Scan barcode
A review by wandering_seal
Run, Run Rabbit by C.M. Nascosta
5.0
I have been thinking a lot about how I wanted to rate and review this book. There were times reading this that I felt deeply uncomfortable. I had read the content warning so I knew not to assume a HEA, and I wasn't sure what one would look like for these guys. I was deeply worried about the pregnancy termination plot line (right now I'm on my mat leave, and have never been into pregnancy and children in romance stories). But I had seen a post from the author where she mentioned that this was her favourite of her books and it seemed so different to her other books that I wanted to know why.
I get the poor reviews for this book. This is not a healthy relationship, and the story doesn't end with everything sorted out. But unlike some of the reviewers I disagree with the idea that Greyson was an unredeemable asshole. It felt to me that they were trying to meet each other where they were at, and at times they clearly failed but there was never an absence of affection. He set the initial tone in their relationship, and Vanessa then made a decision to continue it the way they did. I didn't like they both were sleeping around considering they were hurting each other in doing so, but it's a story about a toxic relationship- I'm not meant to like what they are doing to each other. The complexity of their relationship, my discomfort and eventual happiness that they should be able to work it out is why this was a five star read for me.
I want to mention the termination of a pregnancy plot. Like I said at the top, I don't like to read about pregnancy in my romance. This can be a problem in shifter books where breeding kinks tend to come up a lot. These sorts of books also tend to have really dominant, aggressive males that you struggle to think would actually make good fathers, regardless of the way the stories are written out. That's borne out in this story, where the werewolf family dynamic is repeatedly shown as being problematic: Greyson's father is deeply manipulative towards his children, and the characters are involved in providing shelter to women and children escaping abusive relationships. In this context Vanessa having an abortion felt incredibly important. She's able to see that children are not currently right for her or for Greyson, she doesn't see why she should change her life course at that time, and she makes a decision that is hard and uncomfortable but that is at no point treated as a negative reflection on herself, or one that should have any bearing on her future choices. In a genre dominated by women falling pregnant and having babies seeing an alternative seems incredibly importany to me. I felt C.M. Nascosta handled it beautifully.
Right I probably have more I could say on this and yet this is also the longest review I've ever left on a smut read so I'm going to stop now and stew on this book a little longer. And then go and find some fluff. Still a good story though.
I get the poor reviews for this book. This is not a healthy relationship, and the story doesn't end with everything sorted out. But unlike some of the reviewers I disagree with the idea that Greyson was an unredeemable asshole. It felt to me that they were trying to meet each other where they were at, and at times they clearly failed but there was never an absence of affection. He set the initial tone in their relationship, and Vanessa then made a decision to continue it the way they did. I didn't like they both were sleeping around considering they were hurting each other in doing so, but it's a story about a toxic relationship- I'm not meant to like what they are doing to each other. The complexity of their relationship, my discomfort and eventual happiness that they should be able to work it out is why this was a five star read for me.
I want to mention the termination of a pregnancy plot. Like I said at the top, I don't like to read about pregnancy in my romance. This can be a problem in shifter books where breeding kinks tend to come up a lot. These sorts of books also tend to have really dominant, aggressive males that you struggle to think would actually make good fathers, regardless of the way the stories are written out. That's borne out in this story, where the werewolf family dynamic is repeatedly shown as being problematic: Greyson's father is deeply manipulative towards his children, and the characters are involved in providing shelter to women and children escaping abusive relationships. In this context Vanessa having an abortion felt incredibly important. She's able to see that children are not currently right for her or for Greyson, she doesn't see why she should change her life course at that time, and she makes a decision that is hard and uncomfortable but that is at no point treated as a negative reflection on herself, or one that should have any bearing on her future choices. In a genre dominated by women falling pregnant and having babies seeing an alternative seems incredibly importany to me. I felt C.M. Nascosta handled it beautifully.
Right I probably have more I could say on this and yet this is also the longest review I've ever left on a smut read so I'm going to stop now and stew on this book a little longer. And then go and find some fluff. Still a good story though.