Reviews with content warning for Child death - Magnolia Parks

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I think I expected this to be more “modern romance” but it was more trashy-reality-tv-vibes. I like anyone love a good reality show, so that’s not an insult just wasn’t my cup of tea. The toxic back and forth got repetitive toward the end to the point of dulling some of the intensity of the awful things happening. I did like some of the characters and there were some really beautiful bits in Magnolia’s perspective where she is contemplating the realities of love. I don’t think I will read more of the series.

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meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

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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!

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emelisa_19's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

1.0

The mental health crisis of the 21st century is clearly diplayed in the amount of people that like this book and root for the main characters.

I am so happy they broke up in the end. In my mind, they will stay that way because I have no plan nor the desire to read the other two books.

The writting is beautiful. The timeline and flow of the story is messed up tho. One chapter they were resolute on never getting back together, then the next chapter they are made up again, swearing to the stars this is it. I had this feeling that I missed like 4 chapters, which made me think that what was happening was not happening at all. Absolutely hated that.

Absolutely hate BJ Ballentine, biggest asshole I've ever read about. Parks was kinda nice in the beginning, annoyed me to pieces by the end. They both need therapy. The white walls, straight-jacket kind.

That star I put in the review is for Tom England and BJ's mom only. They were the only thing that kept me pushing through.

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kcmg710's review against another edition

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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

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.

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raegandrust's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

wow…
this book was surprisingly really good. i actually quite enjoyed it. the pop culture references didn’t seem too forced and i really enjoyed the storyline, as it was very different from what i’ve ever read before. and that ending…was a fucking stab in the heart! but i think i’ll have to read the rest of the series before i keep a definitive rating for the book.

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