Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Strong and Wild by Sloane St. James

11 reviews

thewildbookcase's review

dark emotional hopeful fast-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

3.75

I look out to the stands to see a bunch of camera phones recording and homemade signs unfolding, referencing “hardcore pucking” and “sticking it in their five-hole.” I cock my head at Conway and mouth what the fuck while gesturing to the crowd. He shrugs. “Booktok. It’s a thing now.”

I was only a few pages into this book when I was laughing out loud. Strong and Wild follows Micky (Birdie's bff) as she bartends and runs a sexy online baking show to save up money to open her dream patisserie cocktail lounge. Enter Rhys, the hottest new rookie who is looking to keep his head down and prove he belongs on the team. Staying away from women is fine until he finds out his online wet dream lives across the hall.

To start: I LOVE Micky. She is strong and ambitious. She sets firm boundaries. She doesn't shy away from putting  pretentious assholes in their place. Rhys I liked but he did frustrate me in a way that was benefiting to his character and exactly as I would expect him to react but still annoying. While everything he did made sense, I was annoyed

that he was an asshole pushing her away at the beginning, that he didn't listen to her advice about setting boundaries with his sister, that when things got tough he intentionally set out to hurt her to make her leave. I wanted him to be better.

Trigger: Drug Abuse

I found the discussion and interactions with drug abuse to be really beautifully done. Unfortunately I know exactly what it is like to have someone you love love drugs more and I felt very seen by how St. James documented both sides of that love. I was very proud of Freya for loving Rhys and caring for his sister while still keeping her boundaries strong. Yet, I understood how hard it is and why Rhys wasn't able to create those boundaries until he was forced to. It hard to choose when its someone you love and protecting your life and I think the dichotomy was given weight without being a scapegoat for his behavior and without being instantly fixed. It was shown as hard and it is. It was shown it can be overcome and it can.

Favorite Quotes:

“Time to drain money from the patriarchy,” I say, adjusting my red push-up bra.

“Ugh. I’m so tired of people saying that. It’s such a cop out. Just more boys-will-be-boys bullshit. We need to stop saying it to little girls too. It makes them grow up to think violence is some form of affection.”

“Where do you want to do this?” He pulls out a chair and points at the kitchen table. 
“Get on. You eat your meals on the counter, I eat mine at the table.” 
Fuck.

“Did I do good?” I don’t know where that comes from, because why the fuck do I care? But I do. He smiles, and something flashes in his eyes. “So good, darling.”

Our love is a fire, Freya. It’s strong and wild, and knows no bounds.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Sexual content

Moderate: Vomit and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use

caseyy's review

dark emotional 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: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent

ljp817's review

emotional lighthearted tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent

kristanjenkins's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

afonsecana's review

dark 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? No

4.75

I really liked this book. I loved the characters and their story and how fictional characters had such real problems. Freya and Rhys are adorable and their love and chemestry is amazing.
The spice in this book is some of the best I have read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Suicide and Death of parent

petit_biblio's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Death and Death of parent

honeyandsmut's review

challenging dark funny 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

abidavisf's review

funny hopeful reflective tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

Strong and Wild is teamed with lust, banter, and pain. Micky and Rhys, much like Birdie and Lonan, share similar traumas that they have each processed differently and must learn to manage in new ways in order to allow themselves a happier future.

It’s a heart-wrenching story, mixed with sex and steam that will make you blush.

There are elements of the story that feel like they have been moved around, which can make the timeline difficult to keep up with. There are also some scenes where only pronouns are used or the formatting is confused which means the reader does not know who is being referred to in the scene or who is speaking. That can cause some distraction when reading so is something to look out for during the editing process. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Vomit, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Cancer and Death of parent

ashley_bitton's review

dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content

amylouisereads's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.75

I really enjoyed their story! Looking forward to more from this series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Minor: Violence and Death of parent