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keykey229955's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Violence and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Gaslighting
joey_paige's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, and Gaslighting
angeliq_star's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
ofmeganreads's review against another edition
Graphic: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol
elizabeth_delozier's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I initially bought this book because I had just finished reading the Beautiful Bastard series by Christina Lauren (which is a new adult series of stand-alone romances with character crossover, mostly office romance and heavy on the spice) and everywhere I looked, people recommended that if I liked that series that surely this book would be for me.
WRONG!
This book was nothing like that series. Different in every imaginable way. Even with multiple years in between reading the different books, this still left a sour feeling for me.
But, lets put that aside and talk about this book without the comparison to the previously mentioned series.
This story follows a young college student, Abby, who has fled her old life, which includes a gambling and emotionally abusive father. She then meets Travis, an underground fighter with a bad attitude. The two characters enter into a toxic friendship, followed by an even more toxic relationship. The two make a bet, leading to Abby living with Travis for a period of time and sharing one bed.
The characters are not loveable, at all. Both characters are extremely immature. Similarly, the narration of the audiobook portrays the characters as such - it feels childlike. The writing was subpar with horrible pacing, especially towards the end, and unnecessary plot points that distract from the book. Also, after reading the book I found that the author was simply not a good human.
Do not read this book if toxic relationships are not your thing in books, because that is all that this book is. So much gaslighting, emotional abuse, lack of communication, and just nonsense that in reality is never okay. However, if you enjoy that in your fiction, well, here you go.
Overall, I hated the characters, hated the toxicity (which, I often enjoy in stories, but this was not the one), hated the plot, and did not find the writing to be good in any way. This book is being made into a movie, however given the above information I do not recommend that medium either.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
bendersreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Travis also has violent tendencies such as
Yeah. The book wasn't for me.
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
Minor: Violence and Alcohol
Constant slut-shaming. Constant.gailbird's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
The logic was severely lacking and the whole book could have ended satisfactorily so many times, but no, it had to drag on, repeating the same patterns of toxic behaviour (on both sides, I might add) and completely reverting to things we thought (naively) that we had moved on from. In the end, the characters were caricatures who hadn’t really learned anything or arrived at anywhere different in their relationship than they had already been three times during the course of the book, giving us no hope whatsoever that they will continue on any differently. Yay.
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment