A review by alleskelle
Laces and Lace by Toni Aleo
1.0
⭐️ 1 STAR ⭐️
I really thought this book and I will connect. At least I had hopes we would.
I enjoyed the first books in this series and thought maybe it was time to reconnect with it. (I skipped the last couple releases)
The heroine is a breast cancer survivor,—like me— and I'm always curious to read about tough and empowered heroines in my romance books, so the least I can do is applaud the author for her choice to feature one and approaching the subject.
As a matter of fact, I grabbed this paperback at a book signing where I met the author. I was actually eager to get to it, but not too much, sometimes you just want space between you and cancer—even in a book.
If I learned one thing during my 3 times fighting cancer and meeting with other women chatting about our diverse experiences, is that fighting and surviving cancer is tough. Overcoming it is not easy, life takes a new meaning to you, your perception of what's important or not is forever altered. But life GOES ON and it doesn't have to be nasty and gloomy. Personally, I became more aware of my chances and try to enjoy the smallest things but man, I'm still as cynical and sarcastic as ever! lol
Yet in this book, I just couldn't get past the way the author portrayed some aspects of living through breast cancer treatments. Everything felt WRONG to me.
I'm very well aware that we all have our own personal hang-ups about disease and not everyone will live through it the same way. Yet, I just couldn't accept the heroine's attitude. She deserved the award of the most annoying heroine I've read this year—if not ever— and thought her portrayal was a disservice to any woman who lived through or still battling cancer. Personally I felt outraged and upset by her rather than sorry and compassionate for her. Whiney, sickly insecure, naive to the extreme, blind to her surroundings... Simple-minded doesn't even cover her personality.
Furthermore, the whole book basked in this Jerry Springer show vibe, with a psychotic dad intentionally hurting his daughter, a hero with a personality of a rescue dog and the heroine constent sullen and morose temper it's by pure obstinacy and a lot of skimming that I finished the book. The whole thing was too much and toxic to read.
Not even the romance between Karson and Lacey could save this story, but I'm giving Laces and Lace one star to Karson and his family for the cheer they brought to the book. Each appearance was like watching a cute puppy video on the internet on a sad rainy day.
More reviews and book talk at :
You can find me here too ☞
I really thought this book and I will connect. At least I had hopes we would.
I enjoyed the first books in this series and thought maybe it was time to reconnect with it. (I skipped the last couple releases)
The heroine is a breast cancer survivor,—like me— and I'm always curious to read about tough and empowered heroines in my romance books, so the least I can do is applaud the author for her choice to feature one and approaching the subject.
As a matter of fact, I grabbed this paperback at a book signing where I met the author. I was actually eager to get to it, but not too much, sometimes you just want space between you and cancer—even in a book.
If I learned one thing during my 3 times fighting cancer and meeting with other women chatting about our diverse experiences, is that fighting and surviving cancer is tough. Overcoming it is not easy, life takes a new meaning to you, your perception of what's important or not is forever altered. But life GOES ON and it doesn't have to be nasty and gloomy. Personally, I became more aware of my chances and try to enjoy the smallest things but man, I'm still as cynical and sarcastic as ever! lol
Yet in this book, I just couldn't get past the way the author portrayed some aspects of living through breast cancer treatments. Everything felt WRONG to me.
I'm very well aware that we all have our own personal hang-ups about disease and not everyone will live through it the same way. Yet, I just couldn't accept the heroine's attitude. She deserved the award of the most annoying heroine I've read this year—if not ever— and thought her portrayal was a disservice to any woman who lived through or still battling cancer. Personally I felt outraged and upset by her rather than sorry and compassionate for her. Whiney, sickly insecure, naive to the extreme, blind to her surroundings... Simple-minded doesn't even cover her personality.
Furthermore, the whole book basked in this Jerry Springer show vibe, with a psychotic dad intentionally hurting his daughter, a hero with a personality of a rescue dog and the heroine constent sullen and morose temper it's by pure obstinacy and a lot of skimming that I finished the book. The whole thing was too much and toxic to read.
Not even the romance between Karson and Lacey could save this story, but I'm giving Laces and Lace one star to Karson and his family for the cheer they brought to the book. Each appearance was like watching a cute puppy video on the internet on a sad rainy day.
More reviews and book talk at :
You can find me here too ☞