Reviews with content warning for Violence - Next of Kin

Whew. I couldn’t get behind the premise from the jump, which made it difficult to get into this book. Like… CPS suggesting strangers live together to be able to support their kids? Absolutely not!!
Then Warren was such an unnecessary dick when he first met Chloe that I was immediately “no” to him. I got so grossed out that he let his friend blatantly check Chloe out to the point of making her uncomfortable in her own home. Just ew all around. Oh! And his bursts of anger that turned him violent but never against Chloe (thank god)?? Come the fuck on. Let’s just sprinkle in a hint at potential abuse that he never does because he loves her too much (gag).
This book felt like an Abbi Jimenez book because there was so much trauma. It was relied on heavily as main plot points and ways to move the story forward and it just feels cheap to me.
I wanted to DNF when I was about 10% of the way in and honestly I should’ve.

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luckyonesoph's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.0

god Warren is so fucking punchable

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skye_era_books's review

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challenging emotional medium-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

4.5

I never would’ve thought I would love a book like this. I could feel the love from the pages — the love for Willow, for Warren, even for Luke. This found family is truly beautiful. My only wish is that we could’ve had dual POV with Warren. I would have loved to see how his mind worked.

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gillyreads's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

So I really enjoyed some parts of this book. I thought the idea was interesting (although you kind of just have to ignore the part where CPS makes two people live together being entirely unbelievable). I really like Luke, the younger brother, and initially I thought the way the story explores Chloe’s experience with adoption was done well. In some parts I liked the romance, but I think possibly it would have benefited from a dual POV.

Overall though, the fact Warren punched a wall in front of Chloe and her baby sister was not dealt with well which then meant I didn’t really like the way they stayed together

. Everything was tied up is too tidy a bow at the end, happily ever after isn’t very believed is it’s depicted as every single problem is somehow magically resolved.
My initial thoughts on finishing was a mostly good book that needed some serious editing before publication but the more I think about the more I think that it just didn’t do a good job dealing with the complex issues it was trying to represent.

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