laniebear's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Okay totally cried but I’m an emotional mess but I loved this book so much!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Grief
joey_paige's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
angeliq_star's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- 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
If you liked this book then just skip reading this review? So like you don’t get offended or mad
I’ll be 100% honest this book by no means is great or good even, but I found it somewhat enjoyable???? purely guilty pleasure and it was a fast and trashy read. The beginning started off good which was the enjoyable part I guess but then it just started going down hill and it got unnecessarily dramatic. Me enjoying this book is largely due to the fact I was buddy reading it with a friend, I had a blast poking fun at the characters because I found them all to be ridiculous and unreal to a certain extent. Like literally with every page I flipped, the plot the characters made sense and for example Travis just got ridiculously worse (his behavior is not okay at all and honestly he should have just ended up in jail- not that he would even be smart enough to get away or even survive but anyway I’m getting ahead of myself)
I originally rated it 3.5 stars (on goodreads) when I finished reading but once again it was because of the jokes me and my friend made that made me give it that high of a rating. Now after a couple of years I notice that it was a mistake on my behalf and should waited a bit before rating it. When I think back about this book, right now rate it one star. (idk why it took me long to review it).
The writing was fine honestly buuut everything else was a complete miss. it’s actually awful. Nothing about this book is healthy or good, it isn’t romance it’s purely just toxic relationships and none of the characters are even memorable nor lovable. There is a lot of scenes where it just gets so disturbing, Travis is just an obsessive psychopath that gets worse by the page, his behavior was so awful, one scene comes to mind when he couldn’t find Abby after they slept together and completely destroys the apparent. Absolutely not an okay behavior nor romantic. As for Abby- I don’t even remember much of her personality other than being an idiot. And then getting married in Vegas at 19, hell no. Not to mention it was full of cliché.
The book did keep me interested (and my friend helped me to keep reading), however I do not recommend it to anyone and if you’re reading reviews whether to read it or not. I say don’t bother.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
ofmeganreads's review against another edition
I just couldn’t. I read mixed reviews and as I continued to read, it just felt weird. I started this book because of the movie that’s coming out. I’ll wait for the movie to see how it is. But the obsession Travis begins to have is borderline creepy and scary. I don’t know if it gets better or if he learns, but still weird.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence
crankyblue's review
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Blood and Emotional abuse
lacowie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Yikes????
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse
mythousandpages's review
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Emotional abuse
elizabeth_delozier's review
emotional
medium-paced
- 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
2.5 stars, which feels generous.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault
psyched_np's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
mia_koda's review
fast-paced
- 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
This is the most toxic relationship I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Confinement