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A review by rjordan19
Pulling at the Stars by Beth Marie Read
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (I feel like most of what you get to know from Nina is present events, but there is some background)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞
Sensuality: 💋💋 (Any scenes are super short and vague and lacking the emotional pull I want)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑 (some are even shorter)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 (There’s a handful of on page scenes but nothing really detailed)
Humor: A bit
Perspective: First person only from the heroine
More character focused or plot focused? a mix but probably more plot focused
Cliffhanger: I mean, kind of? I guess not? I guess I would say it’s a happy for now.
Epilogue: No, and it does feel like it ends abruptly
Format: bought paperback
Should I read in order?
This is a stand alone novel
Basic plot:
This story follows Nina and her life trying to become an actress in New York
Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary fiction (I usually review romance so want to note this is not a romance novel! It’s women’s fiction with romantic elements)
- aspiring actress heroine
- you’re okay with some content warnings including graphic on page rape as well as abuse, physical and mental
- a novel that gives you hope after living abuse
Ages:
- Nina is 21
First line:
I knocked.
My thoughts:
Oof I struggled with this novel. It’s all from Nina’s POV and can I just say that I really disliked her? I tried so hard to like her, but I just could not. From the way she repeatedly put herself in dangerous and unsafe situations, from the way she behaved and spoke to people…
We are only in Nina’s head, and what she does half the time just made no sense to me. This is a heavier book, with a lot of things Nina experiences and I found myself just not caring if she made it or not. I’m going to get into some specifics, so avoid for spoilers please.
I did want things wrapped up better at the end. I lot was left a bit uncertain. But I did overall like the ending...after everything that happened.
Specific things that didn’t work for me:
- We’re told Nina is usually safe with sex and uses condoms, but I wouldn’t say it was often. She is always worried about almost getting pregnant, or getting pregnant, having sex with strangers and then getting STD tested (there is some condom usage on page)
- Nina seems to just follow along with what everyone else tells her/wants her to do in life. Any time someone tries to get her to do what they want, she seems to give in, no matter if it puts her in danger or not. She doesn’t seem to have a sense of self or real goals for herself. Where did this anthropology desire come from? We still don’t even know she just randomly starts getting a degree in it at the end of the book when her character (at least to me) hasn’t shown an interest in that.
- Nina’s religion – like what is going on with that? Is she Jewish? Is she Christian? She seems to just float through life going wherever is convenient at the moment. She doesn’t seem to have a strong relationship with god, then goes to church, then is pretty severely abused through religion, then is going to church again, then is Jewish? At one point she is screaming, crying, railing into the rain against god and how can god do this to her, but a few sentences later with her current male friend seems to answer all of her religious angst that she just needs to listen closer to god.
- I was SO confused when Nina finally breaks from her severely abusive husband. Why did she have no one to call? Why didn’t she call her FATHER? Or even her old roommate? She was going to move to Hawaii randomly wtf….
- The fact that Nina repeatedly puts herself in danger is SO frustrating. She has a plan to get away from her abusive ex – who has literally threatened her life – but makes sure to encourage him by rewarding him repeatedly with communication, including sending him emails, pictures, giving him alone with with her purposefully when she never needed to let him into her apartment at all….So, so frustrating.
- I am not one to use TSTL heroine. But here it is.
- one of the villain-ish figures of the story is a gay man that rapes her....
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- pregnancy and birth on page
- scenes of graphic abuse on page including anal rape, religious abuse, mental and physical abuse
- plenty of religion and god focus
- scenes of employee abuse – Nina gets a job for massages and is encouraged to have sex with them (and does)
- scenes of cheating – Nina is cheated on my boyfriend at the time
- some minor scenes of smoking (tobacoo and weed)
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex: Sometimes? There is some condom usage but she has unsafe sex multiple times resulting in pregnancy and STD checks
I didn’t mark all the scenes, sorry. There are quite a few with various men but all quite short
Readability: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔 (I feel like most of what you get to know from Nina is present events, but there is some background)
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞
Sensuality: 💋💋 (Any scenes are super short and vague and lacking the emotional pull I want)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑 (some are even shorter)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 (There’s a handful of on page scenes but nothing really detailed)
Humor: A bit
Perspective: First person only from the heroine
More character focused or plot focused? a mix but probably more plot focused
Cliffhanger: I mean, kind of? I guess not? I guess I would say it’s a happy for now.
Epilogue: No, and it does feel like it ends abruptly
Format: bought paperback
Should I read in order?
This is a stand alone novel
Basic plot:
This story follows Nina and her life trying to become an actress in New York
Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary fiction (I usually review romance so want to note this is not a romance novel! It’s women’s fiction with romantic elements)
- aspiring actress heroine
- you’re okay with some content warnings including graphic on page rape as well as abuse, physical and mental
- a novel that gives you hope after living abuse
Ages:
- Nina is 21
First line:
I knocked.
My thoughts:
Oof I struggled with this novel. It’s all from Nina’s POV and can I just say that I really disliked her? I tried so hard to like her, but I just could not. From the way she repeatedly put herself in dangerous and unsafe situations, from the way she behaved and spoke to people…
We are only in Nina’s head, and what she does half the time just made no sense to me. This is a heavier book, with a lot of things Nina experiences and I found myself just not caring if she made it or not. I’m going to get into some specifics, so avoid for spoilers please.
I did want things wrapped up better at the end. I lot was left a bit uncertain. But I did overall like the ending...after everything that happened.
Specific things that didn’t work for me:
- We’re told Nina is usually safe with sex and uses condoms, but I wouldn’t say it was often. She is always worried about almost getting pregnant, or getting pregnant, having sex with strangers and then getting STD tested (there is some condom usage on page)
- Nina seems to just follow along with what everyone else tells her/wants her to do in life. Any time someone tries to get her to do what they want, she seems to give in, no matter if it puts her in danger or not. She doesn’t seem to have a sense of self or real goals for herself. Where did this anthropology desire come from? We still don’t even know she just randomly starts getting a degree in it at the end of the book when her character (at least to me) hasn’t shown an interest in that.
- Nina’s religion – like what is going on with that? Is she Jewish? Is she Christian? She seems to just float through life going wherever is convenient at the moment. She doesn’t seem to have a strong relationship with god, then goes to church, then is pretty severely abused through religion, then is going to church again, then is Jewish? At one point she is screaming, crying, railing into the rain against god and how can god do this to her, but a few sentences later with her current male friend seems to answer all of her religious angst that she just needs to listen closer to god.
- I was SO confused when Nina finally breaks from her severely abusive husband. Why did she have no one to call? Why didn’t she call her FATHER? Or even her old roommate? She was going to move to Hawaii randomly wtf….
- The fact that Nina repeatedly puts herself in danger is SO frustrating. She has a plan to get away from her abusive ex – who has literally threatened her life – but makes sure to encourage him by rewarding him repeatedly with communication, including sending him emails, pictures, giving him alone with with her purposefully when she never needed to let him into her apartment at all….So, so frustrating.
- I am not one to use TSTL heroine. But here it is.
- one of the villain-ish figures of the story is a gay man that rapes her....
Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.
- pregnancy and birth on page
- scenes of graphic abuse on page including anal rape, religious abuse, mental and physical abuse
- plenty of religion and god focus
- scenes of employee abuse – Nina gets a job for massages and is encouraged to have sex with them (and does)
- scenes of cheating – Nina is cheated on my boyfriend at the time
- some minor scenes of smoking (tobacoo and weed)
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex:
I didn’t mark all the scenes, sorry. There are quite a few with various men but all quite short