Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Love at First Set

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan

21 reviews

mspilesofpaper's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

Love At First Set is about Elizabeth "Lizzie" who works as the front desk manager at the local gym and gets dragged to the wedding of her best friend's sister as he doesn't want to appear alone there. Drunken mistakes happen and the wedding is called off, and suddenly Lizzie finds herself pushed towards the bride Cara.

While the set-up of the novel did sound cute, I have to say that the book just sucked a lot. Why? Because the fucking relationship between Lizzie and Cara is just instant love and instant lust. James (the best friend), Cara, their parents, Lizzie and her mother are just awful characters. James and Cara manipulate the hell out of Lizzie, their parents Stella and George are just the typical "she is cruel and worried about the money while he is a drunken idiot" rich family, Lizzie's mother manipulates and uses her daughter as well, and Lizzie has no backbone. Tbh: Lizzie needs tons of therapy and new friends. Instead, there's a fucking happy end, a useless third-act breakup (the entire drama was just too much) and none of the characters have any redeeming traits. Even the supposed character growth after the two women get back together just feels forced and unbelievable.

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s_panfil's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-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

4.5

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alreadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.5

i want to start out by saying i did enjoy this book - i just have a few things that held me back from giving it a higher star rating! minor spoilers ahead potentially so do with that what you will

i understand the mommy issues that both our FMC's have (as well as James) is the root of all of this, which is why i understand why all of the "miscommunication" (more so lack of communication than miscommunication) is a part of the book. however i felt like there was almost too much of the story that was overshadowed by the lack of communication? i wanted to see more of them talking to each other about WHY they were how they were. I wanted to see more of the breaking each other open and learning about each other. it just felt like i as a reader knew why xyz was happening but then we just kind of jump past the love interest finding those things out as well, if that makes sense? i enjoyed all the characters and just ached for a little more of the relationship building on a deeper level. and also wished for more of a relationship repairing between James and Cara as well, earlier in the book because i would have loved to see their sibling dynamic earlier in the book!

overall i did enjoy it, and i'm really excited to continue reading through this authors catalog because i enjoy her writing style. i would recommend as long as you know that you are going in with a bit of no communication vibes happening for a bit too long LOL

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mlovesbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Knocked off one full star because the way people brushed off Lizzie all the time was genuinely upsetting to me.

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the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

Every relationship in this book is dysfunctional at best and toxic at worst. No one seems to genuinely like each other, and no one is actually good to each other without having an ulterior motive. The idea that we are meant to support dysfunctional dynamics,

like the two love interests manipulating each other all the time and some straight up gaslighting happening throughout

worries me. The chemistry also seemed to be based entirely on sexual attraction between Cara and Lizzie, which is fine, but doesn't really make the HEA satisfying. The ending also struck me as a lot of miscommunication that could have easily been resolved, so I found myself skimming a lot of the last 5 or 6 chapters.

There is also no real resolution about Lizzie's mom. It's just assumed she went no contact, which left me without closure as a reader.

The author also specifically noted the races of non-white people, but only noted the races of white people when they were being introduced at the same time as POCs (such as Jane and Sherry). That comes off kind of racist with the white folks being presumed as "default" but non-white people being noted. It also didn't escape my notice that the only racialized people were extremely minor characters with very few lines (Mina, Jane, Ramón).

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allisonplus's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

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slburg's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Lots of underdeveloped plots lines that seemed to resolve very quickly. It feels like the main character stayed in many toxic relationships. I' m not sure if there was much growth or just her going from one toxic thing to another. Her best friend kind of sucks. You can clearly tell the main character is traumatized, but this plot line was so underdeveloped that it felt superficial. I thought the slow-ish burn (physically and sexually) between the main character and love interest was good. However, it also felt like the emotional chemistry was lackluster because they really didn't talk about deep issues, and then they were just all of a sudden in love even though you could tell there were some steps missing to get from A to B. Overall, I did enjoy it, but the lack of depth caused me to not love it.

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