Scan barcode
iambookmad's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a fun read, especially while I wasn’t in a real reading mood. The characters are all pretty much horrible humans but it scratched the itch that gossip girl left. Will still continue the series though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
meaghanslibrary's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Aahh this is oh so very close to five stars, and maybe it could be a five stars series.
What brought down the rating for me was the descriptions of fancy clothes, like I get it’s Magnolia’s thing but I found it very distracting and it would take me out of the book.
I liked the dual POVs and learning about the characters through their past and present.
There are great lines in this book that are borderline too cheesy but I ate them up.
I highly recommend this book if Blair and Chuck were your favorite couple and characters in the Gossip Girl tv show. If you didn’t like Blair and Chuck you won’t like this book. This is top level toxicity that is entertaining to read about, but not good for the real world. Excited to read the rest in this series!
What brought down the rating for me was the descriptions of fancy clothes, like I get it’s Magnolia’s thing but I found it very distracting and it would take me out of the book.
I liked the dual POVs and learning about the characters through their past and present.
There are great lines in this book that are borderline too cheesy but I ate them up.
I highly recommend this book if Blair and Chuck were your favorite couple and characters in the Gossip Girl tv show. If you didn’t like Blair and Chuck you won’t like this book. This is top level toxicity that is entertaining to read about, but not good for the real world. Excited to read the rest in this series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
ljp817's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
This was entire book was so painful and my chest hurts????
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Abandonment
kcmg710's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book was like an awful reality TV show, like I hated pretty much every moment of it but COULD NOT, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, STOP READING. Pretty much everything about this book irked me so much, but I could not put it down which is the only reason it got nearly 3 * otherwise it would be a solid 1* or 2* at a push (which is pretty harsh for me).
I also found there were ALOT of typos but I don’t know if that was just my version on the kindle? And some of the sentences genuinely gave me a headache trying to read
eg. “He’s at uni. He never feels like my little brother, just feels like brother.” ———>> Like WATTTT, is that a typo or am I the problem. Is it meant to feel like some deeper sentence with meaning behind it? Because there were many similar to this and it felt like an 8 year old wrote it.
You could kinda tell the author wasn’t British there’s literally a guy called TOM ENGLAND (loved him though, the only one who had an ounce of sense). The characters used a lot of phrases that we wouldn’t actually use. It was abit cringe like watching an American do an awful impression of us
Another strange thing (not totally important but just kinda bugged me) was that there would be in-depth descriptions about each of the characters clothes (because it was a ‘quirk’ of Magnolias) but would always throw the lads in vans or converse? Like Hastings basically gave us the barcodes for each individual item of clothing and then topped off the outfit with a pair of vans or converse. If it was once or twice maybe but not EVERY SINGLE OUTFIT for the lads
I also found there were ALOT of typos but I don’t know if that was just my version on the kindle? And some of the sentences genuinely gave me a headache trying to read
eg. “He’s at uni. He never feels like my little brother, just feels like brother.” ———>> Like WATTTT, is that a typo or am I the problem. Is it meant to feel like some deeper sentence with meaning behind it? Because there were many similar to this and it felt like an 8 year old wrote it.
You could kinda tell the author wasn’t British there’s literally a guy called TOM ENGLAND (loved him though, the only one who had an ounce of sense). The characters used a lot of phrases that we wouldn’t actually use. It was abit cringe like watching an American do an awful impression of us
Another strange thing (not totally important but just kinda bugged me) was that there would be in-depth descriptions about each of the characters clothes (because it was a ‘quirk’ of Magnolias) but would always throw the lads in vans or converse? Like Hastings basically gave us the barcodes for each individual item of clothing and then topped off the outfit with a pair of vans or converse. If it was once or twice maybe but not EVERY SINGLE OUTFIT for the lads
Character wise, Bj pretty much won me over within the first few chapters, after that it was a VERY quick descent into the pits of hellll. I hatttttttteeeeeeeee him! Hes a liar, a hypocrite, just a general piece of shit and he constantly contradicted himself. “I’d do anything for that face” but would then proceed to do some of THE most HEINOUS things ever to the girl he’s supposed to love!? Make it make sense, like he has the audacity to play the victim like he doesn’t fuck Magnolia over every chance he gets as if it isn’t all his fault from the get go. “You sullied my name for a Chanel bag?” Like he didn’t sully his own name the instant he cheated!?
Magnolia was very meh to me, and really kinda annoyed me the way she kept going back to BJ but at the same time I kinda felt sorry for her because she put up with so much shit from the lads ( BJ, Chris and Jonah ). They were awful to her and she just accepted it most of the time and cracked on. Could never be me.
The only characters I liked were Tom England 👑, Henry and I guess Magnolias sister was okay too. I liked how Tom and Henry both had Magnolias back no matter what especially Henry. He was always ready to call his brother (Bj) out in defence of magnolia.
Overall, I’d say not a great book and everyone on booktok was saying it gets better in book 2 and onwards but it’s the risk of wasting more time on this ^^^^^ for the small chance it gets better. I’m still undecided whether I will actually carry on with the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Alcohol
Minor: Child death, Death, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
isla_gracereader13's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Read this if you want relationship drama mixed with a bit of mystery and then some kinda random poetical things about love. I love romance so the fact that this was mostly about a relationship I found it super fast paced. Not much plot and more about their character and how they navigate their lives. I also liked reading about the side characters and everyone is really rich which makes it even more entertaining. I also liked the friendship dynamics and it's dual POV in first person.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Eating disorder and Panic attacks/disorders
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Update: bumping this one up to 5 stars because I haven't stopped thinking about it and it's been a week. ALL I WANNA DO IS READ THE REST OF THE BOOKS AND NOTHING ELSE BUT I don't have money so I have to leave them on my wishlist for now rip
There are a lot of things to like about this romp of a book. The world of high society London complete with a cast of filthy rich 20 somethings and 30 somethings was engaging and compulsively readable. Jessa Hastings has a unique but digestable writing style that makes our main characters feel like they're writing confessionals directly to the audience, so in a way, it felt like my favorite parts of reality TV. I don't mean that in a bad way by any means, I just mean that I liked having a front row seat to all of the drama even though the drama toward the end made me feel exhausted. I do think that this book could've been cut in half and it would've been even better. Still, I annotated and tabbed the hell out of this. There were a lot of quotable moments and moments worth reading and re-reading.
On to Magnolia and BJ themselves - I know they shouldn't be together, you know they shouldn't be together, Jessa Hastings probably knows they shouldn't be together, and yet...you want them to be together. There is no logical reason for me to want them to be happy. Firstly, they both have major growing up to do, and secondly, neither of them are very good people. A bad person doesn't mean a bad character, though. I still enjoyed reading their antics and sometimes BJ, even at his worst, was able to squeeze my heart in just the right way, damn him, stupid goblin boy.
I have some slight issues here and there that I can't get into without spoilers, but I overall loved this one and can't wait to read the rest of them.
There are a lot of things to like about this romp of a book. The world of high society London complete with a cast of filthy rich 20 somethings and 30 somethings was engaging and compulsively readable. Jessa Hastings has a unique but digestable writing style that makes our main characters feel like they're writing confessionals directly to the audience, so in a way, it felt like my favorite parts of reality TV. I don't mean that in a bad way by any means, I just mean that I liked having a front row seat to all of the drama even though the drama toward the end made me feel exhausted. I do think that this book could've been cut in half and it would've been even better. Still, I annotated and tabbed the hell out of this. There were a lot of quotable moments and moments worth reading and re-reading.
On to Magnolia and BJ themselves - I know they shouldn't be together, you know they shouldn't be together, Jessa Hastings probably knows they shouldn't be together, and yet...you want them to be together. There is no logical reason for me to want them to be happy. Firstly, they both have major growing up to do, and secondly, neither of them are very good people. A bad person doesn't mean a bad character, though. I still enjoyed reading their antics and sometimes BJ, even at his worst, was able to squeeze my heart in just the right way, damn him, stupid goblin boy.
I have some slight issues here and there that I can't get into without spoilers, but I overall loved this one and can't wait to read the rest of them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Vomit, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, and Gun violence