Reviews with content warning for Addiction - The Wall of Winnipeg and Me

This book merits a LOT of content warnings and it's not clear why. Taking a light and apparently thoughtless touch to topics like intimate partner abuse, child abuse, and socioeconomic disparities... I just wish there had been a more skillful way of creating historical narratives for these characters.

Content Warnings

doahdancer's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've never seen myself as someone interested in sports themed romance, so loving this book has defied everything I prepared myself for going in.

Mariana Zapata has written an incredibly nuanced and introspective romance about two messy humans who find that, while they have incredibly different personalities, they understand each other's perspectives and experiences. Moment by moment, they put in the work necessary to build a solid foundation of friendship that later raises up a sweeping romance.

Sports are a mere backdrop in this story. The real focus is on communication and how learning and practicing skills your upbringing didn't teach you can be the ultimate gateway drug to happiness. Changing and growing doesn't happen right away and a love built on genuine personal growth burns slowly at first, but consumes all once it catches.

This book has left me shaken and so, so in love with a fictional couple. I'm not sure how I'll ever recover from the swelling of my heart growing three sizes.

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noragoudie's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was average. I enjoyed it enough and I like the idea of a long romance book that takes the time to flesh out the characters and their connection. However, this book had me cringing at every turn, and by the end I was convinced that if I read another description about Aiden’s “massive hulking frame” I would hurl. Also who calls their husband “big guy…”

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idrilcelebrindal's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

This book was fine. Nothing special, and way too long. Main character had a lot of internalized misogyny that drove me crazy. When the love interest gets groped and she thinks it’s wildly funny it was so painful. Sexual assault/harassment isn’t okay just because it’s a man who is targeted.

The handling of FASD (fetal alcohol) was incredibly bad. It should’ve been left out entirely.

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nyquillll's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

This book was so hard to get through. I can't remember how I came across it exactly, but I was expecting it to be similar to other sports romance books I've read. This was completely different, but almost in a bad way. Or, I should say, the plot itself wasn't horrible, but the writing style was so not my jam.

I got 6% into the book and realized it would be really really hard for me to read this book. My first impression was that it was full of long-winded, paragraphs of descriptions that were only sparingly sprinkled with dialogue. And a lot of the time, the long paragraphs weren't even on topic, they were tangential and seemed to run away from the starting point. I ended up skipping to around the 50% mark and then just deciding to majorly skim to see if at some point it would be worth it to force myself through it. It wasn't and it didn't happen.

While I did finish the book, it was an uphill battle. The dialogue/descriptions didn't get better, and I also wasn't a huge fan of the tropes this book was trying to incorporate -

(possibly) golden retriever/black cat energy, stoic-man-who-never-expresses-how-he-truly-feels, will-they-won't-they, SLOW FUCKING BURN (this was torture), marriage of convenience (one of my firsts and might be a last too), touch-her-and-you-die (but it wasn't done convincingly)

. I also hated the fact that

they didn't even hug until the 90% mark or something?????? And then the author was like "Hey, let me add in a pretty graphic sex scene in the LAST moments of the book - THAT'LL make a gr8 love story." And no, it did not, for me. Also hated, hated, hated how she did have feelings for him and while theoretically we know he does too because it's a romance book, he literally behaved like a LOG around her - and he didn't even acknowledge her presence much before the whole arrangement.

ALSO ALSO ALSO DESPISED HOW SHE CONSTANTLY WAS COMMENTING ON HIS SIZE - "he's such a big guy," "he's massive," "he fills the whole room," etc. etc. (might not be completely accurate on phrasing, but you get the idea).

I will say, I did appreciate the harder topics that were covered in this book, particularly toxic family dynamics, navigating family trauma, dealing with death of parents/parental figures, unlearning/deconstructing past coping mechanisms that are no longer serving you, allowing yourself to feel scared but to not get stuck in it - to let the fear flow through, how scary it can be to trust people to stay, finding the strength to cut people out of your life who don't deserve to be in it, and how scary it can be when life doesn't pan out how you planned it - but that doesn't mean it ends.

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booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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justanotherreaderofwords's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved how Aiden start to open up and show up for Vanessa. That did a lot for Vanessa's confidence! It also showed Vanessa how much Aiden cared about her that he would do anything for her. It was cute to see Zac and Vanessa's friendship grow. I loved that Vanessa knew Aiden so well through his characters.

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