**spoiler alert** 1.5 stars | Many of my friends loved this one so take this review with a grain of salt but overall the story seemed implausible and **spoiler alert** 1.5 stars | Many of my friends loved this one so take this review with a grain of salt but overall the story seemed implausible and underdeveloped. From characterization and backstories to dialogue and the romance itself, I spent a lot of time scratching my head or rolling my eyes due to it being unrealistic. Lots of fluffy repetitive filler scenes could have been trimmed in favor of addressing the relationship with her parents, for instance. WHAT IN THE WORLD was with all of the random drama shoehorned in at the end??? Like, pick one cliche villain instead of 3-4. Liam? Gavin? Donald? Her dad? A SHOOTING? What in the soap opera did I just read?
My main gripe with this book is that the FMC is dating a billionaire who sweeps in and solves all of her problems, right? He co-signs her mortgage, gives her a ton of money/percentage of the company, moves her in with him and supposedly only wants what’s best for her and her baby, right? AND YET even in this made up fantasyland the FMC only gets 8ish weeks of maternity leave before she has to go back to being the MMC’s assistant?! Girl, dream bigger! If money is no longer a concern IN WHAT WORLD would she miss out on precious newborn time just to write out his schedule by hand? Get the fuck out of here with that. She was so sad thinking about how she wasn’t ready to leave Joey with a nanny—then don’t! Why would she continue being his assistant at all? What is the point of wealth if it means missing out on precious time with your baby. If she had a career that she was passionate about getting back to that’s one thing. Not everyone is cut out to be a stay at home mom but to give her the absolute bare minimum maternity leave is pathetic.
With that said, the steam was decent and had mild lactation kink and breeding kink if that’s your jam....more
**spoiler alert** 2.5 stars. I’m a sucker for the “brother’s best friend” trope but I LOATHE when the main conflict is the brother finding out—it’s so**spoiler alert** 2.5 stars. I’m a sucker for the “brother’s best friend” trope but I LOATHE when the main conflict is the brother finding out—it’s so incredibly high school. THE...more
**spoiler alert** 1.5 stars. See my notes and highlights for all the thoughts I’m not in the mood to rehash here. I started out really enjoying this b**spoiler alert** 1.5 stars. See my notes and highlights for all the thoughts I’m not in the mood to rehash here. I started out really enjoying this but it took a much darker turn in the second half than I was expecting. It’s all fun and games until you realize the MMC’s sexy possessive, “you belong to me” talk means ACTUAL SLAVERY.
“Brooding, his thoughts turned to the infuriating woman chained to his bed. It was not uncommon for a Sardoran to take a slave for sex or to take care of his household. It was considered an honor to be owned by a warrior, but as he kept only a small home on Sardor and preferred uncomplicated sexual encounters between missions, he had never bothered before.”
This is what happens when you don’t have actual conversations with the strange alien you’re banging—you wind up in chained spread eagle to his bed while he f’s off somewhere else. Color me surprised that the guy who is fine with owning people treats you like your consent and autonomy doesn’t matter and locks you back up when he’s done using you. ...more
2.5 stars. This one didn’t work for me. The writing was a bit rudimentary and the story as a whole felt rushed and underdeveloped. I was skimming to f2.5 stars. This one didn’t work for me. The writing was a bit rudimentary and the story as a whole felt rushed and underdeveloped. I was skimming to finish by the end....more
2.5 stars. Took a while to get through this one because it didn’t have much of a plot. The main characters were lacking in both personality and chemis2.5 stars. Took a while to get through this one because it didn’t have much of a plot. The main characters were lacking in both personality and chemistry. Skip this one and Read When She Belongs instead....more
1.5 stars. Trigger warnings: pro-life propaganda that includes the MMC calling abortion “baby killing” in front of a character who has had an abortion1.5 stars. Trigger warnings: pro-life propaganda that includes the MMC calling abortion “baby killing” in front of a character who has had an abortion. Extreme slut-shaming and too stupid to live MC’s.
I almost never give 1-star ratings, but I was super mislead by the positive reviews on this one. First half wasn’t bad, but I got bored and set it down for 6 months before coming back to finish it. Would have DNF’d for good but I spent money on it and hate to quit when I’m already 200 pages in. Wish I had quit and not wasted my time as well.
Cons and spoilers: - FMC has had an abortion in the past and finds out she is now sterile because of it. It reads like anti-abortion nonsense on the authors part. The MMC knows about the FMC’s history but refers to abortion as “baby killing” in front of the FMC. She is devastated, but is she upset at the MMC for his word choice? Of course not! She’s upset at herself for having “killed her baby”. WTF? The characters constantly bring up the fact that the FMC can’t have kids and then she magically gets pregnant in the epilogue.
- Constant slut-shaming. “Nasty slut”, “dirty sluts”, “half-dressed sluts”, “one of his past sluts”, “stupid whore”, “one of his whores” to name a few ways the MC’s talk about other women. ...more
2 stars. Listen, this was bonkers and fun but I can only suspend disbelief so far when it comes to disgustingly dirty—and not in a good way—main chara2 stars. Listen, this was bonkers and fun but I can only suspend disbelief so far when it comes to disgustingly dirty—and not in a good way—main characters having sex. I want to clarify that my 2-star rating isn’t because the characters never bathed (that was just one of many plot holes). The 2-stars are because the storyline was spread way too thin for it to have much depth or development.
Back to my silly sex gripes. *spoilers ahead* Allow me to paint you a picture: When the story begins, these characters have already been traveling together for six months. The FMC is completely naked except for a large shirt for most of the story (she had her stuff stolen and was imprisoned naked but don’t worry it only lasted like two pages). This girl doesn’t even have SHOES but over the course of a couple weeks is riding a horse all day every day, hiking, building a funeral pyre and dragging rotting corpses onto it, rock climbing straight up a cliff for three days straight— ALL WHILE PORKY PIGGING IT (just top no bottoms). Both MC’s fingers and toes are scraped up and bloody from the climb. They are presumably as filthy as two people could possibly be so of course it’s now the perfect time to take the FMC’s virginity. They are barely over the face of the cliff before the MMC puts his scraped up, blistered, unwashed rock climbing fingers inside the FMC. I just *shudders* couldn’t disassociate enough to enjoy it even a little bit. Nary so much as a sponge bath is ever mentioned—unless you count the MMC going down on the FMC’s unwashed for weeks (even after the bottomless horseback riding) lady bits multiple times as “bathing”. I personally do not, but different strokes and all that.
This 140 page novella took place over the course of a year (not counting the six months they knew each other before the story picks up). To say Wilde “skipped over a lot” would be an understatement. It had some interesting plot points but barely brushed the surface when it came to an actual relationship between the MC’s.
I did, however, absolutely love the first book of this series and have read it more than once. This one was lacking the “true magic” the first one captured so beautifully....more
2.5 stars. “Good at fighting” sums up the entire personality of both main characters. I enjoyed the scenes early on when the FMC proved herself as a f2.5 stars. “Good at fighting” sums up the entire personality of both main characters. I enjoyed the scenes early on when the FMC proved herself as a fighter. Overall though, the writing was generic and I struggled to finish. Probably should have DNF’d after shuddering at this mess in chapter one: “She walked along a long corridor. . .”...more
Instead of having new thoughts or saying something original the characters just repeated the same lines the entire book. There were really dark elemenInstead of having new thoughts or saying something original the characters just repeated the same lines the entire book. There were really dark elements but it wasn’t an emotional read because there wasn’t much depth to the writing.
Examples of extreme repetition:
1. FMC’s abuser, who is killed before the story even starts, is mentioned BY NAME an astronomical 199 times. Yeah, you read that right. The book is only 352 pages long. . . ...more
I’ve been trying to push through this book for two months now. Having to force myself to come back to a book I’m bored with isn’t worth it. Should havI’ve been trying to push through this book for two months now. Having to force myself to come back to a book I’m bored with isn’t worth it. Should have DNF’d earlier. Read to 79% then skimmed to finish....more
HankReadsRomance
>
Books:
should-have-dnf
(24)
Loading...
