A review by the_bookatarien
Heads You Lose by Bea Paige

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 

 *As this is a duet, my review is for both books because they are each part of a whole*

Intimacy: In the first book there is only discussion, fantasy, and masturbation. In the second book there is also vaginal penetration and oral

Content Warnings: Morally gray characters, age gap (this is complicated, read on for further expansion), seedy underbelly, gangsters, graphic violence, murder, allusions to child abuse, refers to God as she

The Good: They were fast paced and engaging books. The build and burn between the characters was enjoyable. Author knows the difference between a clip and a magazine.

The Bad: There’s a scene in the second book where he talks about defiling a church. A Catholic church, of course. This isn’t the first book I’ve read recently with similar scenes, they’re super cringe. I don’t think you could get away with scenes about defiling any other religion this way. It’s super gross and completely unnecessary. Also in the second book, they have sex right after a pretty traumatic event. That’s a huge “ick” for me. The second book basically has a sex scene every other scene, maybe making up for the lack of it in the first, I’m not sure. But they become monotonous and I started skimming them to get to the actual storyline.

The Ugly: For the entire first book, she’s 17. Now, he’s billed as 22, and there’s technically no sexual contact. However, this is complicated by the fact that I don’t believe he was originally supposed to be 22. He’s owned a successful shop for years, tried and didn’t end up becoming a professional boxer, and managed to become second in command to a pretty notorious fight club owner, all by 22? Come on, now. I know, I know, it’s fiction. This is further backed by the fact that he also has a hard and fast rule where he doesn’t sleep with people under 20, which seems like a good rule to live by, for someone older. He talks like this has been his rule for years, but HE supposedly hasn’t even been over 20 for that long. I really get the feeling that the author intended the gap to be much more significant and then chickened out because they realized how creepy that is. It’s still creepy because he doesn’t read as 22 at all. 

Final Thoughts: They were well written, fast paced, and engaging. However, they weren’t so good that I immediately wanted to run out and read everything the author’s written, or even catch up on this series. I might revisit some of these books at a later date, but they weren’t good enough that I’m in any hurry to do so.