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garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition
- 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 really liked this story. The FMC, whose POV the story is told from, is an interesting character with some unresolved issues, particularly around the loss of her father a decade ago. And she has baggage from past relationships that leads her to make less than stellar choices with MMC. MMC has his own issues too, and he is younger and less experienced than FMC in terms of relationships/sex.
The MCs start a radio show that is hosted by two exes (them). The only thing is, they never actually dated. But the show gets really popular and well, obviously stuff happens with that.
🎧 This was first person POV, only from the FMC. The female narrator did an amazing job with the content and the story itself was engaging. I think she had to walk a fine line, because it is a fact in the book that the FMC has a "girly" and often "grating" voice, but you don't want to actually alienate the listeners for the book, so she had to perform something feminine, that is close to, but not actually, grating. I thought her voice was incredibly pleasant but I don't have internalized misogyny about feminine sounding voices so ymmv.
🌶️ 3.5/5 there were a few explicit sex scenes (btw the narrator executed these scenes to perfection).
🏳️🌈✊ There was a lot of diversity represented in the story. Asian MMC and white Jewish FMC. Multiple queer and ethnically diverse side characters. An African American (the patriarch is from Nigeria) family joining into FMC's.
Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, and Grief
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Gaslighting
Minor: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Alcohol
vj_thompson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer and Racism
bootsmom3's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer
kcbatts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Sexual content and Grief
Moderate: Cursing and Misogyny
bbygirl21's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I'd still recommend it. The plot was good, I loved the characters, and there were a lot of really funny moments scattered throughout.
Graphic: Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Racism, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer and Panic attacks/disorders
rebeccaelizabeth94's review against another edition
- 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 everything about this book. I love a good office place romance and a work place rivals to lovers is *chef’s kiss*. I liked the radio show setting. As I was reading I wished the pod cast was real so I could binge it too. The chemistry between Shay and Dominic was awesome. I liked the adventures they went on to bond. I felt drawn to Shay in her struggles to be an adult. 29 is a hard age when people are moving at different paces. It’s so hard to know when to say I love you in a relationship. It’s hard to want something so bad and try to fill voids that you feel like should be filled before they were. Shay had a house that felt lonely and a life she felt like she wasn’t living. Shay learned to love life and love it to the fullest. Steve was the perfect edition to her life. I liked how she fought for her grief episode of the pod cast. Dominic despite having a mean door lean was an amazing character. He was kind and gentle and so vulnerable. It was refreshing to see how he was just as nervous as she was. Dominic has a determination to fight for the truth but he was such a softie on the inside. It was so nice to see his love of Beanie Babies, cast iron skillets, and IKEA furniture. His radio grovel was one of the best apologies I’ve ever heard. It was giving 80s boom box in the front yard vibes.
I hated Kent he was terrible and canceling the show the way he did was so horrible. The whole post on the website was the dumbest way to cancel the show. I didn’t understand how everyone hated that they lied. It seemed so trivial in the end. I liked how they ended with a new pod cast series.
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Cancer, Cursing, and Death of parent
mirandap442's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, and Grief
Minor: Cancer and Mental illness
peachani's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Sexual content and Grief
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Medical content, and Alcohol
cassielaj's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
thatswhatshanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The Ex Talk has everything you expect from a novel of this genre—it pretty much follows the romcom formula to a T. In my head I was checking off this list below as each thing happened, waiting for the next, knowing it would be coming.
* Enemies-to-lovers
* Fake dating
* Forced proximity/stuck together
* Workplace romance
* One bed
* Ridiculously petite MC and ridiculously tall male lead
* Age gap
* Several pivotal work crises
* The eureka moment of clarity and self-discovery
* The romantic grand gesture
In this way, relatedly, I was never super invested in the main couple. Everything felt a little too on the ball. There was some great banter and some great spice, but overall I never really got that empathetic-butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling while reading about them. Still, they were cute.
Miscommunication does run a little rampant at times, which sort-of stunts the flow of the story near the middle-end. Of course, this is common in an enemies-to-lovers fake dating novel, and I understand the reason for the easily avoidable conflicts that arose, though it did annoy me. JUST ADMIT YOU LIKE EACH OTHER. HOW CAN YOU BE THAT OBLIVIOUS??!
Anyway. This is not to single The Ex Talk out. Many romcoms do this. I think maybe I’ve just gotten to the point where I’ve read too many books with similar plots to this one, so it’s not as exciting anymore. And maybe also I will forever compare every one of them to Beach Read and/or The Love Hypothesis. Oops.
Graphic: Cursing, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Vomit