Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Terms and Conditions by Lauren Asher

95 reviews

bbygirl21's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted 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

4.5

I enjoyed this book so much more than the first one. I love the dynamic between Iris and Declan and although they may be toxic at times, I enjoyed the progression of their relationship. I love that Iris is the only one that can talk back to Declan and have him not retaliate. It shows that he cared about her long before their initial marriage contract. 

One thing I loved about this book over the first one was that there was only one break up rather than the two that was in Rowan and Zahra's book. I think the two breaks ups in the fine print was a bit excessive, so it was nice to only get one "breakup" between Declan and Iris. 

This book is also way faster paced than the previous one, which I was quite happy about. I found I didn't need to take at many breaks reading this book at I did with The Fine Print.

So overall, I highly enjoyed this book and would absolutely recommend. I'm excited to get into Cal's book.

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theragereader's review against another edition

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2.5

While I largely enjoyed this book more than Throttled, it, by no means, is amazing. In between Declan treating Iris abhorrently and sneering at everyone around him and crying over his treatment by his father and Iris inexplicably being attracted to him despite his vile treatment, there were moments I loved—their back-n-forth banter, the little things he did to be nice for her, CAL. But any love I had for this book is overshadowed by just how abusive Declan is to Iris; over and over he snaps at her, throws a tantrum, and anytime she pushes back, he just mentions his dead, dead and did I mention dead mom and how he's sooooo unloveable and she forgave him. Also all of his little quirks are due to said dead mom. He likes mimosa and F1? Dead mom did. He likes elephants? Dead mom did. He drives a nice car? It was his mom's. He knows about Iris's learning disability? His mom had the same one. The little dumb word game he  and iris play? He and his mom did—jesus, is there anything you enjoy/do that doesn't loop back to your Dead Mom?
You can't tell me that him buying her a greenhouse and adopting a dog for her after calling her a failure, which her abusive dad always did, is gonna make her accept his random-ass marriage proposal.
Why even make Iris Black if it adds nothing to the narrative? Iris could've been white and everything would've been the same, except she wouldn't have fallen into the “Black character has to do emotional labor for the traumatized, woe-is-me white character/love interest”. Nevermind how overworked she is. I hated Declan with a burning passion and Iris, for that matter. She never stayed angry with him, even when she had every reason to be, and each time she'd feel guilty and sorry for daring to be upset. Get mad, girlie! Don't let him pout and wobble his fucking lip and buy you plant after he hurt you so badly. I don't think I'll ever pick up anything by Lauren Asher again for the amount of bullshit in her books.

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0701mango's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

3.5

Enjoyable book with enjoyable characters. Plot was a little too much of a rollercoaster for me.
If someone did to me what Declan did to Iris in the third-act breakup I’d act the same way as Iris did but it also occurs to me that there’s no one on Declan’s side. Rowan is only sort of, and Cal does everything for Iris’s sake. Iris is the one backing away from his advances the whole time, and she doesn’t say she loves him until the very end. I think it would’ve been nice to see someone on Declan’s side for his sake. Also, based on the way Declan was acting and how he had reformed up until then, it seems a little out of character for him to have acted the way he did at Dreamland. It would’ve made more sense if there had to be a third-act breakup for Iris to be the reason.

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sbbailey's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

declan is my husband and my only complaint is the irrelevant condom fight 
i’ve noticed this author has a thing for putting the title in when they make up and i find it so cute

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alxisrae's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted 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? No

4.75


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vreyna20_2004's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing sad 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

5.0

I love this book. I think about this book constantly. Declan’s realization that he is in love with Iris and him doing EVERYTHING to get her despite them already being married. Magnificent. Beautiful. He gave Iris a house WITH a greenhouse all because she loves plants. He took care of a succulent Iris GAVE TO HIM all because it was his first gift. He changed is company font all so she can be able to read the documents all due to her dyslexia. The one thing I didn’t like was him sabotaging Iris’s future all cause he didn’t want her to leave him. Execution wasn’t good but reasoning was cute. I didn’t like the fact that Iris ran away and didn’t want to talk to Declan after what happened with Dreamland Japan but I did love seeing Declan try to get her to talk to him even locking his brother, Cal, out. The third act breakup was done better in this book compared to the first one cause Rowan was being an ass and with this one it makes sense why she felt sad from how Declan blamed her for his father butchering their plans with Mr. Tanaka but when he showed the house and the dog he bought for her, I forgave him.

The sex scenes were blush worthy. The things Declan said and did made me double check my door in case anyone walked in. Declan seemed more into it compared to Rowan. To me it felt like Rowan did it with Zahra only because they had sexual tension while Declan also had tension with Iris it wasn’t out of horny-ness but out of need to be with her if that makes sense and I love that.

I would recommend this one over the first one if it weren’t for the fact that you need to read Rowan’s story to be able to understand the will of Brandy and the backstories were explained in more detail in that book. But I loved this one more. Now onto Callahan’s story.

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worldofv33's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

5.0


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schwurbs's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0


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theangelssing's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted sad tense medium-paced
  • 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

3.75

I didn’t hate the book. It was just too long for me. I didn’t appreciate how Declan was at first and didn’t appreciate what he did to Iris. But I admit I enjoyed reading about their relationship and the important subjects the book brought up.
Not my fav book but it is a nice one. (:

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thebookaddict's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-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

đŸ‡łđŸ‡±: deel twee was net zo goed als deel 1! Het is leuk om te zien dat ze Broers ook echt wel op elkaar Lijken met hun doen en laten. De relatie tussen Declan en iris is in het begin slow paced maar later komt er meer tempo in. Je zit zo in het verhaal dat je geirriteerd wordt met de acties van Declan en de reactie van iris raakte mij dan ook echt. De spice in het boek zijn echt een leuke toevoeging. Het geeft je toch een ander inzicht in de relatie. Je ziet dan ook wat er zich achter gesloten slaapkamer deuren afspeelt. Het gebruik van woorden uit andere talen is ook een heel leuk detail! Vooral de nederlands  woorden waren geweldig! Al met al een fanastisch tweede deel!

🇬🇧: part two was as good as part one! It is great to see that the brother look a like in character. The relationship between Declan and Iris is slow paced in the beginning but it is faster paced later on. You get sunken into the story. I even got irritated by Declan and his action,  iris her reactions on the other hand made me tear up. The spicy scenes where a plot, this way you get a look in their relationship behind closed bedroom doors. The use of words in a other language is a great plus! Espcially the dutch words. A fantastic part two and I can't wait to read the last part!

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