on reading some of these reviews! I came here because of the absolutely ridiculous sex scenes that happen 20% into this trainwreck after the h lost her husband like a week before and is already in bed with some stranger. I thought THAT was bad (but seriously-the 'dirty talk' is SO CRINGY). Oy vey. I was actually sad at first reading some of the reviews because this turns out to be a paranormal book (?!) that had a lot of promise but then I read allll of the absolutely bonkers shit that was put in (alien broccoli baby??!) and the non-trigger warnings on a VERY triggering book. So yeah...I think I will stop right where I am and mark this DNF, thanks. ...more
I don't know what I expected out of this but it wasn't...whatever I just read.
[image]
These reviews fawning over.... Nick ???? [image]
I.....I can't.
I don't know what I expected out of this but it wasn't...whatever I just read.
[image]
These reviews fawning over.... Nick ???? [image]
I am just past the part where Noelle gets to what she thought was her room, drunk, and ready to make up/have sex with her boyfriend Paxton and in a drunken haze doesn't realize it's Nick. Okay, sure. I'm able to glide past the fact that after three years for inexplicable reasons, she doesn't recognize her own boyfriend regardless if he is a twin or not...sure. But when she realizes it's Nick, what does Nick do? Does he do the RATIONAL, NORMAL thing and let her go and figure her shit out by herself? NOOOO. He forces her back into the room and shoves his dick back into her allll while telling her to tell Paxton that he raped her. Excuse me, sir. WHAT? [image]
And after he's done basically raping her, he forces her to sleep in the room with her by threatening to throw her clothes over the railing. AND PEOPLE ARE THIRSTING AFTER THIS GUY IN THE COMMENTS? Someone please make it make sense. And THEN Nick is all 'I love you' and she's all 'what??? I had no idea??'. Blah. I can't believe I am DNFing a novella because I'm over half way done at this point and could be done within the hour but I just cannot. Rape aside, this story is not fleshed out AT all. Everything is happening at warped speed with no backstory. I am not here for the twins playing with Noelle. Noelle's not exactly a peach either but at least she's not playing games with someone elses feelings. Like if you don't like her break up with her! And I see her best friend eyeing up Paxton. What the hell. All of the characters suck.
Friends to lovers is my favorite trope so it takes a LOT to ruin it for me. Alas....I am almost 90% done with this book and the two main characters haFriends to lovers is my favorite trope so it takes a LOT to ruin it for me. Alas....I am almost 90% done with this book and the two main characters have negative romantic chemistry to me. I just don't see them romantically because up until this point the two boneheads were drilling into their brains that they were both friendzoned even though they were not so they wasted SO MUCH TIME. And now, at the 90% mark, after they have both expressed that they love one another he wants to...WAIT FOR MARRIAGE? And he basically proposes to her. But they don't have sex. They barely make out. ExCuse me? Where is the hot and sexy sex scene I was waiting for? The first half of this was good. The tension was there, the humor was good. But the second half is TEDIOUS and Bree gets progressively more and more annoying and clumsy (seriously, she falls down all over town). And by 60% of this I was just like 'OMG KISS EACH OTHER. DO SOMETHING.' It was all very anticlimatic and now I don't even want to finish it because I don't care about them anymore. ...more
So. I did not like this but oddly couldn't put it down?
The characters: I really really disliked Lucy's character. I get that the author was trying to So. I did not like this but oddly couldn't put it down?
The characters: I really really disliked Lucy's character. I get that the author was trying to make her the 'nerdy girl next door' or whatever, but it didn't translate. Instead we got a character who. would. not. shut. up. Awkward and annoying. Besides that, she read as 21 years old, not 29 (!). Drew also sucked. He started out okay but being that overbearing over is 29 year old ADULT sister was dumb and annoying. Cooper was the best character but only because he didn't annoy me.
Insta love happens. I don't like it but it was by far not the worst thing that happens in this book.
Lets talk some about the writing: namely the use of the word 'gosh' every other sentence. I get that parents try to limit their swearing around children, however, these adults were using 'gosh' every two sentences, even while in a bar with other adults! I am sorry, but that is completely unbelievable and it took me out of the scene every time it was used (it was used A LOT-I should have counted). I found myself replacing gosh with god and other soft words with what an actual adult would use- kids around or not. Besides that fact, any word or phrase that is used far too much takes me out of the book entirely. See also: 'I can't help but...' which was also used too much in this book.
So basically I hated the characters, the insta love, and I hated the writing but read the entirely (skimmed a few spots) of it so it gets 2 stars for that. I don't think I will be trying any other books by this author. ...more
1. Jordan was not an enjoyable character. She is kinda mean to any girl because she is a ~guys gaSo. I did not like this. I kind of hated it.
[image]
1. Jordan was not an enjoyable character. She is kinda mean to any girl because she is a ~guys gal~ and all cheerleaders are evil or whatever (even though they are all nice besides one) and totally clueless and so very much a naïve teenager.
2. Ty was a manipulative asshole. Every time he cried to her or tried to control her or act all jealous, a huge red flag went up.
3. This is a love triangle. I was not aware of that tidbit. Not sure I would have proceeded with this if I had known. But Sam being in love with Jordan came out of left field because there were NO signs of this until Jordan was made aware. And then all of a sudden she loved him? No like, processing it or anything. It was just BAM she realized she loved him. While she was still with Ty. This was just all so achingly mundane teenage crap and my 32 year old ass was far to old to give two craps. I scanned the second half of this book and it did not get any better. All surface level, no depth.