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A review by agrippinaes
The Protector by Morgan Elizabeth
1.0
I just wasn’t sold on this novel. I wanted to like it; I’m a bit of a sucker for stories with this sort of plot and the dynamic between Luna and Tony was, for the most part, entertaining to me. There were things in this book I found refreshing; I liked that her brother was not massively bothered by the relationship very early on, as an example.
However, I found a lot of this book quite annoying. Tony was a really frustrating character. He’s massively overbearing, he victim blames, I hated the general idea that he (and her brother and father) knew better because they were men. This might not have been how the author intended this to come across, but it’s how it did. Quite frankly, Tony’s attitude stank for most of the book. Luna didn’t get space to breathe and this was treated like a positive, as if it was for her own benefit; and naturally, Unfortunately, Luna wasn’t very likable to me either. I hate to use this term, but she came across like a doormat, especially considering a lot of the book is spent focusing on how much she isn’t a doormat.
Also, the way the book handled their age gap was…not good. Like, the gap itself isn’t huge – it’s 4 years and, at the ages the characters are in the book (Luna is 28 and Tony is 32) there’s obviously no issue here. However, I didn’t find the flashbacks where Tony candidly discusses how he only had a few more weeks to wait before she turned 18 appropriate – for me this is predatory language and just felt very weird to include it and, more than that, emphasise this as a really romantic gesture on his part. Like we should see it as romantic he was willing to wait till she was past the legal age of consent before he made any moves?
It just wasn’t great, unfortunately. The writing itself is quite solid but I found a lot of the content iffy and the main plot involving a stalker felt very cartoonish. I can imagine this book being quite popular but it fell very flat for me and, whilst I’ve read and enjoyed books by this author before, I found this off-putting.
Content Notes: Brother’s best friend / best friend’s sister, mutual pining, forced proximity.
Warnings:
Other:.
However, I found a lot of this book quite annoying. Tony was a really frustrating character. He’s massively overbearing, he victim blames, I hated the general idea that he (and her brother and father) knew better because they were men. This might not have been how the author intended this to come across, but it’s how it did. Quite frankly, Tony’s attitude stank for most of the book. Luna didn’t get space to breathe and this was treated like a positive, as if it was for her own benefit; and naturally,
Spoiler
every time he does give her some space, she nearly dies or gets assaulted. Again – its this idea that he knew best, all the time, and that Luna was just some daft woman who didn’t know how to look after herself.Also, the way the book handled their age gap was…not good. Like, the gap itself isn’t huge – it’s 4 years and, at the ages the characters are in the book (Luna is 28 and Tony is 32) there’s obviously no issue here. However, I didn’t find the flashbacks where Tony candidly discusses how he only had a few more weeks to wait before she turned 18 appropriate – for me this is predatory language and just felt very weird to include it and, more than that, emphasise this as a really romantic gesture on his part. Like we should see it as romantic he was willing to wait till she was past the legal age of consent before he made any moves?
It just wasn’t great, unfortunately. The writing itself is quite solid but I found a lot of the content iffy and the main plot involving a stalker felt very cartoonish. I can imagine this book being quite popular but it fell very flat for me and, whilst I’ve read and enjoyed books by this author before, I found this off-putting.
Content Notes: Brother’s best friend / best friend’s sister, mutual pining, forced proximity.
Warnings:
Spoiler
Stalking, harassment, vandalism, burglary / trespassing as part of harassment, attempted date rape (in past), drink spiking, kidnap, violence, misogynistic language, threat of rape, victim blaming.Other: