Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert

16 reviews

httponyo's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

3.75

   Firstly ,  I think the writing was great! POC leads with the friendship to lovers troupe!! The way it switched between POVs wasn't blantly obvious but it was very easy to understand who was thinking what so I was never confused. The panic attacks , anxiety , stress and how it was all handled was written very well and didn't seem like a dramatic tv recreation. The content warnings are to be taken seriously , as the heavy topics are detailed and hit hard. This didn't make it difficult to read though!  

     Now ofcourse there are sexual scenes in this , not a BIG amount but I'd say maybe 15% of the book? And by the end I was just skimmed through the scene. Don't get me wrong these weren't cringey to read , the author writes like she knows what sex is. It's just theres a certain conversation thats had near the end and instead of the meaningful conversation continuing and them figuring out the next step , they had sex. It was kinda a "OK,  well I guess" moment for me. That after all of Jasmine and Rahuls agonizing , Hibbert kinda defaulted to what felt like an emotional cop out , especially since 2 momths of therapy is not solving her issues enough for her to have a healthy relationship with sex involved immediately. 
There's also my issues of the story ending with a 7 year time skip after that night instead of us seeing them connect officially as a couple. The story just noped itself into husband and wife with child scenario for the last pages. Where they proceeded to be sexual in the bathroom at the house with Rahuls family?? Like was that necessary?? It made me feel icky even thinking about doing anything sexual with kids about , especially since the neiece knocking on the door was what stopped the scene.
 

  These are just my thoughts though. There's some good things about this book and honestly I wish Hibbert had just let go of the sexual content near half end of it.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I am patiently waiting to hear about any of Talia’s new work. I decided to try and read some of her old work in the meantime and saw The Princess Trap all over the book community and it was released as part of a series even though the characters don’t interact with each other. I was interested to see if I can finish this series on a high and it didn’t live up to my standards. The Brown Sisters are just unbeatable.  

This book has two points of view. The first is Jasmine Allen and she believes in bad luck, great wine and the seductive power of a stiletto heel. What she doesn’t believe in is love. Her life is great without all that romance rubbish, until a plumbing disaster screws everything up and leaves Jasmine homeless. Lucky she has someone to turn to: her best friend Rahul. The second point of view is Rahul Khan and for the last seven years, he has followed three simple rules. 1. Don’t touch Jasmine if you can help it. 2. Don’t look at her arse in that skirt. 3. Don’t ever – ever – tell Jasmine that you love her. He should’ve added another rule: do not, under any circumstances, let Jas move into your house. Now Rahul is living with the friend that he can’t have, and it’s decimating his control. He knows their shared dinners aren’t dates, the late-night kisses as a mistake, and the tenderness in Jasmine’s gaze is only temporary. One wrong word could send his skittish best friend running. So why is he tempted to risk it all? 

As always with Talia’s book, I love how she manages to write diverse characters, serious subjects, sexuality and mental health. I love her for it. In this book we have a son who is grieving over his father and trying to be the head of the household and definitely some form of mental health issue with the control aspect. Then you have a daughter who had been abandoned by his mother, which in turns makes her not be able to trust anyone and she struggles to form friendships or relationships that she only uses people for sex and that sex is a transactional thing. I liked the fact that Jasmine wasn’t ashamed about the fact that she likes hook up and that sex is a healthy thing. I liked the character development that happened individually and the fact that Rahul was learning to ease control and to speak his mind and that Jasmine learned how to trust people and to also speak her mind.  

Just like the other books in this series, I felt like it was a bit rushed compared to the Brown Sisters Series and I felt like Jasmine's attraction suddenly came out of nowhere once she slept with Rahul. I would like a bit more of a slow-burn especially with them living together. I would have loved for some jealously to be a part of it. Like Rahul is seen with someone and Jasmine gets jealous. But it’s all just came from Rahul being jealous over a bartender talking to Jasmine.  

I will carry on reading Talia’s work old or new no matter what and hopefully I will enjoy the next series or book that I will read of hers.

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dreezy's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.5


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loriley's review

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emotional 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

4.25


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sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense 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

4.5

💬: "It was exhausting to realise that everyone in the world knew he was an absolute fool for Jasmine Allen. He straightened his spine and ran a hand through his hair, suddenly realising that he must look a state—must look as out of control as he felt. And that wouldn’t do."

Hibbert, Talia. The Roommate Risk (p. 279). Nixon House. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: romance, contemporary, contemporary romance, 

📚Page Count: 333

🎧Audiobook Length: 09h 36min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.5/5 
----

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert is a contemporary romance and the second book in The Midnight Heat Collection, by the same author. The Roommate Risk is about two best friends, Jasmine and Rahul. Jasmine lives with a roommate but she soon finds out that her room and everything in it has been damaged if not destroyed because there was a major water leak in her bedroom. With nowhere to go, Jasmine contacts her best friend Rahul because she knows that his apartment has an open room and she hopes that she can rent it for a while. Little does Jasmine know that Rahul has been in love with her for the last 7 years of their lives together as best friends. Will Jasmine moving in complicate everything in the best or worst way?

I really enjoyed this story, it was romantic, sweet, and angsty. I love the chemistry between Rahul and Jasmine, I think they're cute together. They both have their own stuff that they're dealing with and the author does an okay job of depicting that with Rahul and an even better job depicting it with Jasmine. There was this really cute scene where Rahul takes Jasmine on a date and I couldn't stop smiling during that scene, it was just adorable and a little spicy. I think the only issue that I had with the story was a trope that takes place in the last part of the book, and it was basically
a third act break up but to continue to spoil things I will say that there IS an happily every after at the end so it all ends up working out. I understand why there was a break up near the end, because Jasmine had a lot of stuff she needed to sort through. I think it was a good choice to write in that she got a therapist and started working through her emotional and insecurity issues as well as her drinking problem.


The spicy scenes were really enjoyable. I might have really liked them because I dated someone in college with the same name and look as the main male character and memories were doin' their thing, but wow these spicy scenes were great. I'm giving the spicy scenes four chilies 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️out of five chilies

I really enjoyed this novel, it made me smile and I definitely swooned over the main male character. I'm giving this 5 out of 5 stars. 
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 4.5/5  Stars

Thank you [NetGalley.com], the author, and publisher for the arc (advanced reader's copy) of the audiobook. 

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abookwormspov'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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mayareadsxo's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.0


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weelasswithabook's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

CW graphic sexual content, parental abandonment, death of a parent, alcoholism/alcohol dependency 

🌟  Friends to lovers 
 🌟 BIPOC Interracial romance 
 🌟 Forced proximity/flatmates
 🌟 Cinnamon roll hero 

🌈 Queer heroine 
 🌈 Black heroine 
 🌈 Muslim hero 

She just never misses, does she? 

I absolutely adored this friends to lovers novel about two best friends who have been forced to room. Rahul has is BAAAAAAD. If you live for a pining hero, then this is right up your street. 

Sometimes a friends to lovers after a decade of pining can give "he's friends with her because he thinks he has a shot", but this was done so expertly that it was clear he was trying his best, he never pushed boundaries or disrespected her, and he genuinely continued to be her ride or die bestie. 

Jasmine broke my heart, not gonna lie, her sense of self worth and being deserving of love tore me up. But she was just so good and she just couldn't see it 😭 

This had such a perfect balance of sweet and tender moments, gut wrenching sad moment, hella spicy moments, and laugh out loud moments. It's hard to fit all of that into less than 400 pages without letting something drop somewhere, and it had it all in abundance. Plus a mini insight into codependency between friends and/or lovers was thrown in there too. 

You need to read this if you love a solid friends to lovers book, where the friendship is literally a genuine friendship. If the prickly heroine and cinnamon roll hero due is your favourite combo, it's also ideal because they're so unbelievably different, but they just work so well!!!

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reads2cope's review

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4.5

Wish I had read this rather than listened to it, but the audiobook was available from my library (LOVE YOU LIBBY) before the eBook. The book was read by an older white British man (Matthew Lloyd Davies/Cornell Collins), despite the two POVs being a Black British woman and a British-Indian man in their late 20s. The narrator made Rahul sound like an Indian grandpa. The Indian accent was actually offensive - not only was it pretty clear that Rahul grew up in England, but the accent was inconsistent and strange. I thought it couldn’t get worse, but then I heard how he voiced Rahul’s mom and whatever that accent was that he gave Pinal. However, I love Talia Hibbert, so I powered through and totally enjoyed the story and characters. I plan to reread as a physical or eBook in the future!
I normally take a star off for a third-act breaks up, but this one was handled so well I was almost convinced they needed it!

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discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0

I will never stop saying it: men written by Talia Hibbert are superior. And to be honest, among them, I think Rahul might be my new all-time favorite (and that’s saying something)! The emotional maturity, the kind-heartedness, the overall gentle disposition (that becomes absolutely filthy in the bedroom)? We’re talking green flag after green flag, my friends.

A lot of times, the friends-to-lovers trope is a miss for me, simply because the conflict never seems believable. I just think to myself “ugh, if you’re in love, just get together already, why all the angst? It needn’t be this difficult!” But with this one, I feel like I really did empathize with Jasmine’s reluctance to see what was right in front of her (and then to sabotage it when it could no longer be ignored). I appreciated her character development a lot.

As is always the case, Hibbert’s writing is accessible and enjoyable, I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.

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