abi
I never thought that a cosy erotic romance would be a thing but that's totally how I'd describe this.
Love the second chance romance, love that all the MCs are queer, love the best friends to lovers, love that this was actually mostly about the romance too and that there wasn't much going on outside of that to detract from the romance.
The characters were flawed and a bit messy and really relatable. We do get a bit of the miscommunication/lack of communication trope which is not my favourite, but they do work things out and Tessa isn't afraid to use her words and stand up for what she believes in.
This was HOT and I'll definitely want to read the second book (hopefully Aaron's?)
Is this going to be overhyped? Probably.
All in all, this is a very brief overview of someone who has led a hard life in the public eye. I felt like there's so much more that could have gone into this and that a lot was glossed over, but it was still a really interesting read.
I hope she's okay now and has a good support system in place after being taken advantage of by almost everyone around her for years.
tw: rape of a minor, transphobia, homophobia, abortion, misgendering, lack of autonomy, drug use, vomiting, suicide attempt, emotional abuse
genuinely wtf was this shitshow of a book? this was written by a cis person right? how on earth was it nominated for a lammy and lauded on it's release?
so this book opens with an intersex teen being rped by their cousin. I should've realised then that it would only be downhill from there. literally everyone in the mc's life mistreats him because he's intersex. everyone is either so uninformed that he ends up feeling like a freak or just treats him as a medical marvel and wants to be ridiculously nosy as to what's going on with his anatomy.his parents suck, his brother is transphobic, his cousin is disgusting, his girlfriend isn't great, he just has no one in his life who is advocating for him.his parents make medical decisions on his behalf without his know-how or consent?? as a result of the rpe he becomes pregnant, which then leads his parents to believe he's gay and/or a girl. not once does it occur to them that it might not be consensual even when he protests that he's a straight dude and that's how he wants to identify. he's never listened to and his agency is taken from him time and again. his doctors break confidentiality, his gf and friends disclose private information about him to others. I just can't put into words how sorry I felt for the mc and how I wish this book was never written in the first place.
tw: sexual assault of a child, violence, bullying, homophobia, emotional abuse
so the first half of this was a 5-star read, and I was willing to rate it 4 stars until the 80% mark
genuinely wtf though?? it goes completely off the rails and introduces a topic that ruined my reading experience and didn't really add anything to the story other than to cause relationship drama
