kristingilbert's review
medium-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
3.0
claire_anne2's review
lighthearted
relaxing
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? Yes
3.0
livcarson's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
rcoffey22's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
4.5
what_rachel_reads's review
3.0
Out of the series, I would rank that last but only because of the story and the fact that so many of the steamy scenes essentially ended in a fade to black or it would jump to the morning after or even just right to the canoodling afterwards.
They both were great at communicating with each other and his jealousy over her going on a few dates with another guy was fun but he hid his backstory from her and they both didn’t know what they truly wanted from each other until they lost each other after their fight.
They both were great at communicating with each other and his jealousy over her going on a few dates with another guy was fun but he hid his backstory from her and they both didn’t know what they truly wanted from each other until they lost each other after their fight.
cammie13's review
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
mzdeb's review against another edition
4.0
I received a digital ARC from NetGalley.
I love this series overall, but I'll still consider this book 3.5 stars (after other reviews quantified my thoughts), rounded up to 4.
First, there was so little reference to Eliza's heritage, other than a potential date rapist--at the 15% mark, let's just get that out there now as a CW--referring her to as a "sexy Latina." I'm not looking for a stereotype of the huge Latin family that goes with said heritage, noisy, meddling and into food--but there's got to be something other than looks, otherwise there was no need to mention it.
As for Beck, let's just say that a strict family upbringing like the one he had may be good for setting up his whole analog life philosophy opposite Eliza's tech addiction, but beyond that it has to mess you up more than what we saw here--or rather, are allowed to see here. Perhaps Beck did overcome a lot of it--although I still don't think it would be enough to feel comfortable with a "friends-with-benefits" lifestyle, but that's just me--but we're told his whole hidden history late in the game as an afterthought, thereby making his angry outburst at Eliza over something that really could divide them (the contrivance more than three-quarters into the book) look so hypocritical on his part. It was a needle scratch on the record that was hard to come back from fully.
Still, the story was engaging enough to hold my attention, and I love Loren's talent for tackling troubling topics as part of a romantic story. And I liked the epilogue that brought closure to this series.
I love this series overall, but I'll still consider this book 3.5 stars (after other reviews quantified my thoughts), rounded up to 4.
First, there was so little reference to Eliza's heritage, other than a potential date rapist--at the 15% mark, let's just get that out there now as a CW--referring her to as a "sexy Latina." I'm not looking for a stereotype of the huge Latin family that goes with said heritage, noisy, meddling and into food--but there's got to be something other than looks, otherwise there was no need to mention it.
As for Beck, let's just say that a strict family upbringing like the one he had
Spoiler
Duggar-style religious family, also part of a reality television showStill, the story was engaging enough to hold my attention, and I love Loren's talent for tackling troubling topics as part of a romantic story. And I liked the epilogue that brought closure to this series.
ebony27's review
3.0
**Quick Ratings:**
Writing: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Chemistry: 3/5
Ending: 3/5
Would I reread this? No - it was fine, but the story or characters haven’t stayed with me.
Would I recommend this to someone? Hmm, maybe, if I thought they would enjoy it, but I probably wouldn’t rave about it to others.
**Review:**
I started off quite strong with this one, I liked the main character and enjoyed the writing style, but I think after their interactions I just wasn’t feeling it. I feel like this is on me though, I don’t really like reading blurbs of books so I don’t get the wrong impression and I saw it was described as a women struggling to find her place in the world and I just jumped on that without seeing the rest! So, was expecting/hoping for more self-growth and less friends with benefits I guess haha.
The characters were okay…but I didn’t really enjoy their chemistry, I think it was a bit of a forced grumpy/sunshine trope (if the author/characters use those words to describe each other it’s too on the nose for me) and it almost felt a bit too insta-lovey for me, and this was only 10% in. This was emphasised by the characters both being very focused on physical attraction and imagining each other naked at pretty much their first interaction, which I wasn’t a fan off. I really struggled to believe the characters had any emotional connection to each other - especially at the NoPho party where Beckham admitted he didn’t want to kiss Eliza in front of everyone because he wants to sleep with her and wouldn’t be able to stop himself…gross.
I thought I would go into a few reasons why I didn’t really like Beckham:
- He almost immediately and pretty much unprompted offered to be Eliza’s friends with benefits even though she said it is something she doesn’t want (and also assumes she would accept it from him?)
- He seemed to constantly be at work super late and *happened* to see her return from dates
- He kept saying all these things to Eliza and assuming she wants him - and I don’t get how that made him any different from Ryan really.
- When he said “I am human and male” as if that was his excuse for constantly being aroused and crossing the line when Eliza wants to be friends and all he sees is her body and that he wants to sleep with her. Like please, he got hard when she was reading a book??
- Felt like he kept pushing boundaries, like when Eliza said she didn’t want to do FWB anymore he insisted on coming over…like, take a hint.
- Wasn’t a fan on how he made Eliza feel bad about not asking about his past (when he is very clearly a private person and probably wouldn’t have told her anyway) when he had never asked about her past either???
And I guess Eliza too:
- It really frustrated me that she just immediately shut down all her social media after the incident with Ryan - I feel like she should have made a response video telling her story, this could have been really helpful for other people who have been in a similar situation and would have given her an opportunity to defend herself.
- Plus, she mentioned how she was hoping to get sponsorships and help her business, etc - shutting this all down (I assume) would have a major impact on that!!
- Her ‘goal’ was go spend 6 months dating and meeting people offline, but we saw her go to 1 event (meet someone but make out with someone else) and then make no other efforts to meet anyone or go on any other dates.
- I felt like her confession about giving up her dreams of being married and all that was very out of the blue and somehow blamed it on social media……eh.
- I don’t think she needed to write a book - but it was clear it was meant to be the main conflict because she could have just written down her feelings in like a journal - I think I would have felt more genuine if that was the case.
-
The story itself didn’t compel me too much - the idea of going 6 months without social media, I guess is an interesting concept - but trying to write a book about it - I totally agree with Beckham’s original comment that it felt performative and was glad he said it. I feel like her ‘journey’ with this wasn’t actually explored much. Similarly, trying to date not online…is not an uncommon thing? Especially if she is 30, she would have been in her early 20’s before Tinder was a thing so (I assume) she would have had some experience in dating in the ‘real world’.
I felt as though we didn’t get much background on Eliza at all - why hadn’t she met someone, had their been a lot of hurt in the past? When Beckham brought up her past and saying she was scared and judging guys when we had no evidence of that, so that comment seemed out of the blue.
The timeline wasn’t very clear in this book - Christmas, New Years and Valentine’s Day are mentioned - plus the 6 month goal, but I never really knew how much time had passed. I felt like if they had separated it into periods of each month during her detox it would have been easier to follow.
Overall, this book was well written and had some good concepts and nice scenes, but I unfortunately I wasn’t really sold on the characters and their relationship.
Writing: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Chemistry: 3/5
Ending: 3/5
Would I reread this? No - it was fine, but the story or characters haven’t stayed with me.
Would I recommend this to someone? Hmm, maybe, if I thought they would enjoy it, but I probably wouldn’t rave about it to others.
**Review:**
I started off quite strong with this one, I liked the main character and enjoyed the writing style, but I think after their interactions I just wasn’t feeling it. I feel like this is on me though, I don’t really like reading blurbs of books so I don’t get the wrong impression and I saw it was described as a women struggling to find her place in the world and I just jumped on that without seeing the rest! So, was expecting/hoping for more self-growth and less friends with benefits I guess haha.
The characters were okay…but I didn’t really enjoy their chemistry, I think it was a bit of a forced grumpy/sunshine trope (if the author/characters use those words to describe each other it’s too on the nose for me) and it almost felt a bit too insta-lovey for me, and this was only 10% in. This was emphasised by the characters both being very focused on physical attraction and imagining each other naked at pretty much their first interaction, which I wasn’t a fan off. I really struggled to believe the characters had any emotional connection to each other - especially at the NoPho party where Beckham admitted he didn’t want to kiss Eliza in front of everyone because he wants to sleep with her and wouldn’t be able to stop himself…gross.
I thought I would go into a few reasons why I didn’t really like Beckham:
- He almost immediately and pretty much unprompted offered to be Eliza’s friends with benefits even though she said it is something she doesn’t want (and also assumes she would accept it from him?)
- He seemed to constantly be at work super late and *happened* to see her return from dates
- He kept saying all these things to Eliza and assuming she wants him - and I don’t get how that made him any different from Ryan really.
- When he said “I am human and male” as if that was his excuse for constantly being aroused and crossing the line when Eliza wants to be friends and all he sees is her body and that he wants to sleep with her. Like please, he got hard when she was reading a book??
- Felt like he kept pushing boundaries, like when Eliza said she didn’t want to do FWB anymore he insisted on coming over…like, take a hint.
- Wasn’t a fan on how he made Eliza feel bad about not asking about his past (when he is very clearly a private person and probably wouldn’t have told her anyway) when he had never asked about her past either???
And I guess Eliza too:
- It really frustrated me that she just immediately shut down all her social media after the incident with Ryan - I feel like she should have made a response video telling her story, this could have been really helpful for other people who have been in a similar situation and would have given her an opportunity to defend herself.
- Plus, she mentioned how she was hoping to get sponsorships and help her business, etc - shutting this all down (I assume) would have a major impact on that!!
- Her ‘goal’ was go spend 6 months dating and meeting people offline, but we saw her go to 1 event (meet someone but make out with someone else) and then make no other efforts to meet anyone or go on any other dates.
- I felt like her confession about giving up her dreams of being married and all that was very out of the blue and somehow blamed it on social media……eh.
- I don’t think she needed to write a book - but it was clear it was meant to be the main conflict because she could have just written down her feelings in like a journal - I think I would have felt more genuine if that was the case.
-
The story itself didn’t compel me too much - the idea of going 6 months without social media, I guess is an interesting concept - but trying to write a book about it - I totally agree with Beckham’s original comment that it felt performative and was glad he said it. I feel like her ‘journey’ with this wasn’t actually explored much. Similarly, trying to date not online…is not an uncommon thing? Especially if she is 30, she would have been in her early 20’s before Tinder was a thing so (I assume) she would have had some experience in dating in the ‘real world’.
I felt as though we didn’t get much background on Eliza at all - why hadn’t she met someone, had their been a lot of hurt in the past? When Beckham brought up her past and saying she was scared and judging guys when we had no evidence of that, so that comment seemed out of the blue.
The timeline wasn’t very clear in this book - Christmas, New Years and Valentine’s Day are mentioned - plus the 6 month goal, but I never really knew how much time had passed. I felt like if they had separated it into periods of each month during her detox it would have been easier to follow.
Overall, this book was well written and had some good concepts and nice scenes, but I unfortunately I wasn’t really sold on the characters and their relationship.
puffdiggitydog's review
4.0
4.5 ⭐️ Roni Loren, your masters in social work and years as a mental health counselor are showing. Did the protagonist need some real counseling as a counselor? Yes, sure. As she points out in the book.. she doesn't get to "be human" in the public eye. I know a few counselors who are freaking incredible people and at their jobs. They are also deeply flawed and real. Reviewers are really hard on Eliza, and I know she is a character, but I want to cheer her on and protect her