2 Stars
My face when I saw the rating for this one . . . . .
Oh I was so looking forward to it. Sadly . . . . . .
Coincidentally, Chloe herself was a bit of a Debbie Downer. Not to mention . . . .
I love when what should theoretically be simple romcoms tackle larger issues as the case was here with the leading lady suffering from chronic pain due to fibromyalgia and the leading male dealing with . . . something else that I’m not going to spoil since it’s not in the blurb. However, authors need to assume their readers aren’t dolts. I felt like I was beaten over the head with reminders about Chloe’s illness to the point where she became nearly intolerable to me – not to mention the fact that her personality was just pretty much intolerable. (And trust that I can get on board with a character who isn’t Mary Sunshine because I loved The Cactus and everyone else hated that poor broad.) So much time was spent in Chloe’s head with her talking about herself that some important issues failed to get explained. Like, maybe her fiancé was a douchecanoe who couldn’t handle marrying someone with a forever type of illness, but seriously ALL of her friends were assholes too? And her family????? (Who, by the way, were ALWAYS there for her whenever she needed them and sat on a wad of dough so she never had to worry about finances either.) It seemed to me like it was Chloe herself who turned into a hermit/thought of her diagnosis as a death sentence because no evidence was given to the contrary. Sadly her redemption arc didn’t come until the 70% mark so by then it was too little too late for me to decide I liked her after all.
Obviously the rating was already going to take a hit due to this personality conflict. But I did (and still do) love the premise that Chloe needed to take her life back. And I loved that she was a curvy. And I always love some diversity. And I loved Smudge the cat. I didn’t love Red but I didn’t hate him either so that wasn’t the worst. And I was prepared for there to be a bit of steam because I is smort and you can only fool me once with that a cartoon cover means PG sexytimes (looking at you The Kiss Quotient). Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I was not prepared for this snooty upperclass leading lady to refer to her own bits as the “P Word” incessantly (like when she wasn’t actively engaged in intercourse or foreplay) . . . . .
If you know me, you know I’m not a prude, but I only tolerate that shit in a porno featuring motorcycle gang members or dudes who shift into things like wolves and bears in their spare time. And then when they had their first sexual encounter ON THE GODDAMN SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF A FUCKING PUBLIC STATUE??????
(Fez at the end there is everyone else who read this book and is not named Kelly or Mitchell.)
If my poor husband had the idea that he was going to be getting some action after this one, he was sadly mistaken . . . .
The bright side is I think this might have just been a fluke miss for me. I’ll definitely give this author another go.
Oh I was so looking forward to it. Sadly . . . . . .
Coincidentally, Chloe herself was a bit of a Debbie Downer. Not to mention . . . .
I love when what should theoretically be simple romcoms tackle larger issues as the case was here with the leading lady suffering from chronic pain due to fibromyalgia and the leading male dealing with . . . something else that I’m not going to spoil since it’s not in the blurb. However, authors need to assume their readers aren’t dolts. I felt like I was beaten over the head with reminders about Chloe’s illness to the point where she became nearly intolerable to me – not to mention the fact that her personality was just pretty much intolerable. (And trust that I can get on board with a character who isn’t Mary Sunshine because I loved The Cactus and everyone else hated that poor broad.) So much time was spent in Chloe’s head with her talking about herself that some important issues failed to get explained. Like, maybe her fiancé was a douchecanoe who couldn’t handle marrying someone with a forever type of illness, but seriously ALL of her friends were assholes too? And her family????? (Who, by the way, were ALWAYS there for her whenever she needed them and sat on a wad of dough so she never had to worry about finances either.) It seemed to me like it was Chloe herself who turned into a hermit/thought of her diagnosis as a death sentence because no evidence was given to the contrary. Sadly her redemption arc didn’t come until the 70% mark so by then it was too little too late for me to decide I liked her after all.
Obviously the rating was already going to take a hit due to this personality conflict. But I did (and still do) love the premise that Chloe needed to take her life back. And I loved that she was a curvy. And I always love some diversity. And I loved Smudge the cat. I didn’t love Red but I didn’t hate him either so that wasn’t the worst. And I was prepared for there to be a bit of steam because I is smort and you can only fool me once with that a cartoon cover means PG sexytimes (looking at you The Kiss Quotient). Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, I was not prepared for this snooty upperclass leading lady to refer to her own bits as the “P Word” incessantly (like when she wasn’t actively engaged in intercourse or foreplay) . . . . .
If you know me, you know I’m not a prude, but I only tolerate that shit in a porno featuring motorcycle gang members or dudes who shift into things like wolves and bears in their spare time. And then when they had their first sexual encounter ON THE GODDAMN SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF A FUCKING PUBLIC STATUE??????
(Fez at the end there is everyone else who read this book and is not named Kelly or Mitchell.)
If my poor husband had the idea that he was going to be getting some action after this one, he was sadly mistaken . . . .
The bright side is I think this might have just been a fluke miss for me. I’ll definitely give this author another go.
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