erin
⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.5★
As a teenage girl, I never thought I would be able to fully enjoy adult romance books until I was older. Aside from a few exceptions, I could never connect with the main characters and their life struggles, nor did I particularly enjoy the couple, as it just seemed like they had sex and had a few meaningful conversations and then decided they were in love.
But this book changed that for me.
First of all, characters.
Evan Zanders really is the most lovable jackass to ever lovable jackass. Not only is he an absolute softie on the inside, he's also pure girl-dad energy, both with Ella and his dog, Rosie. He's so protective over his family and friends, and that sentiment is extended to Stevie almost immediately (like, 25% in). I love the way he was so reassuring about Stevie's body-image issues, and that the fact that she was curvy never even crossed his mind when it came to how attracted he was to her.
I'll admit, even though it was necessary for character development, him fumbling when Stevie asked him whether he could believe that she loved him really pissed me off. This guy had been trying to get her back for, like, weeks, and then as soon as he had a chance to win her back, he threw that out there. But, at least he's honest, which we love.
Next up: Stevie Shay. I think Liz Tomforde did such an excellent job of portraying body-image issues. I feel like eating disorder representation is fairly prominent in literature (from books I've read), but I feel like there's very rarely any curvy-representation in terms of struggling with body image (again, from books I read). I'm not an expert on this, so keep that in mind, but I think Tomforde handles it really sensitively, and I love that, as it's so difficult to find with some books.
Let's talk about character development and trauma development. I really thought this book would be somewhat similar to Off-Campus in terms of development, and I honestly don't think Elle Kennedy wrote that very well, neither trauma or character development. But this book was very pleasantly surprising. Not only is character development obvious by the end, it also happens throughout the book, instead of just giving us a paragraph about how they've changed near the end. Evan's development with his anger issues, his abandonment issues, and his relationship with his father (and mother) are all very excellently written. Stevie's development with her confidence, and her negative relationship with her mother are both well-handled, too.
Stevie and Ryan's break-up was honestly heart-breaking, I can't lie. I sobbed. Because this book is longer than most romance books (almost 500 pages), you connect more to the characters and their dynamic, so seeing them apart makes it all the more painful. I'll admit though, as aforementioned, I feel like their break-up period could've been over sooner, and that this book could've finished around the 85% mark, rather than continuing on for another 70 pages.
Overall, this book was really impressive to me, for reasons I've already stated. I love the characters, I love the development, I love the couple (which, side note, I was re-listening to the Lover album by Taylor Swift today, and almost every song is them-coded), and I love the book. Going into this book, I was kind of trepidatious, because so many people said they weren't a big fan of this and gave up, and despite the fact that it's (I guess) kind of slow in pacing, I was hooked almost immediately. Maybe it's because I read it on kindle, so I read it quicker than if I would've if I had a physical copy?
As I've said, I think it could've been a bit shorter, so that's why it's knocked down half a star. But overall, great book, and I'm excited to continue the series.
⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.5★
As a teenage girl, I never thought I would be able to fully enjoy adult romance books until I was older. Aside from a few exceptions, I could never connect with the main characters and their life struggles, nor did I particularly enjoy the couple, as it just seemed like they had sex and had a few meaningful conversations and then decided they were in love.
But this book changed that for me.
First of all, characters.
Evan Zanders really is the most lovable jackass to ever lovable jackass. Not only is he an absolute softie on the inside, he's also pure girl-dad energy, both with Ella and his dog, Rosie. He's so protective over his family and friends, and that sentiment is extended to Stevie almost immediately (like, 25% in). I love the way he was so reassuring about Stevie's body-image issues, and that the fact that she was curvy never even crossed his mind when it came to how attracted he was to her.
I'll admit, even though it was necessary for character development, him fumbling when Stevie asked him whether he could believe that she loved him really pissed me off. This guy had been trying to get her back for, like, weeks, and then as soon as he had a chance to win her back, he threw that out there. But, at least he's honest, which we love.
Next up: Stevie Shay. I think Liz Tomforde did such an excellent job of portraying body-image issues. I feel like eating disorder representation is fairly prominent in literature (from books I've read), but I feel like there's very rarely any curvy-representation in terms of struggling with body image (again, from books I read). I'm not an expert on this, so keep that in mind, but I think Tomforde handles it really sensitively, and I love that, as it's so difficult to find with some books.
Let's talk about character development and trauma development. I really thought this book would be somewhat similar to Off-Campus in terms of development, and I honestly don't think Elle Kennedy wrote that very well, neither trauma or character development. But this book was very pleasantly surprising. Not only is character development obvious by the end, it also happens throughout the book, instead of just giving us a paragraph about how they've changed near the end. Evan's development with his anger issues, his abandonment issues, and his relationship with his father (and mother) are all very excellently written. Stevie's development with her confidence, and her negative relationship with her mother are both well-handled, too.
Stevie and Ryan's break-up was honestly heart-breaking, I can't lie. I sobbed. Because this book is longer than most romance books (almost 500 pages), you connect more to the characters and their dynamic, so seeing them apart makes it all the more painful. I'll admit though, as aforementioned, I feel like their break-up period could've been over sooner, and that this book could've finished around the 85% mark, rather than continuing on for another 70 pages.
Overall, this book was really impressive to me, for reasons I've already stated. I love the characters, I love the development, I love the couple (which, side note, I was re-listening to the Lover album by Taylor Swift today, and almost every song is them-coded), and I love the book. Going into this book, I was kind of trepidatious, because so many people said they weren't a big fan of this and gave up, and despite the fact that it's (I guess) kind of slow in pacing, I was hooked almost immediately. Maybe it's because I read it on kindle, so I read it quicker than if I would've if I had a physical copy?
As I've said, I think it could've been a bit shorter, so that's why it's knocked down half a star. But overall, great book, and I'm excited to continue the series.