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A review by smartie_chan
Soft on Soft by Mina Waheed
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-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? N/A
2.5
2.5 / 5 Stars
So, I'm gonna go give you some context for this review, because I can and because no one can stop me.
I learned about the excistence of this book about maybe a year ago, but it was out of stock and you couldn't buy it anywhere, which saddend me a great deal, because it featured something I was looking for for a long long time: fat ace rep
Why did I want fat ace rep so badly? Well, because I too am a fat asexual. And the books that featured fat ace rep that I had already read prior to this were all rather medicore (with some exceptions). Which was why I put all of my hope into this one. It sounded perfect, featuring everyting I could have hoped for and then, one fateful day, I saw that it was back in stock, so I bought it, opened the very first page and began reading.
And that's the story of how I hyped myself up for this book so much, I wanted and needed this book to fullfill all of my dreams only for me to realise that it was not what I had hoped it would be.
So first things first, I loved everything this book wanted to be. Every character we meet is queer. As in, if the author bothered to give you their name, you can bet your ass that they are - in some way, shape or form - LGBT+. But not only that, we get a lot of other rep too. An army of People of Colour and an army of good mental health rep. This might be one of the most inclusive books I've ever read. I think, we're missing aro's though, which was kind of a shame. Would have been nice.
What this book also had going for itself, was the healthy communication, the sweetness, the talk and respect of boundaries and the embodyment of consent is sexy.
Extra Kudos to the author for giving a content warning AND for putting the Sex scene as a bonus AFTER the actual story, so that people who don't feel comfortable with stuff like that can decide wheather or not they want to read it or not. You could tell that the author put a lot of love and care into crafting this story. They really did. And I appreciate them for it.
The ace rep in question was also nice, it's not the focus, but when it does come up, it's handled with a lot of care. I was smiling at the scene, where they talked about how they are both kind of sex-neutral.
So, why the 3 stars you might ask. Well, many reasons. But mostly, the first chapter, that set the tone for what was to come. It was very telling, very informing and not very showing. Because you see, we jump kind of right in the middle of this love story. They have apparenlty been crushing for each other for 6 months now, but they never interacted with each other besides that and they weren't really friends either, more work-collegues. I also wasn't on board with how intense one of them was stalking the other on insta. The book played it of as "I've been your fan since you started out", but I don't know, I didn't like the vibes.
It felt very insta-love-y, even though it's not if you know the context, but it's comming of that way. We're getting pages upon pages of cheesy, sugar-coated inner dialoge romantic crushing and it's not helping either.
The story starts in the middle of things, and feels like I should already know all this build up - which we skipped by the way - and should be rooting for this couple - which I'm not - because the book says so. We also end kind of in the middle of things. There was no real plot, besides you watching those two gals flirting and being cute and wholesome with each other.
I couldn't connect with the girls and I couldn't connect with the love story and the side characters were nice, but not really important to the story as a whole either.
Which leaves this book as a book that wants a lot, but doesn't really achieve much.
I've promised myself a long time ago, that I would not rate books higher just because I loved the rep and the message behind it. And that's why, even though it's such an important book, even though it had so much good stuff to offer, I can't bring myself to rate it higher than this.
I'm sorry.
If you're looking for fluff upon fluff mixed with fluff, than you might have a good time. I, sadly, didn't really. :(
So, I'm gonna go give you some context for this review, because I can and because no one can stop me.
I learned about the excistence of this book about maybe a year ago, but it was out of stock and you couldn't buy it anywhere, which saddend me a great deal, because it featured something I was looking for for a long long time: fat ace rep
Why did I want fat ace rep so badly? Well, because I too am a fat asexual. And the books that featured fat ace rep that I had already read prior to this were all rather medicore (with some exceptions). Which was why I put all of my hope into this one. It sounded perfect, featuring everyting I could have hoped for and then, one fateful day, I saw that it was back in stock, so I bought it, opened the very first page and began reading.
And that's the story of how I hyped myself up for this book so much, I wanted and needed this book to fullfill all of my dreams only for me to realise that it was not what I had hoped it would be.
So first things first, I loved everything this book wanted to be. Every character we meet is queer. As in, if the author bothered to give you their name, you can bet your ass that they are - in some way, shape or form - LGBT+. But not only that, we get a lot of other rep too. An army of People of Colour and an army of good mental health rep. This might be one of the most inclusive books I've ever read. I think, we're missing aro's though, which was kind of a shame. Would have been nice.
What this book also had going for itself, was the healthy communication, the sweetness, the talk and respect of boundaries and the embodyment of consent is sexy.
Extra Kudos to the author for giving a content warning AND for putting the Sex scene as a bonus AFTER the actual story, so that people who don't feel comfortable with stuff like that can decide wheather or not they want to read it or not. You could tell that the author put a lot of love and care into crafting this story. They really did. And I appreciate them for it.
The ace rep in question was also nice, it's not the focus, but when it does come up, it's handled with a lot of care. I was smiling at the scene, where they talked about how they are both kind of sex-neutral.
So, why the 3 stars you might ask. Well, many reasons. But mostly, the first chapter, that set the tone for what was to come. It was very telling, very informing and not very showing. Because you see, we jump kind of right in the middle of this love story. They have apparenlty been crushing for each other for 6 months now, but they never interacted with each other besides that and they weren't really friends either, more work-collegues. I also wasn't on board with how intense one of them was stalking the other on insta. The book played it of as "I've been your fan since you started out", but I don't know, I didn't like the vibes.
It felt very insta-love-y, even though it's not if you know the context, but it's comming of that way. We're getting pages upon pages of cheesy, sugar-coated inner dialoge romantic crushing and it's not helping either.
The story starts in the middle of things, and feels like I should already know all this build up - which we skipped by the way - and should be rooting for this couple - which I'm not - because the book says so. We also end kind of in the middle of things. There was no real plot, besides you watching those two gals flirting and being cute and wholesome with each other.
I couldn't connect with the girls and I couldn't connect with the love story and the side characters were nice, but not really important to the story as a whole either.
Which leaves this book as a book that wants a lot, but doesn't really achieve much.
I've promised myself a long time ago, that I would not rate books higher just because I loved the rep and the message behind it. And that's why, even though it's such an important book, even though it had so much good stuff to offer, I can't bring myself to rate it higher than this.
I'm sorry.
If you're looking for fluff upon fluff mixed with fluff, than you might have a good time. I, sadly, didn't really. :(
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Death of parent