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A review by nickoliver
Irresistible by Melanie Harlow
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
After the hellish train wreck that was "Vicious" by L.J. Shen, I was very hesitant to start another Kindle Unlimited romance book, especially one that I found through the same person who had also recommended me "Vicious". But I was still interested in this book, so I decided to risk it.
And at first, it looked like I worried for nothing. The first few chapters honestly felt like they were cleansing my soul - especially the fact that the blooming relationship between the two protagonists seemed to be sweet and not at all abusive. I also enjoyed the children in this book, who acted very childlike, and that authenticity really spoke to me. I started to have expectations. Unfortunately, they crashed and burned very soon.
As a matter of fact, things started to go downhill for me right around the time the protagonists first had sex. For some reason, the male protagonist Mack suddenly started to act completely differently, and not in a good way? He always seemed to act on his feelings, without taking into account the ways Frannie was feeling - especially in regards to sex. I felt like there was a definite issue with consent. Not only did he do things without even asking if she was okay with that - for example, he'd suddenly be rough with her during sex -, he also oftentimes had sex with her at the weirdest, most inappropriate times and ignored Frannie's concerns. Oh, Frannie was worried the kids would walk in on them? Or that the neighbours saw them? Who cared! Mack wanted sex now, so ignore the kids!
(Plus, Mack constantly mentioned they had to keep their relationship "a secret", but then he fucked Frannie in his office, where everyone could walk in, and also kissed her in the kitchen while the kids were home?? I don't think he knows what "keeping something a secret" actually entails.)
Speaking of the kids, Mack constantly complained about having to be a father and not having time to be himself, and it just felt really shitty? No one forced this man to have three children, yet he kept talking like his three girls were the biggest burden he ever had to bear. Towards the end of the book, he also started to behave really frighteningly, started yelling at the kids to the point where they had to have a family intervention and force him to finally talk to Frannie. Throughout the entire book, Mack kept calling himself an "asshole", and honestly, I couldn't agree more.
My last issue with Mack that I'd like to mention was the way he made his relationship with Frannie so complicated. Seriously, all the reasons why they couldn't be together came from him, and most of them didn't really make that much sense to me? The reason he mentioned most often was the fact that Frannie was younger. And yes, I do acknowledge that they were indeed at two different points in their lives - Frannie was twenty-seven and still lived at home, whereas Mack was thirty-seven, divorced, and had three children. But the way Mack - and everyone else too, btw - talked about Frannie's age and innocence made it seem like she was way younger. They blew it out of proportions so much so that you'd think she was still a teenager. They talked about Frannie like she had no agency, like she wasn't yet at an age where she could make reasonable, grown-up decisions. Like. SHE WAS TWENTY-SEVEN, NOT EIGHTEEN. It honestly got kind of creepy after a while.
Frannie as a protagonist didn't end up being a favourite of mine either. She just felt really underdeveloped to me? All she did was basically make Mack happy - she looked after his kids, constantly cooked for him (which he did appreciate and thank her for, but still), and then there was the way she acted in bed. You know, just because she was always conveniently into the things Mack did to her doesn't make it much more consensual. It was still very dubious to me. And because they had so much sex - honestly, after a while I just got tired of it -, she essentially just became the embodiment of Mack's wet dreams. Which would have been fine, if, again, Mack didn't always just assume she was into it without actually asking her.
There was a subplot about Frannie finally chasing her own dreams and stopping her mom from treating her like a child, which was great! But throughout most of the story, she still always felt more like a character there to please Mack than anything else.
Apart from the characters, there were two things I had problems with. First of all, there was one reason for why Mack and Frannie couldn't be together that actually made sense. It was that Frannie wanted to get married and have kids one day, whereas Mack knew he didn't want either of those things anymore. He had been married, he already had three children, he didn't wish for more. And he was reluctant to start anything with Frannie, because what if they got to the point where they had to break up because he couldn't give her what she wanted? And his children would be the ones left to suffer, because they had already been left by their mother. Mack didn't want them to have to be abandoned by a second mother figure. I could totally see why this could make a relationship hard and complicated! What was bad about that, however, was that the issue never truly got resolved? Mack and Frannie ended up together without ever actually talking about this anymore; instead, Harlow wrote an epilogue that basically just made the problems go away. By which I mean that Mack not only proposed to Frannie, but also told her he was okay with having another kid. It was so infuriating and just a cheap way of getting out of having to actually confront these problems.
Secondly, the whole story felt extremely ... gendered? I'm not entirely sure how to phrase it. The book just played very heavily into gender roles and like ... traditional gender norms? Like, the woman (Frannie, in this case) cooks! The man goes hunting and fishing as a hobby (Frannie's dad told Mack he could join him on his next trip if he wanted, like it never occurred to him that he could also take one of his daughters on the trip?)! Mack also made such a big fuss out of having to wear a glittery top for one particular occasion, like that's the worst thing he ever had to do? Dude, it's just a top. It doesn't make you "less of a man". I honestly felt sometimes like I was somehow stuck in the 1950s.
Overall, I was just pretty disappointed with this book. The male protagonist acted like an asshole most of the time, the female protagonist wasn't developed enough, and there was just too much sex that often felt not consensual enough. Also, most of the conflicts made no sense, and the one that did just got resolved without the characters actually having a discussion about it. I might pick up the sequels just because they're available on Kindle Unlimited, but if they're anything like this book, I won't enjoy them either.
And at first, it looked like I worried for nothing. The first few chapters honestly felt like they were cleansing my soul - especially the fact that the blooming relationship between the two protagonists seemed to be sweet and not at all abusive. I also enjoyed the children in this book, who acted very childlike, and that authenticity really spoke to me. I started to have expectations. Unfortunately, they crashed and burned very soon.
As a matter of fact, things started to go downhill for me right around the time the protagonists first had sex. For some reason, the male protagonist Mack suddenly started to act completely differently, and not in a good way? He always seemed to act on his feelings, without taking into account the ways Frannie was feeling - especially in regards to sex. I felt like there was a definite issue with consent. Not only did he do things without even asking if she was okay with that - for example, he'd suddenly be rough with her during sex -, he also oftentimes had sex with her at the weirdest, most inappropriate times and ignored Frannie's concerns. Oh, Frannie was worried the kids would walk in on them? Or that the neighbours saw them? Who cared! Mack wanted sex now, so ignore the kids!
(Plus, Mack constantly mentioned they had to keep their relationship "a secret", but then he fucked Frannie in his office, where everyone could walk in, and also kissed her in the kitchen while the kids were home?? I don't think he knows what "keeping something a secret" actually entails.)
Speaking of the kids, Mack constantly complained about having to be a father and not having time to be himself, and it just felt really shitty? No one forced this man to have three children, yet he kept talking like his three girls were the biggest burden he ever had to bear. Towards the end of the book, he also started to behave really frighteningly, started yelling at the kids to the point where they had to have a family intervention and force him to finally talk to Frannie. Throughout the entire book, Mack kept calling himself an "asshole", and honestly, I couldn't agree more.
My last issue with Mack that I'd like to mention was the way he made his relationship with Frannie so complicated. Seriously, all the reasons why they couldn't be together came from him, and most of them didn't really make that much sense to me? The reason he mentioned most often was the fact that Frannie was younger. And yes, I do acknowledge that they were indeed at two different points in their lives - Frannie was twenty-seven and still lived at home, whereas Mack was thirty-seven, divorced, and had three children. But the way Mack - and everyone else too, btw - talked about Frannie's age and innocence made it seem like she was way younger. They blew it out of proportions so much so that you'd think she was still a teenager. They talked about Frannie like she had no agency, like she wasn't yet at an age where she could make reasonable, grown-up decisions. Like. SHE WAS TWENTY-SEVEN, NOT EIGHTEEN. It honestly got kind of creepy after a while.
Frannie as a protagonist didn't end up being a favourite of mine either. She just felt really underdeveloped to me? All she did was basically make Mack happy - she looked after his kids, constantly cooked for him (which he did appreciate and thank her for, but still), and then there was the way she acted in bed. You know, just because she was always conveniently into the things Mack did to her doesn't make it much more consensual. It was still very dubious to me. And because they had so much sex - honestly, after a while I just got tired of it -, she essentially just became the embodiment of Mack's wet dreams. Which would have been fine, if, again, Mack didn't always just assume she was into it without actually asking her.
There was a subplot about Frannie finally chasing her own dreams and stopping her mom from treating her like a child, which was great! But throughout most of the story, she still always felt more like a character there to please Mack than anything else.
Apart from the characters, there were two things I had problems with. First of all, there was one reason for why Mack and Frannie couldn't be together that actually made sense. It was that Frannie wanted to get married and have kids one day, whereas Mack knew he didn't want either of those things anymore. He had been married, he already had three children, he didn't wish for more. And he was reluctant to start anything with Frannie, because what if they got to the point where they had to break up because he couldn't give her what she wanted? And his children would be the ones left to suffer, because they had already been left by their mother. Mack didn't want them to have to be abandoned by a second mother figure. I could totally see why this could make a relationship hard and complicated! What was bad about that, however, was that the issue never truly got resolved? Mack and Frannie ended up together without ever actually talking about this anymore; instead, Harlow wrote an epilogue that basically just made the problems go away.
Secondly, the whole story felt extremely ... gendered? I'm not entirely sure how to phrase it. The book just played very heavily into gender roles and like ... traditional gender norms? Like, the woman (Frannie, in this case) cooks! The man goes hunting and fishing as a hobby (Frannie's dad told Mack he could join him on his next trip if he wanted, like it never occurred to him that he could also take one of his daughters on the trip?)! Mack also made such a big fuss out of having to wear a glittery top for one particular occasion, like that's the worst thing he ever had to do? Dude, it's just a top. It doesn't make you "less of a man". I honestly felt sometimes like I was somehow stuck in the 1950s.
Overall, I was just pretty disappointed with this book. The male protagonist acted like an asshole most of the time, the female protagonist wasn't developed enough, and there was just too much sex that often felt not consensual enough. Also, most of the conflicts made no sense, and the one that did just got resolved without the characters actually having a discussion about it. I might pick up the sequels just because they're available on Kindle Unlimited, but if they're anything like this book, I won't enjoy them either.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content
CW for dubious consentt