Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe

18 reviews

farfetched's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book. I picked it up, thinking 'oh, a cute little sapphic romance, I'll read it then I'll be done with it'. I was fooled. In my defence, it was not really made clear from the outer cover that this cute little sapphic romance was going to tear me apart, in the best kind of way. This is a book about sapphic desire and romance. It is childhood friends to lovers. And it's fanatic at that. But it's also about grief, trauma, and learning to heal. Being there for someone when they need it. Leaning on people. 

This book genuinely blew me away. The writing is fantastic, the turns of phrase are great, I love the way it's structured, going between past and present and referencing things in ways that feel natural, rather than dropping hints. 

Fair to say, I will be keeping this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, and Infidelity

yellowflowermai's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

4.75

This is one of my new favourite books. It’s only flaw is its lack of an epilogue, but otherwise I LOVE it.

I was hesitant to read it at first because I found the title cringy and I feared it was going to be a case of “author wants fanfic tropes for their ocs without realising fic works because readers already know the characters” AND BOY WAS I WRONG because if there’s something this book definitely has is full fledged, fully developed, 3 dimensional characters AND SO MORE MUCH ANGST THAN I EXPECTED WITH SUCH A CUTESY TITLE????

I cried so many times and I also highlighted literally half of the book because it was that good oh my god please read it you won’t regret it 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

sea_sea's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I thought this was going to be a cute romcom, but it was so much sadder T-T… 
The book was still absolutely amazing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

volsungreads's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I think this would be a fantastic book if it wasn't marketed and described as a fluffy sapphic romance. It's a good book but not at all what I thought it would be from the tone of the blurb and the cover. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

piastri's review

4.0

i really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as i did - i started reading with the expectations of a light, cute romance novel, but then pretty quickly was hit with a much more ‘real’ story of mental illness, grief, disability, mother-daughter relationships, etc.
tess sharpe has a lovely way of weaving together an interesting storyline with much darker themes and complicated characters, which i really enjoy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

dfmaiwat's review

emotional hopeful medium-paced

4.5

I would never have pegged this as my kind of book, it it has so much more depth than the lighthearted rom com I imagined it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

nightworldlove's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I genuinely enjoyed this (audio) book! The characters all have their own personality, with both strengths and flaws. There's some very serious stuff, but all of it is handled beautifully. No loose ends or questions left unanswered by the end, which is fantastic! <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

imds's review

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

fleur____'s review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

lithoerary_atria's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad slow-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

4.5

i have 4% charge left on my phone so i'll try to be brief. 

please check the trigger warnings for this one. this is not really a cute summery romcom!! there's ableism, character death, graphic scene of character death & injury, grief from losing a loved one, bad parenting, ptsd, major surgery of a loved one etc. go into this book taking your mental health into account!! 

now if the formalities are over with, onto my review:

THIS BOOK WAS MADE FOR ME!!! like handcrafted & thought for me idcidcidc. i just, god, the characters are SOOOOO human and flawed and i was crying so many times & my herat was in my throat because god, this felt tooooo real. tess sharpe didn't hold back AT ALL. like ok here's the thing, this is the PERFECT™ love story for me. the way the entirety of their relationship is shown ughhh it's sooo *screams & starts chewing on walls*. 

the scenes where they are comforting each other but can't say what they feel for each other while DESPERATELY pining for each other is just TOP TIER!! THE YEARNING, THE PINING, THE EMOTIONS, THE WAY THESE BITCHES FUCKING TOUCH EACH OTHER & HUG EACH OTHER (SHE'S THE ONLY ONE THAT PENNY ALLOWS TO TOUCH HER HANDS!!!! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS SHIT!!!!) BUT STILL CANNOT SAY WHAT THEY THINK BECAUSE THEY'RE AFRAID OF THE CONSEQUENCES & THERE'S TOO MUCH HISTORY ON THEIR SIDES — i'm telling you once again this book was written for me actually idec about anyone else. 

the romance aside, this is also such a brilliant depiction of grief and complex familial relationships and it hurts to see both penny & lottie hurt each other because they're both grieving and neither of them can't help themselves and there's so much anger and love in here, both of them at the exact same time, they both wrong each other in so many ways but it's sooo realistically portrayed. it's all just done so so so well. it's so dysfunctional and it was just portrayed sooo well (also penny's last thoughts about how she wants to have a relationship with her mom but it seems growing apart is inevitable and how we are left hanging at the end — it's so so so so so messy yet satisfying in its own way). 

idk i have SOOOO many thoughts about this book — the portrayal of mother-daughter relationships (and oh the contrast between penny & tate and lottie & anna killed me!!! it was so cruel but that is life), the romance, the fucking prose at some specific moments — all of them *chef's kiss* 

idk girl just read it. this took me a month to read ('cause exams & college & life & mental health & global issues stuff) but i'm sooo glad i did read this!!! and my phone will switch off at any moment. so parting words: READ IT!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Sexual harassment