Reviews

Flinging It by G Benson

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anacereading's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

judeinthestars's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Fate can be unfair. When you keep bumping (literally) into the same person, it has to mean something, right? But what if that person is married to your boss? As they work together on a program to help at-risk parents, Frazer, chief of the midwifery department of a hospital in Perth, Australia, and Cora, head of the social work department, go from distant politeness to wild attraction. Cora is convinced she’s straight and only looking for a distraction from her failing marriage. Frazer is still hurting from a breakup with a former coworker and not looking for anything, especially not with another colleague. She’s content with being single and no one else waiting for her at home beside her fish. Best laid plans and all, feelings get involved.

I’d never read this book by one of my favourite authorsone of my favourite authors and I was looking for something to listen to on a road trip when I saw this audiobook on Scribd (want to try Scribd for free?). Perfect opportunity, except that the narration really doesn’t lend itself to a car trip. We moved on to Integrity (read my review
read my review), but once home, I went back to Flinging It. The narration works much better in a quiet environment. While it’s a bit linear, the pace is great and all the voices are perfect.

I love both MCs, the vulnerability of falling in love and finding yourself even when you’re not aware that’s what’s happening to you. The push and pull felt very real, as frustrating and heartrending as it was for the characters. Because of that, the characters aren’t always lovable, and I understand that this could make the book hard to read for some, but to me, since the romance is born from cheating, I took it for granted that the characters would be flawed and I was ready for it. I also liked that they’re both Australian from immigrant families (India for Frazer, South Korea for Cora, and her best friend Liza’s family comes from Vietnam).

Besides the MCs, there are also excellent secondary characters, my favourite being Frazer’s pushy younger sister Jemma. The siblings’ interactions are some of the best I’ve read. I liked all the friends as well. Benson has a knack for dialogue and there were some absolutely delightful scenes. The repeated accidental meetings felt a tad overdone but I didn’t really mind. And I really really liked Jack’s arc, the pregnant trans teen Cora and Frazer support through the program.

While this will not become my favourite Benson book, I enjoyed the angst, the humour, Cora’s discovery of her queerness and all the possibilities of a life that is not limited by psychological abuse, and the manner in which that author dealt with infidelity and the guilt it entails. It takes a very skilled author to touch on such a delicate theme and give us characters who feel both genuine and endearing.

Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars

lilliee's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

raven9949's review against another edition

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emotional informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Its all good that Cora made some progress into her life, between identifying her sexuality and realizing her husband is a complete cad and an emotionally abusive pos.... but it took WAY too long in the book for it to happen. Its also exceedingly frustrating that its not REALLY addressed about how she herself had been a user. As for the main relationship... the heat and passion wasn't really there for me and the whole cheating thing is hard to swallow. Just an 'eh' feeling overall.

iwanttoreadandgetpaid's review against another edition

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3.0

Technically, a great book...Subject matter, frustrating...

manushe's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted slow-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? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

amcheri's review

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4.0

I'm still processing my thoughts on this one and will write a much more complete review on my site but I think I'd give it 3.5 stars. I'm rounding up because there was a lot I liked about this book. It's not a standard romance novel and it deals with some moral issues that will likely turn some folks off before they get more than halfway through. I didn't have a problem with most of what happened in the story line and think this is probably a lot more realistic than most romance novels - which I really like. The other thing that pleased me was that the two main characters are women of color and an important secondary character is a trans man. There are some serious issues discussed and portrayed and I appreciate an author who not only addresses them but does it well.

I don't want to give any spoilers away so one of the only not-so-positive things I can go into is that I felt like the resolution happened too quickly and too easily. Even with that, I think it's a solid story and the author's voice and style appeal to me. I loved her first book, liked this one quite a bit, and I'll definitely read her next, no matter what it's about.

qraveline's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

rickosborne's review against another edition

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

3.5

I can tell it's not my jam when I enjoy the b-plot more than the MCs' relationship. Which is unfortunate, as I enjoy G Benson's writing style, I just couldn't get into the story on this one. Oh well — I'd still continue to read more of the author's works.

Rep: pregnant trans M side character

Sex:

Spoiler

several R-rated scenes

Tags: #AnxiousFearfulPair #Awakening #Cheating #ClosetedVsOut #DualPOV #HiddenRelationship #NuisanceEx #Pregnancy #ThirdPersonPOV #WorkplaceEthics

Content Warnings

patricia71's review against another edition

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2.0

This was not my book. I only cared about the MC’s and there time together. Jack was probably a nice kid, but I wasn’t interested in his drama. So I skipped a lot of this book. There were a lot of pages filled with not interesting info that I skipped. And even Jemma got on my nerves. And the end before the epilogue felt rushed. So nope. Not my book, ergo the 2 stars.

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