Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Strong and Wild

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Strong and Wild by Sloane St. James

4 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.”